BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (Jan. 10, 2015) – The FIU men's basketball team (8-8, 1-2) closed out an eight-game road slate with a 70-53 loss to the UAB Blazers on Saturday afternoon at Bartow Arena.
FIU was led by senior guard
Dennis Mavin, who poured in 12 points to go along with six rebounds and four assists in 36 minutes of action. In total, 11 of 12 players on the FIU roster scored. The Panthers led 31-28 at halftime, but were outscored 42-22 by UAB in the second half. After shooting 50 percent in the first half, FIU was held to just 32 percent shooting in the second half. FIU turned the ball over 21 times and UAB scored 16 points off those turnovers.
A basket by junior
Daviyon Draper and a three-point play by junior
Adrian Diaz allowed FIU to jump out to a 5-3 lead in the early stages of the contest. Junior
Ray Rodriguez hit his first three of the game and then made a free throw to give the Panthers a 10-7 lead at the 14:10 mark. Then leading 12-11, FIU scored the next four points on baskets by Mavin and Diaz to increase the lead to five points.
FIU maintained that five-point lead and from there would score four-straight on a field goal by Mavin and two from the charity stripe by Draper to give the Panthers their largest lead of the half, 24-15. Then with FIU leading 26-19, UAB came back with a mini 4-0 run of its own. Rodriguez hit his second three-pointer and Draper made a layup to close the half with the Panthers leading 31-28.
The Blazers opened the second half on a 11-1 run, which included two from long range to lead 40-33. Mavin ended the FIU drought with a layup at the 13:01 mark to cut the UAB lead to five. The Panthers would get two more scores from Mavin and junior
Michael Phillip, but the Blazers would pour in 12 of the game's next 16 points to take a 52-39 lead to force FIU Head Coach
Anthony Evans to call a timeout.
UAB would add two more free throws before senior
Kris Gulley drained a three to make it 56-42 with 7:30 to go. Sophomore
Dominique Williams added the next five Panthers points to make it 58-47. The Blazers quickly responded with four-straight points to up the lead back to 15 with under five minutes remaining. Junior
Tashawn Desir and freshman
Hassan Hussein each had buckets to make it 65-51 with under three minutes to go, but the Blazers answered on the other end to make it a 16-point game. A three by UAB and a hook shot in the lane by sophomore
Jonas Page resulted in a 70-53 final.
FIU returns home for the first time in 44 days on Thursday, when it hosts Marshall on Lime Court at FIU Arena. Tip time is set for 7:30 p.m. ET.
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).
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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 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 doctoral programs 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/.
