On a Sunday afternoon in Boca Raton, No. 22 FAU took on North Texas in an AAC showdown. The Owls were in search for their sixth straight win while the Mean Green were in search for their second straight victory.
Down by two at halftime, 28-26, the Owls were yet again faced with adversity. But nothing is new: FAU is used to playing a new brand of basketball in the second half.
FAU and North Texas were neck-and-neck for the entire second half. But with just 13 seconds left, the ball was in Johnell Davis’ hands. The game was tied at 63 apiece. Davis dribbled the ball, waiting for the final shot. With two seconds remaining before the final buzzer, Davis let the ball fly. Had ESPN’s Mike Breen been commentating the game, we would have heard a signature “BANG”.
Davis drilled the game-winning three with 0.4 seconds left, sealing the 66-63 win for the Owls.
JOHNELL DAVIS GAME WINNER 😱
— Isaac Edelman (@IsaacEdelman) January 28, 2024
FAU leads North Texas 66-63 with 0.4 seconds left! pic.twitter.com/mESVeLZk98
“Coach (Dusty May) had drew up a play to me to get to my left,” Davis said postgame. “I tried to step back and get a foul. I do it in practice a lot but it never goes in. It just happened to go in this time.”
Davis was FAU’s leading scorer once again as the junior scored 28 points on 8-of-16 shooting (6-of-9 from three).
“As we’re coming down transition, there’s 20 seconds left,” Coach May said when talking about how he drew up the final play. “Nelly’s (Johnell Davis) got the ball… we had a new action that they (North Texas) wouldn’t recognize. And we have a decision to call timeout. I’m thinking that if we call timeout, they are going to load here (Davis), and try to take it out of his hands.”
Ultimately, Coach May decided not to call timeout. It obviously payed off. “As you see in college basketball a lot of times, you got a potential player of the year on your team… you got to trust him,” Coach May added.
The Owls had only two players score double digits. In addition to Davis’ 28, Vlad Goldin had 13 points to go along with eight rebounds.
North Texas, meanwhile, had four players score double digits: Robert Allen (15), Jason Edwards (14), CJ Noland (14), and John Buggs III (12). As a team, the Mean Green shot 46% from the field compared to FAU’s 42%.
You ought to give North Texas credit for putting up an insanely strong fight against a No. 22 ranked team on the road. The Mean Green led for 29 minutes while FAU only led for three minutes. However, in the end, the only lead that mattered was when the clock hit zero.
Next up for FAU is a matchup at home with Tulsa on Saturday, February 3rd. North Texas, meanwhile, looks to get back on track against UAB on Wednesday, January 31st.
