Owls End Road Trip with Win over Blazers

Wednesday, January 7

Birmingham, Ala.

7:30 p.m. ET

Florida Atlantic

10-6,2-1American

UAB

10-6,1-2American

Fla. Atlantic

UAB

Photo by: Parker Freedman

1/7/2026 10:12:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Ben Paul

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Behind a 25-point performance from junior guard Kanaan Carlyle, the Florida Atlantic men's basketball team concluded its two-game road trip with a 76-71 win over UAB on Wednesday evening.

The Owls (10-6, 2-1) controlled the matchup over the Blazers (10-6, 1-2) most of the way, building an early double-digit lead and staving off a late run from UAB.

FIRST HALF
Redshirt sophomore guard Devin Vanterpool came out of the opening tip with five straight points. Soon, the Owls found themselves with a 12-3 lead and held the Blazers without a field goal for the first three-and-a-half minutes. FAU converted seven of its first 12 shot attempts while holding UAB to 38% shooting from the field throughout the opening period.

Florida Atlantic took a double-digit lead that grew to 13 from a triple by Carlyle with under three minutes remaining. The Owls entered the locker room with a 40-33 advantage.

SECOND HALF
Carlyle continued to fire away from downtown, drilling two in the first six minutes to maintain the 10-point Owl lead. The Blazers closed the gap to one and then took a 57-55 lead off a three-pointer with seven minutes to go.

The two teams traded triples, with sophomore guard Isaiah Elohim answering with one of his own to take the lead back. Redshirt junior guard Niccolo Moretti tied the game at 60 with two free throws, and two more from Carlyle put the Owls up 62-60. Vanterpool built the 9-0 run with his third three-pointer of the day to take a five-point lead at the final media timeout.

It was all FAU the rest of the way, sinking four of its final five attempts from the field and nine of its 10 chances at the charity stripe.

QUOTABLE
Head Coach John Jakus
On the win
"Just really proud of today after our Tulane game. Up four with a couple to go, we ended up switching the lineup, going four guards. We ended up executing, ended up making free throws. We took care of the basketball just a little bit more, 12 turnovers instead of 18. And then I thought our guard play was excellent today, led by Kanaan. Just really happy for him. His parents are here tonight, it's a real blessing for him to be two hours from home and I'm just thrilled that they saw that, those kinds of moments matter in what we do. I just wanted to throw in Niccolo Moretti with Isaiah (Elohim) and Devin Vanterpool also. I thought the four guard thing down the stretch was a big difference, not only just guarding, but rebounds. I'm just really proud of that and DWill [Devin Williams] continues to protect the rim and makes people look around. We can clean up our fouling, our defense is actually improving, 36% defensive field goal percentage on the road and we kept Tulane under 40. The offense will come hopefully as we grow, but I just thought it was a really special thing to play defense two games in a row back-to-back and to get this first win at UAB in school history."

On carrying momentum into Sunday's matchup versus Memphis
"I think we're going to celebrate [tonight] until midnight and then we're going to get home to Boca and enjoy. I'll say this: I want the Elly to be sold out. Students come back for Monday, I hope they'll come back a day early. I know there's going to be a tailgate so Sunday is going to be a good time for them…I hope they have a good time at the tailgate and come in. I love this team, I think the school should be there, and I'm really thrilled that we get a home game right as the students come home. The only thing I'm thinking about is a sold out crowd and we'll deal with Memphis tomorrow."

Junior guard Kanaan Carlyle
On what was working tonight
"Just being aggressive. When you have scorers around you, other players that can make plays like Devin Vanterpool, Isaiah (Elohim), they both were cooking early so UAB didn't really have a choice but to guard all five on the court, especially when we started hitting DWill a little bit in a row. So they had to kind of pick their poison and fortunately I had it rolling tonight, I was able to hit shots. But it was a team effort, we all put in the effort for us to get good shots and my shots happened to fall tonight."

STATS & NOTES

Carlyle's 25 points marks his most as an Owl and his fourth game of the season with 20+.
Elohim's 14 points is his eighth straight game in double figures and team-best 12th of the season.
Vanterpool tallied four steals, tying his collegiate career high.
Freshman guard Josiah Parker set his career high in rebounds with eight.
Redshirt sophomore forward Devin Williams, entering the day ranked No. 7 in the nation in blocks, recorded three on the night. It marks his 10th game of the season with at least three blocks. He also tied his collegiate career high with eight boards.
Florida Atlantic achieved its first road win over UAB in program history.

UP NEXT
The Owls return to Eleanor R. Baldwin Arena for their White Out game against Memphis on Sunday, Jan. 11. Tip-off is at 1 p.m. on ESPN2.

FOLLOW THE OWLS
To stay up to date on all things FAU men's basketball, follow the Owls on social media @FAUMBB.

Florida Atlantic's 2025-26 season is sponsored by Phil Smith Kia/Phil Smith Acura.