By: Joel Delgado / Sports Director
Whenever the Golden Panthers face off with the South Alabama Jaguars, they usually find themselves coming up short at the end.
Things finally changed as the Panthers soundly defeated the Jaguars 73-62 on Jan. 9, improving their winning streak to three games as they prepare for a difficult two-game road swing out west against North Texas and Denver.
“We are getting better,” Coach Isiah Thomas said “I’m very satisfied with the win. It was a successful weekend and we’ll get prepared for the next road trip. I like the way my team is playing.”
With a staunch defensive effort early on, the Golden Panthers were able to win their first game against the Jaguars since a meeting in early 2007 at the U.S. Century Bank Arena.
Marvin Roberts, who has struggled most of the season matching the kind of point production he was able to churn out last season, burst through with a team-high 18 points for the game.
Alex Legion also provided a spark for the Golden Panther offense with 15 points of his own to go along with six rebounds.
“I’m definitely feeling more comfortable out there,” Roberts said. “Hopefully we’ll more of these kinds of wins to come.”
The Golden Panthers (8-7, 3-0 SBC) were also able outrebound the Jaguars (7-8, 1-3 SBC) underneath the basket, something FIU has struggled to do all season long. Eric Frederick helped lead the effort down low with 12 rebounds for the game.
“It’s important for us [to rebound] because we do a good job getting stops,” Thomas said. “When we get a team to miss it’s important that we complete it with a rebound. It’s not just one person’s responsibility.”
Despite leading by as much as 18 points, South Alabama was kept alive by the play of Martino Brock and Augustine Rubit.
Rubit provided fits for FIU down low, finishing the game with 20 points and 12 rebounds as he made things difficult for the Golden Panthers.
Brock registered a game high 22 points, but it wound up not being enough to slice significantly into the second half lead built up by the FIU offense.
All this came in spite of Dominique Ferguson’s foul trouble, which limited his playing time and fouled out of the game with over 12 minutes left in the second half.
Ferguson was not the only player on the Panther roster who was in trouble in the foul department and that led to a number of opportunities for the Jaguars at the charity stripe.
But South Alabama was unable to capitalize, missing 12 of their 24 team attempts from the free throw line. Brock was responsible for much of their woes, converting just four of 13 attempts.
Jeremy Allen also continued providing consistent production on offense for the Golden Panthers, adding 13 points for the Panthers and converting both of his three-point attempts from beyond the arc.
On the whole, FIU converted 31.3 percent of their shots from downtown, helping thwart off any late comeback attempt by the Jaguars.
Thomas has been pleased with the way his team has been able to improve, especially with most of his players now beginning to gel and get accustomed to each other’s style of play.
“They’re still learning each other, still trying to figure out where each one is going to be,” Thomas said. “The longer we keep practicing hopefully they’ll be more comfortable with each other.”
Even the players themselves acknowledge that this may have been their best overall performance of the season as a team, seemingly in control for nearly all of the 40 minutes of play.
However, they still know there is much room for improvement as the season progresses and they enter the more difficult portion of their conference schedule.
“We have our confidence up,” Legion said. “Now that we’re all together we should be a lot more competitive and take care of business on the road.”
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