FIU MBB Wraps Up 2023-24 Season, Fall to SHSU in C-USA Tourney

The magic that we saw when FIU knocked off Jacksonville State may have taken a lot out of this team. Ultimately, the Panthers had nothing left in the tank against the best team in the conference.

FIU looked to make a statement early on with an 8-2 lead two minutes in. But that was the peak of the Panthers’ offensive success in this game, as the Bearkats took the lead and never looked back, beating FIU by a score of 78-59.

Similar issues to when they played the Gamecocks seemed to rear their ugly head once more. They couldn’t find consistent success from beyond the arc and also struggled to push in the paint.

Meanwhile, the Panthers couldn’t feed off of SHSU’s mistakes because they played an immaculate game, forcing fewer turnovers than Jax State, giving FIU fewer opportunities to capitalize off of them, which they specialized in this season.

A rather emotionless team, the Bearkats’ offense never got stale for more than a couple of minutes. At halftime, they led by 16 points and were in full control to cruise in the second half.

“We’ve unfortunately found ourselves in those situations a lot and reflected on the first half and knew that we left a lot of opportunities on the table,” said head coach Jeremy Ballard postgame. “We made a lot of plays to beat ourselves. And again, Sam Houston’s a great program. They’ve had a great season. They didn’t need any help beating us, but we gave them way too much assistance in that regard.”

Ultimately, that’s exactly what happened. FIU dropped five straight points to start off the second half, but that was met with an eight-point run by Sam Houston State.

There were no late-game theatrics or an epic comeback like what we saw with Jacksonville State. SHSU led by as many as 28 points with eight minutes to go, and that only dropped to a 19-point lead with a minute to go.

The big killer for FIU? The inability to match Sam Houston State in rebounds, trailing 47 to 26. They got a whole chunk of points off of them and killed time in the process.

Steals, a category on which FIU has prided itself, were also won by the Bearkats, who stole seven plays compared to FIU’s five.

Arturo Dean, who led the way for FIU yesterday, didn’t perform quite as well tonight, finishing with 16 points, eight rebounds, and two steals.

Maybe it was convenient that the Panthers were led by their senior shooter Javaunte Hawkins, who played his final game with FIU. He earned a respectable 20 points, including a curtain call with minutes to spare.

Just like that, FIU’s season is over. They finished with an 11-22 record and only won five games against Conference USA opponents. They finished with three fewer wins than the prior season.

The season was set with some setbacks including a season-ending injury for Jonathan Aybar early on. The bright spot of the season had to have been what they accomplished yesterday, to have the ability to say they won a postseason game.