MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (Feb. 6, 2016) – After a tough loss on Thursday night at UAB, the FIU men's basketball team hoped to pick up a much needed split of its two-game road trip, on Saturday at Middle Tennessee. Both teams went toe-to-toe just like you would expect in a key mid-season conference showdown.
Unfortunately, for the Panthers, the Blue Raiders were the last ones standing as they handed FIU a 67-66 loss in front of 5,298 at the Murphy Center. The loss, the Panthers' fourth-straight, drops FIU to 11-13 on the season, and 5-6 in Conference USA.
Daviyon Draper tied his career-high with a game-high 25 points, and
Donte McGill chipped in with 15 points and a game-high nine rebounds in the loss.
The Blue Raiders (17-6, 9-2 C-USA) were hot from behind the three-point arc in the first half, shooting 7-of 15 (46.7 percent) from long distance with three of the seven treys coming in the first 3:55 of the game by Giddy Potts, the last of which would give Middle Tennessee a 9-4 advantage.
After the Blue Raiders extended their lead, to what would eventually be a game-high seven points at 16-9 with 12:45 left in the half, the Panthers would cut the lead to one on three occasions, but could not tie the game or take the lead. Middle Tennessee took a 33-30 into the locker room at the break.
McGill paced the Panthers in the first 20 minutes, breaking out of his double-figure scoring slump with 10 first-half points.
FIU came out in the second half and scored eight of the first 12 points of the stanza to take its first lead of the game, 38-37, on a
Kimar Williams runner in the lane with 15:59 left
The Panthers held the lead for the majority of the second half, pushing their advantage to what became their largest lead of the game of nine points, 54-45, on the three-point shot by Draper with 7:39 left.
Middle Tennessee did not go away as Potts capped an 8-2 run with three of his 15 points, to tie the game at 56-all with 4:51 left.
Draper scored FIU's next five points, on back-to-back possessions, to put the Panthers back up by three, 61-58, with 4:03 remaining, but the Blue Raiders put together a timely 8-1 run to take a four-point lead, 66-62, with two minutes left.
Draper tied the game up at 66-66 with eight seconds left, but could not get over the hump in the final seconds.
Draper did most all of his damage in the second half, shooting 8-of-11 from the field after the intermission, and scoring 18 of his 25 points in the second.
The Panthers shot 51 percent (26-of-51) from the field on the night, including an impressive 62.5 percent (15-of-24) from the floor in the second half. FIU also recovered from a dismal 16.7 percent (1-of-6) shooting performance from behind the three-point arc in the first half to shoot 60 percent (3-of-5) from long range in the final half.
Middle Tennessee took advantage of 14 Panthers' miscues, leading to 16 points.
FIU will return home on Thursday, Feb. 11 to face UTEP, before welcoming UTSA to Lime Court at FIU Arena on Feb. 13. Both games tip off at 7 p.m.
For men's basketball ticket information, contact the FIU Ticket Office at 305-FIU-GAME or log onto www.FIUSports.com.
Fans are encouraged to follow @FIUHoops 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 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/.
