| SAN ANTONIO – After nearly three weeks off, the Florida Atlantic University men’s basketball team returned to the court Friday night at UTSA in Conference USA action. The Owls fell just short as the Roadrunners held on to defeat FAU 84-80. FAU grabbed a 64-61 lead midway through the second half when Kenan Blackshear converted on a traditional three-point play. But UTSA scored the next 10 points to go on top 71-64. The Roadrunners had extended the lead back to 10 with less than a minute remaining, but the Owls kept battling. Two 3-pointers in a six-second span from Blackshear and Michael Forrest pulled FAU back within four, 80-76, with 19 seconds remaining. A pair of UTSA free throws put the Roadrunners up by six before Blackshear hit another triple, drew the foul and converted the four-point play to pull within two, 82-80, with 8.8 seconds remaining. But that’s as close as the Owls could get as Keaton Wallace hit a pair of free throws to ice it for UTSA. Jhivvan Jackson led all scorers for UTSA, pouring in 30 points, while Jacob Germany added 26 for the Roadrunners. Blackshear led the way for the Owls with 20 points and 10 rebounds to record the first double-double of his career. Four Owls were in double figures, as Forrest added 18, Karlis Silins chipped in 13 and Alijah Martin scored 11. FAU took its first lead of the contest with 12:48 remaining when freshman Nicholas Boyd went coast to coast for a layup, forcing a Roadrunners time out. After a long layoff, the Owls were a bit rusty early. UTSA took advantage. The Roadrunners jumped out to a 15-4 lead, as FAU converted on just two of its first nine field goal attempts. With 8:23 remaining in the first half, UTSA held a 10-point advantage following a Cedrick Alley Jr. 3-pointer. But the Owls continued to battle back, doing damage from the 3-point line. Over the next five minutes, FAU hit four 3-pointers to claw their way back to level the score at 37-37. Silins and Bryan Greenlee each hit one during the spurt, while freshman Alijah Martin buried back-to-back triples, including the game-tying bucket. UTSA scored the next seven points to go up 44-37. But Blackshear scored the final four points of the half and pulled the Owls within three points at the break, 44-41. Quoting Coach May FAU Head Coach Dusty May On Kenan Blackshear: “He got in the gym and he worked hard (during the layoff). He put some time in on his shot, worked on his conditioning and had a couple really good weeks of practice. It’s rewarding to see that his hard work (led to) immediate dividends.” On coming off the layoff: “At the start (of tonight’s game), we were very rusty and we were turning it over at a high rate early on. We settled in and didn’t turn it over much late. We shot the ball well early, which kept us in the game. I’m very proud of our guys’ effort. They fought, they battled. We made runs. It was that spurt in the second half where we were playing very good basketball and we had three straight layups or dunks that were scored on us. When you’re playing a team as explosive as UTSA, when you go up one (point) and you have a couple more good opportunities, you have to capitalize because they have another run in them.” On Tap The Owls and Roadrunners will wrap up their weekend series Saturday afternoon at the UTSA Convocation Center. Tipoff is slated for 4 p.m. ET. |
