MIAMI– A season-high crowd of 1,735 saw a tough loss for FIU men's basketball (14-16, 7-11) to Middle Tennessee (16-14, 10-9) in the penultimate home game of the 2025-26 season.

A pair of dunks by Eric Dibami and Corey Stephenson got the Panthers rolling in the game, up 8-3 with 17 minutes left in the first. The lead fizzled away after this opening run, but Stephenson pushed it back to a six-point game after a dunk at 11:59.

There were several lead changes and ties over the final 11:59 of the half, with no team pulling away by more than three. Trailing by three with 1:47 remaining, Zawdie Jackson converted his 21st and 22nd consecutive free throws to cut it to one, got the defensive rebound on the next possession and found Hamed Olayinka for another dunk. The lead was 34-33 heading into halftime.

The Panthers pushed the pace out of the break, getting the lead to seven after a Stephenson steal and Jackson finish at 14:25. Another Jackson layup on the next possession extended it to nine, the largest lead of the day for FIU.

MTSU crawled back into the game over the next eight minutes, going on an 11-2 run to tie it on a three-pointer. Two more three-pointers staved off the Panthers, who fell down by four in the blink of an eye.

A Stephenson and-one midrange jumper cut the deficit to one with four minutes left, but back-to-back turnovers led to six points for the visitors and a seven-point lead. 

With 1:27 left, Dibami made one of two free throws and had a huge block on the other end, but turned the ball over on the other side, forcing a foul and the Blue Raiders to close out the game. FIU couldn't find any makes, falling 73-67.

Mackey surpassed 1,000 career points late in the game, leading the Panthers with 16 points in the loss. Dibami (13), Stephenson (13) and Jackson (11) all had 10+ points, with Jackson tying his season-high with six assists, finishing one off 500 in his career. Olayinka had nine rebounds, and Dibami had eight with four blocks, tying a season-high.

UP NEXT

FIU hosts Western Kentucky on Saturday to close out the regular season with its conference tournament fate to be determined.

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