BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (December 31, 2016) -- The conference-opening road trip continues for FIU women's basketball on New Year's Day, Sunday, when the Panthers face WKU at 3 p.m. Eastern at E.A. Diddle Arena in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The contest will be the 37^th in the all-time series between the Panthers and Lady Tops, with WKU taking the last three.
 
FIU narrowly lost a two-point game, 71-69, in Miami in the first home C-USA game of last season. The Panthers, playing just six players, got 22 points on 11-for-14 shooting from current senior Janka Hegedus (Budapest, Hungary), with the made field goals and percentage career-high totals. The Panthers also got 16 points from now-senior Tianah Alvarado. As a freshman, point guard Kristian Hudson (Birmingham, Alabama) had her first double-double with 12 points and a career-high 10 assists in a 40-minute performance.
 
FIU (2-10, 0-1 C-USA) shot just .294 in Friday night's loss at Marshall to begin league play. Hudson produced a team-best 17 points and added seven rebounds. She made all eight of her free throws in the contest, a new season-high for C-USA women's hoops for a perfect day from the charity stripe. The Panthers are third in the league with a .723 free-throw shooting percentage. Hudson leads the team in scoring (11.3 per game), assists (4.3) and minutes played (36.2) through 12 games. After leading the league in three-point accuracy to Christmas, the Panthers are just 7-for-43 (.162) in the three games since, including a one-point home win over Massachusetts on Dec. 27. In that span, however, the Panthers have turned in two of their top three rebounding performances, including their best two offensive rebounding totals. That aggression on the glass has led to a larger volume of free-throw attempts, including a season-high 19 in last Wednesday's home game to George Mason.
 
WKU (9-4, 1-0 C-USA) is 6-1 on the home court, and leads the league in scoring (77.1 per game) and free-throw percentage (.795, ninth-best in the country), while standing second in scoring margin (14.2) and one of just two teams with more assists than turnovers (1.047) and third in the league in field goal shooting (.440) and turnover margin (averaging 3.2 per game fewer than opponents). Point guard Micah Jones is 10^th nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio, at 3.43. WKU scored 47 points in the first half and took care of Florida Atlantic Friday night at home, in a 76-55 result. Four Lady Tops got into double digits in scoring, with 13 each from Kyvin Godin-Rogers and 2016 C-USA Player of the Year Kendall Noble. WKU outrebounded FAU 52-30 and nearly had as any offensive rebounds (26) as FAU did in totality.
 
FIU has won four of the last 10 meetings against WKU, but the Lady Tops won 17 in a row over FIU from 2003-2010 as members of the Sun Belt Conference.
 
Following Sunday's contest, the Panthers will open C-USA home play next Saturday in Miami against Florida Atlantic, starting at 2 p.m.
 
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/.