It was great to watch from my center court seat the Owls give their new head coach Mike Jarvis a winning return to the court in their preseason opener with a 73-69 win over cross town school Lynn University.
Fans showed up, 1,292 of them, to watch the coaching icon, who taught Patrick Ewing the game of basketball. The crowd was bigger than at any regular season game last year in the Burrow, which underwent about $10 million in renovations this summer. Good thing those extra seats were added to the east side of the gym or there might not have been enough room for everyone last game. FAU supporter's presence was felt, especially by referees with chants such as, "Hey ref, you suck," being cheered throughout the game.
Lynn University came back from being down 15 with 4:59 left in the first half to being ahead by three with just 3:13 left in the game. Good thing for the team's confidence they were able to pull out the victory in the end because most were expecting FAU to blow out the Division II opponent.
The main reason for the victory was the intense play of sophomore forward Xavier Perkins. "We wanted to come out and play harder then them," he says.
His 18 points along with senior Carlos Monroe's 21 points lead the Owls to the victory. Perkins first half dunk on a perfectly executed pass from Monroe was the top play of the night, getting all the fans off their seats.
Something to keep an eye on is the health of Perkins, who has a banged up knee, and Monroe, who has an ailing foot problem. Both said they are fine, with Monroe saying, "It's just a little foot cramp, nothing major."
A major problem throughout the game was FAU's ability to stop Lynn from scoring. They purposely played man to man defense during the entire game, but did not purposely leave open lanes all night.
Another issue was free throw shooting. Jarvis said, "It was awful. It gives us something to work on."
We'll see if their work paid off tonight at 7pm against Rollins College in the Burrow.
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