Senior Nasrin Ulel produced a career-high 36 points to tie the program's single-game scoring record and lead the No. 24 FGCU women's basketball team (22-2, 9-0 A-SUN) to an 81-68 win over Jacksonville (13-9, 5-4 A-SUN) on the road in Historic Swisher Gymnasium on Monday.
The Green and Blue pushed their winning streak to 11 straight overall and 37 in a row in conference play. They are 26-3 all-time against Jacksonville and 15-2 as a ranked Division I team.
"We beat a really good team," FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said. "Jacksonville is really aggressive and forces a lot of turnovers. They're hard to guard off the dribble, and they have some quick, athletic kids. I thought in the first half, we moved the ball really well. We got a lot of good shots, which gave us a good lead. We didn't finish very strong in the fourth quarter, but give Jacksonville credit for fighting all the way to the end."
Ulel finished 11-for-16 from the field, including 5-for-9 from the 3-point line. She also made 9-of-10 from the foul line while adding seven rebounds, two blocks and one steal. In the first half alone, she had 22 points, and she had 34 through three quarters. In doing so, she tied Rosemarie Julien's single-game record of 36 set at Stetson on Jan. 7, 2017.
"Nas had it going," Smesko said. "She got hot. We didn't hit many threes in the first half or shoot a very good percentage, but she had several. Then, she was able to get to the rim, and she was able to get to the foul line. They had good defenders on her, but she was just really, really good tonight."
The Eagles jumped out to 12-0 lead while holding Jacksonville scoreless for the game's first four and a half minutes. Ulel and Ashli O'Neal each had nine points in the opening quarter, while a trio of players drew charges over the first 13 minutes.
Despite struggling from 3-point range, FGCU shot 14-for-19 from inside long distance in the first half as both teams shot above 50 percent from the field. Ulel capped an 8-0 run early in the second quarter with a 3-pointer that gave the Eagles a 39-21 lead with 7:34 left in the half. Toward the end of the third quarter, she took an inbound pass from Tytionia Adderly and finished a layup to push her point total to 34.
In the final quarter, FGCU shot just 2-for-10 and had only five points after scoring at least 24 in each of the first three quarters. Despite that, Ulel made a layup with 1:50 left in the game on her only shot attempt of the quarter, and she added four key rebounds in the frame.
Outside of Ulel, Keri Jewett-Giles added 16 points, five steals, four rebounds and four assists on 7-for-16 shooting. O'Neal added 11 points over 25 minutes, while Adderly had a game-high 11 rebounds (six offensive) along with five assists, four points and two blocks.
FGCU will be back home on Saturday against North Florida at 4 p.m.
Notes:
Ulel is the third Eagle to score at least 30 points in a game this year, joining Jewett-Giles and Davion Wingate. Furthermore, with her five 3-pointers, she pushed her career total to 210 and sits in 13th-place on the A-SUN's all-time career list after surpassing three players on Monday.
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