MOBILE, Ala. ? Behind a career-high 24 points and six three pointers from Iva Ciglar, Florida International defeated the South Alabama women’s basketball team 56-41 Thursday night at the Mitchell Center.
FIU improves to 9-4 overall and 3-0 in the Sun Belt with the win, while the loss drops USA to 6-8 and 0-4 in the SBC. The Lady Jags will next host league newcomer Florida Atlantic on Saturday at 5 p.m. in the game one of a double-header with the men’s team.
“It’s hard to win when you can’t put the ball in the basket,” said South Alabama women’s basketball head coach Rick Pietri. “You’re not going to beat a team like FIU when you shot 25 percent in a half. Partly credit FIU for what they do defensively in limiting us tonight, but that being said, we got some real good perimeter looks and could not knock them down. We knew that getting close to the goal was going to be a challenge with their size. They do a great job of protecting the interior without fouling. We needed to make some perimeter looks in order to be successful and we just didn’t make them tonight.”
In what would prove to be a problem for the Jaguar women for much of the game, USA came out struggling from the floor, connecting on only three of its first 16 shots. With the Golden Panthers leading by three (9-6) at the 11:03 mark, Cortney Brown ignited a 10-0 Jaguar run over the next five minutes. Raena Ellis capped off the scoring spurt for USA with a jumper and a pair of shots from the charity stripe. Ellis’ free throws gave South Alabama its largest lead of the night at 16-9 with six minutes, 33 seconds to play in the opening half.
Florida International responded right back with a run of its own, this one an 11-3 spurt that was finished by a jumper from all-Sun Belt performer Lasma Jekabsone with just under four minutes to go in the first half. The Jekabsone bucket put FIU up one at 20-19. For the remainder of the half, the two clubs went back and forth exchanging the lead. LaQuetta Ferguson reeled off five straight points to close the half and send the Golden Panthers into the locker room with the 26-23 advantage.
The two clubs traded three-pointers to open the second period of play. Whitney Woodard’s shot from behind the arc with 17 minutes, 27 seconds to play cut the Jag deficit to 29-26 and also put the Jag senior into an elite club. Woodard’s trey from the top of the key added the Memphis, Tenn., native to the 1,000 point club for her career, the 17th Lady Jag to ever accomplish that feat. That would be the last bit of good news for USA the rest of the way, as FIU stretched its lead out to 40-28 over the next five minutes. After Shakira Nettles trimmed the deficit to eight (40-32) for the Jags with a jumper with just under 11 minutes to play, Ciglar drained three straight treys for the Golden Panthers to push the margin out to 49-33 at the eight minute mark. Ferguson later gave Florida International its largest lead of the night at 21 (56-35) with a basket at the 2:43 mark, as the Panthers went on to take the 15-point victory.
The story of the night was the Jaguar women’s offensive woes from the floor. After shooting just 32 percent in the first half, USA was just 7-of-28 from the field in the second stanza for 25 percent. The Jaguars finished the game at 28.8 percent, including 3-of-12 from behind the arc. FIU on the other hand was 21-of-50 from the field for 42 percent and 10-of-20 from three-point range for the contest.
Woodard was the lone Jag in double figures on the night with 11 points. USA’s second leading scorer entering the game, Monique Jones, was held scoreless for the first time this season. Ciglar led all scorers and was followed by Ferguson’s 15 points. Jekabsone recorded a game-high 16 points for FIU as well. Ciglar’s six three-pointers also tied a Mitchell Center record for most by an individual opponent.
