After three lead changes on three consecutive possessions in the game’s final 10 seconds, Florida Atlantic men’s basketball lost a crushing one-point battle on the road at the University of Tennessee at Martin 82-81 on Tuesday night.

FAU (2-4) led for 35 minutes before an and-one opportunity from UTM’s (6-2) Matthew Butler gave the Skyhawks their first lead of the second half with 17 seconds remaining. Following an FAU timeout, junior Gerdarius Troutman hit a 3-pointer to give the lead back to FAU with six seconds remaining.

Six seconds proved to be more than enough time for UTM senior Kedar Edwards, who answered back with the game-winning 3-point shot before celebrating on top of the scorers table with one second remaining.   

Edward’s shot spoiled what was a strong performance on the road offensively from several FAU players. Aside from getting to the foul line 24 times, the Owls also finished with 57 percent shooting from the field as well as nine made 3-pointers.

FAU’s reigning Conference USA Freshman of the Week, freshman Jailyn Ingram, finished with a game-high 21 points on 9-of-10 shooting, and nearly walked away with the game-winning assist to Troutman.

The team was also aided by junior center Ronald Delph who finished with a double-double (14 points and 11 rebounds), and sophomore guard Nick Rutherford who had 17 points and nine assists.

After jumping out to an early 11-point lead in the first half of the game, turnovers and a couple of quick fouls on Delph allowed UTM to convert 15 offensive rebounds into 20 second-chance points.  

The Owls lost 15 turnovers, nine of which came in the second half, and allowed 18 points off turnovers.

“[Maintaining possession and rebounding] were the two key areas,” head coach Michael Curry told ESPN 106.3 after the game. “It’s similar to Hawaii. We got to go back and look and realize that we made a lot of mistakes that were sort of unforced and kind of put us in that situation we were in … we just got to keep battling.”

FAU will look to get back on track at home where its undefeated, against Hofstra on Saturday Dec. 3, at 7 p.m.

Christopher Libreros is a contributing writer with the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him at @ChrisIsAirborne.