MIAMI (January 21, 2017) – The FIU men's basketball team picked up a much needed win on Saturday night, while also picking up its first Conference USA victory of the season. The Panthers got a career-high and FIU Arena-record 37 points from Eric Nottage and 24 points from Donte McGill as FIU stunned UAB, 94-85, on Lime Court at FIU Arena, snapping the Blazers five-game winning streak, while ending its own six-game skid.

The Panthers improve to 5-15 on the year and 1-6 in league play. UAB, who came into tonight's game in a two-way tie for second in the C-USA standings with Louisiana Tech, drops its record to 12-8 and 5-2 in C-USA.

Nottage's 37 points, which is the top mark in C-USA this season, surpasses the previous record of 35 set at FIU Arena by DeJuan Wright against South Alabama on Feb. 26, 2012. It also fell two points shy of equaling the school's single-game mark of 39 set by Carlos Arroyo at North Texas on Dec. 30, 2000.

The Miami native shot a blistering 11-of-12 (91.7 percent) from the field and was perfect from three-point range (6-of-6) and the free-throw line (9-of-9).

McGill also had a solid night offensively hitting 63.6 percent (7-of-11) of his shots from the floor and went 10-of-11 (90.0 percent) from the charity stripe in the win.

As a team, FIU played its best 40 minutes of basketball all season shooting 65.3 percent (32-of-49) from the field, which is the first time since joining Conference USA that the Panthers have shot better than 60 percent from the floor, and the first time since Nov. 29, 2012 against Arkansas State (60.4 percent) that they accomplished the feat.

After UAB got out to a quick start right off the opening tip, hitting the first two treys it attempted to take a 6-0 lead, FIU proceeded to go on a 16-0 run over the next four-plus minutes to take a 16-6 lead with 14:10 left in the half on a McGill jumper.

The Blazers, however, battled back to cut the lead to three points twice in the final two minutes, the second coming on a Chris Cokley jumper with 1:17 left in the first stanza. UAB cut the Panthers' lead to one-point, 40-39, on a layup by Deion Lavender with three seconds left, a margin that stood at the intermission.  

The first seven-plus minutes of the second half saw a game of cat-and-mouse between the two teams as neither FIU nor UAB led by more than five points until Elmo Stephen drained a deep trey for three of his 14 points on the night to put the Panthers up six, 54-48, with 14:56 left in the game. Stephen's make started a 12-3 run that gave FIU a 12-point 63-51 lead with 12:09 left on a three-point shot by Anthony Boswell.

The Blazers fought back and cut the lead to two points on a Denzell Watts three with 8:49 left to make the score 66-64, but that was as close as UAB would get the rest of the night.

The Panthers eventually pushed their advantage to a game-high 14 points, 88-74, when Nottage hit three free-throws after being fouled on a three-point attempt with 1:12 left in the contest.

Michael Kessens, who fouled out after playing just 28 minutes and scoring six points, still grabbed a game-high seven rebounds in the win.

In addition to their overall shooting percentage from the field, FIU was on fire from behind the three-point arc – mostly because of Nottage – shooting 71.4 percent (10-of-14) from long range.

The Panthers' 94 points were also the most points scored since joining Conference USA and the most since pouring in 96 points against Arkansas-Little Rock on Jan. 23, 2010 in a 96-81 win.

UAB finished the night hitting 54.7 percent (29-of-53) of its shots from the field and 47.4 percent (9-of-19) from deep.

FIU closes out its brief home stretch on Thursday, Jan. 26, against longtime conference rival Florida Atlantic at 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/.