Women's soccer, volleyball, women's swimming and women's basketball have all won conference championships.

I mentioned the swim and volleyball team. Thank you for adding the soccer team to the list.

Looks like the men have a lot of cathcing up to do :o

Florida Atlantic wins A-Sun crown


Lance Griffin / Dothan Eagle Staff
March 12, 2006

Four years ago, Chancellor Dugan wondered if her Florida Atlantic Owls were as close as they would ever get to the NCAA Women?s Basketball Championship.

The Owls lost by one point to Georgia State in the finals of the 2002 Atlantic Sun Tournament and watched their opponent celebrate a trip to the Big Dance.

Saturday, the Owls reached that mountaintop after a long climb back.

Shontavia Williams scored 26 points to lead the Owls to a 74-63 victory over Gardner-Webb in the championship game of the Atlantic Sun Conference Women?s Tournament at the Dothan Civic Center.

The win earns the Owls (20-10) their first ever trip to the NCAA Women?s Basketball Championship.

"It?s been a long time coming," an elated Dugan said just after her team cut down the nets to signify the title. "A very long time."

The Owls picked up their third victory of the season over the Bulldogs behind Williams, who dominated the game from inside and out. She made four 3-pointers and pulled down eight rebounds, several of which led to second-chance points for the Owls.

"At first, my game was just drive, drive, drive," said Williams, a senior.

"I found out it?s a lot easier when you can do both."

Williams scored nine consecutive points during a four-minute stretch early in the second half to help the Owls build their largest lead of the game at 51-36.

Gardner-Webb (14-16) made a late run behind forward Shameka Smith, who finished with 19 points, but the Bulldogs would get no closer than six points at 59-53 with 5:47 left on a three-point play by Smith.

Bulldog head coach Rick Reeves used a football analogy in the heart of gridiron country to sum up his team?s defeat.

"We like the West Coast offense," said Reeves, whose No. 4 seed Bulldogs upset top seed Belmont Friday night to advance to the title game. "We like to throw it around. Today, they made us play three yards and a cloud of dust."

The Owls, the tournament?s No. 2 seed, built as much as a 10-point lead in the first half. They trailed 17-16 with 8:08 left in the first half before Williams scored seven of the next 10 points and helped the Owls take a 32-22 lead before the Bulldogs cut the Owls? lead to six, 34-28, at the half.

But in the end, the Bulldogs fell victim to their seeding, playing the late game Friday night and wearing down in the second half of Saturday?s early afternoon game.

Smith, the team?s leading scorer, had 11 of her 19 points in the first half, and began to wear down as the Owls pulled away. Smith missed 10 days near the end of the season with a back injury, and needed cortisone shots just to play in the tournament.

"By the time I got here, I wasn?t in any kind of basketball shape," Smith said.

Amanda Bulin added 12 points and Missy Glaser 11 for the Owls. Brittany Harmon had 13 for the Bulldogs.

It looks like most of the women's sports are ready for a move up to the Sunbelt.

Thank you to all of you who have watch, listened or read about us all year. The girls and I really appreciate all the support!
Come to Wackadoo's on campus tonight at 6:30 (Monday) so I can thank you in person.
Coach Dugan

Well Done Coach and welcome to the board. Good luck at the Dance. A great way to start a new conference! 8-)

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(Sorry about that kid in the background who was addicted to his GameBoy.)

Good luck Coach!

You finally got some nice TV face time tonight on Channel 12.

It's too bad the stuffed shirts on ESPN were so infatuated with the BCS power schools that they couldn't spend two seconds to at least mention your name or key players. The pairings show disgusted me.

Shock the world on Saturday!

Good luck against the Bengals.

They did however mention FAU a few times on Sportscenter this morning. Nothing substantial but the more it's said on national TV the more exposure we get. Let's give them something to really talk about on Saturday!

BMarkey said

Nice job, Lady Owls!

I think they should do well in the SunBelt. The men will struggle, or be in the middle of the pack, if Dougherty does not bring in some real players (which he could).

I'm not as familiar with the SunBelt women, but for the men, it's a major step up in play, intensity, atmosphere and RPI. Unfortunately the rest of the country and media see it as a minor improvement to the ASUN.

"minor improvement to the A-Sun"? What does that mean? Inclusion of UNF and losing FAU is seen as a minor improvement? Where did you get that info from?