Florida Atlantic men’s basketball’s offensive struggles continued in their 81-62 defeat to the University of Tennessee Volunteers on Wednesday night.

The Owls (2-8) missed 12 of their first 15 shots in the game and finished with a 34.5 field-goal percentage, making only 20-of-58 total shots.

Sophomore C.J. Truman struggled against the team he originally signed with out of high school. He finished with seven points, but was only able to make one of his six shots from the floor. Five of Turman’s points came from foul shots.

Redshirt junior guard Adonis Filer – who entered the game leading the Owls in scoring with 11.1 points per game – was unable to register a single point on the night.

After trailing 52-38 in the second half, FAU was able to score 10 of the game’s’ next 11 points, cutting down the lead to five. The Volunteers (5-4) immediately answered with an 18-2 run, extending their lead to 71-50 and ultimately putting the game out of reach.

With the win, Tennessee snapped a three-game losing streak and improved to 5-0 at home this season.

Freshman guard Nick Rutherford was given the challenge of guarding Tennessee’s senior guard Kevin Punter, who came into the game averaging 22.9 points per game – the second highest in the Southeastern Conference and 11th in the country.

While he was able to force five steals during the game – the most by an Owl since Nov. 2009 – Punter scored a game-high 24 points. Rutherford also recorded a team-high six assists and five rebounds.

Senior guard Solomon Poole was the only Owl to reach double figures as he scored 10 points on 5-of-12 shooting.

FAU will have two days to rest before traveling to Sunrise, FL to face the Florida State Seminoles in the Orange Bowl Classic on Saturday Dec. 19 at 5 p.m. at the BB&T Center.

Brendan Feeney is a contributing writer for the University Press. To contact him on this or other stories, he can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter.