Jan. 16, 2002

Final Stats

BIRMINGHAM, AL - Florida Atlantic University's comeback attempt fell short as the Owls lost to Birmingham-Southern College, 65-59, Wednesday night in a non-conference battle in Birmingham, AL. BSC's Jakob Sigurdarson led all scorer's with a career-high 25 points while FAU (9-7) was led by Earnest Crumbley who finished with 11. Jeff Cowans had 10.

The Owls fell behind early as the Panthers held an 11-2 lead five minutes into the contest. FAU was able to close the gap to 21-16 with 8:20 left in the half before BSC (8-8) went on a 16-4 run to lead 37-20 with 3:50 remaining. The Panthers would eventually lead 44-29 at the break as Sigurdarson had 19 points at the half.

Trailing 48-29 with 17:49 left in the game, FAU went on a 19-4 run over the next 11:49 to trail just 52-48 with 6:21 remaining. The Owls gave up just eight points to the Panthers in the first 14:35 of the second half before Rashard Willie's three-pointer gave the Panthers a 55-48 lead. Willie would end up with 15 points, including 4-of-8 from beyond the arc.

FAU would close the gap to 61-59 with 41 seconds left when Cowans connected for his second trey of the evening. A pair of free throws by Sigurdarson with 13 seconds left gave BSC a 63-59 lead. In FAU's next possesion, Cowans' shot from seven feet out on the left side was blocked by Shema Mbyirukira, his fifth of the game. T.R. Reed grabbed the rebound and was fouled by Crumbley which resulted in the game's final two points.

"That's the kind of character this team has," said FAU head coach of his team's comeback. "The unfortunate part is that we couldn't play that hard for the entire game."

For the game, FAU was outshot 44 percent to 40 percent. BSC also held a 37-33 advantage on the boards. The Owls continued their strong shooting from beyond the arc as they went 8-of-16 from long range. FAU is shooting 51-percent (28-of-55) from beyond the arc over the past three games.

For the second straight game, Raheim Brown was held to just nine points. He entered the game leading FAU with over 18 points per game.

Florida Atlantic next hosts Belmont January 19 at 7:00pm.