| 11/1/2024 | Men’s Basketball | Box Score AUBURN, Ala. – Florida Atlantic’s men’s basketball team fell to Auburn in a charity exhibition on Friday evening in their final outing before the start of the 2024-25 regular season. The Owls played in front of a sold-out crowd in Neville Arena in an effort to support Auburn University’s Melton Scholars Program. FIRST HALF The Tigers took the lead early on the the game. Redshirt Senior guard Ken Evans Jr. hit a three from beyond the arc to tie the game 13-13. Auburn hit a couple of three-pointers to regain the lead within a few plays. The Owls trailed 28-49 at halftime. SECOND HALF The Owls came out with some momentum in the second half when graduate guard KyKy Tandy made a driving layup to get things going.The scoring margin in the second half was closer as Florida Atlantic scored 42 points and Auburn registered 53. QUOTABLE Head Coach John Jakus On positive takeaways from the game “On the whole, anytime you go on the road against a top 10 team, you realize what success looks and feel like, and our guys needed to feel that. We are going to have to go on the road, we play a ton of neutral [games] in November, and to feel that with a sold out crowd before doing it is a real gift for us. Now our guys know what it takes to actually overcome a huge road environment. I feel like that is a real positive, specifically since we have so many guys that are new to us or new to college basketball in general. I think the other thing you can probably take away from today is you can see that we get 20 minutes out of Dev [Devin Vanterpool], Kaleb Glenn almost gave us a double-double, there are some positive things within that. We’ll grow from the guys that showed us something, we’ll grow from the environment. For us, we are still 0-0, it’s time to move on.” On how facing an opponent like Auburn preps them for the rest of the season “Bruce (Pearl) is a heck of a coach, they are a real top 10 team and we are going to have to beat one or two of those if we ever want to be an at-large bid. At the end of the day, there is no avoiding this, eventually you are going to have to play someone as good as them, so why not today? It was our choice as a staff, and as my choice I feel very comfortable with it. I wouldn’t undo it, as awkward as it feels right now because we are going to have to grow. I was really pleased with our game at home and I wasn’t pleased tonight, but that doesn’t mean we are not going to respond and grow from it.” On how the sold out crowd impacted the game “I think you can see some of our guys playing college basketball for the first time and there was a shock to it…They have to search inside and really decide how much they can respond to it. I would say from now until a little while, that will be one of the best environments and best teams we play for a good bit. They are a really good basketball team. The kids have to be stretched to grow up and they were stretched today.” STATS & NOTES Redshirt freshman Devin Vanterpool registered 22 minutes on the night Kaleb Glenn was just shy of a double-double with 16 points and eight boards Three Owls finished the night in double figures FAU ended the night with six steals Freshman Matas Vokietaitis finished with 10 points, two blocks, and a steal UP NEXT Owls travel to Xenia, Ohio, for the regular season opener, which is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 4, against Indiana State at the Wooden Family Fieldhouse, tipping off at 7:30 p.m. FOLLOW THE OWLS To stay up to date on all things FAU men’s basketball, follow the Owls on social media @FAUMBB. Florida Atlantic’s 2024-25 season is sponsored by Phil Smith Kia/Phil Smith Acura. |
