NEW YORK (AP) — Florida Atlantic, playing in just its second NCAA Tournament, moved inside a victory of the Final four by employing a second-half push led by Michael Forrest to beat fourth-seeded Tennessee 62-55 on Thursday evening.
The ninth-seeded Owls (34-3) will play third-seeded Kansas State in the East Region final at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.
Even prior to the tournament started, this was the unquestionably the greatest season in FAU history. Now the Owls are a single certain of the greatest stories in all of sports.
Johnell Davis led the Owls with 15 points and Forrest completed with 11, eight in a essential second-half run specifically exactly where FAU took deal with.
The Volunteers (25-11), who had been looking for for just the second Elite Eight appear in strategy history, shot just 33% — such as six of 23 from 3-point selection. Josiah-Jordan James and Jonas Aidoo scored ten points apiece.
The game was slogging along at Tennessee’s style and pace till the Owls started hitting the 3-pointers they had been missing for a excellent deal of the initial 30 minutes.
Forrest made consecutive 3s to location FAU up 41-39 with 9:49 left, the Owls’ initial leads due to the truth the opening minute.
Forrest capped a person eight- run with driving layup that location the Owls up by four.
Meanwhile, Tennessee couldn’t obtain a bucket. The Vols went six minutes by way of which they scored four points.
Brandon Weatherspoon’s putback off a poor 3-point miss off the side of the backboard made it 51-41 with six:47 left.
The Vols had a single certain far a lot more push left. James swished a 3 with 3:33 left to cut down the Owls’ lead to 55-50.
The Owls then turned up the defense when a lot more, acquiring a critical cease that led to a swiftly-break layup by Nick Boyd that location FAU up 57-50 with two:31 left.
The Owls salted it away with entirely totally free throws from there, as the orange-clad fans emptied out of MSG and the outnumbered FAU fans took a lot more than.
When the horn sounded, Boyd and Bryan Greenlee hopped onto the press row table to celebrate.
Alternatively of going to the locker region, some of the Owls made their way up into the stands to sing “New York, New York” with their fans.
Then the Owls fans serenaded coach Dusty May’s wife, Anna, with an “F-A-U!” chant prior to lastly filing out of The Garden.
UP Subsequent
The Owls have in no way ever played Kansas State.
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