MIAMI - The University of New Orleans women's basketball team snapped a four-game skid as they defeated Florida International 70-60 on Saturday night.
UNO (10-10, 4-5 SBC) was led by Le'Della English who scored a season-high 27 points. In the process, English passed Cathy Stiles (1980-84) to become the fourth leading scorer in school history as she now stands at 1,306 points.
Other top scorers for the Lady Privateers were Talishia Young and Brittany Helm who scored 14 and 12 points, respectively.
With the win, UNO established highs for a Amy Champion coached squad with four Sun Belt wins and 10 overall wins in addition to snapping a four-game FIU winning streak in the series between the two schools. Both totals are the most for a UNO squad since 2003-04.
FIU (7-13, 3-6 SBC) was led in scoring by LaQuetta Ferguson with 19 points. Iva Ciglar had 11 while Jazmine Jenkins and Monika Bosilj had 10 apiece.
The Lady Privateers found success in the paint early as Helm found Young twice under the basket as UNO took an early 6-4 lead before the Golden Panthers went on a 16-4 run powered by 4 of 8 three-point shooting to jump out to a 20-10 lead.
FIU would extend their lead to 13 points with 5:28 left in the opening half, but UNO behind Young and English would find lightning in a bottle to quickly pull within three at 31-28 with 1:18 remaining. After an FIU basket, Young responded with the last bucket of the opening half to provide the final score heading into the break at 33-30. English and Young finished the half with 10 points apiece.
Ferguson would connect on two early three-pointers right after the half as FIU pulled out to a seven point lead just over two minutes into the second half of play. Trailing by eight a few minutes later, English would nail the team's first three-pointer of the contest followed by a Helm lay-up on the next possession to pull UNO within three once more with 12:50 to go in the game.
Another Helm lay-up would get UNO within one point of the host Golden Panthers at 48-47 before back to back Jada Frazier baskets put the Lady Privateers on top 51-49, their first lead since 17:34 in the opening half. English would nail a three-pointer to close out an 11-0 UNO run that extended the team's lead to nine at 58-49.
The Lady Privateers would extend their lead to 10 with 6:54 left in the game before the Golden Panthers found their touch from beyond the arc once more, cutting into UNO's lead with back-to-back three-point baskets. From there on, UNO would cruise into the locker room as English would add seven more points to her game total down the stretch
UNO continues their Florida swing with a Thursday night contest against conference rival Florida Atlantic with tip scheduled for 6 p.m (CST).
