The Florida Atlantic University women’s basketball team (11-21, 3-15 AAC) made their second American Athletic Conference tournament appearance on March 8. They played the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (10-20, 4-14 AAC) in Denton, Texas and came short to the 49ers, 55-51. 

“Just kind of staying that numb, walking through the days feeling devastated for the team. I really thought we had a good chance to take the game. So just kind of processing that emotion right now,” said head coach Jennifer Sullivan. 

The Lady Owls entered the tournament as a No. 13 and loss marks their second consecutive year where they lost in the first-round of the AAC tournament. They finished the season winning 34% of their games, most coming from non-conference matchups.  

“I think a season like this is very easy to go your separate ways at the bottom as a team but they never did. They stayed together. They stayed showing up in practice and being coachable and I will thank them for that,” said Sullivan. 

FAU’s guard Stephanie Ingram kicked off with the first three-point shot of the game, 4-2. Her shot began the Owls 9-2 run over Charlotte. The first quarter ended 9-4 in favor of FAU. 

Both teams continued to exchange missed shots but FAU utilized that to maintain a 20-15 lead going into halftime. The 49ers largest struggle was constant turnovers on both side of the ball.

At halftime, the Owls continued to hold their lead 20-15. FAU was shooting 25% from the field, 23.5% beyond the arc and had nine turnovers. Charlotte shot 31.8% from the field, 10% beyond the arc and recorded 14 turnovers. 

Out of the break, the 49ers acted fast to turn around their mistakes from the first 20 minutes of game play. They went on a 6-0 run to take their first lead of the game 21-20. 

FAU’s guard Mya Perry acted fast to make a three-point jumper to put her team back on top. For the next four minutes, the team’s went back-and-forth between a two-point differential. 

On March 7, Perry was announced as a player on the AAC All-Second Team after leading the Owls in scoring for the season with 15.5 points per game. 

“I think it’s great to have somebody have so much faith in you and also having my team have faith in me. Just went out there, played basketball and I had a great group of people to cheer me on along the way,” said Perry. 

The 49ers’ center Jayla Kelly made a layup to extend their lead to four. They continued to push to expand the gap and ended the third quarter up 36-31. 

In the fourth quarter, Charlotte continued with their momentum and made four free throws to take a nine-point lead over the Owls. FAU’s guard Jada Moore and Ingram began to fight back, together cutting their deficit back to six. 

Moore made a three-point shot with seven seconds left on the clock but it wasn’t enough to push the game to overtime and the Owls ended their 2024-25 season with the 55-51 defeat to Charlotte. 

It marked Moore’s last game for FAU as she is one of the two graduating seniors on the team, including fellow guard Maria Myklebust. Moore led the Owls in scoring against Charlotte with 13 points. She averaged 10.8 points per game, 5.1 rebounds and three assists on the season. 

Megan Bruinsma is the Sports Editor for the University Press. For more information regarding this or other stories email her at mbruinsma2022@fau.edu or DM her on Instagram @megan_bruinsma or X (Twitter) @MeganBruinsma.