MIAMI (February 16, 2017) -- FIU women's hoops faced a pressing Southern Miss team, got behind early and could not get right offensively until it was too late in a 75-37 home loss to the Golden Eagles Thursday night on Lime Court at FIU Arena. The Panthers slip to 5-19 on the season, 3-10 in Conference USA. USM improves to 17-9 overall, 9-5 in league games.
 
For the first time all season, FIU was without senior starter Nikolina Todorovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina), ending her streak of 28 games in the starting lineup. She is expected to return on Saturday.
 
"We were prepared, we just needed to settle down and take a breath," said FIU Head Coach Tiara Malcom. "Once we got past the first pressure, we panicked and lost focus. We got away from what we worked on. We just needed to be confident in what we were prepared to do."
 
The Panthers had eight turnovers and a 10-0 deficit before scoring their first points of the night, a three-point field goal from sophomore point guard Kristian Hudson (Birmingham, Alabama) more than five minutes into the game.
 
The Panthers suffered through 11 turnovers in the opening period, shooting .250 in the frame. The offense improved in the second quarter, as FIU doubled its made field goals and improved to .333 in the period. USM led 44-13 at the half.
 
FIU held Southern Miss to just 12 points in the third quarter, but scored just six in a 3-for-15 period.
 
The fourth was the best for the Panthers on the night. FIU nearly doubled its scoring output with 18 points on 6-for-18 shooting, and shot their first free throws of the night (3-for-5).
 
Hudson led the Panthers in scoring with 15 points, and in rebounding, with seven, tied for her third-highest total of the season.
 
Freshman Kayla Rogers (Jacksonville, Florida / Jean Ribault HS) added 12 points for FIU. She had all three made free throws for the Panthers in the game.
 
FIU will take on LA Tech on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. to complete the weekend home stand.
 
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/.