MIAMI (December 17, 2016) – The FIU men's basketball team got a team-high 20 points from
Donte McGill, but only five other Panthers combined for 33 points, as Northern Illinois handed FIU a hard-fought 60-53 loss Saturday night on Lime Court at FIU Arena.
The setback drops the Panthers to 3-9 on the year while the Huskies improve to 6-5.
FIU shot 48 percent (12-of-25) from the field in the first half and held NIU to just 35.7 percent (10-of-28) from the floor as the Panthers took a 30-29 advantage into the locker room at the break. It was only FIU's third halftime lead of the season, and first since Nov. 27 against Binghamton.
The Huskies held their biggest lead of the game with 8:07 left in the first stanza when Dontel Highsmith scored three of his game-high 23 points to put NIU up 19-10.
The Panthers, however, would outscore the Huskies 20-10 over the next eight minutes capped by an
Anthony Boswell three-point shot with four seconds left in the first stanza to give FIU the lead going into the locker room.
As good as the Panthers shot in the first half, they would struggle just as much from the field in the second 20 minutes of play hitting just 24.1 percent (7-of-29) from the field, including just one of its 11 shots from behind the three-point arc.
Despite its misfortunes offensively in the second half, FIU stayed within striking distance and didn't let the Huskies pull away.
With Northern Illinois leading by seven, 47-40, with 9:02 left in the game, the Panthers scored seven of the next eight points, led by
Eric Nottage with five of the seven during the stretch, to cut the Huskies lead to one, 48-47, with 5:23 left.
Unfortunately for FIU that would be as close at it would get the rest of the way, as NIU went 8-of-10 from the free-throw line down the stretch accounting for eight of its final 12 points of the game.
The Panthers finished the night shooting 35.2 percent (19-of-54) from the field, including 23.8 percent (5-of-21) from behind the three-point arc, and 62.5 percent (10-of-16) from the charity stripe.
Along with McGill, Boswell added nine points and
Michael Kessens and Nottage chipped in with eight points apiece.
Kimar Williams grabbed a game-high eight rebounds and tied his career-high with seven assists.
The Panthers close out their 2016-17 non-conference schedule on Wednesday, Dec. 21 at 7 p.m. when in-state foe North Florida visits FIU Arena. After a short break for the holidays, FIU will close out its current five-game homestand as it opens Conference USA play against Marshall on Dec. 31 (1 p.m.) and WKU on Jan. 2 (7 p.m.).
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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 at the FIU Football 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 Florida's 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, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.
