STATESBORO, Ga. (Nov. 24, 2014) – Senior
Adrian Diaz scored a career-high 33 points, but that was not enough, as the FIU men's basketball team fell to Georgia Southern on Monday night, 78-72. The Panthers drop to 3-1 on the young season.
Diaz stuffed the stat sheet, draining 33 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two blocks in 37 minutes of action, while going 12-of-16 from the field. Junior
Daviyon Draper was the team's second leading scorer, checking in with nine points.
After the Eagles jumped out to a 5-0 lead to start the contest, Diaz hit a jumper in the paint and senior
Dennis Mavin followed with a three-point play to make it 5-5 game at the 16:04 mark. Georgia Southern responded with a three on the other end, but back-to-back layups by Diaz put the Panthers in front 9-8. FIU would maintain a lead of no more than one until the 8:24 mark.
The Eagles went on a 6-0 run with 7:48 to go in the first half to jump ahead, 21-6. Diaz followed on the other end with a layup to go along with a free throw and senior
Kris Gulley made one of two free-throws to cut the lead to 21-20 at the six-minute mark. Georgia Southern answered with another 6-0 run to increase its lead to seven. Senior
Marco Porcher Jimenez hit his first three of the game with 3:28 to go in the half, but the Eagles came back with another lead to make it a seven-point game with 2:47 left.
Sophomore
Dominique Williams scored the next five points of the game to shrink the Eagle lead to two. After Georgia Southern's Curtis Diamon hit a jumper, Diaz scored with 17 seconds to go in the first half to cap off his 13-point first stanza. Two free-throws for the Eagles made it a four-point deficit for FIU going into halftime.
The Eagles came out on fire in the second half, connecting on four threes heading into the media timeout with a 48-39 lead. From there, Georgia Southern would up its lead to 12, going on a 14-11 run to make it 62-50 with 8:43 to go. Then trailing by 11, redshirt sophomore
Ray Rodriguez hit his second three of the game and Diaz sank a free-throw to cut the Eagle lead to 62-54. Gulley then nailed his second three of the contest with 7:09 remaining to make it just a five-point game.
The Eagles next four points came on free-throws to make it a 66-54 contest. Diaz came back with two free-throws to make it 66-58 with 5:34 remaining. Then trailing by nine with 2:40 to play, FIU began a run. Diaz started things off with a layup and Draper made two free-throws to make it five points. Junior
Tashawn Desir stole the ensuing inbounds pass and found Porcher Jimenez for a wide open three. The Panthers just trailed by two, 72-70 with1:27 to go. The Eagles would go on and make their free-throws down the stretch, resulting in a 78-72 victory for Georgia Southern.
FIU is back in action this Thursday at USC Upstate. Tip time is slated for 3:30 p.m.
Fans are encouraged to follow @FIUMensBBall on Twitter, and "Like" FIU men's basketball on Facebook (
www.Facebook.com/FIUMensBBall) for the latest Panther basketball news. Follow all of FIU's 18 athletic teams on Google+ (FIU Athletics), Twitter (@FIUAthletics), Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUSports), YouTube (FIUPanthers), and Instagram (FIUathletics).
#####
About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including FIU Arena and Ocean Bank Field at FIU Stadium.About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers more than 180 bachelor's, master's and doctoralprograms in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes $9.8 billion each year to the local economy. FIU is Worlds Ahead in finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. FIU has awarded over 200,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has over 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.
