Winning on the road in the American conference is never easy and on Sunday afternoon Florida Atlantic had their willpower tested against Temple; however, in the end they found a way to get it done.
The Boca Owls led for less than 10 minutes overall on the day, but when the buzzer sounded they found themselves on top by a final score of 79 to 73.
It wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination, as the Owls were plagued with foul trouble and inconsistent shooting, but they found a way to overcome that thanks to a career night from Josiah Parker.
The American conference freshman of the year had his most impactful performance of the season, finishing with 22 points on 10 of 13 shooting while also adding 12 rebounds and recording his first double double of his career.
With FAU shooting just 15% from beyond the arc on the day and six Owls playing with 3 or more fouls, FAU Coach John Jakus needed to find someone to rely on and on Sunday it was Parker.
According to Jakus, the Owls made the decision to lean on Parker during the U8 timeout during the second half, noting that he found a way to make a significant impact on both ends of the court.
“Yeah 8 minutes, we made a choice, we could have gone back big, but we decided to go small, put Xander in for Maxim, Josiah switching down the stretch, I thought that was really good for us… we just had enough with our switching, I thought we were able to find things offensively and when we did find things offensively, the three put-back layups, makes everyone seem smarter than they really are.”
“Coaches take too much credit, we give too much blame when things go bad, at the end of the day, players have to make plays and Josiah did that down the stretch, he was wonderful, Jakus said.”
Parker’s previous season high of 17 came against Saint Mary’s on December 19th, however since then he has scored in double figures just once, putting up 10 in the Owls win over UTSA on December 31st.
There is no questioning the talent that Parker possesses, evidenced by his American Conference preseason freshman of the year award. It hasn’t been perfect at times; however, on Sunday Parker was at his best and it paid major dividends for the Owls.
Following a performance like tonight, Parker’s confidence is sky high, however he knows that not every game will be his time to score, noting that the chemistry his team has created off of the court, allows for him to play whatever role necessary for his team to succeed.
“Hanging out, outside of basketball, try to build as much chemistry as we can because our team is definitely different, we have guys from different countries and all over the USA. In Ken Pom, we were one of the last teams in experience, so we try to make that up with friendship and chemistry,” Parker said
Parker led the Owls with 22 points, however Xander Pintelon, Devin Vanterpool and Maxim Logue each added 12 points, with all three giving the Owls a spark at different points throughout the game.
While the FAU offense stalled at times, they were able to rely on Parker when needed and also get valuable contributions from others, even if it was at an inconsistent rate. The game was slowed down immensely due to a combined 50 fouls between both teams and while that could have been a point of frustration, the Owls didn’t let that phase them.
2 weeks ago, the Owls could have crumbled due to their shooting slump or foul trouble in a similar way they did like in their loss to Tulane. Since that loss, the Owls have now won 4 games in a row, picking up road wins over UAB and Temple and home wins over Memphis and Wichita State.
The growth that FAU has made on the court over the last two weeks is evident and something that Jakus is really proud of.
“I’m really proud of that. The reality is, we lost and we lost in an awkward way, a game we probably should have won, double digit wins at home and then today, I think about as rough as we could be offensively and still found a way to win, they’re learning to win. We were 350th coming into the year in Ken Pom in experience, we thought by league play we would find out who we were, and maybe it took a bump at Tulane to figure out how special they could be.
“All that happened tonight is we won a road game. The reality is, Temple can come and pop us at home and then this doesn’t matter, but I am proud of the growth and I think it’s real, especially if you watched the last couple games, you can see these guys confidence,” Jakus said
FAU will look to continue their win streak on Wednesday at home, as Tulane comes to town for a 7 PM tip-off from Boca Raton, a game where the Owls can average their only loss in American Conference play.
All Photos provided by Ivetta Abramyan.