For the Lady Toppers season-ticket, things may have seemed a little out of the ordinary prior to a late-season game.

Normally before the last home game of the season, Western honors its outgoing senior class, but that wasn’t the case in last night’s 66-48 win against Florida Atlantic.

The pre-game festivities weren’t missed, however.

“It was great. Loved it, ” coach Mary Taylor Cowles said about not having the ceremonies. “Just knowing what we’ve got coming back and then how well our freshmen recruits that we signed, how well they’re doing … and with the signing of Keisha Mosley, I mean it’s really exciting, but we still can’t go there. We can’t think about that yet.”

After letting FAU get within seven points of tying the game at 38-31 early in the second half, the Lady Toppers would only allow 17 more points by the Owls.

Western was led by junior guard Kenzie Rich and sophomore guard Amy McNear, who combined for 35 of the Lady Toppers’ points. While sophomore forward Arnika Brown controlled the boards for Western with her 17 rebounds.

With McNear having success throughout the game, her 20 points meant that the need for a lot of help by Brown and others wasn’t always needed, Brown said.

“My mentality was just to crash the boards,” Brown said. “You know, I would tell (Amy), ‘You’re driving like that, don’t even look, just take it to the basket,’ and Kenzie, the way she was hitting, there ain’t nothing more for me to do but rebound.”

During the second half Western got another boost from freshmen forward Teranie Thomas and freshman guard Caitlin House.

House, again, played the role of the ultimate hustler when she chased after and prevented two FAU fast breaks along with getting a steal, a block, an assist and a basket.

Thomas provided another big target at the post and put up six points with seven rebounds.

Western’s defense caused plenty of problems for the Owls’ offense throughout the night, as junior guard Brittany Bowe, who had 21 points the last time the two teams met, went 0-11 on the night. Florida Atlantic was also 0-11 from three-point land.

The first half was dominated by McNear who was 6-8 from the floor with three rebounds and three assists.

In the first half the Lady Toppers came out, once again, with a three-guard line-up that would use the full court press to cause the Owls to turn the ball over eight times while Western scored 10 points, capitalizing on the Owls’ mistakes.

Western jumped out to an early six point lead before FAU made some adjustments and brought the game back within a single point.

“Well that was part of the plan,” McNear said. “To come out the gates hard and strong with a lot of energy and intensity and that’s what we did.”

But the Lady Toppers weren’t ready to lose the lead and rallied back to take a nine point lead. The closest FAU would get to Western in the first half was within five points.

Western will hit the road for its last game of the regular season at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday at Middle Tennessee.