Johnell Davis scored a game-high 25 points to lead host Florida Atlantic to an 85-67 victory over Middle Tennessee on Thursday night in Boca Raton, Fla.
The Owls (20-1, 10-0 Conference USA) continued their remarkable breakthrough season, extending their program-record winning streak to 19.
No. 21 in the Associated Press Top 25, FAU played its first-ever home game as a ranked team and is one victory away from tying its all-time highest win total in a season.
Middle Tennessee (13-8, 6-4 C-USA) had a four-game winning streak snapped. Eli Lawrence led the Blue Raiders with 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting.
Neither team got off to a great shooting start as the teams combined to miss their first nine attempts until Middle Tennessee’s Justin Bufford connected on a 3-pointer with 17:40 left in the first half.
The Owls missed their first eight shots. But as it has all season, Florida Atlantic turned miscues into easy scores.
Davis broke the Owls out of their early funk with a game-high five steals, and on the offensive end, scoring 19 of his points before halftime.
FAU finished with 12 steals overall and capitalized on 15 turnovers.
Middle Tennessee pulled to within three early in the second half, but an 8-0 Owls run extended the lead back to double digits with 8:03 remaining. Florida Atlantic, which entered the game leading the nation in bench scoring, had its reserves combine for 52 points.
Alijah Martin scored 13 points and had seven rebounds while Nick Boyd finished with 13 points and five rebounds for the Owls. Bryan Greenlee added 11 points and Vladislav Goldin recorded nine points and nine rebounds.
Camryn Weston was one of three Middle Tennessee players to score in double figures with 13 points. Elias King had 10 points and Jared Coleman-Jones had 10 rebounds.
–Field Level Media
