It wasn’t a blowout win, but FAU Men’s Basketball picked up an important victory over Temple on Sunday afternoon, marking their 5th win in a row overall. FAU trailed for over 20 minutes in the middle part of this game, but they never gave up and after Temple’s offense went cold late in the second half, FAU’s excelled en route to their 83-81 victory.
The Boca based Owls struggled from beyond the arc for the first time in 4 games in this one, finishing 5 of 24 overall, however after attempting 16 in the first half they knocked that total down to 8 in the second half and instead attacked the basket against a Temple team which was dealing with significant foul trouble. On the defensive side of things, Temple was able to build a lead in the second half by attacking the basket and getting to the line, however over the final 3 minutes FAU’s interior defense bounced back to form and forced multiple turnovers while preventing the Philly Owls from getting clean looks at the rim.
All wins are good wins, however a comeback win by slim margin like the one FAU was able to get tonight are the type of wins that you will need to be able to get in the AAC tournament. FAU Coach John Jakus echoed that in his post game press conference, mentioning that the team’s toughness tonight was special.
“I don’t know if they’re important. I’d rather make another blowout, but at the end of the day, they matter, and you’re not getting through February in the league without winning close games, especially on the road. You know you even though we only played temple once, you see them twelve times at this point, because you scout all the other teams coming up to this so we know everything they did. They know everything we do. And the ability to be tough enough down the stretch is a real thing. So I’m proud of the toughness, for sure, the eight minutes, especially in the end when we were down 10, just really special,” Jakus said.
FAU was led tonight by Kaleb Glenn who finished with 17 points and five rebounds on seven of eleven shooting and although the Boca Owls finished with five players in double figures overall, Glenn’s back to back triples with eight minutes to go in the second half unlocked the offense as a whole. It wasn’t just in the score column where FAU had the advantage tonight, as once again they were able to win the rebound and bench points battles, while finishing tied in points in the paint despite FAU shooting nine more three-pointers than Temple.
Another aspect of FAU’s game that was impressive tonight was their ability to get to the line and capitalize on those trips, as the Owls finished 28 of 35 from the stripe and in turn that forced Temple to play conservative as they had 4 players with 4 fouls. A defining factor of FAU over the past 5 games has been their ability to find different ways to win and tonight was no different as they came into this game 170th in the nation in FT rate, however against Temple they finished with nearly 40 attempts at the charity stripe.
Temple Coach Adam Fisher mentioned that his team adjusted to keep a red-hot FAU team off of the three point line, however he credits them with attacking the basket, noting that he did not expect them to get to the line 35 times.
“Unbelievable offensive team, right? I don’t know what they average, but it’s a high, high amount. So we really wanted to go into the game and take away threes, that was a big thing for us, you know, especially KyKyTandy, I think in the last however, many games, 60% from three. So it was a huge emphasis for us. I thought we guarded in the first half, we guarded… but I thought we guarded in the first half and the second half, I thought they did a good job of attacking closeouts and getting to the basket. We did a better job of being in some help spots. I think they spread us out because we were worried about their three. So they had a few more layups than we would like but I think that’s what we were trying to do,” Fisher said.
The Owls’ consistency from beyond the arc over the past few games forced Temple to key in on them from beyond the arc and although it worked, FAU adjusted and Temple was unable to contain them in the paint during the second half. On the defensive side of things, Temple had no answers for FAU’s interior defense over the final few minutes and the Owls in-game adjustments were really what made the difference in this game.
The adjustments across the board during FAU’s 5 game win streak have been plentiful, allowing for FAU to outclass their first 4 opponents of the win streak and today it was the in-game adjustments that led to the win. The best teams are the ones who can learn from their mistakes and for FAU, today they were able to do that quickly enough to lead to a victory.
One of the biggest adjustments the Owls were able to make today according to FAU Coach John Jakus was simply just finding a way to win in a close game on the road against a conference opponent, having lost battles with Tulane and UNT just a few games ago.
“I’m just thrilled with the fact that in North Texas, we couldn’t do it at Tulane, we couldn’t do it, today, we could do it. And some of that is just they’ve been in some grind together. You know, they’ve experienced it a couple times. We’ve learned from our lessons. We probably use our timeouts differently. We had a better ATO set up down the stretch for him to close like we learned from that, not only the players, but the staff. So I thought we got better today collectively, and a lot of that is our resolve,” Jakus said.
The Owls got better today and grabbed a win in the process, they will look to continue that trend on Thursday at home against Wichita State.