FIU NOTES
MIAMI (Nov. 17, 2014) – The FIU women's basketball team (0-1) will play its first road game of the season on Tuesday, taking on Florida Gulf Coast at Alico Arena. The contest is slated to tip off at 7:05 p.m. ET.
THE MATCHUP The Panthers and the Eagles will be meeting for sixth time in program history with the Tuesday night matchup as FGCU owns a 5-0 series record. In the last meeting, which took place last year on Nov. 8, the Eagles came away with a 75-55 victory in Miami.
THE COACHES In 39 years of women's basketball at FIU, Head Coach
Cindy Russo has been the driving force for 35 of them. Over that time, she has guided FIU to 22-consecutive winning seasons (1981-2003) and at least 20 victories on 18 occasions. Russo has led her teams to six NCAA Division I Tournament berths, seven Postseason Women's National Invitation Tournaments (WNIT) and two NCAA Division II Tournaments, in addition to winning eight regular season conference titles and seven tournament crowns. Russo enters the 2014-15 campaign as the ninth-winningest active coach in Division I women's basketball. The veteran head coach owns a career record of 704-386 over 37 seasons, and a record of 665-361 in 35 seasons at FIU.
Florida Gulf Coast is under the direction of Karl Smesko, who is in his 12
th season with the Eagles and 15
th overall as a head coach. In addition to winning the 2012 Kay Yow National Coach of the Year and the CollegeSportsMadness.com Mid-Major Coach of the Year in 2012 and 2013, Smesko has led his led his teams to five consecutive Atlantic Sun Regular Season Championships, two A-Sun Tournament Championships, two NCAA Tournament appearances and seven consecutive postseason tournament appearances.
SCOUTING FIUFIU dropped its season opener to Tennessee Tech, 73-56, on Friday, Nov. 14, to start the 2014-15 campaign 0-1. Junior
Taylor Shade led two Panther players in double figures with 18 points, followed by senior
Tynia McKinzie who chipped in with 14. McKinzie also notched a team-best 10 rebounds in addition to two steals and a block. For the game, the Panthers only hit 31.9 percent (15-of-47) of its attempts from the field, while Tech connected on 47.7 percent (31-of-65) of its attempts from the floor. Tennessee Tech forced 26 FIU turnovers that were converted into 29 points.
SCOUTING FLORIDA GULF COASTBacked by double-figures from five separate players, Florida Gulf Coast overcame a 10-point deficit to sail to an 88-75 win over George Washington in its season opener in Fort Myers, Fla. The Eagles began the year at 1-0 for the seventh-consecutive season. FGCU converted 54.5 percent of its shots in the second half, including 18-of-24 shots from the charity stripe to maintain the advantage and ultimately seal the deal. The Eagles were led by senior Anthi Chatzigiakoumi and junior Kaneisha Atwater who had 17 points each. Junior DyTiesha Dunson put up 15 points, while Whitney Knight and senior Jenna Cobb each added 12.
FOLLOWING THE PANTHERS Tuesday's game will be broadcasted via ESPN3 and can be accessed by logging onto WatchESPN.com. Fans can also follow live scoring as well as in-game updates on Twitter via @FIUWBasketball.
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).
#
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 Ocean BankField at FIU Stadium. About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers more than 180 bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes $9.8 billion each year to the local economy. FIU is Worlds Ahead in finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. FIU has awarded over 200,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has over 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.
