FAU Men’s Basketball Falls to North Texas

DENTON, Texas – (Jan. 11, 2020) – The Florida Atlantic University men’s basketball team suffered its first setback in Conference USA play, falling to North Texas 81-58 on Saturday. The Owls are now 3-1 in C-USA play and 11-6 overall.  

How It Happened
The contest went back and forth in the early going, as the two teams exchanged the lead four times in the game’s first six minutes. A Dardan Kapiti bucket put the Owls ahead 17-12 at the midway point of the first half. 
 
A 24-9 run allowed the Mean Green (9-8, 3-1 C-USA) to take a 36-26 advantage late in the first half. Michael Forrest hit a triple to account for the 36-29 halftime score.   
 
Richardson Maitre made a jumper to cut the deficit to five, 36-31, early in the second half. 
 
UNT’s Javion Hamlet was the catalyst for a 34-13 run, as the Mean Green’s lead reached 26, 70-44 with 4:18 left.

The Owls kept fighting, but North Texas maintained a significant advantage the rest of the way.

Notables

  • Forrest had 11 points to lead the Owls
  • Kapiti scored eight points and pulled down three rebounds
  • Maitre tallied seven points and five rebounds
  • Freshman D.J. Robertson scored six points and dished out three assists
  • The Owls’ bench outscored the North Texas reserves 35-17

Quotable

FAU Head Coach Dusty May
“(North Texas) got in a rhythm and got going. We had a bunch of shots bounce out on us. We didn’t shoot it well and I thought that affected our energy level.”


What’s Next
FAU returns home to host Middle Tennessee on Thursday, Jan. 16. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN+, live stats will be available at fausports.com, and 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 4-0 in bowl games, the most recent being a 52-28 victory over SMU in the 2019 Cheribundi 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.