MIAMI (February 18, 2017) -- FIU beat visiting Louisiana Tech in shooting percentage and three-point shooting, but an early deficit could not be overcome in a 76-63 home loss to the Lady Techsters Saturday afternoon in Conference USA women's basketball action on Lime Court at FIU Arena. The loss drops FIU to 5-20 on the season, 3-11 in C-USA. LA Tech is now 15-11, 10-5 in league play.
 
The game was the Play4Kay game, named for Hall of Fame and North Carolina State Coach Kay Yow, who famously fought cancer more than once while coaching her Wolfpack teams in Raleigh.
 
Every quarter was close for the two teams, except for a run at the end of the first for LA Tech. The Lady Techsters turned a four-point lead with a minute to go into nine points, making FIU play catchup the rest of the way. FIU scored the first bucket on its first attempt of the game just 20 seconds in, but went 2-for-14 the rest of the quarter.
 
It was the second quarter for FIU when the offense started to click. The Panthers got 20 points in the frame, on 6-for-10 shooting and gained two points worth of ground on the Lady Techsters. FIU got the game to within three points with 2:19 to go in the half after a three-pointer from senior Nikolina Todorovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina), but LA Tech finished on an 8-4 run to lead by seven at the break.
 
The period was FIU's first 20-point quarter since the third period against Charlotte back on February 4.
 
The Panthers had a shooting advantage at the half, with a .346 mark, holding the Lady Techsters to a .306 percentage.
 
"We show flashes, but we have to put it together for more than a quarter or a half," said FIU Head Coach Tiara Malcom. "We didn't control our two keys to the game. We didn't play enough solid defense and we didn't control the paint."
 
FIU got the game to within two after five quick points from freshman Alexis Gordon (Palm Bay, Florida / Covenant Christian) just 2:15 into the third, but LA Tech got the lead back out to 10. After whittling the margin down to seven, FIU came up empty on its last two possessions and LA Tech scored the last four points of the quarter to lead by 11. FIU shot .667 (8-for-12) in the efficient period. At one point in the period, FIU hit five of six shots.
 
Despite hitting five of 10 shots in the fourth, the Lady Techsters shot .538 in the last period and won by 13.
 
Four Panthers ended up in double figures for just the third time this season. Sophomore Kristian Hudson (Birmingham, Alabama) led the team with 13 points, followed by Rogers' 12. Gordon finished with 11 and senior Janka Hegedus (Budapest, Hungary) scored 10 points and grabbed the team-high six rebounds.
 
FIU hit nine three-point baskets, a new season high. FIU was 9-for-19 from long distance, a .474 shooting mark, the second-highest in a game this season.
 
The Panthers were fairly even in defensive rebounding, but gave up a 20-5 offensive rebound edge, which led to a discrepancy of 20-5 in second-chance scoring.
 
The Panthers will make their final regular-season road trip, heading to UTSA Thursday night, with an 8 p.m. Eastern tip time from San Antonio.
 
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/.