Despite coming into their preseason opener with nine new players, including two starters in 7-foot center Dragan Sekelja and point guard Stefan Moody, the new look Owls didn’t miss a beat. In the one and only exhibition game against Lynn University Monday night, the Owls’ sheer size towered over the smaller Lynn Knights.
With the tallest player on Lynn standing at 6-foot-8 (forward Pavle Raickovic), Lynn couldn’t stand up against Sekelja who amassed a double-double with a game-highs of 21 points and 12 rebounds.
It was his first game in an Owls uniform, which made him a little anxious, but once the action started he immediately settled in.
“I had some jitters before the game,” Sekelja said. “But as soon as the ball tipped off, kinda stopped having those jitters and those butterflies in my stomach and it was good after that.”
A significant portion of the FAU offense was run through the new Owls.
Moody and Dragan were clicking, feeding off each other most times down the floor. Moody found Dragan with a few assists off pick and rolls.
“What worked best for me was basically my teammates getting me the ball,” Sekelja said of the main reason he led the Owls in points. “I got a lot of easy points because of my teammates setting me up.”
Senior guard Greg Gantt meanwhile finished with a modest nine points, going 2 for 7 from the field and 3 of 5 from the line.
Growing more comfortable as the game went on, Sekelja started to call for the ball on most every position.
He had seven points and six rebounds in the second half, but Owls’ head coach Mike Jarvis still wants to see more out of his center. He said Sekelja should have had 31 points instead of his 21.
“We basically play four guys out and one guy in. So, the majority of the time, he’ll will have a one on one a lot in the post. So against some teams he might score,” Jarvis said. “Most big guys touches should come off rebounds. That’s something he has to do a lot better.”
Ball security was an issue for FAU throughout the contest (14 turnovers), but they made up for their carelessness on the defensive end with eight steals, five blocks and held Lynn to only 11 points of those 14 turnovers.
The Owls ended the first half with a four point play by Moody. They led 42-35 at halftime with Moody (9 points, two 3s) and Sekelja (14 points, 6 rebounds) leading the way.
The rebounding battle swayed toward FAU with a 21-14 advantage, and doubled the Lynn in offensive boards by a 10-5 margin.
Offensively, the Owls hit 40 percent of their 3-point shots ( 4 for 10) opposed to Lynn, who in comparison struggled from behind the line, shooting 12 percent from long range (1 for 8).
The woeful 3-point shooting from Lynn picked up in the second half hitting 7 of 13 3-pointers (53 percent). The strategy for Lynn was to stick to their perimeter game as much as possible because of their lack of size. In the end, it wasn’t enough to fend off the frontcourt duo of Sekelja and senior forward Jordan Mccoy, who barely missed out on a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds.
Jarvis was impressed by the play of the high-flying Moody, but knows he can perform even better.
”I saw a guy who is really special. He’s a terrific athlete, made a couple of great passes. He’s also a freshman and made some very unnecessary fouls,” Jarvis said. “Maybe a great night isn’t good, cause if he did and dropped 25 or 30 he probably would have thought this would be easy. Probably a blessing the way it worked out.”
With the season to officially kick off with a road game at UNC, Jarvis understands it will be a tough challenge, but refuses to allow his team to merely roll over for the Tar Heels.
“We are not going in for the paycheck. All I want my guys to do is go in and play,” Jarvis said. “As long as they can and as hard as they can. If we do that, we win no matter what the score is.”
FAU begins the 2012-2013 season at North Carolina on Sunday, Nov. 11, at 2:30 p.m.a
