Stefan Moody jams home two if his 18 points on Sunday. (OwlAccess.com photo)
Coming of age
Florida Atlantic wins its third consecutive game with an easy victory vs. Warner at The Burrow on Sunday.
Originally published on
12/9/2012
by
Marcus Nelson
BOCA RATON – Florida Atlantic coach Mike Jarvis brought his grandaughter, Delaney, to the post-game press conference following the Owls' 83-50 victory over Warner on Sunday.
Jarvis, a proud grandfather, enjoys watching her come of age. After easily dispatching the Royals, his team could be showing signs of growing up as well.
After defeating Warner, the Owls are on a three-game winning streak and improved to 5-4 after starting the season 1-3 - the first time they have been over .500 since the 2010-11 season when FAU won the regular-season Sun Belt Conference championship and played in the NIT.
Owls senior guard Greg Gantt had 19 points and freshman guard Stefan Moody scored 18 off the bench as all 14 players available to play saw action vs. the Royals.
Gantt, who is averaging 28.3 in the last four games, had 14 points before halftime.
“Greg has been coming out hot and making a lot of shots so we've been looking at him and he's been knocking them down,” said Moody, who had a game-high six assists.
FAU still has a long way to go before contending for the conference title, but have shown a spark lately after a slow start.
“Guys are starting to get a lot more comfortable with each other and play more to their strengths,” Jarvis said. “Overall we're just getting more comfortable and those two guys (Gantt and Moody) have been scoring at a pretty good clip.”
Warner, an NAIA school in Lake Wales, fell to 0-4 all-time against the Owls.
However, FAU has some tougher tests on the horizon. The Owls travel to face Dayton on Saturday and, after another home game vs. Stetson on Dec. 18, will face No. 1 Indiana on Dec. 21.
“We need a bunch of these little wins to give us confidence when we go up against bigger teams,” Moody said.
The Owls, who won their third consecutive game, will need some momentum before facing the Flyers, who defeated Miami (Ohio) 83-61 to improve to 7-2 on the season.
“We have a tough, tough game coming up on Saturday at Dayton,” Jarvis said. “We have a lot of work to do the rest of this week and hopefully we will be ready.”
FAU, which led 43-23 at halftime, held a 49-31 rebounding advantage
GameBrowser: Owls 83, Royals 50
- Moving Forward: G Pablo Bertone had 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting. ...C Dragan Sekelja had a career-high 11 rebounds. ...F Devonte Thornton, who had 3 points entering the game, showed some spark by scoring 7 points. ...F Javier Lacunza scored 2 points from the FT line, his first career points.
- Moving Backward: The Owls had 17 turnovers...G Cavon Baker picked up a technical foul late in the game
- Key Stat: The Owls held the Royals to 26.7 percent shooting (16-of-6) from the field.
- Up Next: FAU faces Dayton on Saturday at 7 p.m.