Brittany Bowe pumps in a career-high 24 points
Florida Atlantic forced 29 turnovers and scored 43 second half points en route to a 78-67 victory over Troy on Saturday night at Trojan Arena.

“We did a lot better job playing defense even though we didn’t come out in the first half as focused as I would have liked,” said head coach Chancellor Dugan.

The Owls (14-12, 10-6) surpassed a program-high with their 10th Sun Belt victory of the season and also improved their conference road record to 6-3.  FAU only won seven conference road games in their first three seasons of Sun Belt play.

“This program has come so far over the past few seasons,” Dugan said.  “These seniors have bought in to what we are trying to do from a coaching standpoint.”

One of those seniors, Brittany Bowe, had a career-high night with 24 points on 6-of-8 shooting.  Bowe’s previous career-high was 23 points.  The Ocala native also went 12-of-18 from the free-throw line and added three assists and three steals.

“She was just savvy tonight,” said Dugan.   “There aren’t a lot of people in the Sun Belt that can guard her off the dribble especially when she gets some daylight off a screen.”

The game was played at a slow pace throughout due to both teams being in foul trouble.  Combined, 45 fouls were called during the game with two Troy players fouling out.

Carla Stubbs was the only FAU player to foul out of the game, however the senior made the most of her 13 minutes on the court, scoring 12 points on 3-of-4 shooting including a perfect 2-of-2 from three-point range and 4-of-4 from the foul line.

The Trojans (11-15, 4-12) controlled the tempo in the early in the first half and held a 25-15 lead with 8:56 remaining until halftime.  FAU turned the tide however and closed the half on a 20-6 run over the final nine minutes to take a 35-31 lead heading into the break.

Both teams exchanged leads until late in the second period when FAU went on a 22-12 run over the final seven minutes to secure the victory.

The Owls will be back in action next week when they return home to Boca Raton for a Wednesday night game against Western Kentucky.  Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. from FAU Arena.