Owls Win Thriller over UTEP 71-69

Thursday, February 13

El Paso, Texas

9:05 PM

Florida Atlantic

-1015, 55 CUSA

UTEP

-187, 82 CUSA

Florida Atlantic

UTEP

2/14/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Feb. 14, 2014

FAU-UTEP Box Score (HTML)

FAU-UTEP Box Score (PDF)

EL PASO, Texas - Marquan Botley banked in a three-pointer with 2.2 seconds left to give the Florida Atlantic University men's basketball team a 71-69 win over UTEP on Thursday night.

FAU (10-15, 5-5 C-USA) controlled the game from the outset against the Miners (18-7, 8-2) who entered the night tied for first in the league standings. The Owls shot 58.2 from the floor in the first half, taking a 38-25 lead into the locker room. Botley and Pablo Bertone combined for 23 points at the break.

The Owls' shooting cooled off a bit in the second half, but remained timely, as each time it seemed UTEP was poised to make a run, a different FAU player made a shot to regain momentum. The Miners trailed by 13 with less than five minutes remaining when they made a final push, going on a 17-3 run, taking the lead on a C.J. Cooper three-pointer with 13 seconds left.

After a timeout, the reigning Conference USA Freshman of the Week made the biggest shot of the night to put the Owls ahead. UTEP had a decent look to win the game, but the shot was off and FAU celebrated at midcourt.

The win snapped the Miners' eight-game winning streak, including four in a row at home. Botley tied his career high with 23 points and Bertone added 18.

FAU travels to San Antonio on Saturday to face UTSA. Game time is set for 4 p.m. eastern and live stats and audio will be available at fausports.com.