The FAU Owls won a heart-pounding overtime game Thursday night, 97-94, against the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders as guard Cornelius “Scuta” Taylor lit up the scoreboard with 26 points.

Forward Jaylin Ingram chipped in 16 points after a slow start to the game and drained the game-tying three to cap off a 12-point comeback for the Owls to send the game into overtime with 0.6 seconds. 

“It felt really good. I felt like I wasn’t playing to my fullest potential the whole game and to give us another five minutes of play felt really good,” said Ingram, on his game-tying shot.

FAU had a firm hold on the lead for most of the first half until MTSU pulled away in the middle of the second half. They led by as many as 12 points at one point and guard Donovan Sims led the charge. He finished the game with 24 points with eight threes as the leading scorer for the Blue Raiders.

But with five minutes left, the Owls trimmed the lead to five with 2:45 left in the game. 

“They [MTSU] didn’t deserve to lose and they made plays, but we hunkered down down the stretch and [were] able to turn them over a few times,” head coach Dusty May said.

FAU finished with 21 assists against 9 turnovers. 

Guard Richardson Maitre also dropped a quiet 19 points but made his presence known late in the game with a clutch free throw to put the game away for the Owls.

FAU currently has the third-best record overall in the Conference USA at 12-6 as well as possessing a 4-1 record in conference play.

The Owls will finish up their two-game homestand on Saturday against the UAB Blazers at 4 p.m.

Trey Avant is a contributing writer for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @TreyAvant3.