Rebecca Charur/Staff Writer
December 30, 2014. This was the last day the women’s basketball team brought home a victory. Since then, the Panthers have gone on a 14-game losing streak that has brought them to an overall record of 3-22. More importantly, these 14 losses have all come against Conference USA opponents.
FIU’s last loss came against the University of North Texas where they were defeated 61-77. It was as close and competitive of game compared to any; however, the Mean Green’s offensive rebounding and consequent second chance points helped pull them ahead of an inexperienced Panther team in the second half.
The one consistent bright spot this season has been the play of redshirt freshman Kiandre’a Pound, who scored in double-digits for the 18th time this season in her last outing against North Texas. This season, Pound has also earned, a league-leading, six C-USA Freshman of the Week awards. She is the first Panther to win a conference weekly award more than three times in one season. In addition, she ranks 10th in the conference scoring list with 15.0 points per game.
Pound and the Panthers look to earn their first victory in nearly two months at home against Marshall University’s Thundering Herd on Thursday night. FIU will host Marshall in one of their final two home games of the season which happens to land on the National Girls and Women in Sports Day.
The last time FIU and Marshall faced off, the Panthers dropped a 61-67 decision. In the game, Marshall had three players register double-figure scoring games. Among those three players were Leah Scott and A.J. Johnson, who notched 19 points apiece. The game swung back-and-forth in the second half until Marshall was able to pull away in the final minutes of the game by knocking down all of their free throw attempts.
Now they face a Thundering Herd team that holds and overall record of 15-10 and a C-USA record of 7-7. The key to victory against this dominating team is to maintain possession of the ball and then to head into the locker room with a lead at half time. Marshall is undefeated this season when they are leading or tied at half (11-0). Furthermore, they are undefeated when leading or tied with five minutes remaining (11-0).
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