CHARLOTTE, N.C. (FAUSports.com) – The Florida Atlantic University men’s basketball team gutted out a hard-fought 74-69 victory over Charlotte at Halton Arena Saturday afternoon. With the victory, FAU (16-13, 9-7 C-USA) set a new mark for victories in Conference USA action with nine.
The victory also puts the Owls in sole possession of third place in the C-USA East Division, pending the outcome of the Western Kentucky-Middle Tennessee State game, slated for later Saturday evening.
It was a come=from-behind victory for FAU. An 11-0 Charlotte run that spanned the last minute of the first half and the first three minutes of the second half gave the 49ers a 41-32 lead with 17 minutes to play. The Owls scored 16 of the next 20 points of the ballgame to take a 48-45 advantage. That outburst was keyed by a Michael Forrest traditional three-point play and was capped by an Alijah Martin 3-point field goal with 11:46 to go.
Over the next seven minutes, neither team led by more than four. But the Owls hit the offensive glass to change that. Giancarlo Rosado and Johnell Davis scored second-chance points on back-to-back possessions, pushing the Owls’ edge to six, 65-69. Forrest hit what could have been the biggest shot of the game with 2:48 remaining. With FAU leading 65-61, Martin stripped Charlotte’s Jahmir Young, drove the ball into the front court and found a wide open Forrest for a right-corner triple to push the lead to seven, 72-65.
Bryan Greenlee, Forrest and Martin each hit a pair of free throws over the final two minutes to ice the victory.
“It’s very rewarding that we were able to grind one out and find our rhythm when we weren’t shooting well from deep,” FAU head coach Dusty May said. “Our bench was awesome. We got stops when we needed them. It came down to a couple really, really big possessions and our guys came up with loose balls and offensive rebounds. Very, very rewarding to not play really well offensively and still find a way to win.”
Martin scored a team-high 16 points and grabbed a team-best seven rebounds to lead the Owls. Forrest added 14 points. FAU featured balanced scoring in the five-point victory, with six student-athletes scoring seven points or more. Charlotte’s Young led all scorers with 26 points on 10-of-17 shooting from the field.
The Owls owned a 13-4 advantage on the offensive glass, leading to a 19-4 edge in second-chance points. The FAU bench outscored Charlotte’s reserves 28-17.
The Owls are back in action again Thursday at FIU, wrapping up this three-game road swing. Tipoff vs. the Panthers is slated for 7 p.m. in Miami.
