FAU men’s basketball: Owls end bonus play, lose to Marshall 94-82

The Owls now prepare for the conference tournament as they look for redemption against Old Dominion, who beat FAU twice.

Owls forward Jaylen Sebree scored three points, collected three rebounds and had two steals in the loss to Marshall. Photo courtesy of Marshall Athletics.

Richard Pereira, Contributing Writer
March 10, 2020

In their final game of bonus play and the regular season, the Owls lost Wednesday night against Marshall, 94-82.

 

The loss puts the Owls in the ninth seed in the Conference-USA tournament in Frisco, Texas. 

 

Jailyn Ingram led the team as he produced 19 points and six rebounds for the Owls. Freshman D.J. Robertson provided support off the bench with his season high 14 points and three assists while Richardson Maitre had 10 points and four rebounds.

 

After starting the game down 8-2 in the first two minutes, the Owls managed to pick up the pace offensively as they kept the game in single digits playing with a balanced offense. 

 

The same, however, cannot be said for the defense. The perimeter defense became the biggest issue for the Owls as they conceded six three-pointers throughout the half, which prevented them from gaining momentum on offense.

 

The Owls could not contain the efficient offense Marshall came out with in the second half. The Owls’ perimeter defense remained the issue that kept nagging them as Marshall continued taking advantage, knocking down six three-pointers in the second half. 

 

The Owls never led throughout the game while Marshall had their lead as big as 14 points. Shooting was streaky for the Owls as they shot 41 percent from the field and under 30 percent from three, compared to Marshall’s scorching efficiency of 53 percent from the field and 54 percent from three. The other factors were free throws and assists, with the Owls going 14 out of 22 from the line and Marshall going 20 out of 27, and Marshall won the assist battle 20-10.

 

This win for Marshall is their ninth win in C-USA play as their best performing player was Taevion Kinsey, who led the team with 20 points, six assists and five rebounds.

 

Ninth-seeded FAU (16-15, 8-10 C-USA) will play their next game against eighth-seeded Old Dominion on Wednesday, March 11 at 6 p.m. in what will be the first round of the C-USA Tournament. 

Richard Pereira is a contributing writer for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @Richard042601.