Bowling Green, Ky. – The FIU women's basketball team erased a 15-point deficit and had a seven point, 61-54, lead with 4:22 left in the fourth quarter, but the Lady Toppers would go on to close the game on a 13-2 run to take the lead and earn a 67-63 victory over the Panthers Thursday night at E.A. Diddle Arena.
 
After the win, the Lady Toppers (10-9, 7-3 C-USA) moved to second place in the Conference USA standings, as FIU falls to fifth with a 10-9 overall record and 5-5 in C-USA.
 
Senior guard Kaliah Henderson recorded her fifth straight game of double-digit points after leading the Panthers with 20 off the bench. Henderson was also tied for the team lead with two steals and chipped in four rebounds. 

Senior center Hope Butera was second on the Pantehrs with 14 points on a perfect 7-7 shooting from the field while corralling five rebounds. That scoring mark is the second highest for Butera this season (21 vs Bradley 12/20). 

The Panthers shot 54.3 percent from the field (25-46) as a team, the highest field goal percentage recorded this season, while the Lady Toppers shot 41.5 percent. FIU also outscored WKU in the paint, 42-26, and out rebounded the Lady Toppers, 36-19, including an 11-7 edge on the offensive glass. 

The Lady Toppers held FIU to a season low in three-point attempts with eight and only made one. WKU shot 7-26 from behind the arc at 26.9 percent, below their season average, but made up for that by shooting 84.2 percent from the free throw line (16-19).
 
Western Kentucky forced 29 turnovers against the Panthers again after forcing the same amount at FIU on Jan. 14. The turnover mark ties a season high for FIU as WKU finished with 16 steals and scored 21 points off the Panthers' turnovers.

WKU's Hope Sivori led three Lady Toppers in double figures with 18 points and was 7-7 from the charity stripe. Jaylin Foster was second on the team with 11 points, three rebounds, and two steals. The Lady Toppers led for most of the game (22:28) and their biggest lead was 15 points (33-18) after going on a 17-2 scoring run in the second quarter after the game was tied 16-16.
 
The Panthers responded with a 10-2 run in the final three and a half minutes of the first half and WKU took a seven-point halftime lead, 35-28. FIU completed the comeback after outscoring the Lady Toppers 21-14 in the third quarter and the game was tied 49-49 entering the fourth.
 
The Panthers opened the fourth quarter with a 6-0 run to lead 55-49 and that would increase to 61-54, their largest lead of the game. Unfortunately for FIU, the offense went cold from that point on. The Panthers did not hit a field goal in the final 5:44 of the game and the Lady Toppers went on a 13 -2 run during that span.

UP NEXT
The Panthers next stop in the road trip will be in Murfreesboro to play Middle Tennessee State University on Saturday, Jan. 28 at 2:00 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.

TICKETS
For more information on FIU tickets to FIU basketball home games, including student ticketing, call 305-FIU-GAME or visit HERE.

SOCIAL MEDIA
Fans are encouraged to follow the Panthers on Instagram (@fiuwbb), Twitter (@FIUWBB), and Facebook (@FIUWBasketball) for all the latest Women's Basketball news. General athletic news can also be found at @FIUSports on Facebook and @FIUAthletics on Twitter and Instagram.