BOCA RATON — Florida Atlantic’s men’s basketball team continued its shocking free fall on Feb. 15. The Owls lost 83-81 in overtime to first-place South Florida in an American Conference state showdown.
Kanaan Carlyle, playing for the time since Feb. 1, missed a game-winning three-point attempt in the final seconds to seal the Owls’ (14-12, 6-7) fate.
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After starting out conference play 6-1 and sitting in first place, FAU’s losing streak has now reached six games, and the Owls have fallen to 10th in the razor-thin standings.
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Carlyle scored 15 points on 5-for-13 shooting in his return. Devin Vanterpool led FAU with 26 points, and USF (18-8, 10-3) was led by Wes Enis with a game-high 27 points.
After a disappointing loss to Rice on Feb. 11, the Owls were able to go toe-to-toe with the best team in the American, but couldn’t secure the victory.
“I think we’re going to get hot,” FAU coach John Jakus said. “We’ll keep it going.”
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FAU will be back in action on Feb. 18 for a road matchup in San Antonio with the UTSA Roadrunners.
Here are the takeaways from the latest loss:
Return of Kanaan Carlyle isn’t enough to beat the Bulls
Devin Vanterpool, who led FAU with 26 points in the loss to USF, goes up for a shot in Boca Raton.
Perhaps the most notable change for the Owls was the return of starting point guard Kanaan Carlyle, who has been out for three of FAU’s last four games due to a calf injury.
Carlyle looked healthy while knocking down 3 of his 8 three-pointers in 36 minutes of action. The junior had a chance to win it in the closing seconds of overtime, but came up just short from beyond the arc.
The Owls’ offense hummed much more soundly than it has in recent weeks. Five Owls — Carlyle, Vanterpool, Josiah Parker, Devin Williams and Isaiah Elohim — scored in double figures, but it wasn’t enough to take down the top team in the American.
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Nonetheless, Jakus is confident that Carlyle’s return will make life easier heading into the final stretch of the regular season.
“You can tell with Kanaan back, there’s a couple things that are pretty distinctive,” Jakus said. “There was just a flow of the way we play when they play together.”
Josiah Parker makes first career start, notches double-double
Amid a deflating losing streak, Jakus opted to make an adjustment to the team’s starting lineup by inserting Parker in place of the struggling Xander Pintelon.
Parker entered the matchup averaging 12.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game against American Conference opponents and had been particularly exceptional of late, averaging 17.3 points and 9.0 rebounds per game in February.
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Parker posted a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double to go along with two blocks. The performance was histhird-consecutive double-double, fifth of the season.
His upward trajectory has been arguably the only positive to come about during FAU’s losing skid, with Jakus acknowledging the time had come for Parker to start.
“He’s the best freshman in the league,” Jakus said. “He’s averaging 17 and 10 over the last five games and we haven’t won, so at a certain point I’m going to make a change in the starting lineup.
“I liked bringing him off the bench. I thought there was a punch to that when we were 5-1. It was fun and cute to have him coming off the bench, but it’s not cute right now. We need guys to perform.”
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No answer for USF’s 3-point shooters Wes Enis, Joseph Pinion
USF’s Wes Enis and Joseph Pinion did their best “Splash Brothers” impression, knocking down a combined nine three-pointers. In the first half, it was Enis who got hot from downtown, scoring 18 of his 27 points while hitting four of his eight three-point tries.
South Florida shot 36 percent from the floor, and 26 percent from three as a team, before halftime, but Enis’ shooting kept the game tight.
In the second half, it was Pinion’s turn to light up the Owls from beyond the arc. After scoring 4 points on 2-for-7 shooting from the floor and 0-for-3 from downtown in the first half, Pinion scored 12 points, hitting all four of his shots from three-point range in the latter half.
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In a game in which USF made 13 of 39 layups, it was the marksmanship of Enis and Pinion that led to the Owls’ demise. Both players hit numerous shots that were several feet beyond the three-point line, stretching FAU’s defense to the max as the Owls struggled to contain the long-range shooters.
“Some of it is the actions, some of it is falling asleep for half a second, and then some of it is the fact that they can invert the floor all the way to the volleyball line,” Jakus said. “I think the very worst mistake you make is when you’re too low, and you let them see one go in. If you’re low, it’s over.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: USF Bulls edge FAU Owls in overtime in American Conference basketball
