By Steven Rowell/Staff Writer
A late rally by the University of North Texas sent the Panthers to their second straight loss dropping them to 8-10 and 2-3 in conference play.
North Texas went on an 8-2 run to go ahead 51-49 with 3:50 remaining in the second half. The Panthers had two chances to tie the game but came up short in the final seconds as North Texas came out with the 66-59 victory on the Lime Court on Wednesday Jan. 22.
The Panthers being close late in the game came after overcoming a slow start. The Mean Green jumped out on FIU at the start leading 14-4 at the 14:46 mark in the first half and increasing the lead to 28-11 at the 4:40 mark of the first half. FIU then answered with a 12-3 run to close the first half trailing 31-23.
The Panthers opened the second half with a 16-2 to go ahead 39-36 at the 15:31 mark. FIU managed to stay ahead for the next nine minutes before the Mean Green went on the decisive run.
Senior guard Jerica Coley led all scorers for the game with 28 points. FIU also got 10 points from junior guard Kamika Idom. The Panthers were plagued by turnovers especially in the first half when they turned it over 10 times which totaled to 16 for the entire game. FIU had a rough game defending the paint as the Mean Green scored 36 points in the paint and went 13-18 from the free-throw line.
North Texas was led by junior forward Briesha Lynn with 21 points and had help from sophomore forward Alexis Hyder scoring 18 points and 12 points from junior guard Janis Peterson.
FIU will look to get back in the win column on Saturday Jan. 25 when they travel to take on UAB.