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Tuesday, November 20, 2001
FIU rolls over Division
II Florida Tech, 85-68
 aurance
Johnson led four Golden Panthers in double figures in
FIU’s 85-68 men’s basketball win over Division II Florida
Tech Tuesday night in Miami.
Rodrigo
Viegas scored 14 points and 10 rebounds for FIU (2-1)
and sophomore John
Boney added 13 points and 11 rebounds in his first-ever
intercollegiate game.
Steve Morgan came off the bench and posted a team high
16 points for Florida Tech (1-2) while Kyle Pickering scored
12 points and Jon Brown had 11 points and nine rebounds.
Tech hung close in the early going, trailing by only 9-8 with
13:57 left in the first half before FIU started to distance itself
with a 10-1 run, six of those points coming from Johnson. The
Golden Panthers led by as many as 19 in the first half when two
David
Luber free throws put FIU up 37-18 with 3:33 to play.
FIU had a 24-point bulge, its largest lead of the night, when
Nikola
Novakovic’s layup gave the Golden Panthers a 57-33
advantage with 15:42 remaining. Tech began to chip away at that
lead, however, with a 13-point run that brought the score to
within 11, 57-46, with 11:19 left. But that’s as close as
they would get.
The Golden Panthers dominated statistically, shooting 50.7
percent (34 of 67) from the field—their best shooting night
of the young season--and outrebounding Tech, 50-40. All 12 dressed
players saw action for FIU, nine played double-digit minutes
and 11 scored points.
"It was the prettiest performance but we needed to get
back up on the horse and see if we could pull one out. I was
please that we were able to get that done," said FIU head
coach Donnie
Marsh. "Still some things we have to go back to
the drawing board on, but all-in-all we feel good that our kids
were able to pull this out."
FIU continues its five-game season-opening homestand this
Saturday, Nov. 24 at 2:00 p.m. when it hosts Princeton of the
Ivy League at Golden Panther Arena. |