By Rebecca Charur/Staff Writer
On Thursday night the women’s basketball team fell to Marshall’s Thundering Herd 67-61. The Panthers dropped to 3-12 overall and 0-4 in Conference USA play.
The game opened the way most first halves seem to play out as of late: the Panthers start off slow while their opponent opens with a magically impressive run. In the case of Thursday night, Marshall came out thundering (no pun intended), scoring the first six points of the game. They proceeded to go on a 10-2 run further holding FIU to one field goal in eight attempts. As the pattern unfolded, the Panthers slowly pulled themselves back into the game and even cut the Marshall lead by four with about four minutes left in the half. This run was fueled by a strong defensive performance that allowed FIU to close out the half on a high note.
The Panthers continued their run in the second half, coming out of the break scoring the first five points. This momentum swing even earned them their first lead of the game at 29-28. With about ten minutes left in the game, the lead was extended by five until the six minute mark. By then, the momentum had begun to shift and the Thundering Herd began their come-back until they tied the game at 49.
The rest of the game was a back-and-forth battle battle between the two teams with eight lead changes.
FIU was forced to foul in the final minutes in order to stop the clock and keep their hopes of winning alive. However, their experience and consistency from the charity strike proved to be the difference down the stretch as Marshall knocked down their final free throw shots.
Sure it was a loss, but it was close loss with several positive aspects for Panthers fans to acknowledge. For one, a dynamic duo has emerged for FIU in sophomore Kiandre’a Pound and senior Marita Davydova. Pound and Davydova combined for thirty-five points and twenty-two rebounds.
In addition, we saw a competitive and evenly matched battle between a solid experienced team in Marshall and a struggling inexperienced team in FIU. This shows that, despite the record, the Panthers are growing more and more as the season unfolds.
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