Despite vacancies, Owls off to a good start in Portland

Florida Atlantic was without two of their top players tonight in Ray Taylor, who served the final game of his suspension, and Greg Gantt who was ejected in the first half for using an elbow to clear space between a defender.

But that didn’t matter, as freshman guard Dennis Mavin poured in 19 points to lead the Owls (1-0) past UC Davis 70-63 on day one of the Athletes In Action Classic in Portland, OR.

The Gainesville native went 6-of-10 from the field, and hauled in four rebounds, in his first official collegiate game.

“He's even more important with Ray out because he can bring the ball up against pressure”, said head coach Mike Jarvis. “I thought he did a really good job.”

Jarvis, still bothered by the call against Gantt, who was 30 feet away from the basket, drew a technical after voicing objection to a foul whistled on forward Kore White soon thereafter.

“They’ve got a new rule this year that they call it intentional when guys hit people with the elbows above the shoulder”, Jarvis said. “I don’t care what the rules are; the referee didn’t use any common sense.”

The Owls raced to a 10-0 start before the Aggies scored their first basket, eventually taking a 31-24 lead into the break.

UC Davis (0-1) fought back, pulling ahead on a number of occasions in the second half before a jumper by Kore White began a 16-4 run which gave FAU a 62-51 lead with 3:50 to play.

The Aggies closes to within five thereafter, but would get no closer.

Florida Atlantic went to the charity stripe a whopping 43 times on the night, however managed just 22 points in the process. Three point shooting was also a concern at 2-of-10.

Joining Mavin in double figures was Alex Tucker (14), and Brett Royster (10).

Royster’s team high seven rebounds pushed him past the 500th career mark, making him just the fifth player to do so in program history.

The Owls, who were outperformed by the Aggies 38-29 on the glass, held a 28-14 scoring advantage the paint, while committing 11 less turnovers – two key factors that enabled the victory.

“I would have liked a better effort out of our bigs, but we got the win”, Jarvis said.

Florida Atlantic next takes on UW Milwaukee at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow night in their second game of the tournament.

Box Score

Game Discussion