Golden Panthers Ground Owls in Miami

Saturday, February 28

Miami, Fla.

7:00 PM

Florida Atlantic

FIU

2/28/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Feb. 28, 2009

Final Stats

MIAMI, FL - Florida International had four players reach double-figures in scoring en route to a convincing 80-53 victory over rival Florida Atlantic. It was the regular-season finale for Florida's two Sun Belt Conference schools.

FIU freshman forward Freddy Asprilla scored a game-high 18 and had 12 rebounds. Senior Alex Galindo made three 3s and finished with 16 points in his last game at FIU's U.S. Century Bank Arena.

The Golden Panthers (12-19; 7-11 Sun Belt) finished the year 10-6 at home. They await a first round road game in the upcoming league tournament.

Florida Atlantic (6-25; 2-16 Sun Belt) received 15 points apiece from seniors Carlos Monroe and Paul Graham III. Monroe was 7-of-9 from the field and cleared nine rebounds. The Owls will await its first round opponent in the Sun Belt Tournament, which begins Wednesday, March 4.

Playing in his fourth game since being sidelined by an injured foot January 10, Monroe had seven first-half rebounds for the second-straight game. Monroe's strong start and a pair of early jumpers by Graham put FAU in front 13-8.

Asprilla helped the Golden Panthers score 23 points in the paint in the opening period. He scored 11 of his 18 in the first half.

Building on a 37-31 halftime lead, the Golden Panthers scored the first six points after the intermission to establish a lead of 12. A pull-up triple by point guard Josue Soto extended the FIU advantage to 15, 48-33.

The Golden Panthers then stayed in front but Monroe kept hope alive for the Owls. The second of two consecutive Monroe baskets cut what had been an 18-point FIU lead back down to 58-44.

A driving layup by Galindo essentially put the game out of reach with 5:50 left, allowing the homestanding Golden Panthers to lead by 17.