FIU MBB Comes Up Short Against UTEP In Penultimate Regular Season Game

Following the high of knocking off Western Kentucky on Senior Day, the Panthers couldn’t recreate that success against UTEP in their second-to-last game of the regular season, falling by a score of 83-76.

FIU didn’t do themselves any favors early on, falling to a deficit of 16-0 in the first few minutes of the game. They eventually crawled back into the game but the first half was ultimately disastrous for them.

Down 40-26 at halftime, the turnovers hurt FIU once more. Even more interesting than that was their inability to cash in on the deep ball despite some solid looks, unlike how good they looked doing that against the Hilltoppers.

For the first 10 minutes of the second half, UTEP did a solid job maintaining a 20-point despite a more aggressive FIU offense.

Eventually, the Panthers got into a massive scoring run, ultimately cutting the lead to six points with 10 seconds to go. Ultimately, it wasn’t enough.

It wasn’t all bad news. Jayden Brewer has a solid game off the bench, leading FIU scorers with 23 points and four rebounds. After sitting out the last game due to a nagging injury, Arturo Dean got back into the swing of things with 13 points and three steals.

Still, the loss drops FIU’s record to 10-20 overall, with a 5-10 record against Conference USA opponents.

There’s only one game left in the regular season, and it’s not far from El Paso. FIU will head to Las Cruces to take on the New Mexico State Aggies on Saturday, March 9th at 4 pm.