FINAL SCORE: Florida International 93, Western Kentucky 63

RECORDS:
Western Kentucky "Hilltoppers" — 2-9 Overall / 0-1 Sun Belt Conference
Florida International "Golden Panthers" — 6-6 Overall / 1-0 Sun Belt Conference

PLAY-BY-PLAY HIGHLIGHTS:
First Half — WKU scored first (a 3 by Nashon McPherson at 19:05 and led 6-2 after a 3 by Filip Videnov at 17:42 ..... FIU caught up 6-6 (at 17:09) on a bucket iniside by Lucas Barnes ..... from that point on, game tied four times and lead changed hands 3 times ..... FIU took first lead (13-12) on a 3 (the first of his 4 in the half) by Carlos Arroyo at 12:31 ..... WKU regained the lead on a FG and FT by Jimmy Boykin at 10:49 (17-16), but Arroyo answered with his 3rd trey at 9:55, putting the Panthers up 19-17 and FIU led the remainder of the half (with the exception of a 31-31 tie (on 2 Todor Pandov FTs) at 2:04..... Arroyo then scored on a layup (at 1:31) and followed with a pair of FTs at 1:19 to put FIU up 35-31 ..... WKU then pulled within 2 (35-33) on a dunk by Brian Allenspach at 0:40 and narrowed the gap to one (35-34) on a Derek
Robinson FT at 0:04 ..... Arroyo's 4 threes accounted for 12 straight points for FIU earnly in the half ..... Arroyo led all scorers at the half with 16 and Lucas Barnes (who scored FIU's first 8 points in the game) had 10 ..... freshman Jimmy Boykin led WKU with 9 (previous career high was 4) ..... WKU 13 turnovers and FIU just 6.

Second Half — nip and tuck through the early minutes of the half and 41-40in favor of FIU after a layup by WKU's Jimmy Boykin at 14:32 ...... FIU then scored 14 of the next 16 points (7 by Carlos Arroyo) to take a 55-42 lead on a
dunk by nKarel Rosario at 9:39 ..... FIU went on to take total control, outscoring WKU 22-4 from 14:07 to 7:47 ..... long lead was 39 (89-50) on a 3 by Nate Aaron at 2:54 .....

COACHES' QUOTES:
WKU Head Coach Dennis Felton — "We just lost control of the game — quickly! We called a couple of timeouts to try and get ourselves in position to get back in control, but we just weren't able to get it done."

NEXT GAME — The Hilltoppers continue on the road, traveling to Arkansas-Little Rock for a Thursday, Jan. 13 (7:05 pm CST) SBC date with the Trojans ..... The Golden Panthers host SBC foe New Orleans Monday (Jan. 10) at 7:30 pm (EST).

NOTES — Career high 15 points for WKU freshman forward Jimmy Boykin (previous high was 4) ..... Derek Robinson's 16 points equals his career-high and is a season-high for the soph guard ..... WKU's first 30-point loss since a 93-60 home loss to nationally ranked Xavier on Dec. 6, 1997.