MIAMI (November 11, 2016) -- FIU women's basketball begins the 2016-17 campaign at home Friday afternoon, when the Panthers host UCF on Lime Court at FIU Arena. Tipoff is 5 p.m. The game is the first of the season for both teams and the official debut of each team's new head coach.
After a 5-26 season which saw FIU end its 29-game conference losing skid and win its second C-USA Tournament game in three previous seasons of league membership, the Panthers won three games against Conference USA opponents and won a pair of its final eight games of the season. FIU promoted
Tiara Malcom as its new head coach following the season and she has been implementing new systems and structure since the end of last season. Three newcomers joined nine returning players to form the current iteration of the program.
Leading senior returners
Janka Hegedus (Budapest, Hungary) and
Tianah Alvarado (St. Petersburg, Florida / Lakewood HS / Gulf Coast State College) are the top two returning scorers from last season, both averaging better than 10 points per game in 2015-16. Sophomore point guard
Kristian Hudson (Birmingham, Alabama) comes back with a year of quality experience under her belt. The team's returning leader in minutes played from a season ago, she was one of 10 players in the conference to record 100 assists, and finished the year seventh in the league by averaging exactly four assists per contest. She averaged 35 minutes player per contest, fifth-most in the league.
UCF had a similar season to the Panthers, with a 7-23 mark. The Knights also changed head coaches, appointing Katie Abrahamson-Henderson to the top post in April. The former Albany coach will inherit all five starters from last year's squad, including leading scorer Zykira Lewis, whose 14.2 points per game were third-most in the American Athletic Conference last season. UCF is the only AAC team to return all of its starters from last season.
The Panthers lead the all-time series with UCF, 29-11, which includes an 18-0 sweep when the two teams were conference opponents. UCF won the lone meeting between the teams last season, an 89-72 result in Orlando on November 17. The teams have split their last six meetings after the 18-game series win streak by the Panthers. FIU is 13-3 all-time against UCF in Miami.
The game is the first of a basketball doubleheader with the men on FIU's campus. The men's team takes on Florida Memorial at 7 p.m. or 30 minutes following the conclusion of the women's opener.
For women's basketball ticket information, contact the FIU Ticket Office at 305-FIU-GAME or log onto
www.FIUSports.com.
Fans are encouraged to follow the Panthers on Twitter (@FIUWBB) and become a fan on Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUWBasketball) for all the latest FIU women's basketball news. Follow all of FIU's 18 athletic teams on Google+ (FIU Athletics), Twitter (@FIUAthletics), Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUSports), YouTube (FIUPanthers), and Instagram (FIUathletics).
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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including FIU Arena and at the FIU Football Stadium.
About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. Its colleges and schools offer more than 180 bachelor¹s, master¹s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU is Worlds Ahead in its local and global engagement, finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. FIU has awarded 200,000 degrees and enrolls 50,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit
http://www.fiu.edu/.
