BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (March 6, 2016) --FIU women's basketball returns to the Conference USA Basketball Tournament, in Birmingham, Alabama, for its first round game Tuesday against UTSA at Bartow Arena. Tipoff is slated for 2:30 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on American Sports Network (ASN).
 
The Panthers finished 14^th in the league, with a 4-25 overall record, 2-16 in Conference USA games.
 
FIU and UTSA split their season series, with the road team taking the win in the two games. The Roadrunners blocked five shots and held FIU to .250 shooting in the second half in the 63-52 win in Miami against six Panthers playing in the game. FIU turned up its defense in the rematch in San Antonio, limiting UTSA to a .286 (4-for-14) opening quarter and senior Brianna Wright (Titusville, Florida / Titusville) had 20 rebounds and four blocks to go with eight points in the 59-54 Panthers win four weekends ago.
 
FIU Last Game: FIU junior Tianah Alvarado (St. Petersburg, Florida / Gulf Coast State) poured in a career-high 24 points and led FIU with nine rebounds, but the Panthers were limited to a .385 shooting clip for the game and concluded the regular season with a road loss at Middle Tennessee 77-55 Saturday. Freshman point guard Kristian Hudson (Birmingham, Alabama) had 11 points, and senior Taylor Shade (Boynton Beach, Florida / Community HS) added 10 in the loss. The Panthers' last win was at UTSA on February 13.
 
UTSA Last Game: The Roadrunners put together a 12-6 run in the last four minutes to overtake No. 25 UTEP on senior night at home in a 69-64 win last Thursday. UTSA shot .478 from the field in the win. Sara Anastasieska went for 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting, including 3-of-3 from 3-point range. Crystal Chidomere added 12 and Mathilde Hergott 11.
 
FIU finished as the league-leader in free-throw percentage, at .765, which was 13^th-best nationally. The Panthers took the fewest total of attempts of Conference USA teams for the season.
 
As the 13-seed in their first-ever Conference-USA Tournament, the Panthers won three games and advanced to the league semi-finals, losing to eventual champion Middle Tennessee. FIU failed to qualify for the 12-team tournament last year, so FIU's all-time record in the C-USA Championships is 3-1.
 
Sixth-seeded Marshall will face the winner of this game on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. Eastern, also on ASN. That winner takes on WKU Thursday night in the last of four quarterfinals, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern. All of these games will be at Bartow Arena, on the UAB campus.
 
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/.