"We had a great defensive effort in the first half," FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said of his team, which also won its 19th-straight and 25th of the past 26 in A-SUN play dating back to last year. "We did a good job on the boards and got offensive production from a lot of players, including several off the bench."
"It was not a good game for us. We didn't shoot the ball well," Stetson head coach Lynn Bria said. "We just made some mistakes that we haven't made in a while. It comes down to putting some points on the board, and we didn't score today."
"I didn't think that our defense was good in the first half," Bria added. "I thought it was a little bit better in the second half. We have to sit down and guard people. We just had a lot of mistakes, and you can't have mistakes like that when you play a team like FGCU. We have to continue to get better."
Along with Liberty's win over North Alabama, FGCU's victory means the Eagles can clinch at least a share of the A-SUN regular season title and the top seed in the A-SUN Championship with a win on the road at Lipscomb Tuesday.
Junior Nasrin Ulel and redshirt senior Lisa Zderadicka each scored 11 points, while redshirt senior Destiny Washington and redshirt sophomore Kerstie Phills each chipped in 10. Junior Tytionia Adderly led all players with 10 rebounds.
The Eagles, who never trailed, led from the moment redshirt junior Keri Jewett-Giles scored four straight to open the game. Later, redshirt sophomore Chandler Ryan scored six straight and Jewett-Giles added two free throws to cap a 13-0 run that gave the Eagles a 19-4 lead with less than a minute left in the quarter.
Then, the Green and Blue went on an 11-0 run over the half's final 4:48 to take a 42-18 lead into the break. Ulel scored eight points in the second quarter alone, including four during the late run.
The margin grew to as many as 31 in the early stages of the second half, but Stetson went on a 16-5 run, including nine straight to close the quarter as the Eagles scored just two points - on a layup from Washington - over the final 5:15.
Ulel and Ryan started to breathe some life into the offense in the first three minutes of the fourth with a pair of 3-point field goals. Phills then scored six straight, and Adderly added a 3-pointer. Redshirt freshman Tyra Cox scored on a layup with 1:47 left to give FGCU its largest lead, 35.
Defensively, FGCU held Stetson to single-digit points in the first (7) and fourth (4) quarters to increase its number of such quarters to 16 in A-SUN play. The Hatters finished just 2-for-16 from 3-point range, while the Eagles bench outscored Stetson 28-0.
Washington is now 17 points away from 1,000 in her NCAA career, which has seen stops at Loyola-Chicago and Ball State. Should she join the group, she will also become just the second player to wear the Green and Blue to join the 1,000 point, 600 rebound, 100 block, 100 steal and 100 assists club along with Whitney Knight.
The victory, which also snapped a six-game winning streak for Stetson, allows FGCU to remain as one of just 10 teams nationally with an undefeated conference slate:
Adderly's 10 rebounds (one offensive, nine defensive) put her at 775 and needs 113 to pass Sarah Hansen (887, 2011-14) as the all-time leader. Adderly's lone offensive board put her at 311 and is 19 shy of passing Hansen (329) as the all-time leader in career offensive rebounds. In defensive rebounds, Adderly's nine put her at 469.
Up Next:
FGCU will stay on the road and travel to Lipscomb on Tuesday for a 7:30 p.m. tilt. The team then returns home Saturday, Feb. 23 for a 4 p.m. game against Kennesaw State, which will be senior day.
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