EL PASO, Texas (February 24, 2017) -- FIU women's basketball plays its final regular-season road game, with playoff seeding still in play for the Panthers. FIU takes on UTEP Saturday, with the tipoff scheduled for 4 p.m. Eastern.
The Panthers are currently one game behind the Saturday opponent. FIU previously defeated the Miners on January 12, in the longest game in the history of FIU women's basketball, a triple-overtime affair with the most thrilling of finishes. Sophomore
Kristian Hudson (Birmingham, Alabama) hit a running 30-foot shot at the buzzer to win it, 88-87. She set a new school record by playing in all 55 minutes of that game. She set the season-high mark for the team with 35 points in that game, earning Co-Conference Player of the Week for her efforts. The Panthers outscored the Miners 14-6 in the fourth quarter to force the extra periods. A win over UTEP would put the Panthers in a tie with the Miners and control of the tiebreaker in an attempt to put the Panthers back to the tournament for the second-straight season.
FIU sits at 5-21 overall, 3-12 in conference play. Hudson leads the team with a 12.7-point average. Her 118 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 10.4 per game. She is the team's best shooter, posting a .450 shooting percentage.
FIU hit some shooting trouble on Thursday night in San Antonio, shooting just .333 in the 69-55 road loss at UTSA. FIU was not able to put together a 20-point quarter in the game. UTSA shot .400, a mark which, when holding an opponent below that threshold, has resulted in a 3-3 record this season.
UTEP is 7-20 overall, 4-11 in league games. The Miners got down early, but held Florida Atlantic to just four second-quarter points in a 69-59 Thursday win. Sparkle Taylor was good enough to produce 22 points and nine rebounds. Taylor is the team's lone double-digit scorer by average, amassing 17.9 points per game this season, good enough for fourth-best in Conference USA this season.
The Miners own a 4-2 mark over FIU in the all-time series, which includes a 72-50 win in El Paso on February 11, 2016.
FIU will conclude the regular-season at home next weekend.
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/.
