HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - FAU junior forward Sanchez Hughley was hurting so bad he couldn't even answer the call for the second half in the Owls' loss to South Alabama on Saturday.

Hughley was just an extreme example of why FAU's season came to an unceremonious end in the first round of the Sun Belt Tournament on Saturday.

It's a simple explanation: Down the stretch, the team wore down.

Ray Taylor was talking about it last week when he told FAUOwlAccess he was feeling so tired last week he closed his eyes for a 20-minute power nap and woke up five hours later.

Every team in the nation is battling the rigors of a season that started in November.

However, FAU's top offensive weapons, Taylor and Greg Gantt, were freshman whose bodies were still making the transition to college basketball games (40 minutes instead of 32 minutes in high school) and the rigors and travel of their first full season in Division I.

Further proof: FAU had 22 points in the first half vs, Middle Tennessee last week and then went even worse with 19 at halftime vs. South Alabama.

Folks, it's no coincidence FAU's two worst halves of basketball happened in the last two games and the Owls lost their last four games of the season.

Speaking of Hughley, I asked FAU coach Mike Jarvis about Hughley only playing four minutes in the second half.

His response was interesting.

"He wasn't going," Jarvis said. "He was playing lousy. If you play lousy , you sit on the bench. It's that simple whether you have an injury or not. He's got injuries, but most guys have injuries this time in the season. I decided to play the guys in the second half who were getting it done. The guys that we had the best chance to win with. That's why he was on the bench most of it. I asked if he could play the last quarter. He said yes and he should have gone in and been the hero, but it wasn't meant to be."

Hughley played just four minutes in the second half and finished with just four points.

Well, the whole team now has the next eight months to rest.


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