Florida Atlantic men’s basketball opened up 2017 the same way it ended 2016, with a conference loss. Marshall University got the better of the Owls on Monday night, leaving Boca Raton with a 89-72 victory.
The Owls (4-9, 0-2 in Conference USA) limited junior Jon Elmore — Conference USA’s leader in scoring — to 11 points, but in doing so they allowed senior Ryan Taylor to have a career game.
Taylor set a career-high with 31 points and a season-high of 13 rebounds.
After FAU pulled within seven points two minutes into the second half, Taylor scored the next five points, and that’s as close as the Owls got to tying the game after trailing by as many as 17 in the first half.