FAU men’s basketball (11-9, 4-3 C-USA) went to El Paso, Texas to take on the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) Miners (12-8, 5-3 C-USA) Thursday night.

The Owls got off to a slow start in the first half. Freshman center Vladislav Goldin scored the team’s first five points, but they struggled keeping UTEP’s offense in check as they went down 23-12 over 10 minutes in. 

With 9:47 left in the half, FAU made up for its lost ground by going on an excellent 26-13 run that featured a lot of defensive pressure, well-timed shots on offense, and bullying the Miners 16-5 in the rebounding department. Goldin entered halftime with nine points, the most on the team. 

Both sides were competitive in the second half. They refused to give up control over the game as they traded buckets back-and-forth for most of the half.

The game went down to the wire as the score was tied at 68 apiece thanks to freshman guard Alijah Martin penetrating the interior defense of UTEP and getting the layup with over a minute to go.

Unfortunately for the Owls, they could not get a stop to force overtime. After UTEP’s junior guard Jamal Bieniemy missed a three-pointer, senior forward Alfred Hollins got up to get a second-chance shot that ended up being the game-winner for the Miners.

Despite being unable to prevent the game-winning tip shot by Hollins from going in, Goldin had what could be his best performance of the season. He finished with a career-high 19 points, six rebounds, and a block on 9-12 shooting. Martin and junior guard Michael Forrest contributed with 16 and 12 points, respectively.

UTEP’s player of the game was redshirt junior guard Souley Boum. He put up a game-high 28 points on 10-18 shooting as he gave FAU trouble around the perimeter with the five three-pointers. Hollins had five points and two rebounds to end the game.

The Owls will stick around in Texas as they head to San Antonio for an encounter with the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) on Saturday, Jan. 29 at 2 p.m. ESPN+ will televise the broadcast of the game.

Richard Pereira is the Business Manager for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @Rich26Pereira.