NCAA News Wire
Florida Atlantic 72, East Carolina 63
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
The Florida Atlantic Owls went on a 10-0 run to break a 14-14 tie in the first half and rode that cushion to a 72-63 victory over the East Carolina Pirates on Wednesday night in a matchup of former conference colleagues in Boca Raton, Floa.
The Owls led 35-23 at the halftime break and pushed that out to as many as 19 points, 46-27, in the first four minutes of the second half before the visiting Pirates mounted a mild comeback.
The Pirates worked their way back to within 11 points on two occasions, the last on forward Caleb White’s two free throws that made it 68-57 with 3:13 left in the game, but could get no closer until the final minute.
The Owls scored the next four points to go up by 15 points before the Pirates closed on a 6-0 run.
White led East Carolina in scoring with 18 points. Guard B.J. Tyson added 16 and forward Kanu Aja 11 for the Pirates, who dropped to 4-4 with the loss.
FAU freshman guard Justin Massey matched his season high with 17 points to lead the Owls. Guard Marquan Botley added 15 and forward C.J. Turman 14 as the Owls evened their record at 3-3.
This was the first meeting between the two teams since East Carolina left Conference USA to join the American Athletic Conference for the 2014-15 season.
