Men’s Basketball Upended by Marshall 96-84

Thursday, January 17

Huntington, W.Va.

7 p.m.

Florida Atlantic

-117, 23 CUSA

Marshall

-116, 40 CUSA

Florida Atlantic

Marshall

2019 FAU Men's Basketball vs Old Dominion

Photo by: JC Ridley/Owlpix.com

1/17/2019 10:53:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

HUNTINGTON, W. V. - A career-high 32 points from Michael Forrest and Aleksandar Zecevic's first career double-double was not enough as the Florida Atlantic University men's basketball team suffered a 96-84 loss to Marshall on Saturday. The defeat dropped the Owls to 11-7 overall and 2-3 in Conference USA.

The Start

After the Owls took an early four-point lead, the Thundering Herd (11-6, 4-0) went on an 18-5 run to go up 21-12. The margin was 11, 30-19, at the nine-minute mark when FAU answered with a 14-2 rally, capped by a Cedric Jackson putback that gave the Owls a 33-32 edge with five and a half minutes left in the first half. The Herd countered with a 17-7 spurt, pulling ahead 49-40. A Forrest layup rolled in just before the buzzer to make the score 49-42 at the break.

The Turning Point

FAU scored 13 of the first 17 points to open the second half, regaining the advantage 55-53. Marshall responded with a 20-6 scoring spree to stretch its lead to a dozen, 73-61, with 10 minutes left in the game.

The Finish

The Owls refused to go away, and whittled the lead down to as little as five, but Marshall made all 11 of its free throw attempts over the last two minutes to seal the win.

Notables

· Michael Forrest scored 32 points, a career-high for the freshman

· Anthony Adger registered 18 points and pulled down a career-high nine boards

· Aleksandar Zecevic collected career-highs in both points (13) and rebounds (10) for his first double-double

· Xavian Stapleton came off the bench to score 10 points

· Richardson Maitre tallied just four points, but tied his career-highs in rebounds (seven) and steals (four)

Quotable

FAU Head Coach Dusty May

"We had to play a lot bigger than we'd like, and when had to play big because of our (reduced) numbers, they attacked us and separated from us."

"Our guys have fought. We've been down on the road at Big Ten schools, we've been down big on the road at UCF and we just fight. We fight for 40 minutes and compete at a high level and put ourselves in a position to win games."

Looking Ahead

FAU plays at WKU on Saturday, Jan. 17. Tip-off is slated for 3 p.m. Eastern. The game will be streamed on Stadium via Facebook. Live audio can be heard on ESPN 106.3 FM. In-game updates will also be available at twitter.com/FAU_Hoops.