BOCA RATON, Fla. (January 26, 2017) -- FIU senior Janka Hegedus (Budapest, Hungary) scored 11 points in the fourth quarter Thursday and the Panthers shot .583 as a team in the period to overtake Florida Atlantic 65-60 in Boca Raton in Conference USA women's basketball action. The win gives FIU a season sweep of the Owls and improves the season mark to 5-14, with a 3-5 league record. FAU is now 4-15, 0-8 in league games. It was also the first road win of the season for FIU in seven tries.
 
The five wins equals last season's win total, while the three league wins is one more than the 2015-16 campaign under first-year Head Coach Tiara Malcom.
 
"They were pretty resilient today," said Malcom, after the game. "Janka was a little frustrated with her first half, and we told her to stay with it and she found her shot in the later stages. We had to make a commitment to play good defense while the shots were not falling when they got up by 10, and it took the whole team to get this win on the road tonight. They locked in to what we were trying to do late in the game."
 
The score was tied once and changed hands three times in the fourth, as the Panthers kept looking for the post presence of Hegedus, who was a perfect 5-for-5 in the period. FIU also went to the free-throw line 13 times in the period, more than twice as many times in the previous three quarters. The nine made free throws were the difference in a 23-14 final period. The Panthers led for only 4:31 in the game, and the last 59 seconds in the fourth were the only seconds, except for a three-second stretch at the 6:18 mark in the period when FIU had the lead in the second half.
 
The Panthers were led by senior Tianah Alvarado (St. Petersburg, Florida / Gulf Coast State), who scored a season-high 22 points, her second-straight game with at least 20. It was her third game of the year to that plateau. She also tied for the game-high of nine rebounds, also a new season-high for her.
 
The first quarter was a back-and-forth affair, with both teams shooting in the 20 percent range. FAU's Julia Jenike scored seven and Hegedus had six in the period. Alvarado hit a jumper with 25 seconds in the frame off an offensive rebound from junior Amari Hawkins (Pickerington, Ohio) to give the Panthers their first lead of the game to end the period at 10-9. It was the lowest scoring quarter for a Panthers opponent since holding UTEP to six points in the fourth quarter on January 12.
 
The lead changed times on five-straight field goals in the second quarter until the Owls hit two in a row to take a four-point lead, at 23-19. There were seven lead changes in total in the period. The two teams nearly combined for twice as much scoring in the second as the first. FIU hit its first two three-point baskets in the second quarter and shot .375 in the period to trail by two at intermission, 28-26.
 
Alvarado and Kristian Hudson led the Panthers with nine points at halftime.  Hudson also corralled five rebounds to tie for the game-high total at the break.
 
The Owls came out to shoot 4-for-5 from the field, also hitting all four free throws in four minutes to take a 10-point lead, 40-30. The Panthers outscore FAU 12-6 the rest of the way to trail by four at the end of the period, 46-42. The Panthers limited the Owls to five field goals in the quarter, but FAU was 8-for-8 from the free-throw line to keep the lead.
 
The Panthers got their first lead of the second half with 6:18 to go in the fourth, on a made free throw by Hudson. An FAU jumper pushed the lead to the other side of the scoreboard, which the Owls kept until the final minute. With 59 seconds left, Hegedus flipped up a ball on a layup from a cross-lane pass from senior Nikolina Todorovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) that sat on the rim for a moment before being coaxed in and FIU never trailed the rest of the way, despite scoring the rest of the points from the charity stripe.
 
Hegedus had 17 points, while Hudson finished with 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
 
FIU is open on Saturday for the last time this season. The Panthers are back at home next Thursday, in a home contest against Old Dominion. Tip time is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will air live on beINSports.com with a tape delay airing as the second game of the C-USA doubleheader on beIN Sports. 
 
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/.
 
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/.