Panthers fall short to Louisiana Tech 76-63

Peter Holland, Jr. // Staff Writer

Despite FIU’s best shooting performance this season, Louisiana Tech University came up on top after dominating in the fourth quarter. The Panthers’ losing slump continues as they are now 5-20 (3-11 in C-USA) with four games left in the season.

This week was a special week for women’s basketball as they were celebrating “Play 4 Kay,” which is dedicated to the Kay Yow Cancer Foundation, a charitable organization to fight against women’s cancer.

It was founded by Kay Yow, a former basketball head coach who battled cancer before she died in 2009. Both FIU and LA Tech wore pink socks to show their support.

The Panthers, unlike the last nine games, has shown competitiveness defensively in the first three and a half quarters against the Bulldogs, keeping the game close, trailing by two points. After a low scoring first quarter, things started to pick up in the second quarter, despite FIU trailing in single digits.

The Panthers shot 46.2 percent from behind the arc, led by both sophomore point guard Kristian Hudson and freshman guards Kayla Rogers and Alexis Gordon. All three combined for 20 points before halftime.

“We just need everyone to be consistent,” said Head Coach Tiara Malcom. “We did a good job defensively executing. We forced them out of their zone and they forced to play man-to-man and then they went back to their zone. The defense at the end of the floor is what did it for us.”

The game got closer after two back-to-back shots by Gordon to only be down two early in the third quarter.  LA Tech wouldn’t be denied and came back to life after shooting back-to-back three pointers to be up by ten points with five minutes left in the fourth quarter.

LA Tech went 5-5 in field goal attempts which led them back to leading by double digits and dominating throughout the rest of the game.

“The principle of our zone defense broke down,” said Head Coach Tiara Malcom. “Our keys of the game were defense without fouling and controlling the paint points in which we didn’t do.”

With four more games left, the Panthers will have their final road trip for the next two games at Texas to face both University of Texas San Antonio on Feb. 23 and University of Texas El Paso on Feb. 25.

They will be back in their arena for their final two home games against Middle Tennessee University on March 2 and University of Alabama Birmingham on March 4.