Jan. 16, 2003

Final Stats

BOCA RATON, FL -- Crystal Boyland scored 19 points and Shontavia Williams added 16 to lead Florida Atlantic University to a 73-68 victory over Troy State Thursday night in an Atlantic Sun Conference game in Boca Raton, FL. With the win, FAU improves to 5-9 overall and takes over first place in the A-Sun South at 3-0.

FAU led most of the night, forcing TSU (6-7, 1-1 A-Sun) to play catch-up. The Lady Owls scored the game's first five points before Troy State went on a 10-2 run to lead 10-7 with 11:47 left in the first half. An 8-0 run gave the Lady Owls a 15-10 edge with 10:12 left in the half. The run was started by a three-pointer by Janka Deckerova and ended with two field goals, including a three, by Boyland.

Later in the half, consecutive buckets by Trineca McCleod and DeeAnna Hanscom gave FAU its largest lead at 26-16 at the 3:37 mark. McCleod would end up with 14 points and six rebounds while Hanscom finished with 9 points and 9 rebounds.

"I thought we rebounded the ball better than we have all year long," said FAU head coach Chancellor Dugan as FAU controlled the boards 44-37.

FAU led 29-21 at the half and never led by more than eight the rest of the game. An 8-2 run by TSU, capped off by an Alexander trey, gave TSU its only lead of the second half at 38-37 with 10:54 to go.

Williams countered with back-to-back threes to give FAU a 43-38 lead with 9:54 left as FAU would not trail the rest of the night. Williams, a freshman, scored all 16 of her points in the second half. Her total was a season-high.

"We need that spark off our bench out of the guard position," said Dugan of Williams' effort. "I also thought DeeAnna (Hanscom) and Trineca (McCleod) did a great job down low. They both played so well."

FAU would push its lead to eight points three more times with the last time coming with 3:52 left following a Boyland three-pointer. Boyland finished the game 5-for-10 from the field and 3-for-5 from beyond the arc. She also went 6-for-6 from the free throw line.

Alexander helped keep TSU in the game with all 19 of her points coming in the second half. She went 5-for-10 from beyond the arc and hit two in the game's final 19 seconds. The first drew TSU with 67-65. Angie Rodgers followed with two free throws to put FAU up 69-65. After a technical foul on TSU head coach Michael Murphy, his second of the night, Rodgers hit both free throws to give FAU a 71-65 lead.

Alexander then hit another three with 11 seconds remaining to draw TSU to within 71-68. However, Boyland sealed the win with two free throws with nine seconds left to give FAU the five-point win.

TSU finished the game shooting 40.3 percent from the field while FAU went 35.7 percent from the field. Both teams went 7-for-17 from beyond the arc. At the line, FAU outscored TSU 26-11 as the Lady Owls went 26-for-33 from the stripe compared to TSU's 11-for-19. McCleod helped the effort with 8-for-10 shooting from the line.

Julie Goad led FAU with six assists while Rodgers had five.

Florida Atlantic next hosts Mercer University Saturday afternoon at 3:00pm.