GAME NOTES

MIAMI (Feb. 18 2015) – The women's basketball (3-20, 0-12 C-USA) hits the road for its first of two-consecutive road games on Thursday, taking on the Rice Owls (7-16, 2-10 C-USA) in Houston, Texas. The game will tip off at 7 p.m. ET from Tudor Fieldhouse.
 
BROADCAST
Thursday's game will be live streamed on RiceOwls.com. Fans can also follow live scoring on FIUSports.com, and there will be live updates throughout the game available on Twitter @FIUWBasketball.
 
SERIES HISTORY
FIU and Rice are meeting for only the sixth time in the series history where the Panthers have won four of the previous five meetings. The two teams met twice last season splitting the series, but FIU won when it mattered most in the first round of the C-USA Championships on Mar. 11, 2014 by a score of 85-65 in El Paso, Texas.
 
SCOUTING FIU
Sophomore Nikolina Todorovic had the best offensive performance of her career with a career-best 11 points as she converted on 4-of-6 from the field and 3-of-4 from down town as FIU fell to Louisiana Tech, 79-56. Two additional Panthers saw double-digit scoring figures with junior Taylor Shade leading the way with a team-high 12 points and senior Marita Davydova chipping in with 11. Fellow senior Zsofia Labady finished as the Panthers' leader in rebounds with six. This was the first time this season Labady has led the Panthers in rebounding figures and it was just two short of her season-high eight. For the season, redshirt freshman Kiandre'a Pound leads FIU in scoring with 14.6 points-per-game, while Davydova grabs a team-best 10.0 rebounds-per-contest. Davydova is one of three Panthers to average double-digit scoring figures at 11.7 points-per-game to make her only one of four players in the conference to average a double-double. Her 10.0 boards-per-contest ranks 38th in country and fourth in C-USA.
 
SCOUTING RICE
Rice enters Thursday's game on a four-game losing skid, most recently falling at UAB, 75-59. Senior Christal Porter recorded her sixth-consecutive double-double (21 points, 15 rebounds) and sophomore Jasmine Goodwine chipped in 15 points in the loss. The Owls allowed the Blazers to shoot 55 percent (29-of-53) for the game, a season-high allowed by Rice. Porter and Goodwine lead the team in scoring for the season with averages of 10.8 and 9.8 points, respectively. Like Davydova, Porter is one of four players in the league to average a double-double with her 11.1 rebounds-per-game which ranks 16th in the country and second in the league.
 
LAST MEETING
Jerica Coley scored her 3,000th career point in FIU's 85-65 victory over Rice the first round of the Conference USA Championships. Coley joined the elite list of only nine other players in NCAA history to collect 3,000-plus points in a career. Despite only being held to four points in the first half, Coley led the four Panthers who registered double-figures with 20. She was joined by Taylor Shade who provided a huge spark, hitting 7-of-9 shots from the field and 3-of-4 shots from behind the arc for 18 points. The 5-foot-6 guard also provided a career-high eight assists. Tynia McKinzie added 16 points and 11 rebounds for her fifth double-double on the year, while Arielle Durant finished with a career-best 14 points. FIU shot an impressive 53.4 percent (31-of-58) from the floor, while Rice only converted 36.9 percent of its shooting efforts. The Panther defense also forced 14 Owl turnovers which led to 16 points.
 
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/.