BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic Owls (11-7, 4-5 C-USA) fought the UTEP Miners (13-5, 6-3 C-USA) into their first overtime contest of the season, but ultimately fell 79-78 in a hard-fought battle inside Eleanor R. Baldwin Arena on Saturday afternoon.
HOW IT HAPPENED
After a 2-2 tie to open the contest, UTEP produced an 8-0 run to take a 10-2 lead just over three minutes into the contest. The Miners maintained a seven-point advantage, 14-7, through the 3:30-minute mark, before the Owls scored five unanswered to bring the game back within two at 14-12 with 2:58 to play in the first. The two teams continued to battle through the final three minutes of the first. UTEP held a five-point lead at 21-16 with 39 seconds on the clock, but a buzzer-beater from Joiya Maddox closed the first with the Owls trailing by just a possession, 21-18.
Aniya Hubbard opened the second with a jumper on the Owls’ first possession to cut the deficit down to just one, 21-20. UTEP produced another run, outscoring the Owls 8-3 to kick the lead back out to six, but free throws from Dyllan Hanna and Janeta Rozentale, as well as a Maddox 3-pointer put up six unanswered for the Owls to tie up the game at 29 all with 5:06 remaining in the half. The game remained locked in a stalemate at 32-32 with 4:23 to play, but the Owls locked in to outscore the Miners 9-3 over the final five minutes of the half to take a six-point lead into the break, 41-35.
Just like the second quarter, the Owls opened the scoring in the third on a jumper from Rozentale and a 3-pointer from Maddox to kick the FAU lead out to nine, 46-37, just two minutes into the half. However, the Miners responded to score 11 unanswered, to tie the game at 46-46, before retaking the lead 47-46 and sparking an FAU timeout with 5:36 remaining in the third. After a 41-46 UTEP lead, Galeron connected on a 3-pointer and Hubbard tallied a layup to quickly close the gap and bring the Owls even at 51. The Miners got two back to make it 53-51, but three FAU free throws closed out the third to give the Owls the one-point advantage, 54-53, with 10 minutes to play. The two teams battled through four lead changes until UTEP would bring things even at 65-65 with 4:16 remaining. The Owls held advantages at 67-65 and 69-67, but the Miners would tie the game up at 69 to send the Owls to their first overtime contest of the season.
Layups from Maddox and Rozentale opened up overtime to push FAU out to a quick 73-69 lead, however the Miners answered with a pair of field goals of their own to bring the game even once more at 73 with 2:38 to play in overtime. Hubbard connected on another layup to put the Owls back in front 75-73 with 1:38 to play, but the Miners closed the contest, outscoring the Owls 6-3 over the final minute and a half to eventually take the 79-78 win.
QUOTABLE
“Obviously disappointing to lose, but it’s one of those games that you just hate for anyone to lose,” said head coach Jennifer Sullivan. “Both teams battled, it was a great ball game, a ballgame I wish I was just watching and not have a dog in the fight, but I was very excited, again, to watch a quality basketball game from either team. Credit to them and their fight, and ours as well. There’s a lot of things we could have cleaned up, not to be in that position, but it looked like on paper it came down to free throws. That did hurt us, but I thought there was other things we could have done to not be in that spot. But proud of our group and their fight.”
NOTES AND TEAM STATS
- Four Owls registered a double-digit performance against the Miners
- Joiya Maddox had a career night to lead the way for FAU, scoring a career-best 26 points, shooting 83 percent (10-of-12) from the field and 67 percent (4-of-6) from 3-point range, in addition to pulling down two boards and dishing out a pair of assists.
- Aniya Hubbard recorded her first career double-double, finishing with a team second-best 15 points, shooting 38 percent (5-of-13) from the field and connecting on 5-of-8 from the free throw line, and pulling down a career-best and team-high 10 rebounds, while also adding two assists and two steals.
- Sofia Galeron and Janeta Rozentale rounded out FAU’s double-figure scorers with 11 points each. Galeron pulled down four rebounds, dished out a team-high three assists, collected two steals, and blocked a shot, while Rozentale finished with a team second-best eight rebounds.
- FAU had a tremendous second quarter, outscoring UTEP 23-14 heading into the halftime break.
- The Owls bench outscored UTEP’s reserves by a significant 47-10 margin.
UP NEXT
FAU will hit the road next week, traveling to the Volunteer State to face the league-leader, Middle Tennessee, for a 7 p.m. tipoff on Thursday, Jan. 26 inside the Murphy Center.
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