Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Florida Tech on October 30, 2025 at TBD
TBD
Men's Basketball
vs. Florida Tech
Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Saturday, January 29
San Antonio, Texas
2 PM
Florida Atlantic
at
UTSA
Owls Seek Split In Texas
1/28/2022 1:16:00 PM | Men's Basketball
SAN ANTONIO, Texas (FAUSports.com) --Â The Florida Atlantic University men's basketball team lost a heart-breaker Thursday night in El Paso. UTEP took a 70-68 victory on a tip-in at the buzzer. The Owls will now look to regroup quickly as they head to San Antonio to take on the UTSA Roadrunners Saturday at 1 p.m. CT/2 p.m. ET.
Tipoff for Saturday's game will come just 39 hours after the conclusion of Thursday's contest.
The loss to UTEP dropped FAU out of first place in the East Division of Conference USA. But the Owls are only one game back of Middle Tennessee, which has a contest vs. Western Kentucky Saturday. Thursday's loss also snapped a three-game winning streak for the Owls.
FAU is now 1-6 on the road this season, with its lone road victory coming at Marshall to open Conference USA play. The Owls have struggled in close games. FAU is 0-3 in one-possession games and 0-5 in games decided by seven points or less.
The Owls have dropped two straight to UTSA, dropping both ends of a two-game series in San Antonio last season, when the schedule was modified due to Covid-19.
The FAU-UTSA tilt will be heard in the South Florida area on Fox Sports 640 AM and will be streamed on ESPN+.
A-Mart Special
Alijah Martin has stepped up in a big way during his second year as an Owl. After averaging 4.2 points in his first season, the second-year freshman is putting up 13.8 ppg this season. Martin has scored in double digits in 10 straight games and 16 of 20 games this year. He tallied 10+ points just 4 times in 21 games last year.
His 5.6 rebounds per game leads the team. He's also leading the team in steals, averaging 1.4 per game.
Goldin's Got Game
7-foot 1-inch freshman center Vlad Goldin was a force Thursday night vs. UTEP. The big man scored a career-high 19 points on 9-of-12 shooting, grabbed six rebounds, blocked a shot and logged a season-high 30 minutes on the court.
Last Time Out
A tip-in at the buzzer lifted the UTEP Miners over the Florida Atlantic University men's basketball team Thursday night at the Don Haskins Center. Alfred Hollins tipped in a missed 3-pointer less than a second before the buzzer sounded, giving UTEP (12-8, 5-3 CUSA) a 70-68 victory.
FAU (11-9, 4-3 CUSA) had an opportunity to take the lead just prior to Hollins' game-winning tip-in. With the game tied at 68-68, Alijah Martin put up a 10-foot jumper in the lane that was just short, setting up UTEP's last-second victory.
"The majority of the time, these games come down to a rebound," FAU head coach Dusty May said. "We missed a couple (rebounds) in the second half and that's what we talked about in the locker room. Wining is extremely hard and all those plays add up throughout the course of a game and come back to bite you if you're not able to put some distance between yourself and the opponent."
FAU got a career-best 19 points from freshman center Vlad Goldin. Alijah Martin scored in double digits for the 10th straight game, tallying 16 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Michael Forrest added 12 points for the Owls. Souley Boum paced all scorers for the Miners, tallying 28 pionts on 10-of-18 shooting, including 5-of-8 from 3-point range.Â
Boum and the Miners were in charge early, as he scored seven points in the opening minutes while the Miners built a 10-point lead, 13-3. But the Owls fought back. UTEP was still on top by 10 midway through the second half, when FAU started heating up on offense.Â
"We need to figure out a way to get some better starts," May said. "Effort wasn't the issue. We had a couple mental lapses. Credit UTEP. Those guards made some plays."
The Owls outscored the Miners 25-10 over the next nine minutes and held a 5-point edge late in the first half. Boum wasn't done in the first half, though, hitting a triple to pull his team back within two. At halftime, FAU held a 38-36 edge.
There were nine lead changes and five ties in the second half. Neither team led by more than five points in the second half. Martin almost singlehandedly kept FAU in it late in the ball game. His 3-pointer with five minutes remaining gave the Owls a 66-64 lead. UTEP's Tydus Verhoeven scored two minutes later to tie it and Boum put the Miners on top with a steal and score at the 2:24 mark. Martin then struck again for the Owls. He hit a driving runner with just over a minute remaining to tie the score and set up the final dramatic seconds.Â
"Wining on the road is difficult. Everyone says it," May said. "We just have to continue fighting, clawing and stay together and figure out a way to be one possession better."
Â
Tipoff for Saturday's game will come just 39 hours after the conclusion of Thursday's contest.
The loss to UTEP dropped FAU out of first place in the East Division of Conference USA. But the Owls are only one game back of Middle Tennessee, which has a contest vs. Western Kentucky Saturday. Thursday's loss also snapped a three-game winning streak for the Owls.
FAU is now 1-6 on the road this season, with its lone road victory coming at Marshall to open Conference USA play. The Owls have struggled in close games. FAU is 0-3 in one-possession games and 0-5 in games decided by seven points or less.
The Owls have dropped two straight to UTSA, dropping both ends of a two-game series in San Antonio last season, when the schedule was modified due to Covid-19.
The FAU-UTSA tilt will be heard in the South Florida area on Fox Sports 640 AM and will be streamed on ESPN+.
A-Mart Special
Alijah Martin has stepped up in a big way during his second year as an Owl. After averaging 4.2 points in his first season, the second-year freshman is putting up 13.8 ppg this season. Martin has scored in double digits in 10 straight games and 16 of 20 games this year. He tallied 10+ points just 4 times in 21 games last year.
His 5.6 rebounds per game leads the team. He's also leading the team in steals, averaging 1.4 per game.
Goldin's Got Game
7-foot 1-inch freshman center Vlad Goldin was a force Thursday night vs. UTEP. The big man scored a career-high 19 points on 9-of-12 shooting, grabbed six rebounds, blocked a shot and logged a season-high 30 minutes on the court.
Last Time Out
A tip-in at the buzzer lifted the UTEP Miners over the Florida Atlantic University men's basketball team Thursday night at the Don Haskins Center. Alfred Hollins tipped in a missed 3-pointer less than a second before the buzzer sounded, giving UTEP (12-8, 5-3 CUSA) a 70-68 victory.
FAU (11-9, 4-3 CUSA) had an opportunity to take the lead just prior to Hollins' game-winning tip-in. With the game tied at 68-68, Alijah Martin put up a 10-foot jumper in the lane that was just short, setting up UTEP's last-second victory.
"The majority of the time, these games come down to a rebound," FAU head coach Dusty May said. "We missed a couple (rebounds) in the second half and that's what we talked about in the locker room. Wining is extremely hard and all those plays add up throughout the course of a game and come back to bite you if you're not able to put some distance between yourself and the opponent."
FAU got a career-best 19 points from freshman center Vlad Goldin. Alijah Martin scored in double digits for the 10th straight game, tallying 16 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Michael Forrest added 12 points for the Owls. Souley Boum paced all scorers for the Miners, tallying 28 pionts on 10-of-18 shooting, including 5-of-8 from 3-point range.Â
Boum and the Miners were in charge early, as he scored seven points in the opening minutes while the Miners built a 10-point lead, 13-3. But the Owls fought back. UTEP was still on top by 10 midway through the second half, when FAU started heating up on offense.Â
"We need to figure out a way to get some better starts," May said. "Effort wasn't the issue. We had a couple mental lapses. Credit UTEP. Those guards made some plays."
The Owls outscored the Miners 25-10 over the next nine minutes and held a 5-point edge late in the first half. Boum wasn't done in the first half, though, hitting a triple to pull his team back within two. At halftime, FAU held a 38-36 edge.
There were nine lead changes and five ties in the second half. Neither team led by more than five points in the second half. Martin almost singlehandedly kept FAU in it late in the ball game. His 3-pointer with five minutes remaining gave the Owls a 66-64 lead. UTEP's Tydus Verhoeven scored two minutes later to tie it and Boum put the Miners on top with a steal and score at the 2:24 mark. Martin then struck again for the Owls. He hit a driving runner with just over a minute remaining to tie the score and set up the final dramatic seconds.Â
"Wining on the road is difficult. Everyone says it," May said. "We just have to continue fighting, clawing and stay together and figure out a way to be one possession better."
Â
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballInside the Owls Burrow 2025-26 #7
Thursday, September 25
2025-26 MBB First Official Practice
Monday, September 22
Inside the Owls Burrow 2025-26 #5
Friday, September 12
Inside the Owls Burrow 2025-26 #4
Thursday, September 04