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BOCA RATON – Less than a month after FAU defeated Rice on Justin Massey’s 30 footer at the buzzer, Rice returned the favor, beating FAU 79-76 on a buzzer beater in overtime..
With two seconds remaining in a 76-76 game, Rice guard Ako Adams took an inbound pass from the opposite baseline, dribbled a few times, pulled up from about 30 feet and drilled a three to win the game.
FAU missed an opportunity to clinch a C-USA Tournament berth with Thursday’s loss.
With FAU down by two, Justin Massey jetted to the lane on the fastbreak and drew a foul with two seconds remaining in overtime. Massey nailed both free throws to tie the game at 76, setting up Adams’ game winner.
FAU was fortunate to get the game to overtime.
Down 66-63 with just a few ticks left on the clock, Gerdarius Troutman missed an attempted three that would have tied the game. But when a Rice loose ball went astray, the ball swung back to Troutman for a shot at redemption from the top of the key. Troutman sent the game to overtime on an off-balance triple from well beyond the arc.
After a scoreless first half, Troutman exploded to score all 15 of his points in the second half.
Troutman led a late 13-0 second half scoring run that brought FAU’s offense back to life after having trailed by double-digits most of the night.
“We battled back to give ourselves a chance, but our first half put (us) in a bad situation,” FAU coach Michael Curry said.
Rice’s win snapped the six-game losing streak it owned entering Thursday’s game.
GameBrowser: Rice (6-22, 3-12) 79, FAU (11-16, 5-10) 76 OT
Moving Forward: FAU honored its C-USA champion football team at halftime. …Center Ronald Delph scored 18 points and pulled down 11 rebounds, leading FAU in both categories. …Jailyn Ingram shot 7-9 from the field in a 16 point, eight rebound effort that was arguably his best as an Owl.
Moving Backward: Payton Hulsey shot 1-for-6, scoring only three points in his 37 minutes. … FAU shot 34 percent from the field and missed all of its eight three-point attempts in the first half. … A scoreless night from William Pfister once again had him recording more turnovers, one, than points.
Key Stat: 10 – First-half turnovers committed by the Owls. Sloppy FAU passing led to Rice winning the turnover battle 10-2 in the first 20 minutes and led to Rice scoring 15 early points off of FAU’s mistakes.
Up Next: FAU plays its final home game of the season against North Texas on Saturdy at 7 p.m. Saturday’s game is senior night. FAU can clinch a C-USA tournament berth with a win on Saturday coupled with a Rice loss.
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