STANFORD, Calif. – The 12th-seeded FGCU women's basketball team (31-5) saw a record-breaking season come to an end with a 90-70 loss to 4th-seeded Stanford in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Monday.

Despite the loss, the Eagles added 17 3-pointers to their season total and finished with an NCAA single season record of 431, which breaks the previous mark of 424 set by the 2014-15 Sacramento State program.

"I thought a big part of the game was the first quarter," FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said. "We had more defensive breakdowns in the first quarter than we had the whole game against Missouri. (I) can't really explain why. It just happened. And then you dig that kind of a hole, you're pretty much pressing to get back in the game the entire time. You just can't build that kind of hole against a team this good."
 
China Dow scored all 23 of her team-high points in the second half as she led a trio of FGCU double-figure scorers along with 16 from Lisa Zderadicka and 10 by Nasrin Ulel.
 
The first quarter was a 10-minute package of scoring runs, with Stanford opening on a 7-0 surge and closing on an 8-0 forge to take a 33-17 lead. Fifteen of the Eagles' 17 points came from the 3-point line, including three in close succession after Smesko took a timeout just 1:37 in after getting down seven to tie the contest at 9-9 just over two minutes later. However, the Cardinal responded with an 8-0 run – during which Taylor Gradinjan picked up her second foul – to go back ahead 17-9. The two sides then traded buckets before the aforementioned 8-0 run by the hosts to close the quarter
 
After getting down by 18 with just over seven minutes to play in the second quarter, Zderadicka (Vienna, Austria/HAK Korneuburg) bookended a 10-2 FGCU run to get the margin back down to 10, 37-27, spearheading the run with a 3-pointer and closing it with a steal and layup. After Stanford went back up 13, the Green and Blue had another response in them, and this time it came all off the right hand of Ulel (Murrietta, Calif./Murrietta HS) as she hit a 3-pointer, knocked down a pair of free throws and drained another 3 in consecutive possessions for the Eagles. That trimmed the deficit all the way down to five before Stanford capped the opening half with three free throws to take a 43-35 lead into the locker room.
 
Stanford opened the second half on an 8-2 run to nearly double its lead to 52-38 three minutes into the stanza, prompting an FGCU timeout. However, like they had done in the second quarter, the Eagles weren't able to formulate a rebuttal as they shot just 28.6 percent (4-14) from the floor. The Green and Blue made two 3-pointers in the quarter – both coming from Dow; the first tied the all-time single-season record at the 7:39 mark and the second broke the milestone with 6:20 remaining.
 
Dow (Louisville, Ky./Christian Academy of Louisville) who was scoreless in the first half – carried her momentum from an 11-point third quarter into the fourth as she scored 12 of FGCU's first 17 fourth-quarter points. The Eagles were down by as much as 21, 69-48, early in the period, but crawled back behind Dow to trim the deficit to only 10, 75-65, with just over five minutes left. However, the Cardinal clipped off a 7-0 spurt in a minute to go back in front by 17, 82-65, and moved on to their 11th-straight Sweet Sixteen appearance.

Dow's 23 points were aided by six 3-pointers, while Zderadicka made a season-high four. Erica Nelson (Kansas City, Mo./Lee Summit North HS), who added nine points, finished with three - one shy of her career-high.

NOTES

Stanford is now 86-29 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, including a 36-4 record in Maples Pavilion. They've won 16 straight at home in the tournament with the last loss coming to Florida State in 2007.

FGCU is now 2-5 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. Two of the losses have come in overtime and another by two points.

Dow, who averaged 22 points in the tournament and owns the second and third best scoring games in the program's tournament history, finished just three points shy of matching Kaneisha Atwater's record of 26 set on March 21, 2015 against Oklahoma State. 

FGCU is now 1-2 all-time against the Pac-12, including an 0-2 record against Stanford. The program's win came against Arizona, 57-55, on Dec. 20, 2015 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The Eagles saw a season-high 11-game winning streak end on Monday, but they closed the season having won 21 of the past 23 and 25 of the final 28 games. The 11-game streak was tied for the fourth longest in the nation behind UConn (33), Baylor (29) and Quinnipiac (23).

With her three rebounds against Stanford, Tytionia Adderly (Jupiter, Fla./Cardinal Newman HS) finished with 304 rebounds this year, which is a program record in the NCAA Division-I era - just 16 shy of Robyn Swain's overall program record of 320 set in 2003-04.

Rosemarie Julien (Port St. Lucie, Fla./Treasure Coast HS) finished 0-for-1 from the foul line against Stanford, and she closed her career 146-for-180 (.811), which is the second best in program history behind Kelsey Jacobson's 163-for-199, .819.

FGCU, which has made the NCAA Tournament in five of the past seven years, is now 40-12 in the month of March in the Division-I era, including a 23-5 record over the past five seasons alone.

The Eagles forced 18 turnovers from Stanford, which represented the first time this year they've forced at least 15 in a loss. They finished 30-1 in such games.

The Green and Blue will finish the season as the NCAA leader in 3-point field goals attempted (1,190) and made (431).

Gradinjan's (Cudahy, Wis./Cudahy HS) five points pushed her career total to 1,237, which is sixth in program history. She finished second all-time in 3-point field goals made (300) and attempted (804), too.

FOLLOW ALONG
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COACH SMESKO
FGCU head coach Karl Smesko rallied the 2016-17 Eagles to their seventh-straight 25-win campaign, which culminated in the team's fourth NCAA tournament appearance in six seasons of eligibility. The now eight-time ASUN Coach of the Year was named the espnW Mid-Major Coach of the Year in 2015-16 following a run that witnessed the Eagles finish a Division-I best-ever 33-6. Over a five-year stretch starting in 2011-12, FGCU racked up four ASUN seasons with a perfect record and capped the run with back-to-back 30 plus win seasons. In 2014-15, the team earned its first top-25 ranking and another NCAA Tournament trip as a seven seed, where FGCU won its first ever NCAA Division-I Tournament game against No. 10 Oklahoma State. Including this year, Smesko has guided the Eagles to 14-straight 20-win seasons. He maintains a record of 435-87 (.835) at FGCU, including a 170-16 (.914) mark in ASUN play. Over the past six + seasons, he has guided FGCU to a 105-4 (.963) record in conference play with four undefeated seasons. Smesko earned his 400th career coaching win in 2014-15 in just 493 career games, two games faster than UConn's Geno Auriemma. He holds a career head coaching record of 496-114 (.814). Smesko ranks among an elite list of just four active Division I coaches with a career win percentage of .800 or higher, joining Auriemma, Baylor's Kim Mulkey and Stanford's Tara VanDerveer in the esteemed group.
 
SUPPORT THE CAUSE
FGCU Athletics sponsors events throughout the year to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help.