| RISCO, Texas – Karlis Silins scored a career-high 22 points to lead the Florida Atlantic University men’s basketball team to a 76-70 victory over UTEP Wednesday night in the Conference USA Men’s Championship tournament. The Owls move on to face Louisiana Tech in a quarterfinal matchup Thursday night. While Silins led the way, it was Jailyn Ingram who get the Owls going after a slow start. UTEP jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first two minutes of the contest. Ingram came off the bench and knocked down a pair of 3-pointers to get the FAU offense on track. From there, the Owls got into rhythm, going on a 13-3 run later in the first half. That spurt was capped by a Dardan Kapiti slam dunk to put FAU on top 19=11. The Owls opened an 11-point edge, 26-15, with eight minutes remaining in the half. But UTEP wouldn’t go away. The Miners clawed all the way back within one before the end of the first half, as FAU took a 34-33 edge into the break. Souley Boum scored 12 of his game-high 23 points for UTEP in that first half to pull his team back into the contest. While there was just one lead change and one tie score in the first half. The second half was a back-and-forth affair. Neither team led by more than five points until the final minute of the contest. There were eight lead changes and 11 tie scores in the second half. UTEP took the lead for the first time since early in the game four minutes into the second half. But the Owls responded. A Kenan Blackshear 3-pointer and seven straight points from Silins gave FAU its biggest lead of the second half, 48-43. But they couldn’t pull away. With less than four minutes remaining, the contest was tied, 64-64. With 3:14 remaining Bryan Greenlee scored on a layup and gave FAU the lead for good. Another Greenlee bucket put the Owls on top by three, 68-65, with 1:37 remaining. From there, the Owls converted 8-of-10 free throws and locked down on defense. FAU held the Miners without a field goal for over six minutes until Bryson Williams tallied a meaningless dunk at the buzzer. In addition to Silins’ 23-point effort, Greenlee added 14 points and dished out four assists for the Owls. Ingram and Blackshear shared game-high honors on the boards, with eight rebounds apiece. The victory moved FAU’s overall record to 13-9 on the season, while UTEP’s season came to a close at 12-12. Tipoff from the Ford Center at the Star is slated for 8:30 p.m. CT/9:30 p.m. ET for Thursday night’s matchup between FAU and Lousiana Tech. The game will be broadcast/streamed by Stadium and will be heard locally on Fox Sports 640 AM. Quoting Coach May FAU Head Coach Dusty May On Karlis Silins’ performance: “I’m very proud (of Karlis). Probably the thing Karlis has done best throughout his career is score on the low block. For whatever reason, they had him uncomfortable on the block. Other than (his first basket), I don’t know if he scored a traditional post-up and normally he’s a load down low. What he did was a great job of setting screens and getting off the screens quickly and we hit him on the short rolls. He was able to catch it and maneuver around defenders. He had some big follow-ups and tip-ins.” On other individuals’ efforts: “We got contributions from a lot of guys. I want to single out Madiaw Niang. He comes in with one minute left and he’s guarding maybe the best – definitely the most versatile big in our league (Bryson Williams) – and he defends a quick spin, baseline, stays with him, keeps his feet moving and has a huge stop. He did what a veteran player off the bench is supposed to do, come in and make a positive contribution to a win. (Bryan) Greenlee and Michael (Forrest) had a couple big-time finishes in the paint. We changed up a few things and when certain lineups are in the game, those guys have a lot more space to get in the paint.” On Thursday’s game with Louisiana Tech: “Their front line … Lofton is obviously a load down low. Crawford is like a younger version of Jailyn Ingram, where you can play him inside and outside. They’ve got a backcourt that’s athletic, fast, versatile … so they have a number of guys who are very good players. We’re going to have to play a very solid, sound basketball game and figure out a way to keep Lofton out of that paint.” |
