UTSA guard Jordan Ivy-Curry scored a career-high 38 points in front of the home crowd Sunday afternoon, but Florida Atlantic withstood the barrage and defeated the Roadrunners by nine in overtime. – Photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Johnell Davis scored 34 points Saturday afternoon as the 23rd-ranked Florida Atlantic University Owls rallied from a 16-point deficit in the first half to down the UTSA Roadrunners, 112-103 in overtime, at the Convocation Center.

Coming off a Final Four season, the Owls didn’t flinch when they fell behind 36-20 in the first half. They kept plugging away and tied the game in regulation, escaping a loss when UTSA’s Carlton Linguard Jr. missed a wide-open three at the buzzer.

In the overtime, FAU called on Alijah Martin, who scored nine of his 26 points in the extra five minutes.

Forward Johnell Davis scored 34 points — 13 in the first half, 17 in the second half and four in overtime — for the FAU Owls. Davis, from Gary, Ind., has hit 30 or more points in two of his last three games and in three of his last eight – Photo by Joe Alexander

Martin also contributed momentum-turning plays with a key steal and an offensive rebound off a missed FAU free throw as the Owls improved their record to 15-4 overall and 5-1 in the American Athletic Conference.

With the loss, the Roadrunners fell to 7-12 and 1-5, including a pair of agonizing losses in the AAC to Top 25 teams — both in overtime. On Jan. 10, the Roadrunners played on the road and took 13th-ranked Memphis to OT before falling 107-101.

This time, guard Jordan Ivy-Curry electrified the home crowd with a career-high of 38 points. Ivy-Curry was on his game, hitting 10 of 20 from the field, four of eight from three-point distance and 14 of 17 at the free-throw line.

Guard Christian Tucker also played well, contributing 19 points and 12 assists. Tucker, a one-time, walk-on, is leading the conference in assists and is also one of the AAC’s best free-throw shooters.

The Roadrunners had it going early in the game, knocking down 12 of their first 17 shots. Eight of the 12 were 3-pointers, including four of them by Isaiah Wyatt. A triple by Linguard made it 36-20 in favor of the Roadrunners with 9:24 left in the first half.

From there, the Owls started getting hot themselves. Davis hit a three, a layup and another three to ignite the visitors on a 29-17 run to the end of the first half.

UTSA point guard Christian Tucker finished with 19 points and 12 assists. – Photo by Joe Alexander.

After the Owls scored the first five points after intermission for a 54-53 advantage, the Roadrunners went on the attack again. The constructed an 11-3 run. When forward Massal Diouf hit a layup on an assist by Ivy-Curry, the Roadrunners had regained control, up by seven.

At that juncture, the Owls grinded it out through the end of regulation, outscoring the Roadrunners 34-27 in the last 14 minutes. They did it in large measure by running UTSA off the 3-point line.

Consequently, the Roadrunners made only one triple down the stretch. In the closing moments of regulation, UTSA had a three-point lead when Davis had the ball on the perimeter, looking for a chance to tie. As he rose to shoot, Wyatt fouled him, bumped him body-to-body.

Davis, a 6-foot-4 junior from Gary, Ind., went to the free-throw line and made all three attempts with 16.6 seconds left. His third make tied it 91-91. After that, UTSA had the ball and Ivy-Curry faced a double team.

Ivy-Curry may have had a chance to drive it but he elected to pass to the open man, and Linguard missed, sending the game into overtime.

Isaiah Wyatt caught fire early, knocking down four 3-pointers in the first 10 minutes. He finished with 14 points. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Records

Florida Atlantic 15-4, 5-1
UTSA 7-12, 1-5

Coming up

Tulane at UTSA, Wednesday, 7 p.m.

Notable

In UTSA’s first season in the American, three of its first six conference games have lapsed into overtime. One was a win but two have been excruciating losses to Top 25 opponents.

The Roadrunners emerged with an 89-82 victory over Rice on Jan. 6 in Houston. Four nights later, they played at No. 13 Memphis and dropped a 107-101 decision to the Tigers. Finally, against 23rd-ranked FAU, they bolted to the large lead in front of a home crowd but couldn’t hold on.

“We have got to find a way to win those games,” UTSA coach Steve Henson said.

FAU center Vladislav Goldin (50) extends his length to defend against UTSA forward Dre Fuller Jr. Fuller, who attended FAU briefly last summer, finished with nine points and five rebounds. – Photo by Joe Alexander

In his postgame radio interview aired on KTKR AM-760, The Ticket, Henson bemoaned the lost opportunity to beat the Owls at the end of regulation.

On the play, Ivy-Curry was double-teamed on the perimeter and couldn’t get off a shot, electing to pass off to Linguard on the high right side of the three-point arc. The 7-foot center misfired, leaving the score tied 91-91 going into the OT.

“Juice (Ivy-Curry) had it going,” Henson said. “We needed to make sure he gets that shot and we didn’t do it.

“We should have just left everybody flat, just let Juice play straight in iso ball. We tried to get (FAU center Vladislav) Goldin out of the lane, so we could get down in there and attack.

“I mean, he causes some problems with his length down in there. We tried to pull him out … They just went and gave a little soft double on Juice. Juice’s only option would have been to back it up and then drive it at Goldin, which probably would have been successful.

“But he made the right play. You got to trust your teammates. Carlton made some baskets with the game on the line earlier in the season. It was the right play. But we would have loved to have Juice take that last shot.”

Guard Alijah Martin hit two threes and scored nine of his 26 points in overtime. He also had a key steal and an offensive rebound in the extra five minutes. – Photo by Joe Alexander