MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (January 19, 2017) -- FIU began its longest road trip of the Conference USA season Thursday night at defending league champion Middle Tennessee, and the Panthers ran into the hot-shooting Blue Raiders, falling 95-43 at the Murphy Center in women's basketball action. FIU drops to 4-13 overall, 2-4 in conference. The Panthers also fall to 0-5 on the road this season. MT is 10-7 overall, 5-1 in C-USA.
 
The Lady Raiders began with a 9-2 lead as the Panthers started with a 1-for-7 shooting clip to begin against the bigger Middle lineup. FIU got two of its first four points on the free-throw line in the first six minutes of the contest. The Lady Raiders held FIU to single digits by the end of the quarter, 18-7.
 
The second started much like the first (1-for-4), except FIU found a hot-shooting streak in the middle of the quarter and managed to hold MT without a field goal over a 3:39 stretch, shooting 0-for-5. The Panthers hit only one bucket, then were scoreless in the last 2:38 of the half and could not use the defensive surge to cut down the lead.
 
Despite its best scoring quarter of the night, FIU was outscored 28-12 in the third period, as the Lady Raiders shot 10-for-16 and produced 28 points to end the threat of a comeback.
 
The Panthers did not have a double-digit scorer for the first time this season. Senior Janka Hegedus (Budapest, Hungary) and sophomore Kristian Hudson (Birmingham, Alabama) led the way with eight points each.
 
FIU shot .326 in the game, succumbing to a .559 shooting night by Middle Tennessee.
 
Junior forward Rebecca Reuter had the game's lone double-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds.
 
The Panthers travel to Birmingham, Alabama, for a Saturday afternoon game at UAB. Tip time is slated for 3 p.m. Eastern.
 
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/.