Jan. 22, 2007

BOCA RATON, FL - Head Coach Chancellor Dugan and the Florida Atlantic women's basketball team return home this week to take on the University of Louisiana-Lafayette and the University of Arkansas-Little Rock in conference battles. The Owls (4-17, 0-9) are looking to snap a six-game winless streak after dropping two games away from Boca Raton on Thursday and Saturday.

"After a tough road-stand we're looking forward to coming home to Boca Raton for a few games," said Dugan. "Our concentration will be on improving both our shooting and free-throw percentages, while keeping up our pressure defense which has been successful."

Against Denver and North Texas the Owls dropped games 76-70 and 80-72. Florida Atlantic used a staunch defensive effort throughout both match-ups to cause an average of 28 turnovers, but also allowed their opponents to shoot 48.7 percent over the two games for an average of 78 points.

Several Owls put together good stands on the road this past week. Mistoria Brown averaged 20 points and six rebounds this week. Facing Denver, Brown had 13 points and seven rebounds to go along with four assists. Against North Texas the senior had a stellar effort, putting in a career high 33 points on 14-of-20 shooting from the field. Twenty-five of those points came in an Owl second-half comeback effort that fell just short in the games final minute.

Underclassmen Bianca Sellers and Brittney Crenshaw each showed continued progress as well. Crenshaw had her first double-double of the season with 12 points and 13 rebounds against Denver. She narrowly missed her second double-double in a row, netting 12 points and nine rebounds against UNT. Sellers shined in Saturday night's game, scoring 11 first-half points on her way to a season best 15-point night.

Louisiana-Lafayette (16-5, 8-2) took sole possession of first-place in the Sun Belt West Division with a victory Sunday against Troy, 89-66. Yolanda Jones is their top scorer with 17.8 points-per-game and 9.6 rebounds-a-contest, both amounts are good for fourth and second in their respective league categories. Onna Charles is their second leading shooter with 12.2 points-per-game and also is their top threat from long range with a 41.2 percent clip from long range. The Ragin Cajuns are winners of six straight games.

Arkansas-Little Rock (12-8, 5-5) has lost four consecutive games and will play Harding University on Tuesday before coming to Boca Raton to take on the Owls on Saturday. The Trojans boast five players with averages of at least 9.0 points-per-game. Leading the pack are Kim Sitzmann and Jocelyn Love with 13.3 and 13.2 points-per-game each. Nikya Hughes is their top low-post threat with an average of 9.5 points and 8.1 rebounds. UALR allows a Sun Belt low 53.3 points against its opponents.

Thursdays match-up with Louisiana-Lafayette is scheduled to tip at 7 p.m. eastern, while Saturday's game with Arkansas-Little Rock should begin at 5 p.m. eastern. All games this season can be heard for free on fausports.com.