Florida Atlantic men’s basketball opened up 2017 the same way it ended 2016, with a conference loss. Marshall University got the better of the Owls on Monday night, leaving Boca Raton with a 89-72 victory.

The Owls (4-9, 0-2 in Conference USA) limited junior Jon Elmore — Conference USA’s leader in scoring — to 11 points, but in doing so they allowed senior Ryan Taylor to have a career game.

Taylor set a career-high with 31 points and a season-high of 13 rebounds.

After FAU pulled within seven points two minutes into the second half, Taylor scored the next five points, and that’s as close as the Owls got to tying the game after trailing by as many as 17 in the first half. Even though they cut the deficit to single digits, the Owls were never able to match the Thundering Herd’s hot-shooting.

Three of Marshall’s first four baskets came behind the three-point line. In the game, the Thundering Herd outshot the Owls 46.2 percent to 17.6 percent from three.

Freshman Devorious Brown recorded career-highs in both points and rebounds for the Owls, with 12 and seven respectively. Sophomore Justin Massey’s 16 points led the Owls.

FAU will try to break its three-game losing streak on Saturday, Jan. 2 at 2 p.m. versus Florida International University in Boca Raton, the team’s fifth straight home game.

Brendan Feeney is the managing editor of the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @feeney42.