Jan. 17, 2004

Box Score

DENVER - Senior center Brett Starkey (Lakewood, Colo.) scored 11 points and senior forward Zeljko Zupic (Sinj, Croatia) grabbed nine rebounds as Denver dominated Florida International 78-44 in a Sun Belt Conference game Saturday night.

It was the largest margin of victory for the Pioneers since returning to Division I in 1998. Denver (9-6, 1-2 Sun Belt) built a 37-4 lead with 6:15 left in the first half as Florida International (3-12, 0-3) made far more turnovers (12) than baskets.

In that opening stretch, the Golden Panthers missed 13 of their first 14 field-goal attempts while Denver hit 13-for-19.

"It was just intensity," Starkey said. "We needed a win, we were winless in conference. It was a mixture of our intensity and maybe they were intimidated after we shut them down early."

Carlos Morban led Florida International with 16 points. It was the fifth consecutive loss for the Golden Panthers. They used a walk-on at point guard and were minus leading scorer and rebounder Junior Matias, due to a back injury. Fourth-leading scorer Taurance Johnson was serving a team suspension.

Denver was red-hot from the three-point line, netting 8-for-14 en route to a 48-11 halftime lead.

Ten of Denver's 11 players scored in the first half and Starkey, freshman forward Antonio Porch (Denver, Colo.) and sophomore center Yemi Nicholson (Denver, Colo.) were perfect from the field. Sophomore guard Erik Benzel (Spokane, Wash.), reserve senior guard Ryan Goral (Westminster, Colo.) and deep reserve Brett Seger (Omaha, Neb.) each finished the game with nine points.

The Pioneers were celebrating their 100th year of basketball Saturday.