Richard Gibson/ Sports Director
The FIU Women’s Basketball team is set to resume play this weekend against the Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners after last week’s game cancellation.
Both games will be played at the FIU Ocean Back Arena on Friday at 7 pm and Saturday at 5 pm.
The doubleheader for the Panthers is following a postponed matchup against the Charlotte 49ers last week due to COVID-19 concerns within the FIU team. It’ll be the first time they’ve played a game since January 23rd against the Marshall Thundering Herd.
As a result, FIU’s still has an even 7-7 overall record and a 4-4 conference record. They remain in third place out of the seven teams in the Eastern Division of Conference USA. They split their last series against Marshall, winning the first game but losing the second, with scores of 75-60 and 65-56 respectively.
FIU and the UTSA Roadrunners have met 13 times since 2011, and UTSA has the advantage in the series with a 7-6 record. The two teams met twice in the 2020 season. FIU lost the first game in January, but won game two in March.
UTSA has been dealt a bad hand this season. They have an abysmal 2-13 record and are winless against Conference-USA opponents. They’ve lost 11 straight games in a row dating back to December 8th of last year. The only two teams they’ve beaten this season are the Sul Ross Lobos and Northwestern State Lady Demons.
There isn’t much to say about UTSA. They have the fourth most steals in Conference-USA out of all 14 teams, which is their best overall statistic.
Aside from that, they’re last in their overall scoring, defensive rebounds, and three-point percentage. They also give up, on average, the most points per game to their respective opponent.
The Roadrunners’ leading scorer is Karrington Donald, who has racked up 165 points so far this season and also leads the assists category for the team with 56. Mikayla Woods is their leading rebounder with 88 total.
For the Panthers, their offense shouldn’t struggle to put up points on UTSA. Their leading scorers, guard Kyla Nelson and forward Alma Danielsson, have paved the way for FIU to have the 44th best offense in the nation. It helps that they average 8.4 made threes per game, which is the second most in Conference USA.
On the other end, FIU forward Emerald Ekpiteta is the third-best rebounder in the conference, with 148 total boards so far this season, and 90 of them have been on defense. If their overall defense stays consistent, they shouldn’t have any issues keeping the Roadrunners off the scoreboard.
There’s some history to be made in this doubleheader for FIU as well. If they sweep UTSA, they’ll end up with nine wins, which is the most games they’ve won in a season since 2013. Both games against the Roadrunners can be watched on C-USA TV.
The Texas swing for FIU will continue after this series, when they host the Texas-El Paso Miners on Friday, February 12th at 7pm and Saturday, February 13th at 2pm.
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