After back to back games where FAU Men’s Basketball’s comeback effort fell short, winning in Paradise Sunday against Rice never felt so good. The Owls only led for 34 seconds, but what mattered the most was that they led in the end and after battling back from down 16 in the second half, the Owls closed the door on Rice with a 75-73 victory.
FAU fell behind 59-43 with 13:30 to play, but after that they went to work, slowly chipping away at the deficit before holding Rice to 2 points over the final 2 minutes and 37 seconds which sealed the deal for a ferocious comeback on their home court. It was a story of resilience for the Owls, as after having some struggles finishing at the rim as a team, FAU had one chance to win or potentially go to overtime and they went to Baba Miller on a drive to the rim and he was able to draw a foul and convert both of his free throws, snapping the Owls 2 game skid and sending the fans home happy.
The past 2 games saw FAU force comebacks before squandering away late leads, but today the Owls were up to the test and secured a much needed victory with strong defense and overall execution late. According to FAU Coach John Jakus, the difference in not being able to finish late, was in part a late game improvement in 3 point defense, but an adjustment from assistant Todd Abernethy was also a key piece to the puzzle in today’s victory.
“I think initially, we were horrible guarding the three point line, and then we helped in, and then we stopped helping in and made him shoot a fade away, too, and then securing the rebound and that loose ball, I think they finally realized, like we have to stop helping. It’s okay if he shoots that shot, even if he’s one of their better players, which he is. And so we had to live with that. And that was big. And then I thought it was really smart, Todd Abernathy helped me with this, when 44 (Emory Lanier) had four fouls, we set up that the action to get Baba the ball against him in the post, and Baba was not delivering earlier, but the kid can’t foul or he fouls out, and that action down the stretch, I thought was huge. So getting those tough twos on our end and then forcing them to take a tough two was big,” Jakus said.
There was good and bad today for the Owls, as Rice came into the game 80th in the country in 3 point percentage and it showed with the Texas Owls finishing 52% from beyond the arc, however over the final 2:37 the Owls kept them off of the perimeter, not allowing an attempt, while Rice finished 1 of 4 from the field. On the offensive side of things, the 3 point shooting struggled at times, with FAU finishing 28% on the day, however FAU doubled them up in points in the paint, 40-20 and in the second half their physicality willed them to victory.
Despite the Owls seeing their deficit balloon to 16 in the first 10 minutes of the second half, the improvement was there outside of the score column all throughout the second half, as after turning it over 5 times in the first half to the tune of 8 Rice points, they turned it over only once in the second half, allowing no points off turnovers in the second half, while on the flipside they forced 5 Rice turnovers. Throughout this season this FAU squad his continued to show fight and although it hasn’t always translated to wins, tonight they did enough of the right things to pull out the victory.
Even throughout the losses to UAB and FAU has found a way to become much more efficient rebounding the ball on both ends of the court as they won the rebound battle once again today and it played a major role in their victory. According to Jakus, rebounding was the defining factor in their victory today and after struggling all season over the past few games they seem to have turned a corner on the glass.
“It’s a huge impact. You know, there’s been times where we play defense today and we don’t make shots. And there’s other days we make shots but don’t defend, and then the rebounding was just poor, like that was the one consistent thing. And now the rebounding is good. They bought into a culture of toughness and rebounding. So it’s not gonna be perfect all the time, but I mean, we’re plus four offensive glass. We had 40 rebounds and we had 14 more second chance points. It’s probably the difference in the game,” Jakus said.
It was another diverse scoring effort for the Owls, as Tre Carroll led the way with 17 points 9 rebounds and 5 assists, while KyKy Tandy finished with 13 points, Baba Miller finished with 12 and Kaleb Glenn finished with 10 and Tandy hit 3 of FAU’s 6 triples which were critical to keeping the Owls in it in the second half. Tandy has begun to excel in his role at FAU, which after being the lead guy at Jacksonville State just a season ago may have required a bit of an adjustment and if you ask Tandy, his fit into his role has everything to to with his teammates confidence in him and his belief in himself.
“I’m just trusting my work. I’m just going to stay in the gym, get extra shots up and like I said, like Trey said, Coach Jakus believes in us. So like I said, if I got an open look, I’m gonna shoot it, if I don’t I’ll pass it to my teammates, because I know they can make it,” Tandy said.
This has been a team built upon trust and belief in each other and when times get tough it can be easy to falter back on that trust, but at no point this season has that been a problem for FAU. Even trailing by 16 in the second half, this team’s belief never wavered, relying on each other and also the fans, who everyone from assistant Coach Isaiah Austin to Tre Carroll called upon to bring energy in the second half.
Carroll embraces the role of bridging the gap between the fans and team, mentioning his 4 years at FAU as something that makes it easy to do, but he also realizes the value in it, noting that “teams all the time need someone who’s going to bring energy to the crowd.”
A win like this could move mountains for an FAU team which has had an up and down start to conference play and according to Carroll, this team has been dreading for a win and when this team plays together they get a glimpse at what they are truly capable of.
“Oh, it’s great. You know, we’ve been needing and dreading for a win, and the fact that we came down, I think 14, and it’s in the second half, which is really hard to do, to come back, because, you know that end of game momentum is so important. And we just got it back by hard work, and we really just got it together. And, you know, played together and played the right way. And, you know, we’re ecstatic as a team, as a program, and this is just- now we realize what we can do, like, even not playing our best, we can hang with the best,” Carroll said.
It was a momentum building win for the Owls as they now get a week off before heading to Denton, Texas for a battle with the 2nd ranked team in the AAC, UNT. It is impossible to predict what will happen in that one, as FAU and UNT have had their fair share of battles on the season, but whatever unfolds the Owls will head into that matchup with a much better feeling than they would had they lost to Rice, as maybe winning in thrilling fashion at home will give this squad the boost they need to build upon their success next Sunday.