Brandon Wise/ Asst. Sports Director

brandon.wise@fiusm.com

Photo by: Sergio Naser

“It was a no show up game. We have to rebound,” Russo said. “We’re not going to win too many more games unless we rebound. The frustration level of us not being able to score is breaking them down.”

Those frustrations were abundant when the team struggled to be able to crash the boards against FAU. In their previous meeting with the Hilltoppers, the Panthers were also out rebounded 37-31. Junior guard Fanni Hutlassa credits the loss to being an early game in the year.

“That was our first conference game, since then we’ve gotten a lot better,” Hutlassa said. “We played zone against them last time. We are going to have to pressure them a lot more this time.”

In their first meeting, the Panthers were just 4-22 in the first half, shooting a mere 18.2 percent.

“We need to run our offense our way,” Hutlassa said. “Which we didn’t do before.”

The Panthers only scored 11 points in the first half of the game at Western Kentucky on Dec. 11, which led to their 65-48 loss to the Hilltoppers.

After being on the road for the last week, the Panthers finally got a chance to rest this week. It is the only time that the Panthers will get a week of rest like this for the rest of the season. Junior guard Carmen Miloglav noticed that the road trips had been an issue for the team.

“It definitely affected us,” Miloglav said. “We were a little tired because of the trips and didn’t perform like we were suppose to do.”

Russo has also noticed that the defense has begun to not try to fight for rebounds. She wants them to at least get inside the paint and fight. The Hilltoppers will come to town with the best rebounding margin in the Sun Belt Conference (+7.7 per game).

“We’re not even going in there,” Russo said. “[Even] if we’re not scoring like we want to or the way they were before, we still have to win games.”

With the team struggling to find a solid rotation, Russo has been trying to find a group that sticks, but it has not worked out as planned.

“We’ve tried to get more girls in the game and they aren’t doing that job either,” Russo said.

She also observed the emergence of another guard to add to the rotation she already utilizes in the games.

“[Sasha Melnikova] single handily won that South Alabama game, but she’s just got to get use to things. She’s only played in four games so far.”

Melnikova has seen her minutes increase ever since she first saw playing time against Louisiana Monroe.