Nothing has been easy during this recent stretch of road games for FAU and game 2 of the Shriners Children’s Classic was no different, except this afternoon the Owls couldn’t find a way to pull this one out, losing to Drake 75-63. The Owls trailed by double figures in game 1 to Oklahoma State, however they found holes in the Cowboy defense and exposed it, but tonight against Drake it was a different story.
John Jakus mentioned that Drake has one of the slowest tempos in the nation and tonight the Bulldogs executed that on both ends of the court, as they found open looks on offense while frustrating the Owls on the other end, holding FAU to 31% from 3 which severely limited their offense. FAU also had 15 turnovers on the day which translated to 17 points for Drake, however only 6 of those 15 turnovers were forced, as the rest came from the Bulldog’s suffocating defense.
The Owls were able to comeback against Oklahoma State with an aggressive mindset and timely shooting, however tonight it was Drake who were the aggressors and it led them to victory. Their aggression really showed on the defensive end as they limited open looks and according to FAU Coach John Jakus, they forced FAU into a step-back 3 on the first possession of the game and things became more difficult from there.
“I think that they started just by taking KyKy away, he had 21 yesterday, he only got three shots up today. And then our big mistake is that number 22 (Mascari) attempted eight threes, and in a hotel room, their kids were more quickly convinced of who the shooter was. And if you know, shooting is contagious, and unless they start going in, you struggle. And then I thought they just did a really good job of making us take step back threes. And if we would have had our first three go in, I think that’s when momentum kicks in. And it’s hard when your first shots are a step back three off the dribble, and they baited us into that in the first half,” Jakus said.
The real struggle for FAU tonight was in the paint, as despite winning the overall points in the paint battle 26-22, it was Drake who dominated on the glass, winning the offensive rebound battle 11-4 and overall rebound battle 32-23. The Owls also missed 9 layups on the day and with Drake limiting them from 3, their inability to win the paint battle was detrimental.
Matas Vokietaitis was a big reason why FAU was competing in the paint at all, as he finished with 10 points and 7 rebounds, also finishing with 3 of the 4 teams offensive rebounds. He finished with 4 fouls however and the Owls were forced to go small and that played into Drake’s favor.
This isn’t the first time this season FAU has lost the rebounding battle, however tonight it occurred against a team that had a significant size deficit, as FAU checked in 115th in the nation in height, while Drake was 188th. Drake didn’t need height as they had enough heart to crash the glass and get the job done, and Jakus said that Drake believed in their abilities more than FAU did.
“Well, I think they (Drake) deserve credit. They’re a really good rebounding team, and I think that you’ll see that flesh itself out over time. And then I just think you know implied in your question is the fact that rebounding takes talent. You can be tall and be a bad rebounder, and you can be short and be a great rebounder, and they’re convinced by that, and and our guys are not yet, and you can put that on me, but to have four offensive rebounds is just out of 30 chances, I think, with the seven miss free throws and then the I think it’s 23 missed shots. That’s just not enough. It’s not good enough. So that’s an issue for us. Having to address that issue in the hotel isn’t great. We’d love to have a week at home in Elly and actually practice and get better. But for now, we’re gonna fix it in a hotel,” Jakus said.
Although Ben McCollum is in his first year at Drake, he brought 4 of his most talented players with him from D2 and although at times they may lack the size and speed of other opponents, they play with a chip on their shoulder that is sometimes unbeatable. Tonight the Owls had no answer for them, as Mitch Mascari, a 6’5 G who accepted a job in finance this offseason before deciding to come to Drake with McCollum, finished with 22 points, while Bennett Stirtz who also transferred in from NWMST finished with 17 points.
Their scoring was solid, but their effort on the defensive end was what really turned the tides in their favor as they are the only team this season to hold FAU to under 70 points and the Owls couldn’t overcome that. If someone looks at the statistic that shows Drake having the 347th Slowest Tempo in the country, they may assume that is because of their offense, however if you ask Coach McCollum their defense is what truly slows the game down and what he believes helped slow FAU down in this one.
“You know, our defense naturally does that. I think just the way we play defense, we don’t change a ton. So we’re able to scout, meaning it’s, it is what you see, and then you’re able to take away little nuances within the framework of what they do. And then the other part is, is we limit early easy shots, and so you’re having to go deep into a shot clock, and you’re not used to that. And it’s not that we slow it down offensively, it’s that we slow it down with our defense a lot of times,” McCollum said.
Although the outcome didn’t end in their favor, FAU has battled through a near 2 week stretch which started at UCF and will end in Charleston on Sunday and if they can pull off a victory on against Seton Hall or Vanderbilt, not only will they have earned a potential Q1 win, they will have finished a particularly difficult road stretch dead even at 3-3.
Tonight FAU ran into a team, which although it contains newcomers like FAU, they have multiple players including their leading scorers tonight who have played together for years and their connectivity showed. Although FAU believes in themselves to be a unified group, tonight they saw a more unified team, but Jakus isn’t discouraged, rather he looks forward to building that level of connectivity over time.
“No time matters. And they’ve had time in their execution, just in their slips, against our switches, and then the way they switch properly. You can see in the detail that they communicate better than us right now, and they’ve got habits of winning. Maybe that was at a d2 level, but that’s not a division two team. That’s every bit of division one team. And so that’s what we’re looking for. We’re not going to run away from anything. I’m going to be here next year. I’m going to be here for a while. This is where I want to be, and we’re going to have continuity. I believe our guys love FAU, and they’ll stay, and then the same continuity those four have together, I think we’ll have for sure down the line. So I’m not insecure about that at all. We’re going to get there, just going to take some time,” Jakus said.
The Owls have been on the road for quite a while now, however they still have one more test on Sunday, as they match up with either Seton Hall or Vanderbilt and look to place 3rd in the Shriners Children’s Classic and a game which could potentially be a Q1 or Q2 win. According to Jakus, every game is an important one, however this is game where they have to bounce back as they look to finish strong before heading back home.
“Well, for us, all the games are important. For sure. As far as momentum is concerned, you’re going to have to be able to stop and go and stop and go and twice we’ve lost and then come back and won. After Auburn, I thought we played great against Indian. Against Indiana State. You know, after Charleston, we bounced back against Liberty, and the one thing this team has is bounce back, and so we’ll have to do that for Sunday. But I’ll tell you this, we miss being home, we miss our own bed, we miss the alley. It’s really difficult to get better in a hotel room, but I think defensively, we’ve done that a little bit. And now the details of the rest, I’m looking forward to December in our area, and I think those three weeks are going to end up being a real positive thing for us,” Jakus said.
FAU will be off on Saturday and will match up with the loser of Seton Hall/Vanderbilt at either 3 or 5 pm on Sunday.
Previous in-game recap:
1H First 4-
FAU once again came out of the gates with energy as Ken Evans Jr jolted the Owls with 6 quick points on the first 2 possessions, converting an and-1 on the drive to the hoop and a triple which gave the Owls early momentum. Following that, the Owls saw a size advantage with Matas Vokietaitis and used it to their advantage as he scored 6 straight for the owls and after a Leland Walker jumper the Owls went into the U16 timeout leading 14-9 and perfect from the field at 6 for 6.
U16 Timeout-
The Owls came out of the U16 break and were ice cold. They did not make a bucket for over 4 minutes and 20 seconds, while Drake sparked a 6-0 run. The Bulldogs were suffocating the Owls defensively forcing 2 turnovers and limiting them to 1 of 5 from 3, which severely limited their offense. After Daniel Abreu drove to the rim and scored, Drake took a 15-14 lead into the U12 timeout with FAU suffering a scoring drought of nearly 4 and a half minutes.
U12 timeout-
The game turned into a bit of a back and forth battle, however on both sides the defense remained at a high intensity. Tre Carroll hit back to back buckets for FAU, however following that the Owls went on a cold streak spanning over 2 minutes. Only 10 combined points occurred during the 4 minute stretch, however after a Bennett Stirtz triple the Bulldogs took a 20-19 lead into the U8 timeout.
U8 Timeout-
Kaleb Glenn came off the bench to give the Owls a spark per usual and he scored 4 straight out of the break, 2 at the line and 2 on a drive to the rim, however after that Drake went on a 4-0 run to carry 27-23 lead into the final media break.
Final 4-
The Owls and Bulldogs played even over the final 4 minutes, as Glenn and Miller each got to the line and went 3 out 4 total, while Tre Carroll converted on a fast break bucket, however Mitch Mascari scored 5 of his own to give the Bulldogs a 32-28 lead heading into the break.
Halftime thoughts-
FAU was battling against a strong defensive team, however Drake was able to stymie their 3 point game in similar fashion to Oklahoma State in the 1st half yesterday. The Owls were able to adjust against OSU, we shall see if they can against Drake.
The Owls have a glaring size advantage, however they need to capitalize on it.
2H First 4-
The Owls needed to find a way to capitalize on their size advantage and early on they did that, finding Matas down low who converted on a bunny right near the rim on the first possession and drew a foul on the next, which turned into 2 points for Kyky Tandy which evened the game at 32. Mitch Mascari converted on a triple on the next Drake possession and Walker cashed in an and-1 on the Owls next possession, which tied the game at 35 a piece heading into the U16 timeout.
U12 timeout-
The teams came out of the break trading buckets, each with a 3 and a drive to the lane however following that the Bulldogs went on a run. Over the next 2 minutes Drake went on an 8-0 run, getting 5 points at the free throw line from Tavion Banks and a triple from Stirtz. Nico Moretti snapped the cold streak with a pair of free throws which made the score 48-42 heading into the U12 timeout.
U8 timeout-
Bennett Stirtz came out of the U12 with 4 quick points for the Bulldogs, and his triple with 10:25 to play gave Drake their largest lead of the day, 51-42. The Owls responded with a 6-2 run which made the score 53-48 heading into the U8 timeout.
U4 timeout-
Drake Came out of the U8 timeout with a punch to the gut of FAU, as they went on a 10-2 run, 5 coming from Isaiah Jackson and all of a sudden drake was leading 63-50 with 5:52 to go, as they began to pull away from FAU. The Owls snapped the cold streak with an Evans Jr. triple, however they could only trade buckets with Drake, as despite a 7-0 FAU run, the Bulldogs responded and took a 68-59 lead into the U4 timeout.
Final 4-
The Owls were unable to generate much out of the break, as Vokietaitis finished a 2nd chance bucket at the rim, however Drake finished the game on a 7-4 run, ultimately defeating FAU 75-63.