MIAMI (January 6, 2017) -- FIU women's basketball hosts its first Conference USA basketball game of the season Saturday, with a 2 p.m. tip against Florida Atlantic on Lime Court at FIU Arena. The game will be the 10^th at home for FIU in its 14^th game of the 2016-17 campaign.
 
The Panthers enter Saturday with a 2-11 record, including an 0-2 start in C-USA play. FIU will hang its hat on free-throw shooting, making .725 of its shots from the charity stripe, third-best in the league and 77^th in the country. Individually, sophomore point guard Kristian Hudson (Birmingham, Alabama) ranks third in the league in minutes played (36.23) per game, eighth in free-throw percentage (.771) and ninth in assists per contest (3.9), while freshman Alexis Gordon (Palm Bay, Florida / Covenant Christian) is third in C-USA for made three-point field goals (30) and per-game average (2.31), and sixth in three-point percentage (.366).
 
The Panthers have not won a home conference game since last February 4, a nine-point win over UAB.
 
Conference foes dating back to the mid-1990's, this will be the 40^th meeting in the all-time series with FAU. The Panthers have won 29 of those games, including a 19-9 mark in conference play, and 14-4 in Miami. FAU has won the last four meetings in the series, which includes all games in the past two seasons.
 
The Owls enter at 4-9 overall, also losing to Marshall and WKU to open conference as the Panthers did last weekend. As a team, FAU is fourth in C-USA in rebounds per game (41.5) and fifth in three-point field goal attempts (273). Owls junior guard Sasha Cedeno ranks 12^th in the league, averaging 1.85 three-pointers per game. She leads the team with a 10.3 scoring average. The Owls have a trio of impact freshmen, Jacey Bailey (4.4 points, 3.0 rebounds per game), Katelyn O'Reilly (8.8 points, 4.3 rebounds) and Alexis Shannon (4.2 points, 3.6 rebounds). Bailey and Shannon both scored 10 on Sunday at Marshall.
 
Fans can follow live stats and video at FIUSports.com during the contest.
 
The Panthers will host UTEP next Thursday night at 7 p.m. and UTSA Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. to round out the home stand. Thursday night's game will be live streamed on BeIN Sports, with a replay airing following men's basketball action on the cable network later that night.
 
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/.