Senior Dennis Mavin nailed a buzzer-beater just short of half court to help the FIU men’s basketball team (16-16) down the UTSA Roadrunners, 57-54, in the first round of the Conference USA Tournament on Wednesday. With the win, FIU will take on UTEP on Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. In Head Coach Anthony Evans’ two years at FIU, the Panthers are 5-0 in the month of March.
With the game-winning three at the end of the game, Mavin scored a team-high 15 points in the victory, with all 15 tallies coming in the second half. Mavin also added nine rebounds and five assists in 36 minutes played. Redshirt junior Ray Rodriguez made four three-pointers, resulting in 14 points to go along with four assists in 37 minutes of action. Redshirt junior Adrian Diaz chipped in nine points, eight rebounds and two blocks in the victory.
UTSA had the early advantage leading 8-3 at the 15:09 mark and led 10-5 at 13:54 as Diaz poured in the first five points for the Panthers. FIU scored the next five points on three from Rodriguez and a jumper in the paint from sophomore Dominique Williams to knot the contest up at 10. UTSA answered with a 6-0 run, but the Panthers came back with a 7-0 run of their own, highlighted by a three from senior Kris Gulley and four-straight from Williams to make it a 17-16 advantage.
The closing four minutes of the first half were back and forth. With UTSA leading 18-17, junior Michael Phillip scored on a put-back to lift FIU back in front before UTSA’s Ryan Bowie hit a three on the other end. Rodriguez answered with another three to give the 10th-seeded Panthers a 22-21 lead, but Bowie came back again with a three. Williams sank a jumper with 59 seconds to go and then made a free-throw at the 26-second mark to give FIU a 25-24 lead. Bowie converted on a jumper in the closing seconds to give the Roadrunners a 26-25 lead at halftime.
With the game tied up one-minute into the second half, Draper and Diaz contributed four of the next five points to give the Panthers a three-point edge at the 17:20 mark. FIU would maintain a lead for the next 13-plus minutes. A three by Mavin at the 11:11 mark made it 44-39 in favor of the Panthers, their largest lead of the game. A free-throw by Rodriguez matched that game-high lead of five at the 6:15 mark on a free-throw, as FIU led 49-44. From that point, UTSA came back with the next seven tallies to retake the lead, 51-49, with 1:59 to go.
Mavin came back with a layup at the 1:48 mark to tie the contest up for the sixth time and Draper made a jumper in the paint with 46 seconds to go. Rodriguez made a free-throw with eight seconds left to extend the Panther lead to three. However, on the other end, UTSA’s Keon Lewis nailed a three to tie the game with two-plus seconds remaining. Mavin took the inbounds pass, stepped over midcourt and launched up the prayer, where he banked it in to give the Panthers a 57-54 victory.
The play was recently featured on ESPN Sport Center’s #1 Play of the Day.