| BOCA RATON – The Florida Atlantic University men’s basketball team completed a sweep over rival Florida International University in historic fashion Saturday evening. The Owls blew out the Panthers 107-63 at FAU Arena. FAU’s 107-point output was the most the Owls have ever scored against the Panthers. The 43-point margin of victory was also the largest margin in series history. It was the fourth time this season FAU has reached the century mark, tying the school record for number of games with 100 points or more in a season. Michael Forrest led the way for the Owls, scoring a season-high 27 points, including 7-of-11 shooting from 3-point range. Everett Winchester turned in his best performance as an Owl. He recorded his first career double-double and registered career-best marks for scoring and rebounds with 12 points and 14 rebounds. Nicholas Boyd came off the bench to tally 11 points and Karlis Silins tallied 10 to give FAU four players in double digits. The Owls shot 54.5 percent from the field, 50 percent (14-of-28) from 3-point range and 80.8 percent from the free throw line. FAU outscored the Panthers 17-2 in second-chance points, while the Owls bench held a 43-19 edge over FIU reserves. FIU led 8-5 after three minutes of action. But the Owls exploded over the next six-plus minutes, putting together a 28-3 run to go on top by 22 points. During that outburst, the Owls got 3-pointers from Forrest, Kenan Blackshear and Jailyn Ingram, as well as a traditional 3-point play from Boyd. The Panthers never pulled within 20 points again. In fact, the FAU lead grew to 30 points when Everett Winchester converted a pair of free throws to make it 45-15 with five minutes to go before halftime. FAU’s advantage grew to 33 by the intermission. The second half was more of the same. A Winchester bucket just more than three minutes into the second half grew the lead to 40 points, 66-26, and FAU just continued to roll. Eleven of the 13 Owls in uniform scored in the contest. The victory pushed FAU’s overall record to 7-6 and evened the Owls’ Conference USA mark at 2-2. Meanwhile, FIU fell to 8-6 overall and 2-4 in league action. Quoting Coach May FAU Head Coach Dusty May On his team playing together: “They competed at a high level and we looked like a team that enjoyed passing the basketball, sharing it, playing for each other. That’s what we have to be. We’ve talked about that for the last month. The shots haven’t went in for us. To be honest, that’s the biggest difference between tonight and the rest of the schedule. We had a hunch that when we got back home … we were going to shoot it much, much better. We played hard and together.” On individual players’ performances: “I don’t even know where to start when you talk about individual contributions, because Everett (Winchester) gets 14 rebounds and defensively, he’s a menace. (Winchester) and Kenan Blackshear, with their size, intelligence and footspeed, they can be two of the best defenders in our league and as they continue to evolve can be elite defenders. Those two guys are hard to score on. It was nice to see Mike (Forrest). He’s playing with joy. He doesn’t look pressured. He just looks like he’s playing with a calmer, quieter mind and a confidence level that we haven’t seen, probably since his freshman year. He really, really cares about the game. He cares about the team. So, it’s nice to see his hard work rewarded. He has put in the time and hours and never deviated from who he is.” On Tap FAU remains in the friendly confines of The Burrow next weekend, as C-USA action continues. The Owls will host Charlotte Friday night at 7 p.m. and again Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. at FAU Arena. |
