Owls Drop Hard Fought Game to Charlotte 62-53

Thursday, January 30

Charlotte, N.C.

7:00 PM

Florida Atlantic

-714, 24 CUSA

Charlotte

-137, 43 CUSA

Florida Atlantic

Charlotte

1/30/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Jan. 30, 2014

FAU-Charlotte Box Score (HTML)

FAU-Charlotte Box Score (PDF)

CHARLOTTE, NC - The Florida Atlantic University men's basketball team battled, but lost to Charlotte 62-53 on Thursday night.

Pablo Bertone had his eighth 20-point game of the season for the Owls (7-14, 2-4 C-USA) and Kelvin Penn dished out a career high three assists to go along with three points, four rebounds, five blocks and two steals.

FAU got out to a fast start, building a 10-3 lead early in the first half. Charlotte (13-7, 4-3) rallied to eventually take a 13-11 advantage. The Owls answered and a Bertone basket capped the run to put FAU ahead 22-17 with just under six minutes to go before halftime.

Charlotte closed the first half with a flourish and headed to the locker room with a 27-26 lead. Two more Bertone buckets to open the second half put the Owls up 30-27. From that point, the two teams exchanged baskets and neither side managed a lead than three points for more than 11 minutes.

A Marquan Botley triple cut the Owls' deficit to 54-52 with 2:59 remaining. However, that would be FAU's last field goal of the evening, allowing the 49ers to gain the victory.

FAU will travel to Marshall on Saturday to face the Thundering Herd. Tip-off is set for noon and the game will air on CSS.