BOCA RATON, Fla. – The FIU men's basketball team dropped its Conference USA opener at FAU on Saturday afternoon, 79-53, inside Eleanor R. Baldwin Arena, as Denver Jones and Mohamed Sanogo paced the Panthers on the day with 12 and 11 points, respectively. The loss moves FIU to 4-6 overall and 0-1 in league action.
 
Jones hit 6-of-7 free throws en route to his team-high 12 points, while recording three rebounds and a season-high four steals. Battling foul trouble through the game's entirety, Sanogo recorded all 11 of his points in the second half on 5-of-7 shooting, in addition to pulling down four rebounds.
 
Gradaute forward Nick Guadarrama added eight points, four rebounds and three steals, followed by freshman guard Arturo Dean with eight points, two assists and three rebounds and steals each.
 
The Panthers connected on just 21-of-50 (42.0%) for the contest, though, suffering from just 11.1 percent shooting from beyond the arc (1-of-9) in furtherance of FIU's shooting slump over the past four games.
 
FAU (10-1, 1-0 C-USA) forced a season-high 23 turnovers on the Panthers, including 16 in the first half, to capitalize for 27 points in return during the contest, while also finishing plus-16 on the glass (42-26) with 17 second chance points.
 
The Owls used balanced scoring throughout the contest, seeing FAU's bench hang 53 points to FIU's 22, to finish 44.6 percent from the field (29-of-65), though, just hitting 7-of-29 from 3-point range (24.1%). The Owls also were solid from the stripe, hitting 14-of-16 for the contest (87.5%).
 
Four Owls finished in double figures, led by Alijah Martin with 18 points, followed by Johnell Davis (13), Vladislav Goldin (12) and Michael Forrest (10).
 
Guadarrama paced the Panthers to start with six points through the opening minutes, as FIU briefly led 8-5 prior to the Owls rattling off a momentum swinging 17-4 run - that saw FIU cough up five turnovers during the swing - to corral a double-digit edge, 22-12 (10:37).
 
Both squads exchanged buckets from there, seeing Jones hit a pair at the line (25-14) to spark FIU into busting an 11-2 run that brought the game within one possession by the 4:38 mark, 27-25. After the free throws, Jones would finish at the rim the next trip down prior to Arturo Dean ripping a steal for a transition layup on the other end, 25-18. Dashon Gittens went coast-to-coast on the ensuing possession to finish a two-hand slam to force an Owls timeout (25-20), as Jones hit another pair at the line before converting an and-one finish at the line to cap the run.
 
It would be all FAU from there, as the Owls caught a massive second wind to rattle off a 17-0 run to end the half and bust the game open at the break, 44-25.
 
The Owls hit 48.5 percent of their looks from the floor through the first 20 minutes, including 4-of-13 from beyond the arc (30.8%) and 8-of-9 from the free-throw line (88.9%).
 
The Panthers played resiliently and battled through the second half, though, FAU was clicking on all cylinders after a hot start – including tallying 44 points inside the paint for the contest - to reach leads as large as 33 points to ultimately come away with the 79-53 victory by the final horn.
 
UP NEXT
FIU returns to the Ocean Bank Convocation Center on Wednesday, Dec. 21, as the Panthers host Incarnate Word in Miami for a 7 p.m. matchup to be broadcast on CUSA.tv.
 
TICKETS
For more information on FIU tickets to FIU basketball home games, including student ticketing, call 305-FIU-GAME or visit HERE.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
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