FIU Women's Basketball: Game 20, at Old Dominion
Saturday, January 30, 2016 | 4 p.m. (ET)
Ted Constant Convocation Center| Norfolk, Virginia | C-USA Digital Network
 
FIU Panthers
Record: 2-17, 0-8 Conference USA
Last Game: L, 87-74 at Charlotte on Thursday, January 28, 2016
Head Coach: Marlin Chinn (Hampton, '92)
Career Record: 2-17 / first season
 
Old Dominion Monarchs
Record: 8-12, 4-4 Conference USA
Last Game: W, 85-45 vs. Florida Atlantic on Thursday 28, 2016
Head Coach: Karen Barefoot (Christopher Newport, 1995)
Career Record: 287-217 / 18th season
ODU Record: 77-74 / 5th season
 
The Matchup: The Monarchs and Panthers are similarly aligned in the league's statistics, sitting within two spots of one another in scoring margin, assists, steals and turnover margin. The great disparities come in FIU's better free throw percentage (.753, nearly 150 points better than of ODU) and three-point field goal percentage (.336, more than 70 points better), and ODU's higher blocks average (3.5, nearly double that of FIU).
 
FIU Last Game: FIU tied its season high by knocking down 13 three-point field goals.  Five players also scored in double figures, including a career-high 12 from Nikolina Todorovic, and the first career double-double from junior Janka Hegedus (11 points, 11 rebounds) in an 87-74 road loss at Charlotte. The Panthers saw the 49ers shoot .630 in the second half in the loss.
               
Old Dominion Last Game: The Monarchs shot .552 in the game and held Florida Atlantic to a .231 day from the field in a 40-point blowout of the Owls, 85-45 Thursday night in Norfolk. Five Monarchs scored in double figures, including a double-double from Ije Ajemba.
 
FIU has three scorers in the Top 20 in the league, led by senior Taylor Shade (Boynton Beach, Florida / Community HS), who checks in at eighth in the league, at 14.6 points-per-game this season. Freshman Kristian Hudson (Birmingham, Ala.) is tied for fourth in the conference with 4.4 assists-per-game and is fifth in Conference USA in minutes played, at 35.4 minutes-per-contest. Junior Tianah Alvarado (St. Petersburg, Florida / Gulf Coast State College) is fourth in C-USA with 2.4 steals-per-game.
 
ODU's Jennie Simms leads Conference USA in scoring at 19.2 points-per-game, and also leads the Monarchs in assists (58) and steals (23). The Monarchs only have two players averaging double-digits in scoring (Destinee Young the other). ODU has won back-to-back games only once this season and are coming off the Thursday win. ODU does have a winning record (4-3) at home this season.
 
FIU is back home next weekend, with a Thursday night game against UAB at 7 p.m. and a 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon contest against Middle Tennessee.
 
For women's basketball ticket information, contact the FIU Ticket Office at 305-FIU-GAME or log onto www.FIUSports.com.
 
Fans are encouraged to follow the Panthers on Twitter (@FIUWBB) 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 at the FIU Football 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 Florida's 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, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.