Late 3-Pointers Lift Owls Over Southern Miss

HATTIESBURG, Miss. –Jailyn Ingram and Bryan Greenlee hit a pair of huge 3-pointers in the final minutes Friday night at Reed Green Coliseum to hold off a furious Southern Miss rally and lift Florida Atlantic University to a 69-60 Conference USA road victory.

The Owls built a 17-point lead with 11:29 left in the second half on a Michael Forrest layup that put his squad on top 50-33. But the Owls went cold and the Golden Eagles heated up.
Southern Miss put together a 9-0 run in just 1 minute, 36 seconds to pull within eight. By the 3:48 mark, Southern Miss had outscored FAU 21-8 to pull within a single possession, 60-57.

But the Owls did not panic. Ingram buried a 3-pointer from the left wing with 3:16 remaining. Following a pair of errant Southern Miss free throws, Greenlee then effectively put the game on ice, burying a triple from the top of the key to put his team up 66-57 with 2:40 to go.

The Owls used the long ball in the first half to build a 13-point advantage. FAU hit 10 of its 13 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes and led by 13 at halftime.

FAU saw balanced scoring in the victory. Four Owls scored in double digits, led by Forrest’s 14-point effort. Ingram scored 12, all from 3-point range off the bench. Freshman Johnell Davis was in double figures off the bench with 10, while Karlis Silins also tacked on 10 and led the team with six rebounds. Greenlee was solid running the point for the Owls, dishing out five assists and committing just one turnover.

Southern Miss was paced by LaDavius Draine, who tallied 17 points. Tyler Stevenson scored 11 and grabbed a game-high eight boards for the Golden Eagles.

Notes
– The victory pulls FAU back to an even .500 overall at 9-9 and moves them to 4-5 in C-USA action. Southern Miss falls to 8-15 overall and 4-12 in league play.
– FAU never trailed in the contest, leading for more than 38 minutes of action.
– With Ingram and Davis leading the way off the bench, the Owls reserves outscored Southern Miss’ bench players 29-5.
– Ingram reached double figures for the 10th time this season and the 61st time in his FAU career.
– Kenan Blackshear tied a career-high with four steals in the contest.
– The Owls were just 8-of-20 from the free throw line.
– Friday night’s victory was the first for FAU since Jan. 22. Of course, there have only been three games played for the Owls since then.

Quoting Coach May
FAU Head Coach Dusty May
On the victory: “We played really well in spurts. We were playing mini-games, four-minute games. We’ve had trouble playing the full 40, so we came into the game with a plan that we’re going to chart every four minutes and we’re not going to talk big picture. We’re going to talk about this four-minute game. I believe we won the first eight, we lost the ninth decidedly. When you have a team down on the mat on their home floor and you have the free throws, the layups, those possessions, we looked like a team that wasn’t used to throwing blows when you have a nice lead. Happy that we won, but other than that, we have to be better tomorrow or we won’t be able to get a road sweep.”

On individual efforts in the game: “I thought Johnell Davis came in and was big for us. Jailyn Ingram, he’s in a situation for us now where we’re asking him to play old-man ball. Spot up, be a ball mover. Let’s not play one-on-one and get yourself hurt going into the conference tournament. I thought Karlis Silins came back after a slow start and played determined basketball. B.J. Greenlee was sound … five assists, one turnover. The five assists led directly to wide-open shots or easy baskets, so I thought he was a coach on the floor. He was better. He ran the show.”

On Tap
The Owls and Golden Eagles will lace ’em up once again Saturday. Tipoff from the campus of Southern Miss is slated for 5 p.m. ET. The contest will air locally on Fox Sports 640 AM and will be seen on ESPN+.