SAN ANTONIO (February 22, 2017) -- With the regular season winding down, the FIU women's basketball team returns to the Lone Star State for its final regular-season road trip, with work still left to be done. The Texas two-step will be games Thursday and Saturday, at UTSA and UTEP, with a berth to the Conference USA Championships, presented by Metro PCS, on the line. The trip starts with a date at UTSA, with the opening tip scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern.
 
The Panthers are currently tied for the last slot into the tournament with the Saturday opponent, UTEP. A win over either team would go a long way to getting the Panthers back to the tournament for the second-straight season.
 
FIU sits at 5-20 overall, 3-11 in conference play. Sophomore Kristian Hudson (Birmingham, Alabama) leads the team with a 12.8-point average. Her 111 assists are sixth-most in the league to this point, and she is second in minutes played at 37.1 per game. Senior forward Janka Hegedus (Budapest, Hungary) also averages double figures for the Panthers, scoring 10.5 per game. She is the team's best shooter, posting a .461 shooting percentage.
 
The Panthers fell to the Roadrunners 70-61 at home on January 14, but the UTSA Convocation Center in San Antonio was the sight of the Panthers' lone conference road win in 2016, a 59-54 victory on February 13, giving the current team a taste for victory in a road gym. The teams have evenly split their eight all-time meetings, including a level 2-2 record in San Antonio.
 
After a 5-1 league start, the Roadrunners have lost four-straight, by a combined 17 points. UTSA is 11-14 overall, 7-7 in Conference USA. The game against FIU is the third-straight at home for UTSA, which will conclude its season on the road next weekend.
 
The Roadrunners lost a six-point lead at the start of the fourth quarter, eventually falling in overtime, 58-55. Loryn Goodwin leads the team with a 17.4-point scoring average. Tesha Smith scores 15 points per game and leads the team with a 7.8 rebounds average. The Roadrunners are third inI the league as a team with 9.3 steals per game, but 10^th in shooting percentage (.401) and 11^th in assists (11.7) and assist-to-turnover ratio (.779).
 
Saturday's game at UTEP starts at 4 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/.