Thursday, February 24, 2005

Contact: Stan Cole

Florida Atlantic Holds Off Campbell 89-83

BUIES CREEK, N.C. – Quinton Young hit career highs with 34 points and 10 threes to lead Florida Atlantic to an 89-83 Atlantic Sun men's basketball victory over Campbell Thursday at Carter Gym.

The Owls (10-16, 10-9) kept their A-Sun tournament hopes alive by improving to 7-2 on the road against league foes. FAU has won its last five road games in conference play.

Campbell (2-24, 0-19) dropped its 21st-straight game and fell to 0-10 against conference foes in games decided by single digits.

Young, a junior guard who transferred from Triton College in Chicago, hit 10-of-15 triples – 6-of-8 in the second half when he scored 20 of FAU's 39 points. Rodney Webb added 17 points and seven rebounds. Kahleaf Watson added 10 assists before fouling out with 6:55 to go.

FAU senior Mike Bell, who entered the game leading the A-Sun in scoring (19.5) and rebounding (9.3), finished with 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting from the field, six boards and eight blocked shots.

Freshman Ruell Pringle led Campbell with 16 points before fouling out with 5:27 to play. Maurice Latham chipped in 16, including 10-of-11 free throws, plus 10 rebounds and six assists in 32 minutes. Diego Aguiar came off the bench to score 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the floor and pull down eight boards, while Comerlee Poole added 12 points and eight boards.

Florida Atlantic took a 50-44 lead at halftime after the lead changed seven times and the score was tied on five occasions in the first 20 minutes alone. Young scored 14 of his points in the opening period, canning 4-of-7 threes.

Campbell cut the FAU margin to 52-51 on Poole's short jumper with 17:04 left, but FAU responded with a 13-3 run over the next 2:43 fueled by a trio of threes from Young.

The Camels pared the lead to two points three times in the last 5:50. Latham's foul shots brought the Camels within 78-76 with 3:24 to go, but Young drained two more triples on FAU's next two possessions and the Camels were unable to get closer than four in the final 2:00.

FAU made just 9-of-20 free throws in the second half, allowing the Camels to stay within striking distance.

Florida Atlantic shot 51.9 percent (27-52) for the game and made 12-of-26 threes (.462), while hitting 23-37 from the line (.622). Campbell finished the game shooting 44.8 percent (30-67) from the field, but only 37.1 percent (13-35) in the second half. The Camels knocked in 19-of-25 foul shots (.760), but only 4-of-12 triples.

The Camels held a 44-30 edge on the boards, converting 21 offensive boards into 22 points. FAU, however, turned 20 Campbell turnovers into 27 points.

Campbell shot 53 percent (17-32) from the field in the first half, but FAU converted 11 Camel turnovers into 16 points. The Owls hit 51.7 percent (15-29) of their first-half attempts, including 6-of-14 from 3-point range (.429).

Campbell hosts UCF Saturday at 4:00 p.m. in its season finale. Florida Atlantic travels to Gardner-Webb for an 8:15 p.m. tip-off. [Box Score]