History was made in Boca Raton on Saturday by the Florida Atlantic University men’s basketball team. The Owls clinched at least a share of the Conference USA Regular Season Championship and the No. 1 seed in the conference tourney with a 75-49 victory over UTEP.
Florida Atlantic captures its first C-USA regular-season title ever and the program’s first regular-season conference championship since the A-SUN title in the 2010-11 season. The Owls’ magical run in the 2022-23 season continues, as FAU stands at 26-3 and 16-2 in conference action. Florida Atlantic additionally capped off a perfect 17-0 season at home, which is also a first in school history.
The Owls add to a historic season, which includes the highest ranking in school history, most wins, most C-USA wins, longest winning streak and most home wins. One more FAU win, or one more North Texas loss will make the Owls the outright regular season C-USA champs.
“We’re very proud of our approach in a game that’s not easy to focus on the possession-by-possession, frame-by-frame mentality that we have, but our guys battled and competed against a hungry and determined UTEP team,” head coach Dusty May said. “Just like most of the year, we got great contributions from a lot of different people on both sides of the ball and found a way to at least clinch a partial championship on our home court with our fans in attendance. It’s surreal…it’s so hard to win even a game, and its extremely difficult to win a championship, especially in a 20-game conference season. We have strength in numbers and a group that really cares about each other.”
The Owls still have more work to do, as Florida Atlantic hits the road next week to face Rice on March 2 and LA Tech on March 4. The Conference USA Championship Tournament is the following week in Frisco, Texas from March 8-11.