SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- Head coach Karl Smesko earned his 400th career victory as the FGCU women's basketball team earned its fifth-straight Atlantic Sun Conference Regular Season Championship with a 75-59 win at USC Upstate Saturday afternoon. The Eagles pick up their sixth title in seven seasons and move to 25-2 on the season with a 20-game win streak and an unblemished mark of 12-0 in conference play with the win, while Upstate falls to 13-14 and 5-7 in conference action.
 
The nationally ranked Eagles took a 6-0 lead to start and never let go of the advantage.  Upstate challenged the Eagles in the first half but after holding a 41-31 lead at the break, the Green and Blue consistently increased the deficit with perimeter shooting and extended the advantage to 19 points midway through the second half.  Backed by a career-high in 3-pointers made from junior Whitney Knight (Winston-Salem, N.C./R.J. Reynolds High School), the team made 10 shots from beyond-the-arc with a 45.8 percent success rate from the floor to earn their 20th-straight win.
 
"The biggest thing for today was that we wanted to win the regular season championship and clinch it all to ourselves today and we were able to do that," said Smesko after earning his 400th win in just 493 career games. "We have one more week to get ready for the conference tournament. We're trying to clean up some things, and there's still some things that we need to be able to do better for the conference tournament."
 
Knight paced all players with 26 points on the afternoon, just two shy of her career high. She set a new career best with six made 3-pointers on nine attempts and pulled down a team-best eight rebounds with three blocks, three assists and two steals. The Eagles saw a well-rounded scoring effort with another 17 points from Kaneisha Atwater (Fort Pierce, Fla./Fort Pierce-Westwood High School/VCU) and 12 from Katie Meador (Salem, Ill./Salem Community High School). 
 
As a unit, the Eagles shot 45.8 percent from the field with a 38.5 percent clip from 3-point range. The team outrebounded USC Upstate 35-33 and made 11-of-14 free throws. Led by five from DyTiesha Dunson (Albany, Ga./Westover High School), the team dished out 18 assists and forced 15 Upstate turnovers, while holding the Spartans to a 42.1 percent success rate from the floor. Upstate went just 2-for-12 from the perimeter but knocked in 9-of-10 shots from the charity stripe.
 
Jenna Cobb (New Holland, Ohio/Miami Trace High School/Butler) opened the contest for FGCU with four of the team's first six points as the Eagles got off to a 6-0 start. The Spartans went 0-for-7 from the field before scoring near the 16-minute mark and cut the deficit to 11-10 on a six-point run around the 13-minute point.  However, 3-point shooting and a five-point spurt led the Eagles to a 13-point lead with 8:30 on the clock.
 
Upstate fought the Eagle lead but another five-point streak by Knight pushed the lead to 39-24 with two minutes remaining in the half.  The Spartans again battled the Eagles, this time using a 7-0 run to cut their deficit to eight points in the final minute of action but two Knight free throws on the final possession gave the Green and Blue a double-figure lead at the break.
 
An Atwater three from the left corner sparked the Eagle offense in the second half, while the defense again held the Spartans to 1-for-6 shooting in the opening minutes.  A 3-pointer from Knight, her fifth of the day, pushed the score to 51-36 with 14 minutes to play before Knight, Meador and Atwater combined for three-consecutive layups and forced Upstate into a timeout with 11 minutes to play and the score at 61-42.
 
The teams traded buckets right out of the breather but Upstate quickly produced a 10-1 run to cut the Eagle advantage to 10 points with fewer than six minutes to play. The home team carried the 10-point deficit through the next two minutes of action before a pivotal offensive rebound from Meador gave way for a 3-pointer by Stephanie Haas (Avon Lake, Ohio/Magnificat High School), who moved the Eagle lead to 69-56 with three minutes remaining.
 
Knight swatted the Spartans' next shot attempt before Atwater drew a charge to give the home team back-to-back empty possessions with the clock winding down.  With 1:13 on the clock, Knight set a new career high with her sixth perimeter shot of the Knight, extending the lead back to 16 points. Taylor Gradinjan (Cudahy, Wisc./Cudahy High School) followed suit with the team's third-straight shot from beyond-the-arc, pushing the score to 75-56 and giving the Eagles the insurance needed in the final minute.
 
Upstate added three points in the last 30 seconds but was unable to overcome the Eagles' early lead as the Green and Blue came away with its 20th-consecutive victory.
 
The Eagles, who now hold home-court advantage with the No. 1 seed through the entire Atlantic Sun Conference Championship, will head to Jacksonville, Fla. Wednesday, Feb. 25 for a mid-week matchup with North Florida before hosting Jacksonville University Saturday night at Alico Arena to conclude the regular season.
 
As the No. 1 seed in the 2015 Atlantic Sun Conference Championship, the Eagles will host each game of the tournament. Tickets for all A-Sun tournament games are on sale online at FGCUAthletics.com, over the phone at 239-590-7145 or in person at the Alico Arena Box Office.
 
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 last January. Smesko guided the Eagles to their fifth-consecutive regular season championship with a record of 12-0 in A-Sun action this season and earned his 400th career victory on Feb. 21. With 25 wins already in the 2014-15 season, Smesko has guided the Eagles to 11-straight 20+ win seasons.  He maintains a record of 339-66 at FGCU for a win percentage of 83.6 with a mark of 129-13 (90.7 W%) in Atlantic Sun contests and has led the team to a 65-1 record in conference play in the last four seasons.  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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