Lexington, Ky. – The FIU women's basketball team (12-18, 7-13 C-USA) will continue its 2022-2023 season with postseason action and take on East Tennessee State University in the first round of the Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI) this Friday, March 17 at 12 p.m. ET inside the Clive M. Beck Center.
This marks the second postseason berth in just three seasons for head coach
Jesyka Burks-Wiley at FIU. The Panthers went 2-1 in the 2021 WBI, defeating Abilene Christian and Manhattan to win the consolation tournament title two seasons ago.
Friday, March 17 vs ETSU (23-9, 9-5 SOCON)
FIU's offense finished the season fifth in Conference USA averaging 69.03 points per game and fifth in the league with 183 three pointers made averaging 6.10 per game. The Panthers were fifth in the conference shooting 73 percent from the free throw line.
Senior guard
Kaliah Henderson finished the season as FIU's leading scorer averaging 15.7 points per game, the fifth best scoring mark in C-USA and ninth in the conference averaging 1.6 steals per game. In FIU's first round matchup against Charlotte in the C-USA tournament, Henderson led all players with a career high 31 points and was 15-16 from the charity stripe.
Her 16 free throw attempts also established a new career high. The senior capped off the season by extending her streak of scoring double digit points to 16 straight games and 19 of the last 20. For her efforts this season, Henderson was named to the All-Conference USA Second Team.
Sophomore guard
Tanajah Hayes is second in scoring on the Panthers averaging 9.8 points per game. Hayes has scored double digits in eight of the last nine games and is averaging 10.4 points in that span. She also finished the season second in C-USA averaging 2.28 steals per game and led FIU in assists averaging 3.48 assists. (7
th in C-USA).
On the glass, the Panthers are second in the conference in rebounds averaging 38.8 per game, and first in C-USA averaging 14.7 offensive boards (441 total). Senior center
Hope Butera leads the Panthers averaging 5.7 boards per game (10
th in C-USA) and has led the team in that category in 13 games.
Defensively, the Panthers are second in the conference with 278 steals this season averaging 9.27 per game and second in forcing 17.9 turnovers per game for opposing teams. FIU also limits opponents to the third lowest shooting percentage from three-point range at 29.6 percent.
SCOUTING EAST TENEESSEE STATE
The Bucs will be making its first postseason appearance since 2018 and they enter the WBI with a 23-9 overall record, including a 9-5 record in the Southern Conference, while making it to the semifinals of the conference tournament.
This year, the Bucs went from six wins last season to 23 already this season, a 17-win improvement to lead all of NCAA D1 Women's Basketball. ETSU finished in second place in the Southern Conference Standings averaging 63.2 points per game on 39.4 percent shooting (6
th in SoCon). The Bucs' defense was second in the SoCon only giving up 55.9 points per game to opposing teams.
ETSU has three players averaging double digit points headlined by graduate student guard Jiselle Thomas with 15.1 points (6
th in SoCon) while sophomore guard Nevaeh Brown is second averaging 11.0 points and is second on the Bucs averaging 2.3 assists. Sophomore guard Kendall Folley rounds off the trio averaging 10.8 points and leads ETSU logging 2.41 assists per game.
UP NEXT
If the Panthers win their matchup against ETSU, they move on to play the winner of the New Mexico State and Illinois-Chicago game on Saturday, March 18 at 2:30 pm ET. The loser will enter the consolation bracket and will play on Saturday at 12 p.m. ET. The game will be streamed on PrepSpin.
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.
