The Florida Atlantic University men’s basketball team outscored UAB 16-2 over the final six minutes of the game to earn a 65-58 win on Saturday night. The game was close the entire way, with seven points being the biggest lead either team managed all night.
UAB (16-12, 7-8 Conference USA) took a seven-point lead when Jalen Benjamin hit a 3-pointer with 6:01 left in the contest. The Owls’ (15-13, 7-8) comeback began with five straight points from Jailyn Ingram before a Kenan Blackshear layup knotted the score, 56-56, with just under four minutes to play. Another Blackshear bucket gave FAU a 58-56 lead at the 2:45 mark.
A UAB free throw cut the lead in half before Richardson Maitre beat a Blazer defender to a loose ball, then drilled a 3-pointer to stretch the cushion to four with a minute and a half remaining.
The lead was still four with 25 seconds left when UAB stole an inbound pass, but Ingram blocked the shot attempt and Cornelius Taylor gathered the rebound to effectively seal the win for the Owls.
Defensively, FAU held UAB to 0-of-6 shooting from the floor and forced four Blazer turnovers in the game’s final six minutes.
Notables
- Maitre led the Owls with 15 points. He also had three rebounds and an assist
- Ingram scored 12 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished out three assists
- Blackshear made all seven of his shot attempts, four from the field and three from the free throw line as part of a career-high 11-point effort. He added four rebounds and was singled out by Coach May for his defense
- Taylor posted 10 points and three assists and contributed to a defensive effort that held the Blazers to 28 percent shooting in the second half
- The FAU bench outscored UAB’s 34-7
Quotable
FAU Head Coach Dusty May
“I thought our defensive intensity, effort, communication and cohesiveness was the difference in us winning that basketball game.”
Junior Richardson Maitre
“We’re starting to find ourselves as a team. Like Coach May says, ‘it’s moments like (the losing streak) to recognize what type of person you are.'”
What’s Next
FAU hosts UTSA on Thursday, Feb. 27 in its final home game of the regular season. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. The game will be streamed on CUSA.TV, 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.
