MIAMI, Fla. - The University of Denver women's basketball team fell 58-42 to the Florida International University Panthers on Saturday evening at U.S. Century Bank Arena in Miami, Fla. Senior Kaetlyn Murdoch (Temple, Texas) led the Pioneers with 10 points and 13 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season, 25th of her career.

The loss drops the Pioneers to 16-11 overall, 8-5 in the SBC. FIU improves to 17-8 overall and 7-5 in the league.

"FIU has a great group of players that can score and even though we played great defense against them, we just didn't have a great offensive night tonight," said head coach Erik Johnson. "I'm proud of the way our team continued to fight and play hard. We have three games to at home to close out the regular season so we'll head back to Denver to get ready."

Along with her double-double, Murdoch also finished with two assists and tied her career-high with four steals. Freshman Morgan Van Riper-Rose (Eden Prairie, Minn.) finished with eight points and grabbed three rebounds to go along with two steals, while sophomore Maiya Michel (Loma Linda, Calif.) posted seven points. Junior Emiko Smith (Los Angeles, Calif.) finished with six points, two assists and four steals.

Jerica Coley led the Panthers with 18 points, while also grabbing six rebounds and tallying four assists. Finda Mansare finished with a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds, while also registering three blocks and one steal. Fanni Hutlassa rounded out the double-digit scoring for the Pioneers with 10 points.

The Pioneers only trailed by five points heading into the locker room, but it was a 16-7 run to start the half by FIU that gave the Panthers its largest lead of 14 points with 11:41 left to play in the game. Van Riper-Rose halted the run with a three-pointer at the 11:09 mark but the Panthers used a 12-2 run to extend their lead to 21 points, leaving 3:37 left to play.

Denver went on an 8-3 run to close out game, but it wasn't enough as the Pioneers fell 58-42. The Pioneers shot 28.1 percent from the field and 61.5 percent from the line, while FIU shot 38.2 percent from the field and an impressive 83.3 percent from the charity stripe.

The Pioneers return home to host Louisiana-Lafayette on Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. MT. 

- PIONEERS -