FIU Women's Basketball: Game 24, at UTSA
Saturday, February 13, 2016 | 2 p.m. (ET)
UTSA Convocation Center | San Antonio, Texas | C-USA Digital Network
 
FIU Panthers
Record: 3-20, 1-11 Conference USA
Last Game: L, 70-52 at UTEP on Thursday, February 11, 2016
Head Coach: Marlin Chinn (Hampton, '92)
Career Record: 3-20 / first season
 
UTSA Roadrunners
Record: 8-14, 4-8 Conference USA
Last Game: W, 57-54 vs. Florida Atlantic on February 11, 2016
Head Coach: Lubomyr Lichonczak (Idaho, 1976)
Career Record: 188-197 / 14th season
ODU Record: 37-46 / 3rd season
 
The Matchup: FIU played just six players and shot 50 percent from the floor in the first half, but a 25 percent shooting rate and five big UTSA blocks in the second half allowed the Roadrunners to come back for a 63-52 victory. Senior Taylor Shade (Boynton Beach, Florida / Community HS) scored 19 points, junior Tianah Alvarado (St. Petersburg, Florida / Gulf Coast State) added 12 and freshman Kristian Hudson (Birmingham, Alabama) scored eight, adding seven assists and six rebounds. UTSA's Tesha Smith scored 20 points, while Akunna Elonu collected 15 rebounds.
 
FIU Last Game: For the seventh time this season, the Panthers outshot their opponent from the field, but FIU lost 70-52 at league-leading UTEP Thursday. FIU played a season-high 10 players in the contest, but committed a season-high 27 turnovers in the loss. UTEP had their fifth-worst shooting performance of the year, but collected a season-high 24 offensive rebounds.               
 
UTSA Last Game: Akunna Elonu hit a three-point shot to break open a 54-all tie with five seconds to go as UTSA outscored Florida Atlantic by four in the fourth to grab a 57-54 home win Thursday. The Roadrunners blocked five shots and held FAU to a .321 shooting night. Elonu tied for the game-high lead with 20 points.
 
FIU's Shade remains eighth in the league with a 15.0 scoring mark. She is the lone player on either team in the Top 10 in scoring in the league. Shade is also seventh in the conference with an .833 free throw percentage. UTSA's Tesha Smith averages 8.4 rebounds per game, fourth-best in the league. She is also seventh in Conference USA with a .511 field goal percentage.
                               
FIU's Hudson is sixth in the conference with 4.0 assists-per-game and is fourth in Conference USA in minutes played, at 35 minutes-per-contest. Mathilde Hergott for UTSA enters thegame sitting eighth in the league with 1.1 blocks per contest.
 
The Panthers will be home the next two weekends, hosting North Texas next Thursday at 7 p.m. on Lime Court at FIU Arena.
 
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/.