After losing 77-64 to North Texas this past Sunday, the Florida Atlantic Owls (11-10, 4-4 AAC) came back even stronger in their game against the University of Texas in San Antonio (9-11, 3-5 AAC) and beat them 94-74 while maintaining the lead the entire game. 

The Owls outshot the Roadrunners by being 54% from the field and 50% beyond the arc, while UTSA had 38% from the field and 46% beyond the arc. Not only did the Owls outshoot UTSA, they also had 43 rebounds compared to UTSA’s 28 rebounds.

FAU guard KyKy Tandy finished the game with 26 points, when his average points per game is 9.1 points per game. Tandy hit his career record for 3-pointers with eight of them. Forward Tre Carroll led the team highs for rebounds with eight, as well as forward Baba Miller having the most assists of the night with eleven.

“We got a lot of good players and one is besides me [Glenn] and tonight was my night and his night [Glenn] and next game might be Baba or Leland, it just rotates and that’s the beauty of our team where anybody can go off in there” said Tandy.

Recap

To start off the night, Carroll rebounded a missed jumper from UTSA after they won a jump ball and made a layup 2-0. A minute later, Miller went up for a layup and missed but was rebounded and immediately tipped back in the basket by guard Leland Walker 4-0. After Walker’s tip-in layup off of an opponent turnover, UTSA called a timeout at 18:23.

The Roadrunners made their first basket of the night with a three-point jumper by guard Marcus Millender 6-3. To follow that 3-pointer, Tandy made one of his own on the fast break assisted by Carroll 9-3. At 16:29, Tandy then made another three pointer assisted by Miller 12-6.

Forward Kaleb Glenn had four huge dunks in the first period, the first one being at 12:16 with an assist from center Matas Vokietaitis 18-13. 

Glenn stated that the last time he had four dunks to come out the gate was in high school. “I didn’t really expect it like I was just cutting and trying to find the ball and just doing what I do,” said Glenn.

Turnovers continue to be a recurring issue for the Owls like their last game against North Texas where FAU finished the game with 13 turnovers. Against UTSA, the Owls had 10 turnovers while the Roadrunners had eight. 

After UTSA’s guard Damari Monsanto made a three-point jumper 18-16, Carroll made a bad pass turnover and UTSA stole the ball back. 

At 10:30, Millender made a layup which tied up the score for the only time in the entire game. Vokietaitis broke that tie and took the lead for the rest of the night with a dunk 20-18.

After an attempted 3-pointer from Walker, he rebounded his shot and made a quick pass to Glenn in the paint for a dunk 23-20. Immediately after, guard Devin Vanterpool made the rebound on an attempted 3-pointer from UTSA and made a quick pass to Evans Jr. who drove into the paint for a layup 25-20.

FAU kept a decent distance in score between them and UTSA as time ran on the clock. With another tip-in dunk from Glenn after a missed layup from Carroll, FAU kept the lead at 29-23. At 5:09, Glenn made another dunk assisted by Miller 34-28.

“Kaleb had a rough year last year and this is his second semester of a healthy full year for him. I think in the next week or two you’re going to see how good he really is,” said head coach John Jakus.

UTSA made their last shot of the first half at 3:06 off a free throw by forward Horton Raekwon 40-32 and then they entered a scoring drought. FAU utilized this drought and scored seven more points to end the first half 47-32.

Going into the second half, the Owls maintained a 13 point differential. UTSA took the first point of the half with a 3-pointer from Millender 47-35. Carroll followed that up with a jumper assisted by Walker 49-35.

UTSA had 14 personal fouls through both halves which gave FAU the opportunity to use their free throws for extra points like Carroll did after a personal foul was called on Monsanto and made both free throws 51-35. 

At 16:34 Tandy went up for another three-point jumper assisted by Walker making his fifth three pointer of the night 59-38. To make it his sixth, thirty seconds later, Miller got the rebound and drove into the paint to make a pass to Tandy who’s standing beyond the arc for another three pointer, 62-38.

After a bad pass from Walker, UTSA guard Primo Spears stole the ball and made a layup on the fast break 64-45. Tandy then goes for his seventh 3-pointer at 13:49 assisted by guard Niccolo Moretti 67-47.

Vokietaitis blocked Millender on a layup which was rebounded by Moretti who assisted Miller for a massive dunk that had the crowd standing up and cheering 69-47.

“I thought that missing the layups and airballing the three, and not letting that affect him in any way and then him delivering and doing great things…unbelievable job with his mental health and strength and I’m so proud of the assistance that work with him every day” said Jakus.

Tandy goes for his eighth and career high three-point jumper assisted by Moretti at the top of the key to make the score 75-49.

“It’s been a while since we shot like that. I always felt like KyKy Tandy by the end of the year would get to 40%, it was just taking him a minute and he wanted to do it all in one day, so god bless him,” said Jakus.

Miller then made his way to the top of three and passed to Glenn for another 3-pointer at 78-49 which is the largest lead of the night with a 29 point differential. FAU makes a 9-0 run over 2:08 with 3 triples in a row.

At 5:02, the Owls sub Tandy back in one last time for Walker, however, UTSA gots more aggressive with Tandy on defense considering his consistency on the court which stopped him from shooting for the last five minutes of the half.

Moretti scored one last time for the Owls with a 3-pointer on the bench side of the court assisted by Miller. UTSA’s Millender made one last layup to finish out the game at 94-72.

“I know it’s a little bit of a rivalry game so it would be nice to play it here instead of there [University of South Florida]…we’ll watch a bunch of games tomorrow on the off day and gonna be ready for the two days of scouts,” said Jakus.

Florida Atlantic heads to the University of South Florida (11-10, 4-4 AAC) on Feb. 2. Tipoff for the game is set at 2 p.m. and can be streamed on ESPN.

Molly O’Flynn is a staff writer for the University Press. For more information on this article or others, you can reach Molly at moflynn2024@fau.edu or DM on Instagram @molly_oflynn_.