Video by Michael Gonzalez.

Men’s basketball beat the St. Thomas Bobcats 75-58 in their lone exhibition game of the season, surrendering the lead only once during the game.

Freshman forward Jeantal Cylla led Florida Atlantic in scoring during his first collegiate appearance with 19 points.

“Once you get out there and your adrenaline kicks in and you just want to win, definitely a good experience,” Cylla said. “I’ll never forget it.”

14 of his points came in the first half. He also shot 5-of-10 from the field and added six rebounds.

Senior guard Solomon Poole and junior guard Adonis Filer were the only other FAU players to record double-digit points, scoring 10 and 17 points respectively.

FAU had some trouble outrebounding the Bobcats throughout the game, grabbing 37 to STU’s 50. St. Thomas had an early start on collecting boards in the first half, recording 26 over the Owls’ 12 .

“Coming out playing a lot of young guys, they’re trying to do the right thing and play together,” head coach Michael Curry said of his team’s first game action.

Curry played three of his four freshman: Cylla, forward Jesse Hill and guard Nick Rutherford. Connor Shorten was the lone freshman who didn’t see any game time.

FAU’s last meeting with St.Thomas was on Nov. 8 of last season. Then junior guard Marquan Botley led the Owls with 17 points as they beat the Bobcats 73-60.

The Owls will kick off the 2015-2016 regular season on Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. at Michigan State University.

Tory Fernandez is a contributing writer at the University Press. To contact him on this or other articles, he can be reached at [email protected]