The No. 24 FAU Owls flew by the UAB Blazers on Saturday afternoon in Boca Raton.
From start to finish, FAU dominated. A big part of that was the performance from FAU’s leading scorer, Johnell Davis, who scored 30 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the field and 5-of-6 shooting from three.
FAU big man Vlad Goldin was also dominant as the 7’1 Russian scored 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field.
To say the least, the Owls never took their foot off the gas pedal, converting on 49% of their shots from the field and 30% from three.
“I thought our red out crowd was amazing,” head coach Dusty May said postgame. “Proud of our guys to beat a really good and well coached UAB team. Overall, I thought we had great individual performances. Overall, I thought we played a really solid first half. In the second half, we got a little loose and UAB took advantage of that.”
Despite the dominating performances, Alijah Martin struggled yet again. Martin had zero points on 0-of-6 shooting (0-of-4 from three) in the first half. He finished the game with four points in 24 minutes of action. Brandon Weatherspoon also struggled, scoring zero points in 19 minutes on 0-of-5 shooting.
Meanwhile, Trey Carroll stepped up in a huge way, scoring nine points in 15 minutes. The sophomore had a +19 in 15 minutes, the second most minutes Carroll has played in a game this season.
On the defensive side of things, FAU was able to hold Yaxel Lenderborg to only eight points. The UAB forward was averaging 23 PPG and 15 RPG over the last three games. UAB’s leading scorers were Eric Gaines and Efrem Johnson, who both scored 13 points.
As a team, the Blazers shot 39% from the field and 19% from three.
UAB is now 10-6 while the Owls are now 13-4 on the season.
“Overall, pleased with where we are mid-January,” Coach May said. “Still not playing the type of basketball we need to play. But we’re still evolving as a team and as a group. Our goals are to develop great habits that translate in March.”
FAU will be back in action on Thursday, January 18th, at 7:00 PM against Wichita State.
Other Notes
- This was FAU’s 13th straight sellout crowd.
- Giancarlo Rosado will be out “for the foreseeable future”. The junior from West Palm Beach got injured in the first half after a hard fall. Rosado played two minutes and committed two fouls. Isaiah Gaines will likely fill in for Rosado during his absence.
- Goldin had a -4 despite scoring 18 points.
- FAU didn’t cover their -15.5 point spread.
- Davis dominates against UAB. He scored 36 points against them last year.
