After a very promising start, second-half mistakes caused the Florida Atlantic Owls (6-12, 2-2) to fall short against Old Dominion (9-9, 3-0) on Saturday night.
The Owls jumped out to a 7-0 lead within the first three minutes of the game, but then experienced a six minute scoring drought, ultimately allowing ODU to stay competitive.
Sophomore guard Jackson Trapp hit a 3-pointer that revived the Owls’ momentum, and FAU ended the half with a 27-21 lead.
The Owls’ early second-half performance showed promise. Two consecutive 3-pointers by freshman point guard D’Andre Johnson gave FAU a 40-30 lead with less than 13 minutes to play.
FAU was able to maintain the lead past the five minute mark, thanks to a 3-point shot by Marquan Botley, a few dunks by starting center Justin Raffington and well executed drives by senior guard Pablo Bertone.
Two ODU 3-point baskets cut FAU’s lead to just one point, part of a 17-4 run by the Monarchs during the second half. ODU led 58-53 with less than two minutes remaining.
With just 21 seconds remaining, ODU headed to the line and missed two free throws. FAU took possession trailing 63-60 with no timeouts remaining. The Owls’ final possession ended with a long missed 3-pointer by Botley.
Old Dominion converted two more free throws and FAU eventually lost to the Monarchs by a final score of 65-60. ODU stole the road win even without any production from their leading scorer, Aaron Bacote. Bacote missed the game with an ankle injury.
Raffington, the leading scorer of the night, had 15 points and 12 rebounds, his sixth straight double-double. Bertone also had 15 points. Botley finished with 12. Despite a very solid night, Raffington put the onus of the night’s loss on himself, saying that his free-throw shooting should have been better and that there were rebounds that he should have grabbed.
“We didn’t really take care of the ball. Way too many turnovers,” Raffington said. “[I] didn’t get some key rebounds, especially near the end of the game.”
FAU head basketball coach Mike Jarvis came to the defense of Raffington.
“He just had another double-double. He was a man among boys again,” Jarvis said. “If everybody played the way that he’s been playing, we would have won the game. We’re gonna need the same kind of effort we’ve been getting out of him, which has been great.”
Note: Dragan Sekelja missed his second consecutive game with back spasms. Jarvis says “it really hurt the team” not to have Sekelja because Justin Raffington was asked to play too many minutes.
Harvard comes to the Burrow on Jan. 21, leaving the FAU men no time to dwell on this loss. The quick turnaround is something that Jarvis thinks will work to his team’s benefit.
“After a tough loss like tonight, the worst thing in the world would be to have a week off,” says Jarvis. “We don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves. We’ll work on Monday and be right back here on Tuesday.”
