Redshirt junior Anja Marinkovic provided 16 big points off the bench, while senior Tytionia Adderly pulled down a single-game record 21 rebounds as the No. 24 FGCU women's basketball team (24-2, 11-0 A-SUN) pulled out a come-from-behind 67-54 win over Stetson (10-13, 4-6 A-SUN) inside Alico Arena on Monday night.
"We got off to a really slow start, especially offensively," FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said. "I thought when we brought Anja in was the big spark. She hit a bunch of threes in a short period of time. She was running the floor hard, creating space for people. She got an opportunity tonight and made the most of it. She was huge for us. Other than that, we didn't shoot it great tonight, but Ty played great defense and was an exceptional rebounder, so we got some extra possessions and some extra shots. We just didn't shoot it very well."
As a team, FGCU missed the first nine shots from the field before redshirt senior Keri Jewett-Giles made a 3-pointer with 5:25 left, but the drought resumed as the Eagles finished 2-for-20 from the field and trailed 15-9 through the first 10 minutes.
Enter Marinkovic, who made three consecutive shots from long distance over a two-minute stretch to highlight a 14-0 run that gave the Green and Blue a 23-17 lead with 4:22 left in the half. She added a steal and a fast break layup a short time later to make it 27-21, and after Stetson trimmed its deficit to just two with less than 10 seconds left, the junior guard buried a fast break 3-pointer to give FGCU a 30-25 lead at the break.
The Eagles scored the first three points of the second half, but Stetson answered with a 10-0 run, capped by a 3-pointer from Kimia Carter, to take a 35-33 lead with 5:33 left in the third. Jewett-Giles immediately responded with a layup on the next possession, and Marinkovic tacked on a reverse layup for the lead.
The Hatters took the lead back (40-39) with 2:31 left in the quarter on a Jamiya Turner layup, but redshirt sophomore Tyra Cox hit a pair of clutch 3-pointers, including one at the buzzer, sandwiched around a second-chance layup by Adderly, as the Eagles took a 47-42 lead into the final quarter.
After falling behind by one on the Turner layup, FGCU completed an 18-2 run that allowed them to open up a 57-42 lead with 6:21 left. From there, the Eagles never led by fewer than double-digits and pushed its lead to as many as 16 following a free throw from redshirt sophomore Emma List in the final minute.
Jewett-Giles finished with a game-high 21 points while finishing 7-for-7 from the foul line and adding three rebounds, two assists and two steals. It was her sixth 20-point effort in conference play, her 10th such performance of the season and the 17th of her career.
Marinkovic tallied 16 on 6-for-7 shooting, including 4-for-5 from long distance, over 15 minutes off the bench, while senior Nasrin Ulel tacked on 14 points, seven rebounds and two assists.
FGCU, which snapped Stetson's three-game winning streak and became the first team nationally to reach 24 wins, pushed its overall winning streak to 13 straight and has won 39 consecutive games against conference teams. They are 27-4 all-time against Stetson, which is the Green and Blue's most wins against any A-SUN team.
The Eagles now need either one more win or another loss by either Jacksonville, North Florida or Liberty to clinch a top four seed and a home quarterfinal game in the A-SUN tournament.
Notes:
Jewett-Giles now has 849 career points, surpassing Chelsea Lyles (839, 2008-10) for the second-most by a two-year transfer in program history. The only player left ahead of her is Rosemarie Julien, who had 862 from 2016-18.
Adderly joined redshirt junior Kerstie Phills, who had one 20-rebound game in her time at Wagner, as one of two players on this year's roster with at least one such performance in her career.
The Eagles, behind a 10-for-35 performance from long distance on Monday, reached 300 3-pointers on the season exactly. It is the program's 11th consecutive season reaching that benchmark.
The team's 13-game winning streak is one shy of tying for the program's seventh-longest in the Division I era. Monday's victory was their 200th Division I victory inside Alico Arena.
Ulel surpassed Kaneisha Atwater (457, 2013-16) for the third-most career field goals in program history on Monday. She has 458, while she only needs eight more points to become the fourth player in program history to reach 1,300. On top of that, she needs just two more 3-pointers to pass Shannon Murphy (219, 2007-11) for the fourth-most 3-pointers in program history.
Adderly passed Albena Branzova (FIU, 1991-95, 1,092) for ninth place on the A-SUN's career rebounds list. She now has 1,106, and she's just 36 shy of jumping all the way up to second place as only 30 rebounds separate second through eighth place.
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