SAN ANTONIO — FIU avenged its loss to UTSA from earlier this season with a 59-54 victory on Saturday afternoon at the Convocation Center.
The Roadrunners (8-15, 4-9 C-USA) held their only lead of the game through the first 1:59 of action and were held to a 34.4 (21-of-61) shooting percentage. Crystal Chidomere paced UTSA with a career-best 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field while grabbing five rebounds. Meanwhile, Sara Anastasieska joined Chidomere in double digits with 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting to go along with three rebounds and one steal.
The Roadrunners had their highest scoring quarter in the fourth, as they outpaced FIU (4-20, 2-11 C-USA) by a count of 23-19. UTSA made it a two-point game with 1:35 on the clock, but the Roadrunners went for the foul and the Panthers made both free throws.
On the following possession, Chidomere went for the quick layup and scored to make it 56-54 FIU with 1:10 left to play. Two turnovers by the Roadrunners and three free throws by the Panthers in the final seconds secured their second Conference USA win.
Kristian Hudson led the team with 18 points to go with four rebounds, three assists and a steal. Taylor Shade added 11 points and Brianna Wright was two points shy of a double-double with eight and a game-high 20 rebounds.
FIU became the second team this season to register 20-plus free throws against the Birds, going 22-of-28 from the stripe for a 78.6 percentage.
UTSA will have its final road swing of the regular season next week at Louisiana Tech (Feb. 18) and Southern Miss (Feb. 20).