Owls' comeback falls short against Jaguars
Owls remain winless in Sun Belt Conference.
Originally published on
1/2/2009
by
Chuck King
BOCA RATON – First year Florida Atlantic head coach Mike Jarvis’ first Sun Belt Conference victory continues to be elusive.
The Owls had an opportunity to hand it to him Thursday afternoon before their late rally fell short, losing to South Alabama 74-69.
“I’m honestly not looking at the conference record as much as I am whether we get better or not,” Jarvis said. “In most conferences, with very few exceptions, it’s all going to come down to the first week in March. In college basketball, now more than ever before, it’s probably the only thing that matters.”
Florida Atlantic trailed the defending SBC tournament champion Jaguars by as much nine points with less than five minutes to play. Unlike earlier games this season where the Owls fell into a second-half funk, this time the Owls rallied.
Alex Tucker’s driving lay-up drew the Owls within two at 69-67. Carlos Monroe answered two free throws by USA’s Bryan Sherrer with two of his own, closing the gap to 71-69.
The Owls trailed by three with less than 30 seconds remaining but couldn’t draw any closer. Paul Graham’s attempt to tie clanked off the rim with 10 seconds remaining. Monroe grabbed the rebound, sending it to Carderro Nwoji. The point guard’s pump fake sent C. J. Garner flying, but Garner recovered quickly, blocking Nwoji’s shot from behind and setting up a break away lay-up.
“We had a couple of good looks at the end of the game,” Jarvis said. “Paul had one. Carderro is a tough kid and I don’t mind him taking a big shot because he has a lot of confidence. He just took a little too long getting it off, that’s all.
“But that wasn’t the game. I think the game was lost on the possessions where we may have allowed a second shot or a basket, or we really didn’t defend the way we needed to. The game was lost a long time before that.”
The Owls have now dropped five consecutive games and nine of their last ten, including an 0-3 conference start.
South Alabama nearly ran away with the game early. Ryan Sherrer’s jumper with less than seven minutes remaining in the opening half put the Jaguars up 30-19 – their biggest lead of the afternoon.
By the time Brett Royster converted his short jumper with a minute and a half remaining in the first, the Owls had clawed back within two and went into the locker room trailing 32-30.
The Jaguars led by as much as seven points in the second half, with the Owls cutting the lead to a point on a couple occasions. FAU never led in the game.
Graham led FAU with 25 points. Carlos Monroe was the only other Owl to reach double figures with 21. South Alabama’s Domonic Tilford led all scorers with 27 points.
GAME REWIND
Slam dunk: Guard Chris Watson came off the bench to play 29 minutes and led the Owls with seven rebounds. …Monroe converted all seven free throw attempts. … So did Graham.
Off the rim: Xavier Perkins once again didn’t play, but was on the bench wearing warm-ups. ...Sammy Hernandez missed the game with a groin injury suffered in the Kentucky game. …Only one of reserve forward Chris Watson’s eight minutes came in the second half, sitting because Jarvis said “he didn’t play well.”
From the box score: There was reason for hope that Nwoji’s late jumper would send the game into overtime. He’d made both three-point attempts prior to that shot – the only Owl to succeed from behind the arc all afternoon. The remainder of the team was 0-10.
Up next: FAU jumps out of conference on Monday and heads down I-95 to face the Miami Hurricanes at 7 p.m.
Final shot: Without Perkins and Hernandez, five Owls played at least 29 minutes, led by Graham’s full 40. While it’s good to see they can handle the minutes in one game, too many games like this will likely cause the Owls to wear down before tournament time.