JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- With a strong defensive presence, the FGCU women's basketball team matched its Division I record with its 21st-consecutive victory Wednesday night with a 56-24 win at North Florida. The nationally-ranked Eagles move to 26-2 on the season with a 13-0 Atlantic Sun mark, while the Ospreys fall to 11-17 and 2-11 in league play.
 
The Eagles held UNF to just 24 points on the night with long spans of strong defensive pressure. The point total stands as the lowest ever for an FGCU opponent and is the first time an NCAA foe has scored fewer than 30 points against the Green and Blue.
 
With the win, the Eagles – who entered Wednesday's contest with a RPI ranking of 16 – hold the third best win streak in the nation, behind only No. 1/1 Connecticut and No. 14/14 Princeton. The team moved up in the ranking as No. 3/3 Baylor fell to Oklahoma and No. 18/22 Chattanooga did not play.  
 
"Our offensive execution wasn't great tonight," said head coach Karl Smesko. "We didn't have a lot of movement but we did a pretty good job on the defensive end. I give North Florida a lot of credit. They're really shorthanded but they were competing on the defensive end and competing on the boards."
 
The teams traded baskets to open the game but the Eagles held the Ospreys to no field goals over a period of nine minutes late in the first half to take hold of the momentum and went ahead 13 points at the break. FGCU continued its crippling defense and allowed the home team just three field goals in the second half en route to the 32-point win.
 
After shooting 29.2 percent in the first half, the Eagles increased their shooting efficiency and converted 44.4 percent in the second stanza to finish the game with a 37.3 percent clip. Despite the low first-half shooting, the Green and Blue held UNF to just 19 percent overall with eight made field goals on the night to earn the convincing victory. UNF made no 3-pointers despite eight attempts and converted 8-of-17 shots from the free-throw line with half of its second-half points coming from the charity stripe.
 
The Eagles were outrebounded 40-38 but held the advantage in turnovers at 17-12 and steals 8-3.
 
Individually, junior Kaneisha Atwater (Fort Pierce, Fla./Fort Pierce-Westwood High School/VCU) paced all players with 13 points, while classmate Whitney Knight (Winston-Salem, N.C./R.J. Reynolds High School) added 11 points with two blocks and a steal. Katie Meador (Salem, Ill./Salem Community High School) pulled down a career-best eight rebounds in the win with nine others contributing at least one board.
 
 
With five-straight points from Atwater and a Knight layup, the Eagles opened the game with a 7-0 lead. After going 0-for-8 to start, the home team responded with a five-point run and tied the game at seven each with 11 minutes to play in the half.
 
UNF took its only lead of the contest with a layup on its next possession but DyTiesha Dunson (Albany, Ga./Westover High School) dished the ball ahead to Stephanie Haas (Avon Lake, Ohio/Magnificat High School) quickly who laid it in to tie the game at nine midway through the half.
 
The FGCU defense crushed the home team's advances in the next few possessions and ultimately held the Ospreys without a field goal for a nine-minute span. UNF added just one free throw before the two-minute mark as the Eagles increased their advantage to a half-high 15 points by forcing a handful of UNF turnovers and stopping seven-straight UNF shot attempts.  The Eagle run included buckets from Atwater, Meador, Haas and Jenna Cobb (New Holland, Ohio/Miami Trace High School/Butler) and pushed the score to 25-10 late in the half.
 
UNF added a jumper with one minute to play but the Eagles maintained the double-figure lead and went into the break with a 25-12 lead.
 
The second half was slow to start as the Eagles outscored the Ospreys 3-2 in the first five minutes. After a layup with 15 minutes to play, the home team was held without a field goal until the 10 minute mark. The five-minute span saw the Eagles score nine points to increase the lead to 39-17 at the midpoint of the second stanza.
 
UNF added another field goal with 7:25 on the clock to hold the deficit to 22 points at 43-21 but it would be the Osprey's last bucket from the floor for the remainder of the game.
 
FGCU added an 11-point run that included three-consecutive 3-pointers to increase the advantage to 34 points, while UNF scored just three more points from the free-throw line in the remaining minutes to give the Eagles their 13th win of the conference season.
 
The Eagles will look for a program record 22nd-straight win Saturday in the final game of the 2014-15 Atlantic Sun slate when they host Jacksonville at 7 p.m. The team will also vie for its third undefeated conference season in the last four years. Following the weekend contest, the No. 1 seeded Eagles will host the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship on Friday, March 6. Although the seeds will not be fully determined until after Saturday's games, it is likely the Eagles will host North Florida as the No. 8 seed.
 
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 340-66 at FGCU for a win percentage of 83.6 with a mark of 130-13 (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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