GAME NOTES

MIAMI (Feb. 11, 2015) - The women's basketball team (3-18, 0-10 C-USA) returns to Lime Court at FIU Arena on Thursday to host the Southern Miss Lady Eagles (15-7, 8-3 C-USA). The game will tip off at 6 p.m. ET and will serve as one of two of FIU's Play 4Kay games.
 
PROMOTIONS
Thursday's game will serve as one of two of the Panthers' Play 4Kay games, helping to raise awareness for breast cancer. FIU is proud to join NWCA and other NCAA women's basketball programs across the country to raise awareness for the Kay Yow Cancer Fun and the fight against all women's cancers. The Panthers will wear pink jerseys for the game in recognition of Kay Yow and the Play 4Kay Initiative.
 
BROADCAST
Sunday's game will be broadcasted live via Panther Vision on FIUSports.com . The game can also be heard on the FIU Sport Radio Network with Pete Pelegrin announcing the action. There will also be live updates throughout the game available on Twitter at @FIUWBasketball.
 
SERIES HISTORY
FIU and Southern Miss are meeting for the seventh time overall in the series that the Lady Eagles own a 4-2 advantage in. In last year's meeting, Southern Miss came away with the 106-96 victory in Miami. The Panthers' last win against the Lady Eagles came on Nov. 28, 1998 in Hattiesburg Miss. at the Lady Eagle Classic, 66-47. The Panthers have yet to win against Southern Miss at home.
 
SCOUTING FIU
FIU is coming off a 72-56 loss at UTEP, which took place in El Paso on Saturday. Through its first 10 league contests, FIU has played two teams who have been receiving votes in both the AP and USA Today Coaches Poll, including WKU and Middle Tennessee. In Saturday's loss, senior Marita Davydova recorded a career-high 16 rebounds. It was the third consecutive game and the 13^th time this season that the 6-foot-3 center has produced double-digit rebounding figures. Redshirt freshman Kiandre'a Pound continues to pace FIU offensively for the season with an average of 15.9 points, while Davydova ranks fourth in the league and 36^th in the country with 10.3 boards-per-game.  
 
SCOUTING SOUTHERN MISS
Southern Miss enters Thursday's game on a three-game winning streak which includes wins over (RV) Middle Tennessee in overtime and WKU. Last time out, the Lady Eagles posted a 44-39 victory over UAB in Hattiesburg.  The Lady Eagles were led in scoring by this week's C-USA Player of the Week Tamara Jones and Madness C-USA Women's Basketball Player of the Week Jerontay Clemons, who scored 12 and 11 points, respectively. Jones currently leads Southern Miss in scoring for the season with an average of 16.4 points-per-game, while also adding a team-best 6.5 rebounds-per-contest. She also ranks ninth in the conference, shooting 50.2 percent from the field and 36.1 percent from three-point range. Sophomore Alex Coyne comes in at fifth in the league at 3.8 assists-per-game, while Clemmons ranks 14^th with 2.8 assists-per-game. As a team, the Lady Eagles lead C-USA shooing 36.4 percent from behind the arc and rank second shooting 44.8 percent from the floor and dishing out 15.7 assists-per-game.
 
LAST MEETING
The FIU women's basketball team fell to Southern Miss, 106-96, on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014 from Lime Court at FIU Arena. Jerica Coley led the game in scoring, tying a career-high 47 points, while adding five rebounds, five assists and four steals. In addition, the 5-foot-8 point guard shot 51.9 percent (14-of-27) from the field, 50.0 percent (3-of-6) from behind the arch and 80.0 percent (16-of-20) from the free-throw line. That marked the third time last season she netted 40-plus points and the 12th time she has scored 30-plus. Coley was followed by Tynia McKinzie who produced 15 points, while Zsofia Labady and Taylor Shade had nine each. Labady also pulled down a team-best seven rebounds. For the game, the Panthers shot 50.8 percent (32-of-63), while the Lady Eagles were an impressive 54.4 percent (37-of-68), including a 60.5 percent (23-of-38) performance in the second half. Southern Miss out-rebounded FIU, 39-32. The Lady Eagles also forced 13 FIU turnovers that led to 19 Southern Miss points. The dagger, however, was in the paint as USM converted 52 points in the paint, compared to 34 for the Panthers.
 
PLAY 4KAY
Kay Yow was an NCAA Division I women's basketball coach for over 30 seasons, and amassed over 700 career wins before passing away from breast cancer in 2009. The FIU women's basketball team is proud to wear pink uniforms tonight and Saturday in honor of Coach Yow and the Play 4Kay Initiative. To date, Play 4Kay has generated over 3.9 million dollars in funding for research across all women's cancers. For more information Play 4Kay and the Kay Yow Cancer Fund, please visit www.Play4Kay.org.
 
COACH RUSSO STEPS DOWN AS FIU'S HEAD COACH
After a 36-year career at FIU, Cindy Russo announced last Thursday that she is stepping down as head coach of the women's basketball team effective immediately. Russo was the driving force behind the women's basketball team for 36 of the program's 39 years. 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), three NCAA Division II Tournaments and three AIAW Small College National Tournaments, in addition to winning eight regular season conference titles and seven tournament crowns. She has been recognized as conference coach of the year seven times in three different leagues and has coached seven All-Americans. Russo has the 15th-most wins in Division I women's basketball history and owns a career record of 707-391 (.647) over 39 seasons, and a record of 667-371 (.643) in 36 seasons at FIU.
 
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).
 
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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 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 offer 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 $8.9 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/.