Boca Raton, Fla. – Le'Jzae Davidson led four Paladins in double figures on Friday afternoon as the Furman women's basketball team opened play at the FAU Holiday Classic with a 69-63 victory over the Florida Atlantic Owls at FAU Arena.

Furman improves to 7-4 on the season while Florida Atlantic drops to 6-5 overall.

Davidson led the Paladins offensively with a game-high 17 points and contributed seven rebounds. Taylor Petty posted 15 points and was 4-for-4 behind the 3-point line. Milica Manojlovic compiled 11 points and tied her career-high of seven assists. Tierra Hodges tallied 10 points while pulling down a game-high eight rebounds.

The Owls had three players score in double digits led by Alexa Zaph with 14 points while Amber Gaston added 11 and Juliette Gauthier 10. Gauthier and Crystal Primm both had seven rebounds. Lotta Vehka-Aho also dished out six assists.

With her 17 points, Davidson moves past Karen Stanley (1992-95) for eighth place all-time at Furman in career scoring. The senior now has 1,464 points and is two away from passing Lucy Dunn (1985-88) for seventh place in school history.

The Paladins used a 23-15 third quarter to take their largest lead of the game, 12 points, twice in the final 1:04. Hodges connected on a pair of free throws to extend Furman's lead to 57-45. Sutton West kept the Paladins advantage at 12 points, 59-47, with 39 seconds left following her layup. Furman held a 59-49 lead at the end of the quarter.

Florida Atlantic limited the Paladins to just 10 points in the fourth quarter highlighted by a 6-0 run to begin the period. The Owls managed to cut their deficit down to 59-55 with 6:21 to go only to see Petty answer at the 4:55 mark with a 3-pointer to put Furman back in front by seven. Celena Taborn's layup with 4:08 left put the Paladins back in front 64-57. Florida Atlantic then scored four straight points and trailed 65-61 with 18 seconds remaining. Davidson scored Furman's final four points of the game at the free throw line to secure the six-point victory.

The Owls scored the game's opening five points before the Paladins responded with the next five to even the score at 5-5 with 6:15 left on Hodges' layup. Florida Atlantic would go back ahead by five points but Furman used an 8-2 run that covered 2:44 to lead 15-14 on Manojlovic's layup. Davidson extended the Paladins' lead to 18-16 with 1:18 left on her 3-pointer. The Owls recorded the final four points to take a 20-18 lead heading to the second quarter.

Florida Atlantic held its largest lead of the game, 24-18, at the 9:22 mark of the second quarter after scoring the first four points. Furman came back to tie the score at 24-24 when Davidson connected on a 3-pointer with 7:06 to go. The Owls answered with five consecutive points to lead 29-24. The Paladins outscored Florida Atlantic 12-5 over the final 5:44 of the first half. Furman began its run with 10 straight points to lead 34-29 with 1:51 remaining on a layup from Jarya Outten. The Owls made two free throws to end the half as the Paladins led 36-34.

Furman concluded the game shooting 43.4 percent (23-of-53) from the field and was 9-of-18 (50.0 percent) behind the 3-point line. The Paladins also held a 22-18 advantage in points in the paint and 5-2 in fast break points.

Furman advances to the championship game of the FAU Holiday Classic and will face either Harvard or Saint Joseph's at 4 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.