Florida Atlantic tops Fairleigh Dickinson for Sweet 16 spot

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Johnell Davis scored 29points, Alijah Martin added 14 and Florida Atlantic ended FairleighDickinson’s magical March by outlasting the No. 16 seed 78-70 onSunday night in the NCAA Tournament.

The ninth-seeded Owls (33-3) needed everything they had to putaway the Knights (21-16), who stunned top-seeded Purdue on Fridaynight in just the second 16-over-1 upset i n men’s tournamenthistory.

It will be FAU, not FDU, which will play Tennessee in the Sweet16 on Thursday at Madison Square Garden in New York.

“My team just believed in me,” said Davis, a junior from Gary,Indiana. “It’s just a dream come true.”

The Knights couldn’t come up with an encore after eliminatingPurdue, but not before putting up a fight to the finish. After thefinal horn, coach Tobin Anderson and FDU’s players walked acrossthe floor to thank their fans, most of whom never expected to spendfive days in Ohio watching their team make history.

Demetre Roberts scored 20 points and Sean Moore had 14 for FDU,which didn’t even win the Northeast Conference tournament beforebecoming an NCAA team that won’t soon be forgotten.

FAU, which edged Memphis on Friday for the school’s first NCAAtourney win, finally took control late in the second half of a gamethat was played at high speeds and at times looked more like aplayground pickup game.

Davis made 10 of 16 shots. He also had 10 rebounds, five assistsand five steals.

FDU was still within 67-64 when Davis fought for a rebound andmade a putback. After Roberts missed a long 3, FAU’s Bryan Greenleeknocked down a 3-pointer and the Owls pushed their lead to 10.

The Knights managed to get within 76-70, and still had a chancewhen Greenlee missed two free throws. But Roberts, FDU’slightning-quick 5-foot-8 guard, misfired on a layup, and thegraduate student who followed Anderson to FDU from a Division IIschool began to untuck his jersey knowing his tournament wasover.

Anderson, who turned around a program that went 4-22 a year ago,told his players not to foul and let the final seconds run off. ButFAU’s Martin tried and missed a 360-degree dunk, leading to anawkward exchange and tense postgame handshake between Anderson andOwls coach Dusty May.

“I apologized to him for that but also reminded him we’re theadults,” May said. “We’ve got to fix that behavior. It’s part ofthe game. I apologized to him.”

FDU came up short in its bid to become the first No. 16 to wintwice in the tournament. The same thing happened to UMBC five yearsago, when it shocked defending champion Virginia and then lost toKansas State in the second round.