ESTERO, Fla. --- Scoring at an almost exponential rate, the Florida Gulf Coast University women's basketball team doubled its record to 2-0 and scored twice as many points as its opponent.
 
The Eagles defeated Missouri Valley College 87-41 on Saturday night in TECO Arena in front of about 200 fans at the Hillmyer Tremont Tip-Off Classic.
 
Scoring 22 unanswered points in the first half for a 41-11 lead, the Eagles finished the first half leading 48-15.
 
"This soon?" FGCU sophomore guard Jennifer Santana said when asked if she thought her team would be this good this early. "Honestly, no. But we have made strides in the past two weeks as a team. We still have a lot of stuff we need to work on."
 
The Eagles, playing at the NCAA Division II level, improved to 2-0 after defeating an NAIA Division II team that fell to 0-6.
 
"Missouri Valley traveled a long way to get here," FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said. "They looked tired. They're a better team than what they showed."
 
Smesko said his own team can be better as well.
 
He wrote the word "communicate" in blue ink on his white clipboard and told his players at halftime to shout out to each other - louder and more often - when playing defense.
 
"We want to communicate better," said FGCU junior guard Rebecca Stewart, who scored 10 points and grabbed four rebounds. "We won by a lot, but coach always wants us to play hard."
 
The scoring different reached 40 points for the Eagles soon after they opened the second half on a 9-0 run.
 
Although school records will come swiftly in a program that's just two games long, the records set on Saturday may be tough to top:
 
- Total points: 89
- Margin of victory: 48
- 3-point field goal percentage: 57.9 percent
 
Santana made 3-of-3 attempts, and Megan Jones made 3-of-4. The team combined to make 11-of-19 3-pointers.