The FGCU men's and #25 women's basketball teams pulled away with a sweep in their doubleheader at Stetson. The women (16-2, 3-0 A-SUN) defeated the Lady Hatters (7-9, 1-2 A-SUN) 89-47, while the men (5-14, 2-2 A-SUN) defeated Stetson's men's team (7-11, 1-2 A-SUN) 66-62 in overtime. With the wins, the women are now 26-4 against Stetson while the men are 21-8.
"We played much better today," FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said. "We were better defensively, and we moved the ball quicker on offense. Most of our players played really well, too, and I loved the energy from (Kerstie) Phills."
"I thought that was as gritty of a road win as we've had since I've been here; it was a great team effort and we really had some guys step up tonight," said FGCU head coach Michael Fly. "We challenged them tonight to limit Stetson on the offensive glass and to hold them to zero second chance points was a really huge accomplishment. I'm really proud of the fight and resolve that the team had especially when we were down some late."
FGCU WBB:
With the win, the Eagles extended the nation's third-longest conference winning streak to 31 straight and are now 26-4 all-time against the Hatters, including wins in six straight and 15 of the past 16. The 42-point victory was the largest winning margin in series history, and FGCU is also tied with Stony Brook as the only two teams with 16 wins nationally.
Senior Nasrin Ulel and redshirt senior Davion Wingate, who both had 19 points each, combined to shoot 13-for-28 from the field, including a 9-for-18 performance from long distance. The duo made half of FGCU's 18 3-point field goals.
Meanwhile, redshirt senior Keri Jewett-Giles tallied 15 points, seven assists, five rebounds and three steals. Senior Tytionia Adderly added 14 points and eight rebounds, while redshirt junior Kerstie Phills had 11 points and five boards. Redshirt junior Anja Marinkovic added eight points in seven minutes off the bench in the second half, while redshirt senior Ashli O'Neal produced five assists and four rebounds over 16 minutes.
After a slow start offensively, FGCU scored 19 points over the final 5:22 of the opening quarter. Ulel and Jewett-Giles combined for 17 of those 19 points, while Ulel had 10 points in the frame alone.
After closing the first on a 9-2 run, the Eagles opened the second on a 12-2 run, highlighted by a trio of 3-pointers along with a three-point play from Adderly. With FGCU holding a 34-18 lead, Wingate scored 13 straight for her team over a three-minute stretch to push the advantage to 22 with 4:49 left in the half.
Phills and Ulel combined for the final six points of the half as FGCU took a 27-point lead into the break. Marinkovic then helped the Eagles overcome a 12-point third with an eight-point fourth quarter to help ice the game.
Notes:
FGCU's 18 3-point field goals fell one shy of their season-high that was set against FIU (Nov. 5) and Temple (Dec. 22). In fact, those two outings remain the only two games with 19 by a Division I team against a Division I team this year.
O'Neal remains 18 points shy of 1,000 in her career.
FGCU is now 12-2 all-time as a ranked Division I team.
With her 19 points, Ulel passed Stephanie Haas (1,138, 2012-16) for eighth-place on the program's Division I era career scoring list. She now has 1,150, which is 32 shy of Adrianne McNally (1,181, 2007-10) for seventh.
FGCU MBB:
Sophomore Caleb Catto scored a career-high 19 points and junior Jalen Warren scored eight of his 16 points in the overtime win for the Eagles.
FGCU carried a 27-26 lead into halftime, but needed Catto's career-best fifth three-pointer of the day with 17 seconds left in regulation to force the extra stanza. Stetson took an early lead in overtime, but Warren's performance helped lift the Eagles to their second overtime and first road victory of the season.
Catto finished the day going 5-of-7 from three-point range and 7-of-13 overall while adding six rebounds. Warren's 16 points included a 4-of-4 free throw performance with two of them coming in the final 25 seconds of overtime pushing the FGCU lead to four. Rounding out the Eagles' top scorers was sophomore Zach Scott who had 10 points, while senior Tracy Hector tied his career-high with 7 assists to go with five rebounds and three steals.
Stetson led by as many as seven midway through the first half, but a 10-to-2 run for FGCU put the Eagles back ahead, 19-18, at the 7:43 mark. The teams traded leads three more times after that before Warren found freshman Dakota Rivers for the go-ahead dunk just prior to the intermission.
The second half saw both teams trading buckets as the stanza featured 10 lead changes and six ties. With 1:23 to go, Mahamadou Diawara hit a lay-up putting the Hatters up three. Both teams missed jumpers on the ensuing possessions before Catto tied the game, 54-54, with 17 seconds to go. Jahlil Rawley was able to get a shot off just before the buzzer but it was off target sending the game to overtime.
The Hatters scored first in overtime with a triple from Rob Perry and kept the lead for nearly three minutes until a pair of free throws by junior Justus Rainwater tied the game at 60-60.
A running jumper by Warren followed by two free throws put the Eagles up 64-60 with 25 seconds to go. Stetson pulled back within two, but, with 12 seconds to go, Scott hit a pair of free throws to extend the lead to four, 66-62. After a timeout, Perry was able to get off another three-point attempt with two seconds to go, but was just off the mark with Catto clearing the rebound to preserve the win.
Perry finished the night with a game-high 27 points for Stetson as he hit 10-of-18 from the floor and was 5-of-9 from deep. Christiaan Jones rounded out the Hatters' top scorers with 13 points.
Overall, FGCU hit 21-of-48 from the floor and went 18-of-20 from the free throw line for one of its best performances of the year. The Hatters shot 25-of-54 and were limited to just 6-of-10 at the line.
Defensively, the Eagles were able to corral 23 defensive rebounds and did not allow a single second-chance point for the Hatters in the game.
Up Next:
The men will return to action this Thursday, Jan. 16 when Kennesaw State visits Alico Arena. Tip-off is set for 7 PM and the game will be streamed live on ESPN+.
The women will stay on the road to face top-75 RPI North Florida (9-7, 2-1) on Monday at 7 p.m. The Ospreys are the last team to defeat the Eagles in conference play (Feb. 1, 2018, 75-73), which coincidentally also came when FGCU was ranked, although the Eagles were without the services of Adderly in that game.
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