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BOCA RATON, Fla. (March 6, 2014) – Trailing by as many as 16 points, the FIU men's basketball team (15-16, 7-9 C-USA) battled back to defeat the Florida Atlantic Owls (10-21, 5-11 C-USA), 74-70, at the FAU Arena on Thursday night.

The Panthers were led by redshirt junior Dennis Mavin, who posted 23 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the floor and was a perfect 10-of-10 from the free-throw line. The contest marked the first game for Mavin at the Burrow since playing for the Owls for two seasons (2010-11 & 2011-12). Redshirt senior Rakeem Buckles added 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting, including a key break-away dunk to put the Panthers up by four with 17 seconds left to play. Senior Tymell Murphy contributed 13 points, grabbed a team-high eight rebounds and registered a game-high six steals to close out his FIU career.

After a 13-0 run in the middle of the first half, the Panthers went into halftime down 38-30. FIU was led by Mavin, who posted 11 points on 3-of-6 shooting from the floor and 4-of-4 shooting from the line. The Panthers converted 45.0 percent (9-of-20) of their shots from the floor and was 10-of-12 from the charity stripe. The Owls held a 15-11 edge on the boards and forced eight FIU turnovers, resulting in 12 points for FAU.

The Panthers came out in the second half and chipped away at the FAU lead. FIU pulled within two, 50-48 on a bucket by Mavin with 10:14 left in the game. On the ensuing possession, Mavin rebounded a missed jumper by Marquan Botley and found senior Steven Miro for the game-tying layup, 50-50, with 9:47 on the clock. FIU took its first lead of the game at 9:01 in the second half following another layup by Mavin, 52-50.

The waning minutes of the second half saw four lead changes before Buckles' dunk with 17 seconds sealed the deal for the Panthers. A pair of free-throws closed out the game as FIU won 74-70.

The win snapped a two-game, road, losing skid and ended the Panthers' season with a 15-16 overall mark (7-9 C-USA).    
 
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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 Alfonso Field at FIU Stadium.
 
About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. Its colleges and schools offer more than 180 bachelor¹s, master¹s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida¹s anchor institutions, FIU is Worlds Ahead in its local and global engagement, finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. FIU has awarded 200,000 degrees and enrolls 50,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU,visithttp://www.fiu.edu/.