FAU Men’s basketball has its first loss in four games after a 73-62 defeat to Old Dominion Saturday afternoon.

With the loss, the Owls (9-10, 3-4 C-USA) fail to post an overall record above .500 since back on December 30. They were 7-6 at the time, before falling to Florida International at the start of a season long six game losing streak.

The Monarchs (16-4, 6-1 C-USA) win their third straight and 10 of their last 11. Their only loss in that span was to Western Kentucky, who is currently in first place in the conference with a perfect 6-0 mark in conference play.

Redshirt senior center Ronald Delph made a layup for the opening basket to give FAU a 2-0 lead to start the game. That lead was short lived though as the Monarchs took it back less than a minute later and wouldn’t relinquish it the rest of the way.

After falling behind 34-27 at halftime, the Owls made several attempts at a comeback. They got within two points on three separate occasions in a three-minute span, but failed to get any closer.

The last attempt came with 12:42 left in the game when a jumper by senior guard Gerdarius Troutman made the game 46-44. After that, the Owls went cold for almost six minutes allowing the Monarchs to go on a 12-0 run to take a 58-44 lead.

At that point the Owls never got closer than 11 points, eventually falling 73-62.

“During that time, we have to find a way to get the free throw line and keep them off the free throw line,” said FAU men’s basketball head coach Michael Curry. “…when the games are close and tight like that that is essentially what it comes down to a lot of times.”

The Owls turned the ball over 21 times compared to just 10 for the Monarchs, with 17 of them being steals.

“I thought we were aggressive defensively. I thought we trapped and ran and hit,” said Curry. “They played a lot of zone. Maybe we made some careless turnovers. I have to see but I didn’t see the 17-to-3. A lot of our turnovers came in crowds, so we have to do a better job in crowds.”

The offense was led by Delph, who posted his fifth double-double of the season. He shot 50 percent overall and led both teams with 19 points and 10 boards.

Senior guard Justin Massey added 13 points shooting 4-of-9 from downtown.
Graduate student guard Payton Hulsey dished out a team-high four assists and grabbed three rebounds.

The Monarchs offense was led by guard Ahmad Caver, who played all 40 minutes of the game. He had a team high 17 points and was 11-of-14 from the free throw. He also had a season-high seven steals and rebounds along with dishing out four assists.

Forward Trey Porter shot 50 percent overall for nine points. He also had five rebounds and two steals.

The Owls next game is away on Thursday, Jan. 25 at 8:00 p.m. at North Texas.

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