Bautista Samperi | Sports Director
The FIU men’s basketball team will play its first game away from home when they face Nebraska on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 1 p.m.
The Panthers had a commanding season opener at home, beating Florida National by a 52 point margin, with a final score of 49-101.
The game never seemed to be in question as FIU outscored their opponent by 26 in the first half and by the same margin in the second. A big contributor to the victory was the teams three pointers, as the Panthers hit 11 threes in the win, which is the most since Jan. 4, 2025 against Western Kentucky.
Senior guard Zawdie Jackson was the key player for FIU, scoring 19 points on 8 of 9 shooting on the night. Senior transfer Hamed “Larry” Olayinka had a career-best in both points (25) and steals (6). He also grabbed seven rebounds.
Senior Corey Stephenson had 6 points and a team-high eight rebounds, while senior transfer guard Brit Harris ended up with 10 points, on 3-3 from the field. Freshman Thiago Sucatzky recorded six assists on the night.
Since his arrival at FIU in 2018, head coach Jeremy Ballard has established a new culture within the team and currently has 99 wins with the Panthers. If he were to reach the 100 wins mark, he would be the second coach in school history to reach the 100-win mark.
The team is looking to keep the momentum going all through the season as they look to finish with a winning record for the first time since the 2019-2020 season in which they finished 19-13.
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