FAU Men’s basketball’s four game win streak ended after a 64-63 defeat to Arkansas State Saturday night.

With just a 63-point scoring output, the Owls (6-4) program record of four straight games scoring 90 or more points comes to an end.

The Red Wolves (4-7) win just their second of their last seven games to extend the series lead over FAU to 6-5 overall.

The team’s last met back on Jan. 26, 2013, where the Owls lost 63-38 in the program’s last season as part of the Sun Belt conference.

After falling behind 6-0 within the first two minutes the Owls tied the game at six apiece two minutes later. The Red Wolves looked to take a significant lead into halftime, outscoring the Owls 20-8 to take a 26-14 lead with 6:17 left. The Owls then finished the half on a 15-3 run capped off by a three pointer by senior guard Gerdarius Troutman with five seconds left to tie the game for just the second time of the half.

With Arkansas State leading for over 18 minutes of the first half and the score being tied for just a minute an eleven seconds, the second half more of a back and forth affair which included nine tied scores and six lead changes, three of which came in the last five minutes of the game.

Having just under four minutes remaining and the Owls down by two, junior guard Anthony Adger hit a jumper to tie the game at 58. Less than a minute later, Troutman was fouled on a three-point attempt.

He made all three of his free throws to give his team a 61-58 lead.

Red Wolves guard Rashad Lindsey then scored on a jumper of his own to cut the Owls lead to one.

With 45 seconds left, senior guard Justin Massey was fouled and made his ensuing two free throw attempts to extend the lead to three.

Guard Deven Simms then came down 13 seconds later and hit a jumper to bring the Red Wolves back within one.

On the next possession, Troutman had the ball stolen by Lindsey, who then passed it to guard Ty Cockfield who missed the layup. Cockfield then grabbed the rebound and passed it to Lindsey who dribbled around the arc before driving down the right lane and hitting the floater as the buzzer sounded.

“11 o clock weights tomorrow,” said FAU men’s basketball head coach Michael Curry after being asked what he told the guys at the end of the game. “Film and preparation for Texas Tech.”

The loss ends the Owls four-game winning streak which is tied for the longest in Curry’s four seasons and longest since his first season back in 2013.  

Redshirt senior center Ronald Delph shot 77 percent overall. He led the team with 16 points and seven rebounds.

He also had a block and steal. He has scored in double digits for eight of the team’s ten games this season.

Junior guard Anthony Adger shot 5-of-10 overall for 13 points. He had a steal and also dished out 5 assists.

Coming into the game, senior guard Justin Massey was averaging a team high 14.8 points per game and 23 over the last four. He finished with just five points on 1-of-10 shooting.

“Didn’t make shots. Didn’t get a couple things to go,” Curry said on Massey’s shooting. “It seemed like the matchup bothered him a little bit. I think the pressure kind of threw him off a little bit.”

Troutman had 15 points and five boards.

The Red Wolves offense was led by the guard duo of Ty Cockfield and Deven Simms. They combined to score 38 of the team’s 64 points, including 17 of the first 19.

Simms led both teams with 22 points on 10-of-19 shooting. He has scored over 20 points a game five times this season.

He also had three steals and grabbed a game high 11 rebounds for his third career double-double.

Cockfield had 16 points on 50 percent shooting. He has scored in double figures in eight of the team’s eleven games.

Guard Rashad Lindsey tied the game high with three steals. He shot 2-of-10 overall, his second worst percentage of the season, for four points, including the game winner.

The Owls travel to Texas Tech for their next game on Tuesday, Dec. 19 at 8:00 PM est.

Matt Brown is a contributing writer with the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @mattyb407.