In a Sunshine State matchup on Wednesday night, the No. 15 ranked FAU Owls took down the FIU Panthers in Boca Raton, Florida.
From start to finish, the Owls dominated as they flew by FIU to capture a 94-60 win. The game was decided early on, but that didn’t stop FAU from knocking down shot after shot.
“As we try to be our best, we needed to have a mature approach for 40 minutes and play without looking at the scoreboard at times,” FAU head coach Dusty May said postgame. “I thought for about 32-35 minutes we did that tonight. Overall, I am very pleased. They (FIU) got tired. We stopped a few passes against the press. We got a little loose. It was a good reminder that the fundamentals and details never go away.”
FAU shot over 64% from the field and 50% from three.
Johnell Davis led the way for the Owls, recording 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Brandon Weatherspoon was also a lethal shooting threat as he cashed in on three threes, totaling 12 points. In addition, Alijah Martin and Bryan Greenlee had 14 and 12 points, respectively.
The spotlight was surely on FAU’s offense, but a lot of credit has to be given to the defense, who held FIU to just 60 points. In the first half, FAU held FIU to just 20 points, including 27.6% shooting from the field and 21.4% from three.
“We were active,” Coach May said. “I thought our guys were really on it. We had a lot of time to prep. We had a longer prep time… it was a home game obviously.”
FAU’s leading scorer Vlad Goldin, who came into Wednesday’s game leading the nation in field goal percentage, scored only nine points, but he shot a perfect 3-of-3 from the field. Goldin did miss 4-of-7 free throws, though.
FAU out-rebounded FIU 43-27. The Owls also had 10 steals and four blocks. When it was all set and done, FIU only connected on 36% of their shots.
One bright spot for the Panthers was FIU guard Jaidon Lipscomb, who led all scorers with 17 points and five threes.
While it was a dominating win, FAU still has things to improve on.
“By nature, it’s always these are the things we can do better,” Coach May said when speaking about his team handling success. “We have a team that handles… I don’t want to say failure because we never fail and we are always onto the next thing… we have a team that handles adversity really well. They bounce back. They are resilient. They don’t get down. They are about the work.”
Dusty May obviously has teaching points for his squad. It will be interesting to see if this success continues Saturday night in Springfield, Massachusetts when the Owls take on the St Bonaventure Bonnies in the Basketball Hall of Fame Classic.