Box Score Game Details
FIU 58, Florida Atlantic 57
FIU (7-7, 1-0 C-USA), Florida Atlantic (6-8, 0-1 C-USA)
Miami, Fla. | Ocean Bank Convocation Center
 
The Basics
- The FIU men's basketball team went 4-for-5 from the free-throw line in the final 1:42, including the tying and go-ahead attempts from the charity stripe by Brian Beard, Jr. (Rancho Cucamonga, California) with 56 seconds remaining, to pull out a thrilling 58-57 win over rival Florida Atlantic in the Conference USA opener for both schools. The win evens the Panthers' record at 7-7 on the year (1-0 C-USA) while the Owls drop to 6-8 overall (0-1 C-USA).
 
- Trejon Jacob (Raleigh, North Carolina) led the way with a game-high 17 points, while Beard, Jr. added 16 points, to account for 33 of the Panthers' 58 points in the win. The next highest scorer was Michael Douglas (Sachse, Texas) with nine points. Elhadji Dieng (Mbour, Senegal) grabbed a team- and career-high eight rebounds.
 
- The Panthers led by as many as eight points in the first half on a layup by Beard, Jr. with 5:19 left in the first. The Owls cut the lead to four with FIU taking a 29-25 edge into the locker room at the intermission.
 
- FIU looked as if they were going to pull away in the second half extending its advantage to a game-high nine points, 37-28, after a Brian Beard, Jr. steal and assist to Jacob for a driving dunk up the middle of the lane with16:15 left in the contest. Beard. Jr. finished the game with his third six-steal outing of the year.
 
- Florida Atlantic, however, put together a 11-3 run to take the lead, 41-40, with 11:51 left in the game. The Owls held the lead for most of the remainder of the game until Jacob drained a deep three from the corner to put the Panthers up two with 2:30 on the clock. FAU then retaliated with its own trey on the next possession to regain the edge before FIU closed out the game scoring four of the final six points. The Owls did have one final opportunity with three seconds left on the clock following a Beard, Jr. missed free-throw, however Jacob stole the pass of the defensive rebound and ran the clock out.   
 
- The game wasn't pretty from an offensive standpoint, with FIU shooting 32.8 percent (20-for-61) and FAU hitting just 33.8 percent (22-for-65), however the Panthers shot a season-high 70 percent (14-for-20) from the free-throw line on the night.
 
The Turning Point
Despite FAU having one final opportunity with three seconds left, the Panthers' 4-for-5 shooting down the stretch and Jacobs's steal with time running out proved to be the dagger that put the Owls away.    
 
Stat of the Game
The game wasn't pretty from an offensive standpoint, with FIU shooting 32.8 percent (20-for-61) and FAU hitting just 33.8 percent (22-for-65), however the Panthers shot a season-high 70 percent (14-for-20) from the free-throw line on the night.    
 
Notable
- Tonight's starters for FIU were: G Trejon Jacob, G Brian Beard, Jr., G Eric Lockett (Warner Robins, Georgia), F Hassan Hussein (Lorton, Virginia), and C Elhadji Dieng … The Panthers are 3-6 with this starting five.
- FIU improved its all-time record in conference openers to 12-15 with its 58-57 win over FAU tonight, and 4-1 in Conference USA lid-lifters
- The Panthers snapped their two-game skid against the Owls with the win.
- G Trejon Jacob netted double-figures for the 12^th time this season with his 17 points.
- G Brian Beard, Jr.'s 16 points marks his 12^th double-figure scoring performance of the season, and the 12^th-straight.
- Beard, Jr. handed out a career-high eight assists, surpassing the previous mark of seven, set three, the last coming against Florida Gulf Coast on Dec. 19. Beard, Jr. also equaled his career-high and Conference USA best six assists … He also had six steals against Hartford on Dec. 22 and USF on Dec. 11 … Beard, Jr. came into the game ranked third in the nation in steals-per-game, averaging 3.3 per outing.
- F Jay Harvey (Chicago, Illinois) recorded a new career-high with four points. 

Up Next
The Panthers will return to the court on Thursday, Jan. 4, when it welcomes Middle Tennessee and UAB on Saturday, Jan. 6, to the Ocean Bank Convocation Center. Both games will tip off at 7 p.m. 

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