Men's Hoops Dispatches Roadrunners 82-58

Tuesday, March 8

Birmingham, Ala.

5:00 PM

Florida Atlantic

8-24

UTSA

5-27

UTSA

Florida Atlantic

3/8/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

March 8, 2016

Final Stats

UTSA-FAU Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Ronald Delph and Marquan Botley were the standouts in the Florida Atlantic University men's basketball team's 82-58 win over UTSA in the first round of the Conference USA Basketball Tournament on Tuesday.

The Turning Point
A Roadrunner layup cut the Owls' lead to 33-29 just 30 seconds into the second half, but FAU responded with a 13-2 run to push the margin to 15 and UTSA never threatened again.

Notables
The win is the first neutral site, conference tournament win for the Owls since March 2, 2002 over Georgia State in the finals of the Atlantic Sun Tournament. It's FAU's first conference tournament win of any kind since a 91-64 win over FIU in the first round of the Sun Belt Tournament on March 5, 2008.
Ronald Delph had a career-high 19 points to go along with eight rebounds and four blocks.
Marquan Botley scored a season high 24 points, making him the 12th member of FAU's 1,000 point club. Botley made five three-pointers on the night, giving him 164 for his career, good for sixth place in school history.
The Owls outrebounded UTSA 46-27. The 46 rebounds are a season-high as a team. It's also FAU biggest rebounding margin of the season.
Adonis Filer and Jeantal Cylla each scored 11 points to give the Owls four players in double-figures.

Quotable

FAU Head Coach Michael Curry

"I thought we had a very good defensive first half and we were able to finish (the game) off in the second half."

Freshman Center Ronald Delph

On the significance of the win - "It's big. This program hasn't won a conference tournament game in a long time. We just wanted to show that we belong here."

Up Next

The Owls face Old Dominion in the second round of the C-USA Tournament. The game will be played at Legacy Arena. Tip-off is set for 3:30 p.m. eastern. The game will be broadcast on ESPN 106.3 FM and will air on ASN. Live stats will be available at fausports.com. In-game updates will be available at twitter.com/FAU_Hoops.