| BOCA RATON – The FAU men’s basketball team secured a winning season Friday night, defeating Middle Tennessee State University 63-54. The Owls and third-year head coach Dusty May have now put together three straight winning seasons, something that had never been done prior in the NCAA Division I history of the program. This victory was a little more difficult than Friday night’s laugher over the Blue Raiders, although it looked like it could be another blowout early. FAU started like a house afire, jumping out to a quick 12-0 lead behind seven points in the first three minutes from Kenan Blackshear. The Owls eventually ballooned that lead to 19 at halftime. Michael Forrest hit one of his three first-half 3-pointers with a minute before halftime to put the Owls on top 41-22 heading into the intermission. FAU shot a little over 53 percent from the field in the first half, while holding Middle Tennessee to just 16.7 percent in the opening 20 minutes. With a little more than eight minutes left, FAU still held a 16-point advantage and seemed to be cruising to their fourth straight victory. But the Blue Raiders wouldn’t go quietly. MTSU put together a 12-2 run to climb back into the contest. That run took seven minutes, however. By the time the Blue Raiders were within striking distance at 60-54, there was only one minute remaining in the contest. Over the final eight minutes of the contest, FAU hit just one of 10 field-goal attempts, creating the opportunity for Middle Tennessee to get back into the contest. However, over the final 40 seconds, Karlis Silins and Kenan Blackshear combined to make 3-of-4 free throws to create just enough space to account for the nine-point victory. FAU ended the regular season 12-9 overall and 7-5 in Conference USA action. MTSU dropped to 5-17 overall and 3-13 in C-USA play. The Owls will find out their Conference USA Championship Tournament seed and opponent following the conclusion of Saturday’s final league games of the season. Owl Notes – FAU did not trail in the two-game series with Middle Tennessee Thursday and Friday. The Owls led for all but 27 seconds – Friday’s game was scoreless for just nine seconds, while it took FAU 16 seconds to score first on Thursday. – Jailyn Ingram tied a career-high mark with 12 rebounds in the contest. He is now just eight boards away from being the No. 3 rebounder in the history of the program. – Forrest led the way for FAU with 16 points, including four more 3-pointers. He now has 159 career 3-pointers, good enough for eighth all-time at FAU. – Blackshear was the only other Owl in double digits Friday night. – On his senior night, Silins threw down a thunderous dunk, but scored just five points after being in foul trouble most of the night. It was the first time he hadn’t reached double-figure scoring in his last nine games. – FAU held the advantage in second-chance points 10-6, marking the 17th time in 21 games this season that they led in that category. Quoting Coach May FAU Head Coach Dusty May On the victory: “Hats off to Middle Tennessee State. They played hard and competed. They battled and fought and the most rewarding part of this is we won it without making shots. We didn’t make our free throws, we didn’t make our open shots late. We had to win it with a tip-in and a tip-out (rebound) and some unconventional plays. When you go into conference tournament time, you have to win in these slug-fests and this was physical, it was intense and this was a great gauge going into the C-USA Tournament if we can play one of these slow-down teams that want to play more in the halfcourt. We like the direction we’re going.” |
