Seniors Keri Jewett-Giles and Nasrin Ulel combined for 42 points to lead the No. 24 FGCU women's basketball team (30-3) to a 73-57 win over North Florida (16-15) in the A-SUN Championship semifinals on Wednesday inside Alico Arena.
"There's definitely a lot of bright spots," FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said, "(such as) the way we came out in the second half, moved the ball and knocked down shots. We were getting open threes and had them spread out and got layups, which helped us extend the lead. Give North Florida credit. They kept fighting and kept coming at us. I thought we lost our defensive intensity and weren't running our offense (after that). Hopefully there's a lesson to be learned about finishing the game the way we want to."
With the win, the Eagles advance to the A-SUN Championship game for the ninth-consecutive season, which extends a conference record. They will face Liberty (20-11), who defeated North Alabama 90-87 in overtime to set up a rematch of last year's title tilt, at 3 p.m. on Sunday. The game is open to fans and tickets can be purchased online at FGCUtickets.com.
The triumph also gives FGCU its fourth 30-win season over the past six years and allows the Eagles a chance to tie Florida International's all-time A-SUN record with four straight conference tournament championships. As of now, the Green and Blue are just one of four to win three straight, and they improved the program's all-time conference tournament record to 24-2 (.923). On top of that, FGCU is now 48-13 (.787) all-time in the month of March (3-0 this year), and they are 27-3 against North Florida with six straight wins in the series, including 16-0 inside Alico Arena and 4-0 in the postseason.
As a team, FGCU racked up 11 more 3-pointers against North Florida to push its nation-best total to 397, which puts them three shy of becoming just the fourth team in NCAA Division I women's basketball history with at least 400 in a season. The 2017-18 version of the Eagles currently holds the all-time record with 431 with the 2014-15 Sacramento State (424) and 2017-18 DePaul (422) squads ranking second and third.
Offensively, the duo of Jewett-Giles and Ulel produced FGCU's 14th and 15th all-time 20-plus point performances in A-SUN Championship play in Wednesday night's win.
Jewett-Giles, who had a game-high 22 points along with five rebounds, three assists and two steals, racked up her 70th career double-digit scoring performance, and it was the 19th time she's scored 20-or-more, which includes 12 this year alone.
Ulel, meanwhile, had 20 points, eight rebounds and two blocks. She finished 7-for-14 from the field, including 4-for-6 from long distance, for her sixth 20-plus point performance of the season. It was also her 20th double-digit scoring game of the season, and she also added a bit more history to her performance by moving into 10th place on the A-SUN's all-time 3-point field goals list with 229, surpassing Stetson's Brianti Saunders (227, 2013-17).
Grad student Ashli O'Neal also produced offensively by recording her second double-digit performance of the tournament with 12 points on 4-for-9 shooting. She is averaging 16.5 PPG over her first two A-SUN tournament games.
Senior Tytionia Adderly, meanwhile, continued her solid all-around play. While finishing with six points and three steals, she also had her fourth-straight double-digit rebound performance with a game-high 14, which ties her own program record for most in an A-SUN tournament game. She has eight of FGCU's 11 all-time double-digit rebounding efforts in the postseason event. If that isn't enough, she had seven assists vs North Florida, which is tied for the third-most in program history in conference tournament play.
Furthermore, Adderly pushed her career rebounding total to 1,185, which is just 15 shy of making her the second player in A-SUN history with 1,200 in a career. Georgia Southern's Phylette Blake (1,242, 1985-89) holds the all-time record. On Wednesday, the senior also pushed her career double-digit rebounding game total to 55, which includes a career-high 16 this year alone.
Both teams got off to slow starts offensively, combining for just nine points through the game's first five minutes. With the game knotted at five apiece, Jewett-Giles spurred a 10-0 run by forcing a steal and finishing a fast break layup, and Ulel added five points during the stretch. Jewett-Giles then closed the quarter with a second-chance jumper off the glass just before time expired to give FGCU a 17-7 lead.
A three-point play from Jewett-Giles pushed the lead to as many as 19 in the second quarter before FGCU settled on a 38-22 lead at the break. O'Neal then buried a 3-pointer to cap a 15-2 run for the Eagles to open the second half and, following back-to-back 3-pointers from Adderly and Ulel, FGCU held a 59-29 lead with 4:40 left in the third quarter.
From there, things got interesting as the Green and Blue scored just seven points over the next 10 minutes, while Janesha Green's layup pulled the visitors within as few as 13 with 4:20 left in the fourth. O'Neal stemmed the tide, however, with a 3-pointer from the left wing, and Jewett-Giles added a layup on the next possession to essentially seal the game.
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