The Eastern Michigan University Eagles took a significant loss to Florida Atlantic Owls, 101-73. Coming into the next game with a victory, Eastern Eagles had an energetic atmosphere for today's match-up.
EMU started with a Tyson Acuff bucket, but Florida Atlantic's uptight and swarming defense had EMU take tough shots and make turnovers resulting in a three.
Sophomore Emoni Bates had multiple tough shots and scored a total of 29 points shooting 55% from the field.
FAU had an 8-0 run in the first five minutes of the first half. On the other hand, the Eagles had the looks but couldn’t find the bottom of the net.
Bates broke FAU's momentum with an and-one and EMU picks it up with a 9-3 run to bring it to a one-point game.
A good offensive momentum was created and Bates slithered for back-to-back points and an and-one. The bigs had a tough assignment with 7 foot 1 inch Goldin Vladislav.
Vladislav had 15 points and 7 rebounds in total. With the closest to 6 point deficit, multiple runs on both sides turned into a 10-point Florida Atlantic lead over the Eagles at the end of 1st half.
For the first half, Florida Atlantic was 42% from downtown and 53% from the field to EMU's 0-9 from downtown and 45% from the field.
At the start of the second half, sophomore Kevin-David Rice in his 2nd game back from his injury started with a layup and a three. But FAU out rebounding the Eagles scored a three of their own.
Rice scored a putback layup to gain some momentum leading to back-to-back points from Bates. The Owls started picking up the defense full court and caused the Eagles to take contested shots comprising 33 shots and making only 13 of them.
EMU's defense allowed 60 points in the second half which cost them the efforts of cutting down the never-ending deficit. The Eagles were getting their points and having a back-and-forth but couldn't make stops defensively.
At the end with 50 given points in the paint, 18-second chance points, getting out-numbered on rebounding 27-44, and poor shooting from three (15%) and field (42%) EMU Eagles took a 73-101 loss to the Florida Atlantic Owls.
Next up, the Eagles will travel to Norman, Illinois to faceoff against Illinois State University on Wednesday Dec. 7. Tipoff for that game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. and will be streamed on ESPN+.
To learn more about EMU men's basketball team, visit EMUEagles.com and listen to The Block E Podcast for weekly updates on all EMU Athletics.
