Owls shoot 2-of-25 from long range; White impressive despite loss

Two coaching legends - Mike Jarvis and Rollie Massimino - met at FAU Arena tonight, but the elder came away the winner as Northwood slid past Florida Atlantic 85-81 in overtime exhibition action before an announced crowd of 1,032.

Neither team played particularly good defense, with 53 personal fouls being whistled on the evening. But in the end, it comes down to making baskets.

FAU struggled to find consistency in many facets in its first action of 2010-11, but most noticeable was a dismal 2-of-25 from long range performance.

“The game was really lost from the net up, too many threes”, said Coach Mike Jarvis. “The guys that weren’t making threes, mainly Greg Gantt and Shavar Richardson kept shooting threes, and at some point in time you have to make adjustments.”

The Seahawks, on the other hand, were 7-of-15, and that was a key difference.

Northwood jumped out to a 15-6 first period lead before the Owls finally tied things up 36-36 at the break.

Florida Atlantic started the second half with a spark as Gantt exploded for nine points to give the Owls their largest lead of the contest at 46-40.

But the Seahawks weren’t done, as the lead would change hands three more times until Gantt forced overtime by making a lay-up to tie matters at 73-73 with just one second remaining in regular play.

FAU had no answer for Northwood guard Jonathan Dunn, who poured in 42 points, eight of which came in overtime primarily from free throws.

Gantt led FAU with 17 points, while Tucker and Royster each pitched in 16.

Ray Taylor was held due to a violation of team rules, and that likely hurt as he was replaced by freshman Dennis Mavin, who managed just one point, one assist, and five turnovers in 20 minutes of action before fouling out.

Newcomer Kore White posted a solid first outing with 13 points, a game high 14 rebounds, and three blocks.

“When we face situations like we had today, we learn a lot of what not to do”, White said. “If we would have won, we would have thought that we did ok.”

The team will get to show just what they learned from tonight soon enough.

The Owls take on Lynn University in their second and final pre-season exhibition on Monday at 7:00.m. at FAU Arena.

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