MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — FIU's men's basketball team concludes a stretch of five road Conference USA (CUSA) games in its first seven matchups with a tilt at Middle Tennessee on Saturday evening at 6 p.m. ET.
The Panthers are in search of their first road CUSA win, taking on MTSU before heading back to Miami for three straight home games over a two-week span. FIU continues to apply its patented pressure style, forcing 18.6 turnovers per game and grabbing 11.4 steals per game, of which rank second and fourth in the country, respectively.
FIU's backcourt duo of Javaunte Hawkins and Arturo Dean have paced the Panthers this season. Hawkins leads CUSA in three-point percentage and ranks inside the top-30 nationally in three pointers made per game, total three pointers per game and three point percentage.
Dean has done his work on both ends of the floor, leading the Panthers in both rebounds and assist while maintaining his status as the national leader in steals. Dean's 79 steals lead the nation as do his 3.95 steals per game.
SCOUTING MTSU
Middle Tennessee enters this matchup following its first CUSA win, a wire-to-wire 75-67 win over Jacksonville State at home on Wednesday.
The Blue Raiders are led by Jestin Porter's 12.7 ppg, but also get a scoring punch from deep from Elias King. King has made 43 three-pointers on the season to lead MTSU. Jared Coleman-Jones provides a presence in the middle with 7.1 rpg and 1.1 bpg.
This matchup will be a meeting of FIU's high-powered offense and MTSU's solid defense, which allows just 66.6 ppg. A key for the Panthers will be to continue to push the pace and score as Middle Tennessee's offense will have to play a higher-pace that it has to keep up.
