Miami, Fla - FIU Women's Hoops will be back at the Oceanbank Convocation Center to take on the Liberty Flames in their fourth conference game of the season on Thursday, January 18th at 7 pm.
Thursday, January 18th vs Liberty
FIU (12-5, 2-0 CUSA) comes into Thursday's contest off of a convincing 83-62 win over UTEP, as Panthers are off to their best start in a season since 2004-2005, and their best conference start since 2006-2007.
The entire team contributed to what would end up being a blowout victory for the Panthers. FIU put up their third most three-pointers of the season with 11, with four Panthers scoring triples in the win. The first quarter was led by Mya Kone, the leading scorer on FIU's high scoring offense. The sophomore dropped five points and grabbed four rebounds in the fourth quarter en route to 17 points after the initial 10 minutes of the game. The Pompano Beach native ended with 13 points, including three made three-pointers, and nine rebounds, one shy of a double-double. The fifth leading shot blocker in CUSA also swatted one block along with one steal to end a well-rounded game for the guard.Â
Similar to Kone, graduate student Kaliah Henderson led the charge in the second quarter, also putting up five points and four rebounds in the quarter. The 5'10 guard capped her afternoon with an efficient 16 points on 6-11 shooting, including 4-5 from the line, five rebounds and two assists.
In the third quarter, FIU and UTEP both put up as many points in the 10 minutes alone than they did all of the first half. FIU put up 26 (they had 32 in the first half) and UTEP put up 23 (they had 28 the first half). The Panthers did it on the back of the sharpshooting graduate student Olivia Trice, who shot an impressive 3-3 from beyond the arc in three straight trips down the court between the 4:31 mark and 3:00 mark.Â
The guard kept her hot hand in the fourth quarter, hitting two more triples and ending the game with a team high 17 points on 5-7 shooting, with all five of her made shots being three-pointers, doing all of her work in the second half.
FIU went on a 40-21 run over the final 14:31 of the game, shooting an astronomical 10-13 from the field in the fourth quarter and 52.4% from three, their second highest clip of the season with only their win over Bryant being higher at 56.5%. The Panthers outrebounded their opponent 38-27, stabilizing their rank as first in the conference in rebound margin.Â
FIU is top-three in the conference in many categories this season, including:
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1st - Offensive points per game (71.6)
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3rd - Defensive points per game (61.7)
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2nd Win margin (9.9)
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2nd - Team field goal % (42.1%)
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3rd - Opponent field goal % (38.8%)
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3rd - Free-throw % (72.4%)
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2nd - Combined team rebounds (40.8)
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2nd - Defensive rebounds per game (26.9)
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2nd - Offensive rebounds per game (13.9)
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2nd - Combined opponent rebounds (33.5)
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1st - Rebound margin (7.3)
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3rd - Blocked shots per game (3.71)
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3rd - Steals per game (8.88)
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1st - Bench points per game (29.2) - 12th in the nation
Scouting Liberty
Liberty women's basketball (6-12, 1-2 CUSA) is coming off a 66-59 win over LA Tech on January 13th, their first win of conference play after starting off 0-2.Â
The Flames currently sit at 8th in the conference in scoring at 62.8 points per game, and are 7th in scoring defense, allowing 70.1 points per game. Liberty is fourth across the board (combined, offensive, defensive) in rebounds per game, but play good defense in the post, placing second in the conference in blocked shots per game at 4.44. They also create a lot of shots for each other placing second in assists per game at 13.44.
Liberty is led by redshirt junior Bella Smuda, who is 6th in the conference in scoring averaging 13.9 points per game. The 6'6 center also leads the team and conference in rebounds with 9.8 per game, almost averaging a double-double on the season. 5'11 guard Emma Hess is second on the team in scoring, placing 13th in the conference with 11.4 points per game, along with 3.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists.Â
This will be the first matchup between FIU and Liberty, as this is Liberty's first year in Conference USA.
TICKETS
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SOCIAL MEDIA
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