Freshman Mike Bersch drained a late three-pointer capping a 15-6 AU run, Bender Arena erupted and the improbable 22-point comeback suddenly became probable. Unfortunately, a late string of free-throws from Florida Atlantic University held-off the strong AU surge as the men’s basketball team lost 81-69.
Eagles forward Stephen Lumpkins continued his remarkable sophomore campaign with a career-high 23 points and nine rebounds, shooting 64 percent from the field. Freshman speedster Blake Jolivette tripled his season average with 13 points and four assists. Bersch knocked down a pair of clutch three-pointers and finished with 10 points for the Eagles. Sanchez Hughley led Florida Atlantic with 15 points.
Both teams came out looking extremely sloppy in the first half. Lumpkins was the only Eagle on the scoreboard in the first eight minutes of the game. Only 15 total points were scored between both teams in that time span. The Owls eventually surfaced to score 36 points in the first half. AU never seemed to get it going. The Eagles entered halftime trailing 36-20, shooting 0-4 from beyond the arc and a pitiful 26 percent overall.
“When you don’t score points, you have to be able to grind it out on the defensive end,” said Assistant Coach Robert Burke. “We did that for a little bit, but then it got away from us. We just couldn’t seem to get our feet under us, and they did.”
AU returned from the locker room with a different mentality but similar play on the court, and quickly found themselves in a 23-point hole. However, energetic plays from Bersch, junior Nick Hendra and senior guard Matthew Wilson slowly helped AU chip away at the deficit. With fans sporting “The Lumpkin Patch” shirts in the crowd, Lumpkins found his groove and scored seven points in a span of two minutes. But the main ingredient to the comeback was the play of Jolivette, whose contagious energy on both ends of the court sparked the Eagles down the stretch.
“As a freshman, it’s hard to get in the swing of things,” Jolivette said. “My coaches have gotten more confident in me as a player and they’re allowing me to be free to attack a bit more and play my game, and so I’m just getting more comfortable with the offense.”
All of the momentum came to a halt after an AU timeout with 1:41 remaining. Seven Florida Atlantic free-throws and a pair of steals that turned into layups stretched out the margin in the final minutes to give AU a 12-point loss. On the bright side, AU shot 50 percent in the second half and held a very favorable margin in points off the bench.
The Eagles look to secure its first win on the season at home tonight against the Fairfield Stags, with tip-off at 7:30 p.m. While Burke said that many facets of the team need improvement in order to bounce back against the Stags, Jolivette’s key to victory is much simpler.
“As a team, we just need to come out aggressive from the start and play 40 minutes of intense basketball.”
You can reach this writer at sports@theeagleonline.com.
