MIAMI (March 4, 2017) -- FIU women's basketball outscored visiting UAB, 19-11, in the fourth quarter, but the comeback ran out of clock in a 61-52 home loss to end the 2016-17 season Saturday afternoon on Lime Court at FIU Arena. Redshirt sophomore Kiandre'a Pound (Gifford, Florida / Sebastian River HS) produced a game- and a season-high 18 points in the Conference USA finale.
 
FIU finishes the season with a 5-24 overall and 3-15 Conference USA record. UAB will host the Conference USA Tournament, presented by MetroPCS, next week as the 11-seed. The Blazers are 15-14, 8-10 in C-USA.
 
The Panthers shot .636 (7-for-11) in the fourth, tying their third-best shooting quarter of the season, but a 20-point deficit in the third period was too much to overcome after shooting .310 in the first half.
 
"We had energy and followed the game plan, but our energy was stagnant in the third quarter, and it dictated the game," said FIU Head Coach Tiara Malcom. "We tried to get it back, but we just ran out of time."
 
The Blazers scored the first five points of the game and dropped in three of their first five three-point attempts, but FIU hung around in the first. Pound scored the game-high total of eight points in the opening quarter.
 
The second quarter was when senior Janka Hegedus (Budapest, Hungary), playing in her last game in an FIU uniform, started heating up. She hit two field goals and grabbed three rebounds in the period. After UAB scored the first four points of the frame, the Panthers put together an 8-0 run midway through the period and held UAB without a point for more than six minutes. Those were FIU's only points of the period and UAB scored the last four to put both teams at eight points apiece for the quarter. That allowed UAB to hold a six-point margin, 28-22, at the intermission.
 
The majority of FIU points in the first half came from the post players, with Pound amassing eight and Hegedus seven.
 
"I thought (Pound) was very aggressive," added Malcom. "We fed her the ball and she got to the free-throw line. She finally showed what she is capable of doing."
 
The game was decided in the third quarter, when the FIU offense struggled from the field. FIU was 2-for-7 to start the frame, and was outscored 22-11 in the period, while the Blazers hit five of their first eight shots in the period. UAB posted an 11-4 rebounding edge in the third to virtually salt the game away.
 
FIU did manage to turn a UAB 20-point lead into 10 points after a 10-0 run across the third and fourth periods. Pound caught fire early, scoring five of those points in the run, as the Panthers kept feeding her in the post and she collected foul calls against UAB. FIU hit 4-for-5 from the free-throw line to cut the final margin to single digits.
 
Hegedus finished with 11 points, the 30^th and final time in her career to get to the double-digit plateau. The team honored her, as well as fellow senior Nikolina Todorovic (Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina) in a pregame ceremony. The two played in a combined 170 games in four years, making 110 starts between them in Panther Blue and Gold.
 
"Those two embody what it means to be a student-athlete and they are the type of player that I want to coach in my program," said Malcom of her two outgoing seniors. "They could convey to the new players what our improving standards are, and to keep doubt from creeping in by leading by example. I don't think you can make someone a leader, but these two worked on it and brought that leadership piece to the team."
 
This season, the Panthers won one more conference game than last year, including the program's longest game ever, an 88-87 triple-overtime victory on January 12 against UTEP.
 
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/.