MIAMI (Mar. 10, 2014) – The FIU women's basketball team (12-17, 6-10 C-USA) will play Rice (13-16, 6-10 C-USA) for the second time this season on Tuesday in the first round of the 2014 Conference USA Women's Basketball Tournament, which is being played at Memorial Gym in the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas. The game will air live on the C-USA Digital Network and can be accessed by clicking HERE. Tipoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET.
KEEPING UP WITH THE PANTHERS
In addition to being televised by the C-USA Digital Network, the game can also be heard by clicking HERE. Live stats are available for all games and can be accessed via the FIU women's basketball schedule page at FIUSports.com or via the conference website by clicking HERE. Fans can also follow the action live on Twitter (@FIUWBasketball).
SERIES HISTORY
The Panthers and the Owls are meeting for the fifth time in the series on Tuesday. FIU leads 3-1 with its only loss coming this earlier this season on Jan. 8. The Panthers' last win against Rice was on Nov. 11, 2010 at World Vision Invitational in Waco, Texas. The game was extremely close, but FIU came out on top, 66-65.
SCOUTING FIU
FIU closed out its regular season with a 67-65 loss on a last-second shot to Louisiana Tech. Senior Jerica Coley paced the Panthers with 29 points, while her cousin, junior Kamika Idom added a career-high tying 19. Coley also added seven rebounds, four assists, one block and one steal on the night. Despite shooting almost 50.0 percent from the floor, the Panthers gave up 41 rebounds, 26 of which were on the defensive glass. FIU is now 2-10 when being out rebounded by opponents. In addition, the Panthers turned the ball over 11 times and are also 4-11 when recording more turnovers than the opposition.
#HolyColey SELECTED AS C-USA FIRST TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
Jerica Coley continues to carry the Panther offense as she contributes 43.2 percent of FIU's scoring efforts this season and 37.1 percent for her career. In addition to leading the conference and tied for first in the nation in scoring (29.6 ppg), Coley sits atop the FIU career charts for scoring average (23.6 ppg) and her career point total of 2,992 also ranks first in program history. She is on track to hit the 3,000-point plateau which would make her only the 10th player in NCAA history to hit that mark. The two-time All-American Honorable Mention honoree has scored double digits in all 29 games this season and has produced 20-or more points in all but three outings. With her 29 points against Louisiana Tech, she extended her streak to 59 consecutive games scoring in double-figures, dating back to the third game of her junior year. For her career she has contributed 83, 20-or-more point games and 32, 30-plus point outings. She also leads her team in nine statistical categories: scoring (29.6 ppg), field-goal percentage (.424), field goals made (308), free throws made (195), free throw percentage (.819), three-point field-goals made (46), assists (4.1 apg), steals (1.8 spg), blocked shots (1.3 bpg) and minutes played (38.9). The 5-foot-8 point guard, who scored a career-high and school-record 47 points versus Wake Forest (12/29/13), has scored 40-or-more points three times this season, including another 47-point performance against Southern Miss (2/19/14). It was only the ninth time a Panther player has scored 40 or more points in a single game. Coley was recently selected as the a first team All-Conference Selection, the Conference USA Player of the Week (week ending in Feb. 23), a Nancy Lieberman Award finalist, a Third Team Capital One Academic All-American, C-USA All-Academic and a Senior CLASS Award finalist.
SCOUTING RICE
Rice finished the regular season dropping two of its last three games; however, last time out, the Owls defeated UAB on the road, 61-51. Senior C-USA First Team All-Conference honoree Jessica Kuster led three Rice players in double-figures as she recorded 28 points. The San Antonio, Texas, native also added 14 rebounds to garner her 66th career double-double to surpass TCU's Sandora Irvin for the most career double-doubles in C-USA history. Kuster is also second in the country in the category as she has produced 25 double-doubles this year, averaging 20.8 points-per-game (third in C-USA) and 13.4 rebounds-per-game (first in C-USA, fifth in the NCAA). Despite Kuster's dominance on the boards, the Owls only out-rebound opponents by a margin of +1.6. The majority of their rebounds come on the defensive end as they rank fourth in the league in defensive rebounds, averaging 27.5 defensive rebounds per contest.
THE COACHES
Head Coach Cindy Russo picked up her 700th career victory this season at UTSA (2/4/14). Over 37 years of coaching, she is the ninth-winningest active coach in Division I. For her career, Russo has amassed an overall record of 701-380, and owns a record of 662-358 in 35 seasons at FIU. Her 34 full seasons at FIU are the fifth-most across all NCAA institutions, regardless of division, for number of seasons spent with one program.
The Owls are under the direction of Greg Williams, who is in his ninth season at Rice and 21st season overall. Williams has led Rice to a 2011 WNIT appearance and a 2012 WBI appearance. He has earned four Coach of the Year awards from four different leagues in his career, and has a 345-301 collegiate coaching record from stops at Houston, Colorado State and Rice.
#PantherNation
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 FIU 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, visithttp://www.fiu.edu/
