GAME NOTES

MIAMI (Feb. 13, 2015) - The women's basketball team (3-19, 0-11 C-USA) returns home to take on Louisiana Tech (12-11, 7-5 C-USA) on Saturday, Feb 14. The game will tip off at 6 p.m. from Lime Court at FIU Arena.
 
PROMOTIONS
Saturday's game will serve as FIU's final Play 4Kay game, 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. Following the game, the women's basketball team will sign autographs with pink sharpies in front of the arena.
 
THE BROADCAST
Saturday's game can be seen via PantherVision on FIUSports.com. Fans can also follow live scoring online at FIUSports.com or on Twitter @FIUWBasketball.
 
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 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.
 
SERIES HISTORY
FIU and Louisiana Tech are meeting for the ninth time in program history on Saturday. The Panthers are in search for their first win in the series history as the Lady Techsters own an 8-0 advantage. Last season, Louisiana Tech squeezed out a 67-65 victory on a last second shot in Ruston, La.
 
SCOUTING FIU
FIU is coming off a hard-fought 78-65 loss to Southern Miss on Thursday night. Junior Taylor Shade led all players with a game-high 22 points, while senior Marita Davydova picked up her ninth double-double on the year with 17 points and 10 rebounds. The dynamic duo are two of three Panthers to average double-digit scoring figures on the season, led by redshirt freshman Kiandre'a Pound with 14.9 points-per-game. Pound is followed by Shade (14.8 ppg) and Davydova (11.7 ppg). FIU is the only team in the conference to have three players rank in the top 20 in scoring. Davydova leads the team and ranks 36th in the country with 10.3 rebounds-per-game. She is only one of four players in Conference USA to average a double-double.
 
SCOUTING LOUISIANA TECH
Louisiana Tech won its last two road conference games, most recently a thrilling 73-68 victory at Florida Atlantic. Senior Whitney Frazier scored a game-high 20 points, including the go-ahead jumper with less than two minutes to play as the Lady Techsters overcame a 19-point deficit to defeat Florida Atlantic, 73-67. Frazier currently leads the team with 14.8 points-per-game while shooting 47.0 percent from the field to rank 13th in the league. In addition, the senior forward pulls down a team-best 6.3 boards-per-contest. As a team, Tech scores 70.3 points-per-game, a mark that ranks third in the conference just behind conference leaders (RV) WKU and Middle Tennessee.
 
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).
 
                          #
 
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/.