BOCA RATON, Fla. – (Dec. 19, 2019) – An impressive effort on both ends of the floor propelled the Florida Atlantic University men’s basketball team to an 84-35 victory over Tampa on Thursday night. The Owls went 5-1 on their six-game homestand and are now 7-4 on the season.
How It Happened
FAU was in control from the start, with seven different Owls scoring to take an early 19-4 lead. Michael Forrest scored eight points in less than three and a half minutes, helping to extend the margin to 19, 25-6.
The Owls closed the first half on a 15-2 spurt, capped by an Aleksandar Zecevic layup, to go up 42-12 at the half. Tampa’s 12 first half points are the fewest given up by FAU in a half this year.
Jaylen Sebree went on a personal 8-0 run to stretch the FAU lead to 57-19 less than six minutes into the second half. The cushion remained at least 31 for the rest of the night, as the Owls combined stifling defense with hot shooting, frustrating the Spartans on both ends of the floor.
FAU finished strong, scoring 17 of the game’s final 21 points. D.J. Robertson scored seven points during the run.
Notables
- Forrest led the Owls with 15 points. He also had two rebounds and an assist
- Sebree posted 11 points for his first double-digit scoring game of the season
- Robertson, Jailyn Ingram and Cornelius Taylor scored 10 points each, giving FAU five players in double figures. Robertson’s 10 were a career-high for the freshman, to go along with five assists, also the most for him as an Owl
- The 35 points allowed is the third fewest given up in school history
- 49 points ties for the third biggest margin of victory in program history and is the second biggest since moving to Division I
- FAU shot 54.2 percent from the field, its best percentage under head coach Dusty May
- FAU made a season-high 14 3-pointers
- As a team, the Owls dished out 19 assists, the most so far this year
- 12 Owls scored on the night, and all 12 played at least 10 minutes
Quotable
FAU Head Coach Dusty May
“Our guys are starting to trust each other and they’re starting to play better off of each other.”
What’s Next
The Owls make their first road trip in over a month when they travel to Mercer on Sunday, Dec. 22. Tip-off is set for 6 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.
– 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.
