FIU’s big three deliver in win over FAU

David Drucker/ Staff Writer

It wasn’t quite a rivalry renewed, but the University’s men’s basketball team (13-16, 7-9 in Conference USA) outlasted Florida Atlantic University in a 71-63 victory on Saturday, Feb. 27, to snap their two-game losing streak.

The Owls (7-22, 5-11 in C-USA) cut the Panthers’ 19-point lead down to six with less than a minute left, but FIU was able to stay ahead thanks to big games from senior forward Daviyon Draper (21 points), junior guard Donte McGill (19 points) and senior Adrian Diaz (17 points).

In FIU and FAU’s previous meeting this season, Diaz scored a game-high 23 points while his Panthers crushed the Owls 76-59 in the C-USA opener. This weekend’s game was a far cry from that hopeful beginning of the conference stretch.

Instead, with a chance at a first-round bye being distant, the men’s basketball team fought to avoid their football program’s mistakes by defeating another bottom-dwelling FAU team hungry for an upset.

Both teams had a poor first half of offense – FIU went 13-34 from the field while FAU shot 7-26. Diaz scored FIU’s first basket 1:01 into the game, but the Panthers wouldn’t score again for another 6:18. McGill broke that scoring drought with a layup with 12:43 left in the half to put FIU up 5-4.

This sparked a run by McGill, who scored FIU’s next five points. FAU kept the game close as both teams failed to convert shots.

Draper ignited a small FIU run with 6:24 left in the first half and put FIU up 15-14. The senior forward scored the game’s next seven next points to give the Panthers a 22-14 lead with 3:50 left in the first half.

Neither team was able to score in the half’s last four minutes and the Panthers took the 22-14 lead into halftime.

The Owls cut the Panthers’ lead to as little as four with 15:02 left in the second half before the Panthers went on a 20-5 run over the next 7:17 to take a 55-36 lead. With 7:22 left, however, FAU was able to get the lead back down to six with 16 seconds left to play. They missed the three pointer to cut the lead down to three though and dropped the game 71-63.

FIU closes out its regular season in a two-game home stand beginning on Thursday night when they host the University of Alabama at Birmingham Blazers, who clinched the C-USA regular season title on Saturday in a 71-67 win over Western Kentucky University. The Panthers then host Middle Tennessee on Saturday, March 5, at 6 p.m. in their last game of the regular season.