Lee Today

The No. 27 FGCU women's basketball team (11-2) rained 3s at a season-best clip Wednesday, draining 16 treys in an 89-75 victory over Brown at Alico Arena. Four Eagles scored in double figures with fifth-year guard Tishara Morehouse (Milwaukee, Wis./Rufus King HS/Nebraska CC) leading the squad with a team-high 20 points, eight assists, and three steals in the victory.
 
The play of two Eagles off the bench helped secure FGCU's third straight win, as junior guard/forward Maddie Antenucci (Cincinnati, Ohio/Indian Hill HS) and fifth-year guard Kaela Webb (Pontiac, Mich./Detroit Country Day HS/Detroit Mercy/Providence) each went 4-for-4 from beyond the arc and contributed 13 points. 
 
Redshirt junior Alyza Winston (Muskegon, Mich./Muskegon HS/Michigan State/Mississippi State), who was named the ASUN Newcomer of the Week on Monday, added 14 points. Winston and graduate guard Sophia Stiles (Malta, Mont./Malta HS/Montana) shared game-high honors with seven rebounds each.
 
"It was definitely a really tough game," said FGCU women's basketball coach Karl Smesko. "Brown really played exceptional. They were really hard to guard, they cut hard and got behind us a lot to get a lot of shots at the rim. They took advantage of our conversion defense when we didn't get matched up. … Fortunately, the first three quarters we shot it really well and had a bit of a cushion to close it out." 
 
Brown junior guard Kyla Jones scored a game-high 34 points and had a team-best six rebounds. Brown scored 54 of its 75 points in the paint and recorded a field goal accuracy of 54 percent for the game. The Bears outrebounded FGCU 31-27.
 
FGCU needed sometime early to shake off the post-holiday doldrums, as the Eagles didn't find the bottom of the basket in the game's opening minutes. Stiles hit a 3-pointer from the right wing and the Eagles' offense would catch fire with four treys in the period for a 23-10 lead. 
 
Brown's offense lit up in the second quarter, as the Bears popped for 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the floor. FGCU kept pace as Webb made three 3-pointers as the Eagles' top scorer in the second quarter. Jones tried to keep the Bears' deficit in single digits, but FGCU responded with 27 points in the period to take a 50-33 lead into halftime. 
 
Brown shot 72.2 percent in the third quarter (13-18) and scored 20 points over five minutes to get as close as seven points midway through the period. The Eagles would counter again with Winston and graduate guard Emma List (Colorado Springs, Colo./Discovery Canyon Campus/Albany) hitting back-to-back triples in the period to take a 75-61 lead into the final 10 minutes. 
 
The fourth quarter opened with a 7-0 Brown scoring run to drop the Eagle lead to nine before back-to-back buckets by Winston and Morehouse gave FGCU a 79-68 advantage with just under five minutes to play. The Bears whittled their deficit to only six points with 3:12 remaining with a 5-0 scoring spark, but the Eagles drained the shot clock and Antenucci's clutch 3-pointer gave FGCU a nine-point cushion. Brown did not make a field goal in the final 3:59, going 0-6 with its last three points coming from the free-throw line. 
 
FGCU returns to action in Alico Arena at 7 p.m. Thursday vs. Mercer for its final non-conference home game of 2022, just 26 hours after tipping off against Brown. The Eagles topped the Bears 91-81 in Macon, Ga., eight days ago in the first game of the two-game series this season. 
 
FGCU has the nation's best average in 3-pointers made per game at 11.2 and has 145 3-pointers this season, more than double the 59 total it allows its opponents. FGCU's run to its 2021-22 national ranking was due to the Eagles' continued dominance behind the 3-point arc. The Eagles have led the nation in made threes per game the past three years and in four of the last five seasons -- with an NCAA single-season record total 431 in 2017-18.      
 
Entering this season, the Eagles were selected by both the coaches and the media to repeat as ASUN champions. FGCU is currently ranked No. 3 in the Collegeinsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll. The Eagles finished with a program-best-ever No. 20 ranking in 2021-22 and have four Top 25 finishes in the past five seasons. Further, only the Green & Blue and defending national champion South Carolina have won at least 30 games in five of the last eight campaigns.     
 
For complete coverage of FGCU women's basketball, follow the Eagles on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @FGCU_WBB and online at www.FGCUAthletics.com. You can also sign up to have news on FGCU women's basketball and other programs delivered directly to your inbox by visiting www.fgcuathletics.com/email 

INDIVIDUAL TICKETS, MINI PLANS AVAILABLE  
Tickets for the 2022-23 FGCU Basketball season are on sale now and can be purchased by going online to www.FGCUTickets.com or calling 866-FGCU-TIX. Group tickets can also be purchased for 10 or more people – making a memorable evening for families, businesses, or other organizations.  
 
COACH SMESKO   
FGCU head coach Karl Smesko maintains a record of 621-130 (.827) overall in his career, the third-highest winning percentage among active Division I coach behind only UConn's Geno Auriemma and LSU's Kim Mulkey. He has also led the Eagles to a 232-18 (.928) mark in ASUN regular-season play and a 30-2 (.938) record in ASUN tournament play. Over the previous 10 seasons, he has guided FGCU to a 153-5 (.968) record in conference play with six undefeated seasons. The 12-time ASUN Coach of the Year has led the program to 12-straight 25-win seasons and 18 consecutive 20-win campaigns, including 30-plus wins in five of the last eight years. On top of all that, the Eagles are 560-103 (.845) all-time since Smesko started the program in the 2002-03 season, and the Green & Blue's .845 all-time winning percentage is the best in NCAA Division I women's basketball history.
 
E.A.G.L.E. CAMPAIGN
IT TAKES A TEAM to achieve our newest goal - a $10 million campaign to address student-athlete needs in continued academic success, life skills, mental health, nutrition, and strength and conditioning as well as departmental needs in facility expansion and improvement as well as mentoring and leadership training for coaches and staff. The name embodies our mission and the purpose of the E.A.G.L.E. Campaign - Eagle Athletics Generating Lifetime Excellence. Join Our Team and pledge your gift today to help the Eagles of tomorrow!  
 
#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (https://www.fgcu.edu/adminservices/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visit https://www.fgcu.edu/adminservices/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.  
 
ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 94 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 15-plus seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just 11-plus seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 47 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. In 2022, the men's golf team became the first program to earn an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. Eight FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport - including women's basketball (No. 20, 2021-22 and No. 25 in 2022-23) beach volleyball (No. 20, 2022) and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as four of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green & Blue posted a department-best sixth-place finish in the DI-AAA Learfield Directors' Cup and top-100 showing nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS institutions. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and state of Florida best seven teams earn the NCAA's Public Recognition Award for their Academic Progress Rate in their sport. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.66 GPA in the classroom in the fall 2022 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 27 consecutive semesters. The past seven semesters (Fall 2019 – Fall 2022) saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher cumulative team GPA. The Eagles also served an all-time high 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 - being recognized as one of two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl. 

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