FIU Extends Losing Streak to Four with Loss to Sam Houston

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MIAMI, FL – Following a tough 0-3 road trip, FIU Men’s Basketball came to the OBCC looking to get back in the winning circle against Sam Houston. Both teams battled it out on the court, with FIU entering halftime with a slim 35-34 lead.

Once the final half rolled through, the Bearkats took off for good with the help of their playmaking. With the 76-63 loss to Sam Houston, FIU now has a four-game losing streak on its hands and is in search of an identity.

Shots Weren’t Clicking Today

For FIU, the shots just weren’t going through the net of the basket. They had eight different periods in the game where they went over two minutes without scoring a field goal point. As a team, they were 29% (15/51).

“Yeah I mean, first of all, they played great defense,” said Jeremy Ballard. “They did a good job of getting in gaps and making it hard for us. They managed zone and some very good job strategically from them. You can’t miss 15 free throws, you know. As good defense as Sam Houston plays, they can’t contest us at the foul line. That’s on us.”

“We had a lot of layups that we have to make, any good team has to make. We missed those opportunities and [despite] that, we didn’t actually shoot a poor percentage from three-point line. We shot a very good percentage from three-point line. But 6 of 30 from two. Our credit to Sam Houston but we’ve got to be a lot better than that.”

No Luck With Layups

“We have to capitalize on opportunities better and that’s been a thing for us in games that we’ve struggled. We have not converted layup opportunities, shoot, it just happened to us last game. We had nine layups, nine layup opportunities against Kennesaw State that we just missed and we had more than that today.”

“So that’s very disappointing. You can’t turn the ball over to compel that as well, as I mentioned earlier. You can’t miss free throws on top of that also.”

Final
Sam Houston 76 | FIU 63

Shooting 29% on the court will never lead a team to victory. Back to the drawing board for FIU as they are now on a four-game losing streak.#FIU | #Panthers | #PawsUp

— Ricardo Urrusuno (@RickScores) January 17, 2026

Some of FIU’s most reliable scorers were having a tough day at the office. Corey Stephenson finished with 14 points on 3/12 shooting and 7 rebounds.

Julian Mackey made just 5/13 of his shots, but the 6’2 guard did finish with 23 points. He went 9/12 at the line and had five rebounds, three assists, and two steals. His 2 +/- was the only one that finished with a positive number.

Nothing At The Stripe

This will go down as another game where free-throw shots will come back to bite them. FIU went 24/39 (62%) at the charity stripe.

Timeout
Sam Houston 55 | FIU 48 | 7:59 2nd

The Panthers are down by 7, those missed free-throws (20/33 – 61%) are truly haunting them #FIU | #Panthers | #PawsUp

— Ricardo Urrusuno (@RickScores) January 17, 2026

Hamed Olayinka in particular struggled. Despite the 11 rebounds, he had a poor shooting performance with five points on 1/5 shooting and a 3/10 day at the free-throw line. Olayinka also ended up fouling out late in the 2nd half.

Points in the paint were FIU’s bread and butter on offense all season long. Today, the Bearkats did a successful job in preventing them from having any type of fun in the paint. The Panthers finished the game with only 12 paint points.

The only success they had with their shots was from three-point range. FIU went 9/21 (43%) in downtown shots.

Halftime
Sam Houston 34 | FIU 35

We have a tied game here at the OBCC.

The Panthers are shooting 30% overall but have made half of their 3-pointers. They've done a good job of drawing fouls, having made 10 trips to the line already.#FIU | #Panthers | #PawsUp

— Ricardo Urrusuno (@RickScores) January 17, 2026

Sam Houston didn’t have an outstanding day, either shooting-wise. They shot for 44% (26/59), but the difference they made was their ability to take that extra step in their effort after any mistake they made.

The Bearkats finished with 19 assists to FIU’s 11 and with 20 points off turnovers compared to just 12 for the Panthers. Sam Houston exceeded FIU with 30 paint points.

What’s Next

FIU will go back on the road for two games. First, they will play against UTEP On January 22 at 9 pm. Then, they will face New Mexico State at 2 pm.

The Panthers currently carry a 16-game road losing streak, dating back to last season. Their last road win came against a non-conference opponent in Stetson, an 81-72 win on December 14, 2024.

Their last conference win was against Rice, a 90-83 win against Rice. FIU has lost 20 conference road games in a row since then.

“We gotta make sure that we pack our suitcases with a defensive rebounding and take care of the ball,” said Ballard. “Those things travel and we put ourselves in a great position to, right in that losing streak this past game, but we can’t carry some weight over a losing streak overall.”

“All that matters is this next game and getting a win and be prepared. And do everything we can to get that win. We’re in the midst of that fight; we’ll just find a way to get that W and I’m confident that we’ll be able to do that.”

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