FAU Men’s Basketball fell back on bad habits Thursday evening against UAB and despite a hot shooting night the Owls fell to the Blazers on the road. FAU shot better than 50% from the field and 35% from 3, however they committed 15 turnovers, allowed 19 offensive rebounds and shot 52% from the free throw line and their mistakes led to an 89-80 UAB victory.
The Owls came out of the gates with great energy, jumping out to an 8-0 lead and taking a 42-38 lead into the break, however they trailed on the offensive glass 9-3 and turnover battle 7-1 and those issues foreshadowed what would come in the second half. In previous recent losses to UNT and Memphis the Owls were plagued by lackluster second halves and that was the story once again this evening as UAB outscored the Owls 51-38 in the final stanza.
Although UAB capitalized off FAU’s mistakes at the line, in the passing lanes and on the glass, they needed offense to keep up with the Owls and they got it with Ja’borri McGee going for 27 points and Yaxel Lendeborg adding 16 points and 10 rebounds. According to FAU Coach John Jakus, the Owls were on pace for 40 points in the second half, but that was negated by UAB going for nearly 60 in the final frame and it was compounded even more by the mistakes.
“I think we gave up 16 points in the first five minutes. I think maybe we had 10. So, we’re on pace for 40 plus points on the road, and it doesn’t matter if they’re on pace for 60. And I thought early on it was McGee and Yax. And then I thought for a middle part to this maybe four to eight minutes, it was a four or five ball screen. And then it was us making some really silly mistakes down the stretch, to be frank. So he (Andy Kennedy) was really smart to find Yax and McGee on ISOs, and they picked on some individuals, and we didn’t do a good job of sending it back to the heavy side, they let them get to their strong hands,” Jakus said.
The mistakes for FAU added up tonight, as from the 11:48 to the 8:33 mark in the second half the Owls turned it over 5 times in 6 possessions and during that stretch the Blazers extended their lead from 3 to 8, taking full control of the game. While the Owls struggled to maintain possession at times, another issue offensively was their inconsistency at the free throw line and after bouncing back at the line against UNT and USF, they returned to the struggles that plagued them against Memphis, where they shot just 28% and although tonight wasn’t as bad it left them without much needed points.
The Owls found ways to combat UAB’s strong interior presence in this one, matching UAB’s 52 bench points with 48 of their own and although they lost the offensive rebound battle, they won the overall rebound battle 35-33. The physicality that FAU needed to defeat UAB was there tonight, however the mishaps on both ends of the court negated their strong paint play.
After abhorrent free throw shooting cost the Owls against Memphis last weekend, those same struggles returned tonight and although it’s unfortunate, Jakus mentions the only thing they can do is keep practicing them, while harping on other mistakes such as the rebounding or defensive mistakes.
“We had crushed the free throw thing after having that one bad game, and when we shot hundreds upon hundreds, we continue to do the same drills. I don’t know if it’s something about the backdrop of a Memphis or the backdrop of these gyms or a little bit bigger gyms. It’s different than the smaller ones. I don’t know if a deep backdrop, affects our guys with their free throws. But we can’t make the elly bigger, we’re going to keep shooting hundreds at a time, and I think we can make them more by practicing them. I’m not going to harp on the kids for that, because they’re not sitting there trying to miss, some of the defensive things we can harp on them for that. We’re just going to keep getting our reps,” Jakus said.
FAU was led tonight by Matas Vokietaitis who finished with 21 points and 8 rebounds and he was joined in double figures by Kaleb Glenn, Baba Miller, Leland Walker and Tre Carroll. The Owls got scoring across the board tonight and assisted on well over 50% of their made field goals and whether its offensively or defensively, there were things FAU did tonight that typically translate to victory, but not when combined with mistakes.
There was good to be found tonight for FAU, however Jakus and company will find little solace in that, as with the single elimination AAC tournament right around the corner they will have to figure out how to turn that good into a victory. More importantly at the moment, the Owls have a must win matchup with ECU on Sunday, as a victory will get them a 5 seed, while a loss could see them slide back into 7th and according to Jakus senior night is important and they will do everything they can to get a victory not only for seeding purposes, but for the seniors who gave everything they had this season.
“Senior night matters. Kyky’s going through some injury stuff, and we’re trying to keep him healthy for that day. We want him to be okay and then fresh in the postseason. So we love Kyky, and want him to be celebrated. Tre Carroll played on the Final Four team at FAU, and I think we would love to honor the fact that when everybody else left, he didn’t. And then Jack Johnson has been one of the best walk ons I’ve ever been around. His extra work with the guys Kaleb and Ken, specifically, he never misses a day. I couldn’t think of a better representative of FAU. We love those guys, and we may win, we may lose, but if anybody thinks we’re not trying like crazy to win our last game for those three, then maybe they’re caught up in something that isn’t reality. So we’re going to do everything we can to fix it by Sunday,” Jakus said.