SAN ANTONIO – With leading scorer Jailyn Ingram on the bench, the Florida Atlantic University men’s basketball team dropped an 86-75 decision to UTSA Saturday afternoon at the Convocation Center.
The Roadrunners took advantage of 15 Owl turnovers, outscoring FAU 18-11 in points off turnovers. The Owls struggled at the free-throw line and from the 3-point line. FAU was 13-of-25 from the charity stripe and just 6-of-24 from behind the arc, despite coming into the weekend as one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the nation.
FAU trailed by seven at the intermission. The Owls were down six, 53-47, when freshman Giancarlo Rosado scored on a layup with 13:39 remaining in the contest. But Roadrunners outscored FAU 17-8 over the next five minutes to stretch their advantage into double figures, 70-55. The Owls couldn’t get any closer than nine for the remainder of the contest.
Five Roadrunners scored in double digits, paced by Conference USA scoring leader Jhivvan Jackson, who tallied 20. Four Owls reached double figures, with Kenan Blackshear and Karlis Silins tying for team-high honors at 15 points. Freshmen Nicholas Boyd and Rosado came off the bench to tally 11 and 10 points, respectively. Silins was one board away from a double-double with nine rebounds.
With the loss, FAU falls to 8-9 overall and 3-5 in C-USA action. UTSA improves to 12-9 overall and 8-6 in league play.
Quoting Coach May
FAU Head Coach Dusty May
On the loss: “It was a choppy game. With Jailyn (Ingram) being out, it gave us an opportunity to look at Giancarlo (Rosado) a little bit more, give Nelly (Johnell Davis) and Alijah (Martin) our freshmen a few more minutes than they would have gotten otherwise. I think we got relatively good play out of Karlis (Silins) and Kenan (Blackshear) … and Nick Boyd actually provided a spark as well, especially in the second half. There are some good things. It sure beats sitting at home, not playing. We learned a lot about ourselves, but we’ve got a ways to go. We don’t have the margin of error to give up the second shot, kickout (3-pointers). UTSA has an incredible ability to make you pay every single time you make a mistake and we made too many mistakes.”
On improvements to be made: “We’ve got to work on our physicality. We’ve got to be tougher around the basket. The possessions where we have the ball within three or four feet (of the basket), we have to do a much better job of finishing those and we let them get behind us a couple times in transition defense. Against a good scoring team, you’re not shooting the ball as well and you’re not making your free throws, you can’t have those empty possessions.”
On Tap
The Owls return to the friendly confines of The Burrow (Abessinio Court at FAU Arena) next weekend for a pair with UTEP.
