BOCA RATON, Fla. – (Jan. 2, 2020) – A balanced performance helped the Florida Atlantic University men’s basketball team open its Conference USA schedule with a 79-64 win over UTSA on Thursday night. The Owls improved to 9-5 overall on the season.
How It Happened
The Owls trailed 6-2 early in the game when Everett Winchester sunk a 3-pointer, beginning a 22-4 run that put FAU up 24-10 with 12 and a half minutes to play in the first half. Six different Owls scored during the streak, including a four-point play from Michael Forrest.
A little later in the period, Jailyn Ingram made a jumper, hit a 3-pointer and found Jaylen Sebree for a fast break layup to extend the FAU lead to 19. The Roadrunners (6-8, 0-1) rallied to cut the margin to 11 at the half, 42-31.
Out of the halftime locker room, UTSA made a jumper that trimmed its deficit to single-digits for the first time in over 13 minutes of game action. The Owls responded with 13 unanswered points to push the lead to 55-33 with 12:38 on the clock.
The Roadrunners cut the deficit to 18, but Richardson Maitre made back-to-back triples, lengthening the FAU lead to 65-41. UTSA fought back to within 10 with 1:21 to play, but Forrest made six straight free throw attempts to help seal the win.
Notables
- Ingram had 15 points to lead FAU. He has reached double figures six times in the last eight games. He also collected four rebounds and three assists
- Forrest posted 13 points, including going 10-of-12 from the free throw line. He added three assists
- Sebree matched his season-high with 11 points and dished out three assists of his own
- Everett Winchester had season-highs in both points (10) and rebounds (eight)
- Maitre and Aleksandar Zecevic each chipped in eight points
- Defensively, the Owls held UTSA’s Jhivvan Jackson, who entered the game as the nation’s leading scorer at 26.2 points per game, to just eight points in the contest. As a team, the Roadrunners shot just 34.7 percent from the field, the lowest of any of FAU’s Division I opponents so far this season
- The win is FAU’s first ever win to begin Conference USA play. The last time the Owls won their conference opener was the 2010-11 season when they were members of the Sun Belt
Quotable
FAU Head Coach Dusty May
“We did a great job in the first half of not turning over the ball and I thought our great starts in each half really helped us.”
What’s Next
The Owls continue Conference USA play on Saturday, Jan. 4 when they host UTEP. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m. 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. Tickets for the game can be purchased here.
– 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.
