Well after coming off that 3-win road trip, it's back to earth for Sidney's boys after that whooping by Mercer last night. How do we give up 107 points to these guys? Green should have spent a night in jail just for that. Two (road) games left, and we really need both of them to make the tourney.

They sound like the football team was with their home games hex. I wonder if Mr Cantonese left a little VooDoo for us.. ;)

I highlighted an interesting quote from Sid! Sounds like they were not prepared for a BIG game like this one? ???


Article:

Another swoon for Owls

By Ted Hutton
Staff Writer
Posted February 20 2005

BOCA RATON ? Florida Atlantic said goodbye to its four seniors before Saturday's game.

Next the Owls may have said farewell to their chance to play in the conference tournament, embarrassed 107-88 by Mercer.

After winning six of eight games to jump into the middle of the standings, FAU has lost two straight, both at home.

As a result the Owls have dropped into a four-team race for the final two spots in the Atlantic Sun tournament with two games remaining.

"Give credit to Mercer. They were in desperate need of a win. We did not match their level of intensity," coach Sidney Green said.

Mercer (14-11, 9-9), which had a season high in points, is tied with FAU (9-16, 9-9). It was FAU's worst home loss and punctuated the Owls' problems at FAU Gymnasium, where FAU ended the season with a 3-7 A-Sun record.

It was the second straight game that a team a game behind FAU came to Boca Raton and beat the Owls, who never played with the sense of urgency their situation required.

The Owls started well against the Bears and had a 36-31 lead with 7:04 left in the half before home-court malaise set in.

Mercer went on a 25-2 run over the next 5:33, aided by FAU's turnovers, porous defense and poor shot selection, and the Owls, who trailed 58-42 at the half, couldn't recover.

"Everything was falling for them, and everything that could go wrong for us did," senior forward Robert Williams said.

Jacob Skogen, who came in averaging 14.7 points, had 11 in that game-breaking run and 23 in all as one of three Bears to score 21 or more.

Mercer shot 65.6 percent in the half and 57.8 percent in the game to break a three-game losing streak.

"We were in a slump," coach Mark Slonaker said. "This was a huge win for us."

Mercer held Mike Bell, who was leading the conference with 19.7 points a game, to 16. Kahleaf Watson scored 21 to lead FAU.

The Bears won all the hustle categories, outscoring FAU 8-0 on fast breaks, 18-6 on second-chance points and 26-12 off turnovers.

With the win, Mercer swept the Owls, assuring them an advantage in case of a tiebreaker. FAU also was swept by Georgia State, which was one game ahead of FAU going into Saturday's games.

"We have to put this game behind us. It was a tough loss," Green said.

The Owls' final two games are Thursday at last-place Campbell and Sunday at first-place Gardner-Webb.

That the games are in North Carolina gives FAU some hope, since the Owls are a conference-best 6-2 away from Boca.

"I don't know what it is, but we're a better team on the road," Bell said.