Daytona Beach, Fla. – Bethune-Cookman men's basketball took as much as an 18-point lead on FIU, but could not hold on, dropping its final non-conference game of the season, 68-65 in Miami.  
 
How It Happened
The Wildcats (3-10, 1-0 SWAC) exploded out of the gate for a 15-2 run to take an early lead, capped off by a pair of threes from Calvin Poulina.
 
B-CU continued to ride strong defense and a balanced scoring attack as the lead ballooned to as much as 29-11 halfway through the first half of play. The Wildcats entered the break up 15 after shooting nearly 50 percent from the floor in the opening half.
 
FIU (10-4, 0-1 C-USA) came out hot after halftime. A 10-0 Panther run cut the Wildcats lead to as little as five, but the Wildcats settled down. A three-point play from Marcus Garrett pushed the B-CU lead back up to 11 eight minutes through the second half. Garrett came up with another clutch shot with seven minutes remaining to stop a Panthers' run and put the Wildcats up seven.
 
With just under two minutes in the game, the Panthers tied things up at 61 with back-to-back alley-oop plays from Tevin Brewer to Seth Pinkney.
 
FIU took its first lead of the game on a three-pointer from Eric Lovett with just over a minute to play. Brewer sunk another three to push the FIU lead to four with seconds remaining in the contest. The Wildcats had a chance to tie the game at the buzzer, but a three-pointer from Damani McEntire fell short and the Panthers prevailed, 68-65
 
Game Notes

• Garrett and Collins Joseph each finished with 16 points in the loss. Kevin Davis finished with 11.
• Davis finished with eight rebounds. Joseph and Garrett finished with seven each.
• McEntire led the Wildcats with five assists.
• The Wildcats scored 20 points off turnovers in the game, and 14 second-chance points.
• The Wildcats led the game for all but the final minute of play.
• Freshman Shakur Poteat saw big minutes in crunch time, scoring his first points of the season on a pair of buckets in the second half.

 
Up Next
As non-conference play finally comes to a close for the Wildcats, they will now focus their efforts on SWAC play. Next up, B-CU heads back to Daytona Beach to take on Grambling State, Saturday, Jan. 8 at 4 p.m.
 
 
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