March 4, 2008

BOCA RATON, FL - The Florida Atlantic University women's basketball team will begin play in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament on Wednesday, March 5. The No. 13 seeded Owls will face fourth-seeded Arkansas State University at 8 p.m. EST in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

The two teams met twice in the regular season. On December 18, FAU got off to an 11-4 lead to start the game. However, the full court pressure applied by ASU caught up to them, and FAU committed a season-high 37 turnovers in a 72-46 loss to the Lady Indians.

On February 9, the two teams met again at the FAU Arena at the Boca Raton campus. Once again, FAU got off to a fast start, leading 34-33 at halftime. In the second half, the Owls went cold from the field, making only 38 percent of their shots (12-32) as the Lady Indians pulled away late to defeat FAU 76-61.

The Owls have been led in scoring by Brittany Bowe. In the last four games, Bowe averaged 16 points per contest, including a career-high 23-point ballgame on February 23 against Middle Tennessee State University.

ASU (18-11, 13-5 Sun Belt) is lead by Veronica Smith who averages just under 10 points per game. ASU did not lose a home game during the Sun Belt conference regular season.

Wednesday's game can be heard on www.fausports.com beginning at 7:45 p.m.