MEDIA CONTACT: Justin Johnson
561-302-0461, jjohn218@fau.edu
FAU Men’s Basketball Clinches Winning Season With 60-54 Victory Over North Texas
DENTON, Texas – (Feb. 28, 2019) – The Florida Atlantic University men’s basketball team clinched its first winning season since 2010-11 with a 60-54 win over North Texas on Thursday night. The Owls are 17-12 overall and 8-8 in Conference USA.
The Start
FAU scored seven of the game’s first eight points before the Mean Green (20-9, 8-8) reeled off 11 in a row as part of a 16-2 run to take a 17-9 lead. Madiaw Niang hit a three-pointer that began a 16-3 Owls rally to regain a 25-20 advantage with four minutes to go in the first half. The cushion remained five at the break, 28-23.
The Turning Point
After Kevaughn Ellis hit a three-pointer, the Mean Green made a layup at the 17:36 mark of the second half. The Owls had held North Texas to just one field goal in the previous 12 and a half minutes. A pair of Xavian Stapleton jumpers bookended an 11-2 FAU scoring spurt that extended the Owls’ lead to a then game-high 15, 46-31, with 9:15 left in the game.
The Finish
Aleksandar Zecevic nailed a jumper from just inside the free throw line to push FAU’s lead to 50-34 with 6:46 on the clock, apparently sealing the win. However, the Mean Green made a late push, trimming the lead to as little as four with 11 seconds left. Stapleton made a pair of free throws to clinch the victory for FAU.
Notables
· Richardson Maitre made his first start in over a month and scored a career-high 15 points
· Karlis Silins and Xavian Stapleton each had a dozen points for the Owls. Silins also blocked three shots
· Simeon Lepichev grabbed nine rebounds, his fourth straight game with at least seven
· Aleksandar Zecevic scored nine points and pulled down five rebounds in just 13 minutes of action
· FAU’s bench players scored 28 points in the game, doubling up the 14 posted by the Mean Green reserves
· The win was the Owls first in Denton since Feb. 3, 2011 and just their second ever
· In addition to clinching the first winning season since 2010-11, the victory also made Dusty May the winningest first year head coach since the Owls moved to Division I (1994-95 season)
· The victory came in spite of Anthony Adger and Michael Forrest both going scoreless. The duo entered the contest averaging almost 28 points per game in C-USA play
· The Owls outrebounded the Mean Green 40-37
· FAU hit six triples as a team, extending its school record to 259 on the year
Quotable
FAU Head Coach Dusty May
“It was an incredible physical performance by our guys. Everybody that played contributed and battled at a high level. It was as physical a game as we’ve been in all year and our guys responded to the physicality.”
Looking Ahead
The Owls return home to host Louisiana Tech on Wednesday, March 6. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. and it will be Senior Night. The game will be streamed on fausports.com. Live audio can be heard on ESPN 106.3 FM.
Tickets
For tickets, call 1-866-FAU-OWLS or visit FAUSports.com.
Social Media
For complete coverage of FAU men’s basketball, follow us on Twitter and Instagram (@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.
