MIAMI (January 4, 2018) -- FIU women's basketball opens both the 2018 calendar year and its Conference USA schedule, on Friday night, with a 7 p.m. tip against UTEP at the Ocean Bank Convocation Center. The last time these two teams met they played an epic, 88-87 triple-overtime thriller, with FIU sophomore Kristian Hudson (Birmingham, Alabama) hitting a heave from inside the halfcourt line to win it at the buzzer.
 
The Panthers are 3-10 and come off an 80-70 win over Vermont last Saturday, when the team tied the school record with 13 three-point field goals in the contest. Sophomore Alexis Gordon (Palm Bay, Florida / Covenant Christian) nailed a career-high nine three-pointers to set an individual record and scored 40 points, only the second player in program history to score 40 at home. She is only one of eight Division I women's basketball players with 40 points in a game this season, and the nine made threes are tied for ninth nationally. She earned Conference Player of the Week honors, giving FIU back-to-back awards (Hudson won the previous week) for the first time in their stint in Conference USA, and the first time for back-to-back league awards since 2001.
 
UTEP enters this C-USA opener at 9-4 for the season. The Miners are coming off an 11-point win on the road at UC Riverside last Saturday. UTEP senior Tamara Seda is one of two players in C-USA who averages a double-double, leading the league with a 10.5 rebounds-per-game average. She leads her team with a scoring average of 15.7 points.
 
UTEP leads the all-time series 5-2, with the team splitting a pair of games last year, each team winning on its home floor. UTEP is one of three Conference USA teams (Florida Atlantic and Marshall the others) that will play FIU twice this season in the new condensed 16-game league format.
 
Live stats and a live stream of the game are available at FIUSports.com.
 
FIU will finish off the league-opening weekend with a 2 p.m. Sunday home game against Marshall.
 
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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