Just last month on Feb. 2, the Florida Atlantic University Owls men’s basketball team (16-13, 9-7 AAC) defeated the University of South Florida Bulls (13-17, 6-11 AAC) in Boca Raton, 94-72. On March 1, the teams went head to head again on the Bulls senior night at USF’s Yuengling Center in Tampa, Fla., where FAU claimed another victory ending with 69-63. 

After a three game winning streak it was critical for the Owls to turn the tide and win as the month of March begins and the conference championship nears. 

“It’s a good win for us, especially to start off March. We want to have a good March and win the conference tournament in a couple weeks and I think that’s a big step for it,” said FAU forward Kaleb Glenn. 

FAU forward Baba Miller won the tip off to start the game and opened the scoring with a quick three. USF wasted no time and responded with a fast two, all in the first minute of the game. 

With a little over 16 minutes to go in the first half, the Owls reached the first double digits in the score of the game making it 11-4. Out of the 11 points on the board for FAU, Miller scored five.

USF went into a scoring drought of four minutes during the 12:30 time mark. But they eventually broke into the double digits by stealing the ball from FAU. This left the Bulls trailing by eight, 19-11. The momentum of the USF and excitement of the Bulls crowd, forced FAU to call their first timeout. 

Following the timeout, the Bulls went on a 8-0 run in hopes of closing the gap between the two. However, the Owls maintained the lead throughout the USF run.

FAU still struggled putting up points for the following four minutes, until guard Devin Vanterpool broke the silence and put up two making the score 27-21. 

While the Owls had difficulty finding the hoop, big defensive blocks by both forward Tre Carroll and center Matas Vokietaitis contributed to the FAU lead in the first half.

At the buzzer, FAU guard Niccolo Moretti shot and scored behind the arch allowing the Owls to go into half with a lead of nine. 

Going into the locker room the score was 34-25. Florida Atlanitc shot 38% from the field, 50% from the three, and 100% from the free throw line. While South Florida shot 21% from the field, 18% from the three, and 82% from the free throw line.

A huge struggle for the Owls going into halftime were turnovers, where FAU had 13 compared to the Bulls five. 

Upon return to the court, USF had the ball to start the second half and immediately scored. FAU responded with a score of their own creating a fast pace in the ball game. 

Ultimately, the Owls gained early momentum to start the second half and created an advantage against the Bulls. Resulting in a timeout called by the USF head coach Ben Fletcher. Despite the timeout, FAU reached their largest lead of the game at 15:06 with a 18 point difference, making the score 48-30.

Following, FAU and USF both had sloppy mistakes which cost the teams missed scoring opportunities. 

Around the ten minute mark, USF went on a 6-0 run to close the gap to 52-42. In response, Volkititis ended FAU’s scoring deficit with two having 9:30 left to go.

The Bulls as a team lost their momentum and with 4:32 to go in the game had not scored in over three minutes.

Towards the end of the game, the ball and score went back and forth between the two teams but ended in a win for FAU.

FAU’s Miller led the Owls in scoring with 17 points.

“I feel like my teammates get me open alot so I was able to get some threes off today,” said Miller 

After the final buzzer, FAU shot 42% from the field, 38% from behind the arch, and 80% in free throws. While USF shot 32% from the field, 24% from behind the arch, and an identical 80% in free throws to the Owls. 

“We are thankful for the road win, a good step forward for us after the last couple games. I thought we were tougher today, the defensive field percentage was 33% and we were plus eight on the glass,” said FAU’s head coach John Jakus. 

Florida Atlantic will be on the road again playing against the University of Alabama Birmingham Blazers (19-9, 12-3 AAC) on March 6 at 7 p.m.

Emily Harper is a contributing writer for the University Press. For more information on this article, you can reach her at emilyharper2022@fau.edu.