IRVING, Texas (January 16, 2017) -- For the first time as a Conference USA member, FIU women's basketball has landed a student-athlete on the league's Player of the Week and Freshman of the Week lists in the same week. Sophomore Kristian Hudson (Birmingham, Alabama) was named Co-Player of the Week and freshman Alexis Gordon (Palm Bay, Florida / Covenant Christian) was named the league's Freshman of the Week, in a vote chosen from a panel representing all 14 member schools.
 
Hudson hit a 33-foot buzzer-beater to give FIU the 88-87 victory in its first-ever triple-overtime game Thursday against UTEP. She broke the school record by playing in all 55 minutes and during the game, hit her 19^th-consecutive free throw, another school record, in a run lasting four games. She posted a career-high 35 points, including the game-winning bucket, which was her only three-pointer of the game, and set career-highs for points, field goals made (11), free throws made (12) and attempted (13), and tied her career high with 10 assists for her first double-double of the season. The victory, which gave FIU is second-straight at home for the first time since 2013, also put the Panthers into a 2-0 home start, never before accomplished as a C-USA member school.
 
Hudson achieved a pair of double-doubles for the week when she posted an 11-point and career-high 10-rebound performance on Saturday in a nine-point loss to UTSA. In two games for the week, she averaged 23.0 points in 45.5 minutes played, 7.5 made free throws, 9.0 rebounds and 8.0 assists per game. Hudson is second in the league in minutes played overall, but is the only player averaging over the regulation 40 minutes-per-game in conference games only. She is ninth in scoring and fifth in assists in conference games only, while 14th in scoring, sixth in assists overall among C-USA student-athletes this season. This is the first C-USA week honor of her career.
 
Gordon played a career-high 52 minutes after scoring 15 points in Thursday's UTEP win. She scored six points in 31 minutes in the Saturday home loss to UTSA. Gordon leads FIU and is third in C-USA in three-point percentage (.383) and fourth in three-pointers made per game (2.4). She shot .500 in both games for the week from beyond the arc for the Panthers, who are fourth in the league in long-range percentage (.332) this season. This is Gordon's second Freshman of the Week honor, having previously won on November 28. She is the first two-time winner of Freshman of the Week in the same season since Kiandre'a Pound in 2015 won the award six times.
 
The Panthers partake in their longest conference road swing of the season over the next two weekends, with three games in that time. FIU plays next at Middle Tennessee on Thursday at 7:30 Eastern. The game will be streamed live on ESPN3.
 
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/.