It was the battle of the birds Saturday night in Fort Myers, Florida.
The Owls of Florida Atlantic were set to take on a Sunshine State opponent in the Eagles of Florida Gulf Coast.
The duel between the birds was surely must-watch television, and it resulted in a court storm.
Behind a lethal defense and Zach Anderson’s 21 points, FGCU upset FAU in a thriller at home.
Well, it wasn’t a thriller until the final minutes.
The Owls were down 60-53 with 8:17 remaining in the game. Dusty May’s squad finally turned it on as FAU tied the game at 62 with 4:46 remaining. Despite tying the game, FAU still failed to take a lead, something that last happened at the 14:22 mark of the first half.
FAU tied the game again at 68 with 1:27 left. But that’s when Dallion Johnson hit a game-changing three pointer with 1:12 left.
FAU had three opportunities to tie the game in the remaining seconds but Johnell Davis missed two threes and Alijah Martin missed a three in the same possession.
The missed three-pointers proved to be the difference as FAU had to foul, sealing the game for FGCU.
FAU came in as 16.5 favorites, but came nothing close to covering the spread as the Owls lost 72-68.
A lot of unanswered questions are presented following the stunning result. How are two of FAU’s three losses to start the year to Bryant and FGCU? And how did FAU manage to beat Arizona, a team that was ranked No. 1 just a week ago?
It’ll be interesting to see how FAU’s ranking changes. Despite losing to what was a 5-9 FGCU team, the Owls have defeated teams like Arizona, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech, Butler, and St Bonaventure, among others.
We might get answers sometime soon as FAU is set to begin AAC conference play to kick off the new year (2024).
“We are pleased with where we are overall,” head coach Dusty May said. “But what we’ve learned is that our highs are very high, and our lows are relatively low. Back to the drawing board as we head into league play.”
It happened to be Dusty May’s birthday Saturday; it was a bad time for the Owls to lose.
To make matters worse, FGCU was without their leading scorer Isaiah Thompson, who did not play due to injury. FGCU’s fourth-leading scorer Chase Johnston was also out with injury.
Despite the loss, Vlad Goldin scored 21 points as he shot 7-of-9 from the field. The 7’1 Russian leads all of college basketball in field goal percentage (74.2%).
Speaking of field goal percentage, FAU went 4-20 from deep and 16-27 from the line.
“We haven’t shot free throws nearly well enough to beat championship caliber yet,” Coach May said postgame.
As a team, the Owls need to improve from the field. Especially last year’s March Madness star, Alijah Martin, who had only eight points on 3-14 shooting.
The Owls will return to Boca Raton on January 2nd to face ECU in what is the beginning of conference play.
Meanwhile, FGCU will stay in Fort Myers to await the arrival of Jacksonville on January 4th.
Stats to Note
- This is FGCU’s first ranked win since 2013.
- The Eagles had only two division I wins this season heading into Saturday’s game.
- Per Jeff Borzello, Florida Atlantic is the only top-30 NET team with a Quadrant 4 loss — and they now have two of them, at home vs. Bryant and at Florida Gulf Coast.
- The Owls are 2-2 against sub-150 kenpom teams and 6-1 against top 100 teams.
WE GOT A COURT STORM!
FGCU UPSETS NO. 7 FAU 😱 pic.twitter.com/CNXtu77KFf
— Isaac Edelman (@IsaacEdelman) December 31, 2023