Once Upon A Time In Las Vegas – Divisional Round
FIU (8-10 SU, 7-9 ATS) travels to El Paso to take on UTEP (10-8 SU, 12-4 ATS) on Thursday night at 9pmET.
FIU (2-5 C-USA) and UTEP (3-4 C-USA) are both looking to move up in the conference. Last season, these teams met once with the Miners winning 79-68 at home.
The FIU Panthers have lost three straight and have averaged just 63 points per game in that span. That includes a 77-73 overtime loss at home to FAU on Jan. 11. Despite their issues, FIU has covered in five of their last games. In their last game, the Panthers fell at home to North Texas 64-57. Denver Jones led the Panthers with 19 points on 7-of-18 shooting, but he also committed five of the team's 16 turnovers. FIU also shot just 4-of-15 (27%) from beyond the arc. North Texas needed a 19-4 run to take this game.
FIU ranks near the bottom of most of the categories in Conference USA. They allow 74.4 points per game to rank 10th out of 11 teams, 4th in field goal percentage (46.5%), 8th in field goal defense (43.7%), 10th in three-point percentage (30.3%) and 11th in three-point defense (37.5%). They also rank last in rebounding margin (-4.22) and 10th in assist/turnover ratio (0.81). Jones leads the Panthers in sc oring with 18.9 points per game on 50.2% shooting (40.8% 3pt). Guard Arturo Dean adds 12.2 points, 2.8 assists and 4.2 rebounds on 47.5% shooting.