Wrapping up day two of the Rainbow Wahine Showdown at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu, redshirt senior Lisa Zderadicka went 4-for-4 from the foul line in the final minutes on Saturday to help the FGCU women's basketball team (3-2) hold off a fourth-quarter rally from Hawaii (1-6) and secure a 73-67 win. With the win, the Eagles are now 2-0 against the Rainbow Wahine.
"I thought we had a really good first half," FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said. "We had a really good pace to our play. Unfortunately, in the fourth quarter, we didn't do well. We played a little tentative. We slowed down our pace, and Hawaii made a nice comeback. It was good to see Kerstie get a bunch of offensive rebounds late in the game to help us and for Lisa to knock down all those free throws to help seal the game."
"We had a bad start in the first quarter, and it cost us," said Hawaii head coach Laura Beeman. "I loved our fight and our effort in the third and fourth quarters, but we put ourselves in a bad situation early on. But, the good thing is we see our weaknesses early, which means we can fix them now, rather than be surprised come March."
Junior Nasrin Ulel converted a pair of free throws with 4:05 left in the third quarter to give FGCU its second of two 22-point leads. Ulel led the team with 17 points, (6-15, 1-4 3PT, 4-4 FT), two rebounds, assists and one steal.
Then, after the Eagles didn't produce any field goals over a four-minute stretch late in the quarter, redshirt sophomore Kerstie Phills and to give the Eagles a 57-41 lead entering the final 10 minutes. Redshirt junior Keri Jewett-Giles made back-to-back layups in the final minute.
The lead remained at double digits until Hawaii's junior Makenna Woodfolk made a layup with 2:27 left to pull the Rainbow Wahine within eight. They trimmed it down to four on a pair of occasions down the stretch, but Zderadicka made a pair of free throws each time.
Zderadicka and Jewett-Giles finished with 16 points each and had a game-high three steals. In fact, they each had more individually than Hawaii (2) had as a team. Jewett-Giles also led the way with three assists. Zderadicka was 8-8 at the free throw line, which included two late free throws helped the Eagles
Redshirt senior Destiny Washington added seven points and a team-high six rebounds before fouling out late, but she eclipsed 800 points in her NCAA career with a third quarter layup. She entered needing five points for the milestone and now sits at 802, which includes stops at Ball State and Loyola Chicago.
Junior Tytionia Adderly added three rebounds to go with her four points. Adderly is nine rebounds shy of becoming the sixth player in program history with at least 600 career rebounds. She needs 11 more to eclipse Courtney Chihil (603, 2008-12) for fifth-place all-time.
FGCU is now 3-2 all-time as a Division-I program while playing in the state of Hawaii.
The Eagles finished 6-for-21 from 3-point range to snap its four-game streak of 10 or more made from long range to open the season.
Jewett-Giles has now scored 15 or more points in four consecutive games since an eight-point outing against South Dakota State in the season opener. She is averaging 16.5 PPG during that stretch.
Four 'Bows ended the game in double digits as junior guard Julissa Tago led the team with 13 points in 22 minutes of action off the bench. Woodfolk started slow but produced in the fourth quarter finishing with 10 points, eight rebounds, and three assists.
Up Next:
The Eagles wrap up day three of the Rainbow Wahine Showdown as they face American University at 5 P.M. ET before returning home to the Alico Arena to face Houston on Wednesday, November 28 at 5 P.M.
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