Men’s Basketball Rides Hot Shooting First Half to Down Old Dominion 80-73

Thursday, January 10

Boca Raton, Fla.

7 p.m.

Florida Atlantic

-115, 21 CUSA

Old Dominion

-115, 12 CUSA

ODU

Florida Atlantic

Men’s Basketball Rides Hot Shooting First Half to Down Old Dominion 80-73

1/11/2019 12:20:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

BOCA RATON, Fla. - The Florida Atlantic University men's basketball team shot 61.5 percent from the floor in the first half, and withstood a frenetic rally to defeat Old Dominion 80-73 on Thursday night. The win improves the Owls to 11-5 overall and 2-1 in Conference USA.

The Start

With the Monarchs (11-5, 1-2) leading 6-2, an Anthony Adger three-pointer began a 25-8 rally that put FAU ahead 27-14 at the midway point of the first half. The lead ballooned to as many as 15 late in the stanza before ODU scored the last six points of the frame to trim the margin to nine, 40-31.

The Turning Point

ODU used an 11-4 run to pull within one at 55-54 with 9:38 to go in the game.

The Finish

The Owls scored 11 of the next 15 points to stretch the margin to eight at the four-minute mark. FAU made four of their last five field goal attempts and seven of their last 10 free throw attempts to seal the win.

Notables

· Xavian Stapleton led all scorers with 23 points.

· Richardson Maitre and Adger each scored 13 points. Maitre had a team-high five assists and four rebounds. Adger posted five rebounds and four assists

· Michael Forrest tallied 12 points, two assists, two rebounds and a steal

· The Owls' 80 points were the most given up this season by the Monarchs. Coming into Thursday's game, ODU led C-USA in scoring defense, allowing just 58.1 points per game

Quotable

FAU Head Coach Dusty May

On Xavian Stapleton…

"(Xavian) was incredible on both sides of the ball, made hustle plays, made toughness plays. He made shots, he defended, he tracked down loose balls. For him to come out and play the way he did is just a testament to his mindset."

Graduate forward Xavian Stapleton

"That's what we want our identity to be. A physical, hard-playing team that doesn't give up and is going to fight to the end."

Looking Ahead

FAU will host Charlotte on Saturday, Jan. 12. Tip-off is slated for 4 p.m. Live audio can be heard on ESPN 106.3 FM. Live video will be available at fausports.com. In-game updates will also be available at twitter.com/FAU_Hoops. For tickets, call the FAU Ticket Office at 1-866-FAU-OWLS or log on to fausports.com.