Florida Atlantic Lady Owls tame Lady Cats 88-68

Karsceal Turner – I Got NEXT!

The Sunday afternoon women’s basketball contest at Richard V. Moore Gymnasium was not a great offensive outing for the Lady Wildcats despite three players scoring in double figures, the Lady Wildcats were simply outpaced by Florida Atlantic in an 88-68 loss.

It wasn’t pretty folks. My girls seemed a little erratic as they tried to move the ball and get into their half-court offense. In addition, their defense was damn near non-existent as evidenced in a 14-point deficit early. It was difficult to watch.

Arreonté Lee sparked the Lady Wildcats’ first charge, coming off the bench for two quick buckets. Although the Owls rebuilt their lead to 15, B-CU came charging back once again near the five-minute mark, using second chance opportunities and solid free throw shooting to outscore FAU 10-0 and trim the deficit to five. I saw at least a dozen missed layups by BOTH teams but such is women’s hoops I suppose.

Despite the momentum swing in the closing moments of the half, a set of five free throws allowed the Owls to keep separation and take a 44-35 lead into the break.

Too little, too late equals a loss at home

FAU’s offense controlled the game and built the lead back to 16, but again B-CU fought back, trimming the margin to as few as seven points. However, struggles at the free throw line caught up to the Lady Wildcats, who went 5-for-13 from the line in the second half, and FAU pulled away for the 88-68 victory.

“They really stalled us offensively from getting into the sets we wanted to get into,” Head Coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis said. “When we were able to get on a run and were able to get on the free throw line, we weren’t able to capitalize. We shot 57 percent tonight from the free throw line. The second part of that is we were missing our assignments on defense. They shot a lot of threes, and when those threes weren’t falling, they started to drive to the hole, and we were fouling and putting them on the free throw line.”

Here’s hoping adjustments will be made in practice, I really must drop by for practices sometimes when I’m in the area.

Sparks of brilliance in defeat

Showing more tenacity in attacking the basket than in the opener at Stetson, redshirt senior Terrenisha Hollis led the Lady Wildcats in scoring and on the glass, logging 18 points and seven (7) rebounds. Freshman guard Emily Williams came off the bench to tie Hollis on the boards with seven (7) of her own. Kendra Cooper sparked B-CU in the second half, finishing the night with 15 points. Arreonté Lee was the third Lady Wildcat to reach double figures, putting up 12. Point guard Jasmine Knowles scored eight (8) while also dishing out a team-leading six (6) assists.

For the Owls, Morgan Robinson led five FAU players in double figures with 18 points and nine (9) rebounds.

I was rather pleased with the support in the gym for a Sunday afternoon game. The Richard V. Moore gymnasium was at least half full. I just wish B-Cu would capitalize on the crowd’s energy. However, I witnessed a lot of head shaking from our fans, players, and coaches. It was not an easy game to cover. One aspect that was easy to cover was Coach Blair-Lewis, looking like she just came from the modeling runway to the sideline. If the team played as good as coach looked, the game would have been a blowout in B-CU’s favor but alas, it was not to be.

Things aren’t going to get any easier as the Lady Wildcats have an ugly schedule coming up. They next travel to Tallahassee for a showdown at Florida State on Tuesday morning at 11 a.m., then head to Jacksonville for a meeting with JU on Thursday and round out the week next Sunday at East Carolina.

As with their male counterparts, this time of year entails many trios into hostile environments. I’ll be in the house for home contests because the name of the column is I Got NEXT!