The Florida Atlantic won their twentieth game of the season against Temple 80-68. 

Marnery St Fort

February 15, 2024

BOCA RATON, Fla. — The AP No. 24, Florida Atlantic University (FAU) Owls (20-5, AAC 10-2) took care of home court with a victory 80-68 over Temple (8-17, AAC 1-11) on Thursday evening, making it their ninth straight win at the Abessinio Court at Eleanor R. Baldwin Arena. 

The Owls had five players finish in double digits scoring, led by the junior guard Johnell Davis with 17 points, followed by junior guard Alijah Martin, and the senior guard Brandon Weatherspoon, who each contributed 16 points, in addition to the Redshirt sophomore guard Nick Boyd and junior center Vladislav Goldin who added 12 each.

FAU established its dominance from the first half, highlighted by Boyd, who drilled four 3-pointers, and Weatherspoon, who picked up where he left off from his last outing with an immediate impact off the bench with a steal and a couple of triples, eventually that pushed the Owls' lead to 14 at 30-16 with 11:07 minutes remaining before halftime.

“Weatherspoon is an emotional leader,” said FAU coach Dusty May. “It was awesome to see him getting his production back up, and I thought his three steals were the separators.”

The Owls could not build upon the 17-point gap but closed the half leading 45-34.

The Owls of Temple came out the second half with better energy and cut their deficit to two at 58-60 after a dunk by Jordan Riley of Temple with 7:50 minutes remaining in the second half. He led the Temple with 19 points.

However, FAU responded with Weatherspoon with five straight points on a tip-in layup and came up with a loose ball to knock down a three-pointer. Both Boyd and Weatherspoon shot 4-for-7 from beyond the arc for the game. 

Giancarlo Rosado made a promising comeback on the court since January 14 from a knee injury he sustained. He came up with a key block, with 6:24 minutes coming down the wire to spark another FAU offensive outburst, led by Davis with seven straight points to extend the lead to 12.

Despite the hard-fought game of the Temple, FAU closed them out on a score of 80-68 to get two wins in a row. 

Temple will host UTSA.

FAU (12-2) will battle the current leader of the conference, the University of South Florida (12-1), on Sunday at noon in Tampa. 

AAC, Alijah Martin, Brandon Weatherspoon, Vladislav Goldin, Dusty May, Temple, USF, FAU, Marnery St Fort, Men's Basketball, Sports