BOCA RATON, Fla. – Madiaw Niang converted a three-point play with 41 seconds left that put the Florida Atlantic University men’s basketball team ahead for good in a 59-56 win over UTEPon Saturday. It was part of a 13-3 closing run for the Owls, who improved to 10-5 overall and 2-0 in Conference USA with the win.
How It Happened
Both offenses struggled early on in the contest. The Owls trailed 15-11, when for the second game in a row, a 3-pointer began a FAU rally. This time, it was Richardson Maitre’s bucket that served as a catalyst, beginning a run of 10 straight points, resulting in a 21-15 FAU lead with seven minutes to play in the first half.
A Jailyn Ingram jumper increased the Owls’ lead to eight later on in the period, but the Miners (9-6, 0-2 C-USA) finished the half on a 16-7 run and held a 31-28 advantage at the break.
In the second half, the FAU defense kept the game close. At one point, UTEP made just one field goal in over eight minutes of game action.
The Miners led 53-46 with 4:36 remaining in the game when FAU began its comeback. KarlisSilins made back-to-back triples and Cornelius Taylor put in a layup to help level the score at 54-54 with 1:19 on the clock. UTEP made a pair of free throws to retake the lead, but Maitre found Madiaw Niang under the basket for a layup. Niang was fouled on the play and hit his free throw attempt to put the Owls up 57-56.
FAU’s defense turned away the Miners, Niang grabbed the rebound and found Maitre, who hit both of his attempts from the free throw line. The Owls’ defense denied UTEP’s attempts to tie the game, sealing the win for FAU.
Notables
- Maitre had 14 points to lead all scorers. He also had a team-high six rebounds and four assists
- Silins scored 12 points, his seventh double-digit scoring game of the year
- Niang made the most of his four minutes of playing time, scoring five points including the go-ahead three-point play, and also pulled down two rebounds
- The Owls’ defense held the Miners to 34.8 percent shooting in the second half
- FAU is 2-0 in conference play for the first time since 2010-11, when the team was a member of the Sun Belt
- FAU has now won five home games in a row
Quotables
FAU Head Coach Dusty May
“To have a really good season, you have to win some games when you don’t play well, and I thought tonight we did that.”
On Madiaw Niang…
“We didn’t know if Madiaw was going to play until this afternoon and he gets five (points) and two (rebounds) in four minutes.”
What’s Next
The Owls will make their first C-USA road trip of the season, traveling to Rice on Thursday, Jan. 9. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. Eastern. The game will be streamed on ESPN+. Live stats will be available at fausports.com. The game can be heard on FOX Sports 640AM. Live updates will be posted to the team’s official Twitter account, @FAU_Hoops.
– FAUSports.com –
Florida Atlantic University Athletics:
FAU Athletics is comprised of 21 intercollegiate teams involving 450 student-athletes that compete in baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor and outdoor track, volleyball, beach volleyball, cheer and dance. The Owls are a NCAA Division I-A (FBS) institution and compete in Conference USA and the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA) (beach volleyball, men’s swimming). The Owls have been playing football since 2001 and are a perfect 3-0 in bowl games, the most recent being a 50-3 victory over Akron in the 2017 Cheribundi Tart Cherry Boca Raton Bowl. The dance team finished its 2014 season No. 8, nationally. FAU cheer won a national championship in 2016.
About Florida Atlantic University:
Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University, with an annual economic impact of $6.3 billion, serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students at sites throughout its six county service region in southeast Florida. FAU’s world-class teaching and research faculty serves students through 10 colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the College of Business, the College for Design and Social Inquiry, the College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the Graduate College, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. FAU is ranked as a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University is placing special focus on the rapid development of critical areas that form the basis of its strategic plan: Healthy aging, biotech, coastal and marine issues, neuroscience, regenerative medicine, informatics, lifespan and the environment. These areas provide opportunities for faculty and students to build upon FAU’s existing strengths in research and scholarship. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.
