FORT MYERS, Fla. – With a 63 percent shooting performance in the second half, the FGCU women's basketball team broke open the game to take a 75-42 win over the University of North Florida Wednesday night at Alico Arena. With the win, the Eagles move to 15-2 on the season with a 2-0 record in Atlantic Sun action, while the Ospreys fall to 9-8 overall and 0-2 in conference.
 
The win marks the Eagles 10th-straight victory with a streak dating back to the start of December. The victory at Alico also extends the team's win streak in home conference matchups to 57 games.
 
After allowing the visiting team to take a nine-point lead right out of the gates, the Eagles used a 14-2 run to reclaim control midway through the first half. FGCU extended the lead with seven-straight points and went into the break with a 33-26 lead. Redshirt-freshman Taylor Gradinjan (Cudahy, Wisc./Cudahy High School) led the charge as the Eagles sank four 3-pointers in the opening minutes of the second half to break open the lead and helped the team to a 10-0 run with 11 minutes to play. The Eagles used hot shooting in the second half and extended the lead to a game-high 34 points before ultimately earning a 75-42 victory at home.
 
"We got off to a slow start today," said head coach Karl Smesko. "UNF did a good job executing its offense to start the game and they had a nice nine-point lead on us. In the first half, I thought it was important for us to come back and try to get the lead before halftime. Fortunately, we were able to do that. I thought the biggest difference in the game was the beginning of the second half. Really, Taylor Gradinjan gave us a big boost to start the half. She hit some threes, she got a layup and she was playing good defense for us. I thought her play provided a big lift for us and helped us take over."
 
Gradinjan and redshirt-junior Whitney Knight (Winston-Salem, N.C./R.J. Reynolds High School) led the team, each with 17 points on the night. Gradinjan matched her career-high with four made shots from the perimeter, while Knight went 5-for-6 from the paint. Knight and Kaneisha Atwater (Fort Pierce, Fla./Fort Pierce Westwood High School/VCU) paced the team on the boards with six rebounds each. Knight also added a team-best three steals and two blocks.  Junior DyTiesha Dunson (Albany, Ga./Westover High School) added double figures for the Green and Blue with 11 points and led the team with four assists. 
 
As a unit, the Eagles shot 47.5 percent from the field and 35.1 percent from 3-point range with 13 makes on 37 attempts. The team shot 34.4 percent in the first half and exploded with 17 made shots on 27 tries in the second stanza. FGCU held UNF to a 28.3 success rate and outrebounded UNF, 40-36. The Eagles also forced 13 turnovers with just five of their own and dished out 18 assists.
 
Junior Stephanie Haas (Avon Lake, Ohio/Magnificat High School) opened the game with a drive to the rim but the Ospreys quickly responded with a nine-point run to take control in the opening minutes. A UNF travel gave FGCU the ball back and led to a Knight layup that cut a scoring drought that lasted longer than four minutes. UNF added four-more points near the 14-minutue mark to take its largest lead of the game at 13-4.
 
Two minutes later, Dunson sank a long-range shot from the left side and followed with two made free throws for a five-point run to cut the UNF lead to 17-11. A missed UNF shot gave way to a 3-pointer from Knight, who added a traditional 3-point play on the Eagles' next possession to tie the game at 17 midway through the first half.
 
Knight scored the team's eighth-straight points in response to UNF's next layup before a successful long shot from the left corner by Jaime Gluesing (Solon, Ohio/Solon High School) gave the team its first lead since the opening drive. With five minutes left in the half, senior Jenna Cobb (New Holland, Ohio/Miami Trace High School/Butler) grabbed a steal in the paint and took it to the other end for another 3-pointer for the Eagles. Cobb's bucket gave the Green and Blue a 26-21 lead.
 
UNF responded quickly to Cobb's make with an old fashioned 3-point play to keep the score within two, but Gradinjan and Knight combined for seven-straight points to push the team to a 33-24 lead in the final minutes. UNF added one more jump shot with 2:13 on the clock but both teams were held scoreless in the final two minutes to push the game into the break with a 33-26 score in favor of the Eagles.
 
Gradinjan instantly probed the UNF defense and opened the second half with a 3-point shot from the right side. Three minutes in, Gradinjan sank another long-range shot which was mimicked by Dunson just 30 seconds later to put the Eagles ahead 44-29 and force the Ospreys into a timeout.
 
UNF sank its own 3-pointer out of the timeout but FGCU used buckets from Gradinjan, Cobb, Atwater, Knight and Haas to compile a 10-0 run and go ahead 54-32 at the halfway point. UNF cut the FGCU run with a layup and a free throw but the Eagles again constructed a run to increase the advantage.
 
A 16-2 streak was capped by corner three from Amanda Moore (Seymour, Ind./Seymour High School). Moore's first bucket of the season, after sitting out the first 15 games, gave the Eagles their largest lead of the contest at 73-39.
 
UNF added three more points from beyond-the-arc in the final minutes but FGCU took away the win at 75-42 to move to 2-0 in conference play.
 
As winners of 10 in a row, the Eagles will travel to Jacksonville this weekend to face the Dolphins of Jacksonville University. Tipoff against JU is slated for 7 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 17 at Memorial Gym.
 
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 329 wins at FGCU with 119 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.
 
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