GAME NOTES

MIAMI (Feb. 20, 2015) – The women's basketball team (3-21, 0-13 C-USA) will play its second road game of the week on Saturday when it heads to Denton to take on the North Texas Mean Green (4-20, 3-10 C-USA). The game is slated for a 5 p.m. ET tip from the Super Pit.
 
BROADCAST
Saturday's game will be live streamed on MeanGreensports.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
The Panthers and Mean Green are meeting for the 19^th time in the series that dates back to the 2001-02 season. FIU leads the series 10-8, but dropped last year's meeting in Miami, 66-59. The Panthers hold a 3-4 record in Denton with their last win coming on Dec. 20, 2009. FIU's most recent victory in the series came on Feb. 9, 2013 where it came away with a 72-63 win in Miami.
 
SCOUTING FIU
FIU hits the road for its second straight road game this week when it makes the trip to Denton to take on the North Texas Mean Green from the Super Pit. The Panthers opened the week with an 80-59 loss at Rice on Thursday evening. In the game against the Owls, redshirt freshman Kiandre'a Pound scored 21 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to notch her eighth double-double of the year. Pound was joined in double figures by juniors Taylor Shade and Destini Feagin with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Pound continues to lead the Panthers on the season in scoring with 14.9 points-per-game. FIU is the only team in the conference to have three players rank in the top 20 in scoring as Pound is 11^th, and Shade is 17^th (12.7 ppg), while senior Marita Davydova comes in at 19^th (11.5 ppg). Davydoa is fourth in the league with 9.9 rebounds-per-game, a mark that ranks 41^st in the nation.
 
SCOUTING NORTH TEXAS
North Texas enters Saturday's game winners of two of its last four games, most recently a 74-55 victory over Florida Atlantic. Senior guard BreAnna Dawkins led the way with a career performance of 24 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and three steals. Her 24 points and 13 rebounds were both career highs and netted the senior her first-career double-double. Junior forward Acheil Tac had 11 points and a season-high 14 rebounds, also recording a double-double. Dawkins is one of two Mean Green players to average double-digit scoring numbers with an average of 10.0 points-per-game, while senior Briesha Wynn, who was recently injured, comes into Saturday's contest averaging 11.2 points-per-contest. In addition, Wynn grabs a team-best 6.7 rebounds-per-game.
 
LAST MEETING
The FIU women's basketball team (8-10, 2-3 C-USA) dropped a 66-59 decision to North Texas (8-10, 2-3 C-USA) on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014 at home. Jerica Coley led all players with 28 points, while Tynia McKinzie contributed 11 rebounds. North Texas opened the game with a 14-4 run over the first six minutes of play. After a McKinzie free throw and a Coley layup, the Mean Green would continue its offensive rampage as it went on another 14-4 run over the next seven minutes, putting the score at 28-11. North Texas forced 10 Panther turnovers in the first half and scored 18 of their 31 points in the paint, compared to six FIU points in the paint. Despite the rocky start, FIU finished the half strong as it went on a 12-3 run heading into the break down, 31-23. The Panthers opened the first four minutes of the second half on a 16-2 run, pulling ahead 39-36.  Both teams exchanged baskets over the next nine minutes, and FIU continued to remain ahead until an 8-2 North Texas run pulled the Mean Green up, 51-49, with 3:50 left in the game. The Panthers tried to climb back using a Coley surge to tie the game twice, but fell short in the final seconds.
 
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/.