The FAU Owls (15-11, 8-5 C-USA) lost to the University of North Texas Mean Green (19-4, 12-1 C-USA) 54-51 in a conference matchup Thursday night in the Burrow at Abessinio Court. The loss snaps the Owls’ 10-game win streak when playing at the Burrow.

“We’re very proud of our guys’ effort and energy tonight, we just had a couple lapses,” head coach Dusty May said. “When you play a team like that, they take advantage of any mental lapses. They’re a championship level team for a reason.”

Both defenses came out of the locker rooms ready to play, holding each other scoreless for the first 2:03 of regulation when freshman forward Giancarlo Rosado scored the game’s first basket with a highly contested layup.

The Mean Green came into the matchup with the nation’s best ranked scoring defense, holding opponents to 55.5 points per game. However, junior guard Michael Forrest scored a layup that gave the Owls an 11-6 lead with 13:27 left in the first half.

North Texas’ blanketing defense allowed them to make up some ground late in the first half, holding graduate guard Everett Winchester and freshman center Vladislav Glodin scoreless in the period. However, Rosado had a solid performance off the bench that kept the FAU offense on track leaving the score tied 26 apiece at halftime. 

“[Rosado] is just such a good basketball player with the ball in his hands. So many good things happen whether he’s driving the ball, passing or posting up. He just has a very versatile game and as he continues to add more, he’ll continue to improve,” May said.

Rosado finished the first half as the Owls’ scoring leader with eight points, shooting 66.6% from the field. As a team, FAU shot 35.5% from the field and 20% from three-point range. 

Despite being closely contested throughout the first half, North Texas jumped out to a 40-30 lead with 14:52 to go in the second half. 

Aided by an arena full of screaming Owls’ fans, FAU slowly shrunk North Texas’ lead late in the second half. With 2:25 left in regulation, Forrest drew a foul and made both free-throws to shrink the Mean Green’s lead to 50-49.

Down by two with 10 seconds to go in regulation, the Owls had the ball on an inbound but Forrest couldn’t connect on a layup, leaving the score 54-51 at the end of regulation. 

“Some nights the ball doesn’t go in. We’re not gonna have many more shooting nights like this, but on nights that we do like tonight, we have to figure out a way to win,” May said.

FAU finished a rough night on offense shooting 37.3% from the field and 21.4% from three-point range. Rosado was the leading scorer with 10 points and one rebound. 

The Owls will remain in Boca Raton as they prepare for another home conference matchup against the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders on Saturday, Feb. 19, at 4 p.m. in the Burrow at Abessinio Court. The game will be broadcast on C-USA TV.

Cameron Priester is a staff writer for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @PriesterCameron.