Sun Belt Sports Fans

Florida Atlantic 62, Middle Tennessee State 51

In Boca Raton, Florida, you’ll find a lot of tennis pros, palm trees, sunshine-drenched locales, a number of resorts… and the hottest basketball team in the Sun Belt Conference. A good-time kind of place has a band of basketball brothers that’s planting smiles on a lot of faces in the Sunshine State.

In the middle of a three-game homestead in the comforts of the FAU Gymnasium in Boca Raton, Florida, the Owls of Florida Atlantic found themselves hosting Middle Tennessee State, the team that sits behind the Owls in the Eastern Division of the Sun Belt. As the Owls proved on Thursday, that ‘behind’ is in fact very far behind. Led by Raymond Taylor’s 21 points and Brett Royster’s 10, the Owls won their eighth straight game in beating the Blue Raiders by an 11-point margin.

The Owls found themselves in a close game a couple of times in the second half, but coach Mike Jarvis saw his team wake up and go on a 15-5 run to go up 58-43 with two minutes remaining, all but sealing the final outcome. The key for FAU was nothing other than old-fashioned elbow grease. The Owls worked extremely hard at the defensive end of the floor, limiting the MTSU crew to just 38-percent shooting and only two made three-point baskets. FAU also cleaned up on the glass, hammering Middle Tennessee by a 15-5 margin in the realm of offensive rebounds. The Owls shot only 40 percent in their own right in what was a choppy and uneven game, but their plus-10 margin on the offensive backboard gave them seven more shots than Middle Tennessee (54-47). That, in short, was the difference in this duel. If missed shots are the norm, rebounds inevitably become much more of a focal point. Offensive rebounds can sometimes represent a team’s best offense, and that was the case for the home team in yet another Sun Belt conquest.

Florida Atlantic, which had a nine point lead at halftime, improved to 8-0 in conference play this season, putting the Owls four games ahead of the Blue Raiders in the East. Middle Tennessee, meanwhile, saw a two-game winning streak, which included a home win over West-leading Denver, come to an end. Head coach Kermit Davis’s Blue Raiders fell to the Owls for the second time in two weeks. Jason Jones was the only Blue Raider to reach double digits, netting 10 points on an off night that saw him go 3-of-11 from the field.

Last Saturday, Florida Atlantic scored 88 points in a double-digit win. Now, FAU is showing it can win decisively by flashing some big-league defense at opponents. When teams can win in various ways, they reveal the fuller measure of their toughness. Florida Atlantic is going to be a very tough out over the next six weeks of competition.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer