BOCA RATON (Jan. 15, 2014) – The FIU women's basketball team (8-8, 2-1 C-USA) captured its first conference road win of the season with a 96-88 victory over in-state rival Florida Atlantic on Wednesday night at FAU Arena.

Three FIU players turned in double-digit scoring performances, as the Panthers set a season-high for points in a regulation game. Senior Jerica Coley (35) and sophomore Taylor Shade (26) combined for 61 points, accounting for 63.4 percent of FIU's offense. Junior Kamika Idom added a career-high 15. Shade's 26 points were also a career-best.

Coley, who shot 13-of-19(.684) from the floor 9-of-12 from the free-throw line (.750) also added nine rebounds, four assists, three blocks and one steal.

Florida Atlantic got off to a hot start, scoring the first four points of the game. The Panthers slowly began chipping away at their deficit and cut it to one, five times and tying it once. At the 7:52 mark, Idom hit a jumper to pull the Panthers ahead, 22-21. From that point, both teams went on scoring runs, but the score remained extremely close heading into the break, with the Owls leading, 37-36.

FIU went on a huge offensive run to start the second half; however, Florida Atlantic matched any scoring streak the Panthers would go on. The second half featured seven tied scores and six lead changes, but at the 3:27 mark, FIU went on a 10-0 rampage. With the score 92-82 and 1:07 left in the game, the Owls could not recover and the Panthers prevailed, 96-88.

FIU shot a season-high 52.9 percent from the floor, including a 73.3 percent performance in the second half. The Panthers also out-rebounded the Owls, 41-to-33 and scored 10 points off of fast breaks, compared to FAU's four.

Next up, FIU travels to Tulsa on Saturday, Jan. 18. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. ET from the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Fans are encouraged to follow the Panthers on Twitter (@FIUWBasketball) 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). The official hashtag of the 2013-14 FIU athletic season is PantherNation.

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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 U.S. Century Bank Arena and Alfonso Field at FIU 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 Florida¹s 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/