FGCU defeats the women’s basketball team 88-52

By Cristhian Plasencia/Contributing Writer

A winless streak continues for the FIU women’s basketball team, as the Panthers fell to FGCU, 88-52, on Wednesday night at the Ocean Bank Convocation center. Series of second half woes remain to tarnish the Panthers’ chances of closing their scoring margins against opponents.

“Certainly a tale of two halves. I thought they took it right at us at the beginning of the game and then we had the chance to get ourselves to get back in it, Coach Tiara Malcom said, “We made shots that generated energy for us which led to us getting stops, then we come out of halftime and they make shot after shot.”

The Eagles out rebounded FIU by 26 boards (54 to 31), the panthers collected only five offensive rebounds, both halves combined. FGCU balanced their rebounds on both ends of the floor. FGCU’s Tytionia Adderly totaled eight rebounds both in offense and in defense. In addition, Julien Rosemarie came up with five rebounds on both ends of the floor.

“We’ve been talking about it, it’s something that we’ve been focusing on in practice, I talk a lot to our guards about getting involved in rebounding and at times. Coach Malcom said. I thought from the perimeter we stood and watch and their guards running around and got offensive rebounds,”

“We needed to make a stop, and defend the three-point line, I can recall multiple opportunities where they got two and three offensive rebounds,” Coach Malcom said.

Wing guard Lauryn Snipes was nullified by FGCU aggressive play to the hole, took Snipes out of the game – committing. 14 minutes in, coach’s decision to rotate at the shooting guard position – Kayla Rogers came off the bench, played 22 minutes, but struggled as well; one made shot out of four. Rogers turned the ball over nine times, though she was effective as the facilitator – dishing out six assist.

FIU started the game with good ball movement not forcing shots as the previous game, penetrating the paint, looking for open shots. The Panthers scored at a high percentage during the second quarter with 53 percent, as they forced the eagles to contestant shots (4-14).

“Callie (Cavanaugh) did a good job, I think all of our post players did a really good job of establishing themselves in the paint,” Coach Malcom said, “at times we finished at times we didn’t, but coming out of the locker room we decided to put a little wrinkle in and allow them to get more free looks in the paint.”

Adversely, FIU were not efficient shooting from the field in the fourth quarter, scoring nine percent contrast to FGCU 43 percent. FIU’s points tallied throughout the team relieving pressure from Kristian Hudson carrying the load. Overall, the Panthers shot well in the third quarter (6-14) but FIU could not get stops, as the eagles scored 33 points, doubling FIU’s 15 points. FGCU dominated the final quarter, finished the fourth quarter with a 25-4 scoring margin.

The Panthers will return to action on Nov. 19, 2017, at the Ocean Bank Center when FIU hosts Air Force. Tipoff is set for 2:00 p.m.