The Rundown: FGCU (10-2 | 31 RPI) @ The Saint Joseph's Hawk Classic
The Field: Cal State-Northridge (9-2 | 66 RPI), Saint Joseph's (3-7 | 153 RPI), Quinnipiac (9-2 | 26 RPI)
When: Sunday, Dec. 28 – Monday, Dec. 29
Where: Saint Joseph's Michael J. Hagan Arena (4,200)
Video: A-10 Network ($)
Live Stats: via SJUHawks.com
Hashtags: #WingsUp | #WeAreFGCU | #RainingThrees
Series History: First meeting with CSUN & Quinnipiac; 0-1 against Saint Joseph's
Game Notes: FGCU  |  CSUN  |  Saint Joseph's  |  Quinnipiac
 
PHILADELPHIA – The FGCU women's basketball team heads to the City of Brotherly Love for two games in two days as the Eagles are set to take part in the 2014 Saint Joseph's Hawk Classic Sunday, Dec. 28 and Monday, Dec. 29 at Michael J. Hagan Arena. The Eagles will take on Cal State-Northridge Sunday at 4 p.m. and will face either Saint Joseph's or Quinnipiac Monday afternoon at a time to be determined.
 
HOW TO FOLLOW
Live stats will be available via SJUHawks.com with a paid video stream available through the Atlantic-10 Network. As always, fans can also find live updates via Twitter at @FGCU_WBB.
 
GAME DAY TWEETABLES

1. FGCU currently ranks second in the nation with 10.4 3-pointers made per game. The team sits behind only Sacramento State (13.3).
2. As of Christmas Eve, the Eagles hold their best ever RPI rating at 31 among the nation's 349 teams.
3. FGCU has seen three Atlantic Sun Player of the Week awards this season in Kaneisha Atwater, Taylor Gradinjan & Whitney Knight.
4. The Eagles currently average 1.10 points per possession to rank ninth in the nation, just .12 points per possession behind top-ranked UConn.
5. With 125 made long-range buckets, 39 percent of the team's points come from beyond-the-arc.

 
THE GREEN AND BLUE
FGCU will conclude nonconference action with a road swing to the Northeast. The Eagles travel to Philadelphia with a record of 10-2 after recently picking up strong wins over Southern Mississippi, Providence, Northern Colorado and Arkansas State. The team's only two losses came in close contests with a three-point loss at Auburn and a double-overtime defeat at the hands of Ohio State. The strong schedule thus far has aided in the team's RPI rise to the current mark of 31.
 
Backed by five-time Coach of the Year Karl Smesko, the Eagles returned two double-figure scorers in juniors Whitney Knight (Winston-Salem, N.C./R.J. Reynolds High School) and Stephanie Haas (Avon Lake, Ohio/Magnificat High School) for the 2014-15 slate. Knight and Haas joined senior Jenna Cobb (New Holland, Ohio/Miami Trace High School/Butler) as this season's Preseason All-Conference award winners with Knight voted as Preseason Player of the Year.
 
Junior Kaneisha Atwater (Fort Pierce, Fla./Fort Pierce Westover High School) and Knight have swapped time as the team's point leader with Knight currently pacing the team with 14.4 points per game. After setting a new FGCU Division I single-game program record with 33 points in the win over Providence, Atwater is averaging 14.3 points per contest to rank second on the team. Haas is also contributing double figures with 12.5, while Cobb sits just behind the trio with 8.9 points per game in addition to her 36 assists and 25 steals.
 
Knight leads the squad all around with 21 blocks and 29 steals on the year, while DyTiesha Dunson (Albany, Ga./Westover High School) has dished out a team-high 41 assists in nine games so far.
 
Redshirt-freshman Taylor Gradinjan (Cudahy, Wisc./Cudahy High School) put up a career-high 23 points against Southern Miss. and is now averaging 6.8 points in 12 games. The technical newcomer earned her first A-Sun weekly honor for the performance following Knight's Player of the Week nod. Atwater conjoined the duo to make it three straight for the Eagles during the month of December.
 
As a whole, the Eagles average 80.1 points per game, while holding foes to 60.8 points per contest. The team holds a shooting percentage of .472 with a 3-point percentage of .401 so far this year. The Eagles rank second in the NCAA and first among the Atlantic Sun with 10.4 shots made from the perimeter and third in the nation with the strong shooting percentage. Defensively, the Green and Blue have been narrowly outrebounded, 3.8 to 35.6 per game this year but hold an advantage in turnovers, 12.2 to 195 and steals, 10.6 to 5.8. FGCU ranks 12th in the country with a turnover margin of +7.3 and 22nd nationally in assist to turnover ratio at 1.23.
 
The Eagles currently lead the Atlantic Sun Conference in points per game, scoring margin, field-goal percentage, 3-point percentage, assists, turnover margin, assist to turnover ratio, rebounding defense and steals per game.
 
LAST TIME OUT
After trailing by as many as eight points, the team took control and used a 12-5 run to end the game to defeat Arkansas State 74-68 Monday, Dec. 22 at the Convocation Center in Jonesboro, Ark.  The Eagles sank five free throws in the final minute en route to their 10th victory of the season and pushed A-State to a 5-5 record to conclude nonconference action.
 
The home team maintained a slight advantage from the floor and on the boards in the first half and took control of the game with 12 made free throws on 15 attempts with the Eagles taking just three shots from the charity stripe in the first stanza. After trailing by seven at the beginning of the second half, the Eagles responded with a 14-2 streak that included nine points from Atwater and helped FGCU reclaim the lead with 15 minutes to play.  The teams traded the momentum six times in the final seven minutes of action before the Green and Blue used five-straight points from Cobb to take back the advantage at the two minute mark. FGCU went on to sink five free throws in the final minute to outlast the Sun Belt foe and move to 10-2 on the season.
 
Atwater led the team's well-balanced attack with 18 points, four rebounds and three steals, while four others contributed double-figures. Redshirt freshman Gradinjan put up 14 points with four made shots from the perimeter, while Haas added 11 with five made free throws on seven attempts. Cobb and Knight each provided an additional 10 points with Knight leading the team's rebounding effort with six boards in 27 minutes.
 
Dunson also added three steals for the Eagles with strong defensive play in 24 minutes on the court.
 
As a unit, the Eagles narrowly outshot the Red Wolves, 46.7 to 45.8 percent from the field with a 36 to 35.7 percent advantage from 3-point range. A-State sank 19-of-22 free throws with FGCU making 9-of-13 and outrebounded the Eagles 37-24. FGCU handled the ball well in the road contest with just 12 turnovers compared to A-State's 24. The Eagles produced 17 points on ASU miscues with five fast-break layups.
 
ALL-TIME MEETINGS WITH THE FIELD
The Philadelphia-based tournament will stand as the first meeting between the Eagles and Cal State-Northridge for the team's ninth new opponent of the season. The team has faced Saint Joseph's once in a loss at Alico Arena last season and has never matched up with Quinnipiac.
 
SCOUTING THE FIELD
CAL STATE-NORTHRIDGE
Cal State-Northridge travels to Philadelphia with just one loss fewer than FGCU, mounting a 9-2 record, including an unblemished 6-0 mark at home. CSUN has won its last two outings, both on the road, at San Diego State (65-54 – Dec. 20) and at Northern Arizona (77-71, Dec. 18), before taking Southern California to overtime on Dec. 9. The Matadors lost at USC, 85-74 after winning their first six games of the season. Sunday's contests against the Eagles marks CSUN's first true neutral contest.
 
Cal State-Northridge earned its second trip to the NCAA Tournament last season and returns all five starters and nine letterwinners from that tournament squad.
 
As champions of the Big West Conference last season, the Matadors were overwhelmingly selected to repeat as league champions for the upcoming 2014-15 season after receiving 13 of 14 first-place votes.  Seniors Ashlee Guay and Janae Sharpe were named to the Preseason All-Big West Team. Guay looks to pick up where she left off from last season after becoming the first Matador in program history to win her conference's Player of the Year award. Through 11 games, Sharpe anchors CSUN's offense, averaging 15.9 points per game and owns the roster's top field goal percentage at 41.0 percent. Sharpe also gathers the second-most rebounds per outing, averaging 5.4 boards per game. Sharpe and Guay are the primary ball distributors as Sharpe's 3.6 assists per game nearly matches her teammates' clip of 3.8 each outing. Guay is scoring at a rate of 15.5 points per game and leads the team with 1.6 steals per contest. Veteran center Camille Mahlknecht is one the nation's premiere defenders, ranking in the top-100 in both blocked shots and rebounds. Mahlknecht's 2.73 blocks per game is the 23rd highest mark in the NCAA while her figure of 8.9 boards per contest is 91st in the country. Both marks are tops in the Big West.
 
As a unit, CSUN is scoring at a rate of 68.2 points per game and converting at a rate of 42.0 percent. The Matadors are one of the country's top squads from the charity stripe, knocking down 75.1 percent of their free throws. That mark stands as the 27th-best figure from the free throw line. FGCU will look to work around CSUN's perimeter defense. Heading into Sunday's tilt, the Matadors rank 34th in the country, holding their opposition to only 25.7 percent from beyond the arc.
 
Head coach Jason Flowers is in his fifth season at the helm of the CSUN women's basketball program. Flowers has the Matadors off to their best start since arriving in 2010-11 and his career mark with the Matadors is 64-73. Over the last three seasons, the Matadors are 51-45 overall (.542) and 32-18 (.640) against Big West opponents.
 
SAINT JOSEPH'S
The hosts head into the tournament with a 3-7 mark, but have faced a daunting schedule, including a strong showing against No. 4 Notre Dame in their most recent outing. Saint Joseph's battled the Fighting Irish to the end in a 64-50 loss on Dec. 21. SJU has racked up victories against Villanova (58-54, Dec. 7), Saint Francis College (64-42, Nov. 29) and Temple (78-74 OT, Nov. 18) and will take on Quinnipiac in the first round of the Hawk Classic. Despite their slow start, the Hawks are coming off their second straight NCAA Tournament bid and were picked to finish third in the Atlantic-10 Preseason Poll this season. Senior guard Natasha Cloud was selected to the Atlantic-10 Preseason All-Conference First Team and Preseason All-Defensive Team. SJU welcomes back four starters and eight letterwinners from last year's 23-10 squad that advanced to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament where they fall to UConn after a win over Georgia.
 
Ciara Andrews leads the Hawks' scoring efforts with 15.1 points per game. Andrews' accuracy from the charity stripe has SJU ranked as the 18th-best free throw shooting team in the country (76.2 percent) as the junior has made 33-of-40 (82.5 percent) attempts. Cloud's 11.2 points per game is second on Saint Joseph's roster but she guides the rebounding efforts with 6.7 per game. Cloud has also doled out a team-best 52 assists, which ranks 39th in the NCAA at 5.2 apg, and has swiped the most steals (16) so far this season. Sophomore Kathleen Fitzpatrick is SJU's main deep threat, making 22-of-59 (37.3 percent) of her 3-point attempts.
 
Saint Joseph's offense is scoring 62.2 points per game while the defense is giving up 67.7 each outing. The Hawks have struggled in limiting their opponents' field goal percentage, allowing their opposition to convert at a clip of 43.7 percent. As of the top free-throw shooting squads in the country, Saint Joseph's has made 125-of-164 tosses (76.2 percent) from the line. SJU's 3-point field goal percentage ranks third in the A-10 as the Hawks have scored at a rate of 34.8 percent from deep.
 
Head coach Cindy Griffin is in her 14th season at Saint Joseph's and 17th overall as a head coach. Griffin is three victories shy of her 300th-career triumph, owning an overall collegiate record of 297-206, including a 249-173 mark at the helm of the Hawks' program. Griffin was the head coach at Loyola (Md.) from 1998 to 2001, posting a mark of 48-33 in three seasons as coach of the Greyhounds.
 
QUINNIPIAC
Quinnipiac heads to the Hawk Classic with an identical record as Cal State Northridge (9-2) and is winner of its last six-straight outings. The Bobcats defeated Alabama at the 2014 Hall of Fame Challenge at the Mohegan Sun on Nov. 30 to spark their six-game winning spell. QU, undefeated in December, will play in the first game of the tournament against host Saint Joseph's Sunday at 2p.m.
 
At the start of the season, Quinnipiac tied with Marist for first place in the MAAC Preseason Coaches' Poll and also tied the Red Foxes for the most Preseason All-MAAC honorees with three from each program. Last season, QU made its MAAC debut and posted an overall record of 21-13 and 14-6 mark in conference play. The Bobcats earned the No. 4 seed in the MAAC Tournament and advanced all the way to the MAAC Championship. With an appearance in the WNIT at Villanova, the first at-large postseason tournament berth in program history, Quinnipiac has now played in a national postseason tournament for three consecutive seasons.
 
Seniors Jasmine Martin, Gillian Abshire and Samantha Guastella were all tabbed Preseason All-MAAC by the league's coaches. Since 2011-12, Quinnipiac boasts the second-best winning percentage amongst all New England schools, second only to UConn.
 
Martin leads the Bobcats' attack with 13.6 points per game and has scored 10 or more points in her last four outings while Guastella's 12.5 points per game ranks second in the QU lineup. Guastella is also one of Quinnipiac's biggest deep threats and is the only player in the nation to rank in the top-50 in both blocked shots (2.55) and three-point field goals (2.73) per game. Guastella's 2.55 blocked shots per game ranks 27th in the country. Abshire is scoring at a rate of 5.9 points per trip but is one of college basketball's best distributors. Abshire's 6.4 assists per game ranks ninth in the country, while her assists-to-turnover ratio is even better, standing as the fifth-best mark (3.68) in the NCAA.
 
As a whole, Quinnipiac is scoring 73.0 points per game and knocking down nearly eight 3-pointers (7.7) per outings. The Bobcats' offense is tops in the MAAC and ranked 60th in all the land. QU is converting at a rate of 38.5 percent from behind the arc while limiting its opposition to just 30.0 percent. The Bobcats have posted 5.8 blocks per game, standing as the 19th best figure in the country, but the defense is surrendering 68.7 percent per game, which slots Quinnipiac ninth in team defense in the MAAC.
 
Head coach Tricia Fabbri is in her 20th season behind the Quinnipiac bench with an overall win-loss total of 303-258. Fabbri's 300th-career victory occurred on Dec. 5 against her alma mater (Fairfield) and has guided the Bobcats to three-straight 20-win seasons and two-consecutive trips to the conference championship game.
 
POINTS PER POSSESSION
With a mark of 1.10 points scored per possession, FGCU currently ranks ninth in the nation in points per possession. The Eagles rank among the top-10 with the likes of national powerhouses UConn, Notre Dame, South Carolina, Baylor and Maryland and sit just .12 points per possession behind national leader, UConn.
 
PRESEASON PREDICTIONS
On the heels of four-consecutive regular season championships and the team's second Atlantic Sun Championship in three years, the Eagles were once against picked to win the Atlantic Sun in the annual preseason coaches' poll.
 
With 62 points and six first-place votes, the Eagles finished four points ahead of in-state rival Stetson University.  The Hatters garnered two first-place votes to finish second in the poll with 58 points. The Green and Blue picked up 11 first-place votes in the media poll for 123 total points, with Stetson earning four top nods and 104 total points.
 
The 2013-14 defending Atlantic Sun Champions earned three wins over the Hatters last season, including the regular season finale and the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship Final. With help from those wins, the Eagles finished with their fourth-straight regular season title and earned their second tournament championship title in three seasons.
 
In addition to the team's predicted success, three individuals also garnered preseason All-Conference accolades.  As a former First Team All-Conference member, Knight picked up the Player of the Year nod, while Cobb and Haas also earned spots on the 10-member Preseason All-Conference team.
 
MID-MAJOR MADNESS
After concluding the 2013-14 season ranked at no. 10 in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top-25, the Eagles opened the season at no. 11. Since then, the Green and Blue jumped to no. 5, behind only James Madison, Green Bay, Princeton and Chattanooga. Of the team's opponents this season, four rank among the top-25 – Wichita State (6), Quinnipiac (13), Cal-State Northridge (18), Stetson (19), while Arkansas State, Harvard and Kennesaw State are also receiving votes.
 
1. James Madison       6. Wichita State
2. Green Bay              7. Gonzaga
3. Princeton                8. BYU
4. Chattanooga           9. UALR
5. FGCU                    10. South Dakota State
 
SMESKO'S PREPERATION
Smesko's game preparation is one of the most crucial factors in the Eagles' all-time success.  Last season, the team went 14-2 in games when they had four or more days to prepare.  In 13 seasons, Smesko holds a record of 113-20 in games with that much time for preparing for a win percentage of 84 percent. 
 
UP NEXT
Following the two-day event, the Eagles will travel north to Cambridge, Mass. for their final nonconference contest of the season. The team will take on Harvard Friday, Jan. 2 at 7 p.m. on the Ivy League campus before heading south to being Atlantic Sun play.  
 
Single-game tickets for all FGCU women's basketball games are on sale online at FGCUAthletics.com, over the phone at 239-590-7145 or in person at the Alico Arena Box Office.
 
Group sales for women's basketball games are available for parties of 20 or more at a discounted rate.  Beginning this season, groups will receive the opportunity for to upgrade their package to include chairback seats, a PA announcement and a special FGCU group T-Shirt at a cost of $10.
 
For up-to-the minute information on the FGCU women's basketball team, stay tuned to FGCUAthletics.com and follow the official Twitter of FGCU women's basketball at @FGCU_WBB.
 
Head coach Karl Smesko earned his fourth-consecutive Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year award after a successful 2013-14 campaign. Under his direction, the team completed the season with a record of 26-8, including a 17-1 mark in conference action and won the program's 300th win in January. Smesko guided the Eagles to their fourth-consecutive regular season championship and went undefeated in the A-Sun Conference tournament to win their second Tournament Championship in three seasons.  The 2013-14 season marked the 10th-consecutive season in which a Smesko coached team won at least 20 games.  He has recorded 324 wins at FGCU with 117 Atlantic Sun victories.  The five-time Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year ranks among an elite list of just four active Division I coaches with a career win percentage of .800 or higher.  Smesko joins Connecticut's Geno Auriemma, Baylor's Kim Mulkey and Stanford's Tara VanDerveer in the esteemed group.