SAN ANTONIO, Texas (January 14, 2017) – The FIU men's basketball team, who trailed by as many as 14 points in the second half, stormed back to take as much as a three-point lead with less than four minutes left in the game, but could not hold on as UTSA pulled out a gut-wrenching 57-55 win Saturday afternoon.
Elmo Stephen scored a career- and game-high 21 points, while
Michael Kessens and
Eric Nottage added 17 and 13 points, respectively. Kessens also pulled down a team-high nine rebounds in the loss.
FIU is now 4-14 on the year and 0-5 in Conference USA, while the Roadrunners are 9-9 and 4-1 in league play.
Trailing 44-31 after Giovanni DeNicolao hit two free throws with 15:57 on the clock, FIU went on a 20-6 run to take a one-point advantage, 51-50, on a short jumper by Kessens with 6:24 left in the game.
Stephen played a major role in getting the run going scoring the first nine points during the 20-point stretch on three-straight three-point shots.
The Panthers pushed their lead to three, equaling FIU's largest advantage of the game, on a driving layup by Nottage that saw the Miami native split defenders, drive the lane and rise above two more Roadrunners' defenders to lay the ball in at the rim, making the score 55-52 with 3:52 left. That was the final time that FIU scored, with UTSA scoring the final five points of the game en route to the win.
The Panthers had two opportunities in the final 27 seconds to regain the lead, but a three-point shot by Stephen and a missed layup by Nottage left FIU just short.
The Panthers shot a season-low 34.5 percent (20-of-58) from the field on the afternoon and just 29.2 percent (7-of-24).
In the opening stanza, neither team led by more than four points for nearly the first seven minutes of the game.
With FIU leading by two points, 12-10, after a Kessens three-point shot with 13:16 left in the first half, UTSA put together a 19-2 run over a six-plus minute stretch to take its biggest lead of the game, 29-14, with 6:14 left before the intermission.
The Roadrunners kept the lead at double-digits through the remainder of the first half. Neither team shot well from the field in the first 20 minutes of play as the Panthers hit just 32.1 percent (9-of-28) from the floor, including 26.7 percent (4-of-15) from behind the three-point arc. UTSA was just 10-of-32 (31.3 percent) from the field and 30 percent (3-of-10) from three-point range.
The Panthers return home to Lime Court at FIU Arena on Jan. 19 when they face defending Conference USA Tournament champion Middle Tennessee (7 p.m.) and UAB on Jan. 21 (7 p.m.).
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/.
