Owls Clinch Winning Season With 60-54 Victory Over North Texas

Thursday, February 28

Denton, TX

8 p.m.

Florida Atlantic

16-12 (8-8)

North Texas

20-9 (8-8)

Florida Atlantic

North Texas

Owls Clinch Winning Season With 60-54 Victory Over North Texas

3/1/2019 12:06:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

DENTON, Texas - (Feb. 28, 2019) – The Florida Atlantic University men's basketball team clinched its first winning season since 2010-11 with a 60-54 win over North Texas on Thursday night. The Owls are 17-12 overall and 8-8 in Conference USA.

The Start

FAU scored seven of the game's first eight points before the Mean Green (20-9, 8-8) reeled off 11 in a row as part of a 16-2 run to take a 17-9 lead. Madiaw Niang hit a three-pointer that began a 16-3 Owls rally to regain a 25-20 advantage with four minutes to go in the first half. The cushion remained five at the break, 28-23.

The Turning Point

After Kevaughn Ellis hit a three-pointer, the Mean Green made a layup at the 17:36 mark of the second half. The Owls had held North Texas to just one field goal in the previous 12 and a half minutes. A pair of Xavian Stapleton jumpers bookended an 11-2 FAU scoring spurt that extended the Owls' lead to a then game-high 15, 46-31, with 9:15 left in the game.

The Finish

Aleksandar Zecevic nailed a jumper from just inside the free throw line to push FAU's lead to 50-34 with 6:46 on the clock, apparently sealing the win. However, the Mean Green made a late push, trimming the lead to as little as four with 11 seconds left. Stapleton made a pair of free throws to clinch the victory for FAU.

Notables

· Richardson Maitre made his first start in over a month and scored a career-high 15 points

· Karlis Silins and Xavian Stapleton each had a dozen points for the Owls. Silins also blocked three shots

· Simeon Lepichev grabbed nine rebounds, his fourth straight game with at least seven

· Aleksandar Zecevic scored nine points and pulled down five rebounds in just 13 minutes of action

· FAU's bench players scored 28 points in the game, doubling up the 14 posted by the Mean Green reserves

· The win was the Owls first in Denton since Feb. 3, 2011 and just their second ever

· In addition to clinching the first winning season since 2010-11, the victory also made Dusty May the winningest first year head coach since the Owls moved to Division I (1994-95 season)

· The victory came in spite of Anthony Adger and Michael Forrest both going scoreless. The duo entered the contest averaging almost 28 points per game in C-USA play

· The Owls outrebounded the Mean Green 40-37

· FAU hit six triples as a team, extending its school record to 259 on the year

Quotable

FAU Head Coach Dusty May

"It was an incredible physical performance by our guys. Everybody that played contributed and battled at a high level. It was as physical a game as we've been in all year and our guys responded to the physicality."

Looking Ahead

The Owls return home to host Louisiana Tech on Wednesday, March 6. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. and it will be Senior Night. The game will be streamed on fausports.com. Live audio can be heard on ESPN 106.3 FM.

Tickets

For tickets, call 1-866-FAU-OWLS or visit FAUSports.com.

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