DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (FAUSports.com) – The season came to a close for the Florida Atlantic men’s basketball team Sunday afternoon at the Ocean Center. The Owls were edged 74-71 by the Northern Colorado Bears in the first round of the Roman College Basketball Invitational (CBI).
Second-year freshmen Johnell Davis and Giancarlo Rosado both tallied career-high offensive outputs. Both Rosado and Davis were inserted in the starting lineup as the Owls were missing starters Alijah Martin and Everett Winchester. Davis scored a team-high 18 to establish a new career-best, while Rosado tied his high-water mark with 15 points.
“I’m very proud of Nelly (Davis),” FAU head coach Dusty May said. “He’s continued to improve. He’s working on his weaknesses and living in his strengths. He does so much for our team. I’m very proud of him and Giancarlo (Rosado).”
The Owls led by five points midway through the second half, when Bogdan Zimonjic hit a 3-pointer to put FAU (19-15) on top 53-48. But Northern Colorado (21-15) scored the next seven points to and grabbed a 55-53 advantage. Rosado answered for the Owls to tie it 55-55 with eight minutes left. It was tied again at 57-57 on a Davis layup with 6:36 left to play.
A Dru Kuxhausen 3-pointer and a Dalton Knecht layup of the next minute gave UNC a 62-57 advantage. But the Owls responded. Rosado hit a pair of free throws and Davis scored twice for a 6-0 spurt that gave the Owls a 63-62 advantage. Knecht regained the lead for the Bears with a three-point play and UNC never trailed again.
The Bears led by five, 73-68, with less than 30 seconds remaining. Bryan Greenlee hit a 3-pointer with 2.9 seconds remaining to give the Owls a chance, pulling within two, 73-71. After UNC made one of two at the free throw line, FAU had 2.0 seconds to get off a game-tying 3-point attempt. But the inbounds pass was tipped at midcourt and the Owls were unable to get a shot off.
“Credit to them (Northern Colorado), they went and got some baskets,” May said. “When we’re shorthanded as we are, we just don’t have the margin of error where we can miss so many shots around the rim, so many shots in the paint. That group that played the majority of the minutes (for FAU) really, really battled and competed at a high level.”
Northern Colorado shot 53 percent from the field, which was the difference in the contest. The Owls kept UNC from hurting them too much from the 3-point line. The Bears came in as the No. 9 team in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (38.3 percent) and FAU held them to 29 percent (7-of-24). But inside scoring was the difference for the Bears, who outscored the Owls 40-38 in the paint. FAU had the edge in points off turnovers (19-5) and only committed seven giveaways in the contest.
In addition to Davis and Rosado, Michael Forrest was in double-figure scoring with 12 points. Bryan Greenlee added 11 points and a team-best four assists. Dardan Kapiti came off the bench to tally a season-best eight points. UNC was paced by 23 points from Daylen Kountz. Kur Jonkuch (16 points, 12 rebounds) and Brodie Hume (11 points, 11 rebounds) each had double-doubles for the Bears.
