MIAMI (January 12, 2017) -- FIU women's basketball will be featured nationally when the Panthers hit the hardwood thus Thursday, hosting Conference-USA foe UTEP. The 7 p.m. tipoff will be aired live online at beIN College Sports, and a tape-delay airing will hit beIN Sports following the Middle Tennessee vs. Marshall men's game that evening. Fans can download the beIN Sports App via Apple iTunes or Google Play using the links on FIUSports.com to watch live on their mobile devices.
 
FIU (3-11, 1-2) won its previous outing, a 74-65 home win over Florida Atlantic last Saturday. That game was the first of a season-long three-game Conference USA home stand which finishes this weekend.
 
The Miners (4-11, 1-2) are coming off a weekend conference home split, beating LA Tech on Thursday before a nine-point loss to Southern Miss Saturday.
 
The Panthers set season-highs for scoring (74), points in a quarter (24, in the fourth), steals (15) and single-game shooting (.467) in the Saturday home win, their first at home in league since February 4, 2016. Sophomore point guard Kristian Hudson (Birmingham, Alabama) turned in a near-triple-double with career-highs in points (21) and steals (8), while adding nine assists. She was nearly .500 from the field (9-for-19, .474) and hit all three of her free throws (pushing her streak to 12 made in a row) in the victory. Hudson leads the team in scoring (11.4 points per game), free throws made (40) and attempts (51), assists (60), steals (31) and is tied for second in C-USA with a team-high 36.4 minutes played per game.
 
Also in the win, freshman Alexis Gordon (Palm Bay, Florida / Covenant Christian) tied her season-high of 39 minutes played and scored 19 points Saturday. Gordon, who leads the team with 35 made three-pointers, nailed five on seven attempts in the contest, including her first three from long range. Overall, the sharpshooter was 7-for-12 (.583), while helping the team to a season-high .500 (6-for-12) from three-point range. Gordon is third in the league in three-pointers made per game (2.3) and fourth in total made threes. Her .366 three-point shooting percentage for the season is fifth-best in the conference. Her 32.1 minutes per game are second-most on the team and 10^th-most in the league.
 
UTEP sits second in Conference USA in rebounds (639) and rebounding average (42.6) and third in blocks (76) and blocking average (5.1 per game) so far this season. Tamara Seda is second in rebounding and average in the league, grabbing 10.2 per game. Not surprisingly, her six double-doubles are second-most by a member school's athlete this season. She is also fifth in C-USA in blocks average (1.7 per game), while teammate Ax Bernard is third in blocked shots (1.8 per game). Sparkle Taylor leads the team with a 16.7 scoring average, fourth-most in the league.
 
Josh Appel and Pete Pelegrin will call the game on beIN, while Live Stats will be available at FIUSports.com during the contest.
 
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/.