The Western Kentucky women’s basketball team won a road thriller Thursday night in Boca Raton, Fla., with a 72-69 overtime victory against Florida Atlantic.

The Lady Toppers fell behind early, but made a second-half comeback to force overtime and eventually win in extra time.

The Lady Toppers improve to 16-7 on the season and 9-3 in Conference USA play. WKU moves into second place in the C-USA East division with the win. It was the second overtime game for WKU in the last three and the Lady Toppers improve to 2-1 in games that go into extra time this season.

Meral Abdelgawad had her 12th 20-point performance of the season with 23 points along with seven rebounds, five steals and three assists. Jaylin Foster secured her first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, including seven offensive rebounds. Hope Sivori and Alexis Mead each had 10 points and six rebounds.

For the 14th time this season, WKU held its opponent under 70 points. The Lady Toppers are 53-13 under head coach Greg Collins when allowing fewer than 70.

Rita Pleskevich and Alexa Zaph each had 21 points for FAU. Zaph added a team-high 10 rebounds.

WKU fell behind early, but a 7-0 run midway through the first quarter put the Lady Toppers ahead and they were able to take a one-point lead into the second. The Owls opened the second quarter with five straight points to take the lead it held until the fourth quarter.

The Lady Toppers cut the deficit to one multiple times in the third and fourth quarters. At the 1:29 mark of the fourth quarter, Abdelgawad had a basket and a foul shot to put WKU ahead by one. FAU followed with an and-one of their own to go back ahead by two. Abdelgawad made another free throw, but the Owls made two from the charity stripe to take a three-point lead with 19 seconds left. With 12 seconds left, Macey Blevins made a layup to cut it to one. Abdelgawad came up with a steal on FAU’s next possession and Foster was fouled on the offensive end. She made 1-of-2 to tie the game and send it to overtime.

WKU had a two-point lead with 1:17 left in overtime. Jenna Walker drew an offensive foul with 50 seconds left to get the ball back for WKU. The Lady Toppers missed a shot on the next possession, but Abdelgawad came up with another steal with 11 seconds left. She was fouled and made 1-of-2 to push the lead to three. FAU made a layup with five seconds left but Sivori sealed the game with a pair of free throws with one second left.

The Lady Toppers will be back in action Sunday in Bowling Green against UTSA at 1 p.m.