The Rundown: FGCU (20-2 | 7-0 A-Sun | 22 RPI) at Stetson (16-5 | 5-2 A-Sun | 46 RPI)
The Matchup: Karl Smesko (Kent State, '93) 13th season at FGCU (334-66/83.5%) v. Lynn Bria (Michigan Tech, '95) Seventh season at Stetson (124-92/57.4%)
When: Saturday, Feb. 7
Where: Edmunds Center | DeLand, Fla.
Video: via ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app
Audio: via Stretch Internet on FGCUAthletics.com with David Moulton and Peter Lonergan
Live Stats: via Statbroadcast
Hashtags: #WingsUp | #WeAreFGCU | #RainingThrees | #ASunWBB
Series History: FGCU 15-3; Eagles have won 9 of last 10
Game Notes: FGCU  |  Stetson
 
DeLAND, Fla. – With a perfect 7-0 Atlantic Sun Conference record and a 15-game win streak, the FGCU women's basketball team will travel to Stetson University for a pivotal matchup with the Hatters. Tipoff in the first game of a men's/women's double header is slated for 1 p.m. at the Edmunds Center.
 
Saturday's contest pits the league's top two teams against each other in an afternoon matchup as both rank among the top-50 in the official RPI. At number 22 in the ranking, the Eagles hold a first-place standing with a two-game lead on the Hatters but will face their greatest test of the season as the team travels to DeLand.  FGCU brings a 15-game win streak and an unblemished conference record into Saturday's faceoff, while the Hatters, who are currently 46 in the RPI, look to protect the nation's 19th-best win streak in home games. Stetson has not lost in 10 home games, dating back to last season, but the last time the team fell on its home court was at the hands of the Eagles in last year's regular season finale where FGCU escaped with a 74-73 overtime win that handed the Eagles the A-Sun Regular Season Championship.
 
HOW TO FOLLOW
Live stats will be available via StatBroadcast on GoHatters.com with a video stream available through ESPN3 and the WatchESPN mobile app. For the double header, fans can also tune in to FGCUAthletics.com as David Moulton and Peter Lonergan have the call from Edmunds Arena. As always, fans can also find live updates via Twitter at @FGCU_WBB.
 
GAME DAY TWEETABLES
1. FGCU currently holds an RPI rating at 22 after rising to a program-best 13 to start Atlantic Sun action.  #EaglesRising
2. In a quest for its fifth-straight #ASunWBB Championships, the Eagles have compiled a record of 77-4 in the last five seasons.
3. FGCU is currently riding a 15-game win streak, which stands as the 7th-best in the nation. It's been 10 weeks since the Eagles fell.
4. Junior Whitney Knight became the seventh Eagle ever to score her 1,000th career point on Jan. 31.
5. FGCU picked up votes in both the AP Top-25 & the USA Today Coaches' Poll for Week 13.
 
THE GREEN AND BLUE
With help from the strong record and the team's strength of schedule, the Eagles climbed to a program-best RPI rating of 13 at the end of nonconference action and have since hovered around the top-25. As of Friday, the team holds a ranking of 22 out of the nation's 349 programs with an overall record of 20-2 and a conference mark of 7-0. FGCU remains atop the A-Sun standings with the perfect record.
 
The team picked up notable wins over George Washington, Quinnipiac, Wichita State, Arkansas State, Cal-State Northridge and Harvard in nonconference action before defeating rival Stetson in the first week of conference play. Those marquee wins gave FGCU a record of 5-1 against the RPI's top-100 teams, with the only loss coming in double overtime to Ohio State. The team has since remained undefeated in A-Sun play and started the conference slate with a record of 7-0.
 
This year's team boasts two of the league's top-five scorers in Whitney Knight (Winston-Salem, N.C./R.J. Reynolds High School) and Kaneisha Atwater (Fort Pierce, Fla./Fort Pierce Westover High School). Knight is pacing the squad with 15.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game and leads the league with 64 made shots from the perimeter. The versatile guard also leads the league with 54 blocks on the season and ranks second with 46 steals. Atwater has recorded two 30+ point performances this season and has earned two A-Sun Player of the Week nods. Knight leads the team with three weekly awards from the conference with her most recent award coming after last weekend's two-win road trip.
 
Collectively, the Eagles average 74.7 points per game, while holding their opposition to 57.0 points per contest for the league's best scoring average and scoring margin. The scoring margin also ranks among the top-15 in the nation and stands fewer than three points per game out of the top-10. The team has maintained a shooting percentage of .439 with a mark of .363 from the perimeter this year. The Eagles rank second in the NCAA and first among the Atlantic Sun with 10.2 shots made from beyond-the-arc per game and only sit behind last year's national leader in Sacramento State and are tied with DePaul. On defense, the Eagles have been narrowly outrebounded, 36. to 34.6 per game this year but hold an advantage in turnovers, 11.6 to 19.0 and steals, 9.3 to 5.0. FGCU ranks fourth in the country with a turnover margin of +7.43 and 12th nationally in assist to turnover ratio at 1.30.
 
The Eagles currently lead the Atlantic Sun Conference in points per game, scoring margin, field-goal percentage, 3-point percentage, turnover margin, assist to turnover ratio, assists per game and win-loss percentage.
 
WWWWWWWWWWWWWIN STREAK
With 15-straight wins, the Eagles currently hold the nation's seventh-best win streak. They sit behind only these teams
       
        1/1 South Carolina                               22 games
        2/2 UConn, 3/3 Baylor                          20 games
        18/20 Princeton                                   19 games
        24/23 George Washington                     18 games
        23/RV Chattanooga                              16 games
 
The team also holds a 16-game win streak in conference games dating back to last season to rank sixth in the nation and sits only behind the nation's top two teams in Connecticut and South Carolina with 22-straight wins at home, a streak that also spans two seasons.
 
RECEIVING VOTES
The Eagles are now receiving votes in both the AP Top-25 and the USA Today Coaches' Poll. FGCU earned three votes in each poll to rank among the nation's top teams last week and extended that to nine points in the AP poll and eight votes in the coaches' poll as of Week 13.
 
MANY MILESTONES
Saturday's contest at NKU saw the Eagles hit several milestones. It stands as the program's 400th game, while the team hit its 10,000th field goal. Individually, Knight became the seventh Eagle ever to record 1,000 career points.
 
TOP-100
The Eagles hold a 5-1 record against the nation's top-100 teams based on RPI with 'W's over George Washington, Quinnipiac, Stetson and Wichita State. Their only loss was in an overtime battle against the Big Ten's Ohio State in the US Virgin Islands.       
 
LAST TIME OUT
In a rematch of last year's lone Atlantic Sun loss, the FGCU women's basketball team defeated Northern Kentucky University 67-46 last Saturday night at the Bank of Kentucky Center. With the win, the Eagles improved to 20-2 on the season with a 7-0 mark in conference play. On the losing side of FGCU's 15th-straight win, NKU fell
to 13-9 with a 4-3 league record.
 
The Eagles and Norse battled for the lead in the first half with FGCU maintaining the advantage at the break. The home team cut the deficit to three points early in
the second half but with a 21-4 run midway through the second stanza, the Eagles took hold of the game and cruised to a 21-point victory. The team saw four double-figure scorers and 10 3-pointers as the Eagles maintained the nation's sixth-best win streak.
 
Knight led all players with 18 points and nine rebounds on the night. The redshirt-junior scored the team's first 11 tallies and recorded her 1,000th career point in the win. Haas added 14 points and a career-high eight rebounds, while Atwater and Cobb contributed 11 and 10, respectively. Atwater and Dunson paced the squad with four assists each, with Knight leading on the defensive side with three blocks and three steals.
 
As a unit, the Eagles converted 39.3 percent of shot attempts from the field with 10 made 3-point shots. The Green and Blue held NKU to a 36.7 percent success rate and outrebounded the home team, 40-31.
 
ALL-TIME MEETINGS WITH THE HATTERS
The Eagles holds a strong 15-3 record against the Hatters in eight years in the Atlantic Sun. In the last three seasons, FGCU is 9-1 with the lone loss coming in the 2013 Atlantic Sun Championship final. Last year, the Eagles defeated Stetson three times, including in the regular season finale and in the conference championship final, both of which went to overtime. This season, the Green and Blue overcame a 15-point deficit to defeated Stetson in the conference opener. 
 
Including this season's win, FGCU has won nine of its last 10 meetings with the Hatters. Despite the glaring advantage FGCU holds in the series, the last three meetings between the Hatters and the Eagles have been decided by five total points with two contests going to overtime proving Saturday as a pivotal matchup for the Atlantic Sun standings.
 
SCOUTING THE HOME TEAM
Stetson enters the second half of the 2014-15 Atlantic Sun slate with a record of 16-5 and a conference mark of 5-2. The Hatters constructed a program-best nonconference record before falling to the Eagles at Alico to open the conference season. The team has since earned five A-Sun wins but fell to Northern Kentucky last week.
 
The Hatters are 9-0 at home with a win streak at the Edmunds Center that spans two seasons and ranks among the nation's top-20. The team has played 10 games with 10 victories since falling to FGCU 74-73 in overtime in the regular-season finale of last season.
 
Stetson was picked to finish second in the Atlantic Sun Conference, behind only FGCU, in the preseason coaches' poll and have finished as runner-up in the standings in each of the last three seasons. As a unit, the Hatters rank second in the conference behind FGCU in field-goal percentage, scoring defense, scoring margin and scoring offense but lead the league in blocks per game, steals per game and 3-point percentage defense.
 
Individually, the Hatter boast four players averaging nearly 13 points or more. Brianti Saunders paces the team with 13.8 points per game and has increased her production to 16 points a contest with a field-goal percentage at 54.2 in conference games. Senior Jama Sharp and sophomore Amber Porter add 13.3 points each, while Myeisha Hall contributes 12.9 per outing. Porter stands as the league's best shooter with a 49.8 percent success rate from the floor, while Sharp leads the squad with a clip of 35.0 percent from 3-point range. Porter also leads the team with 7.4 rebounds per game and 49 total blocks. Sharp has added 85 assists and 72 steals on the season and averages 6.0 rebounds against conference foes.
 
As a unit, the Hatters average 70.8 points per game and outscore opponents by 13.3 points per outing. The team is shooting 42.8 percent from the field with a 29.9 percent success rate from 3-point range and has made 6.1 long-range shots a game this season. Stetson has pulled down 40.3 boards per game and has outrebounded opponents by 1.7 rebounds a contest. The turnovers have been high in the Hatter's 21 contests, with Stetson averaging 17 and its foes recording 19.2 miscues per game, but the Hatters have dished out 14.2 assists and grabbed 10.0 steals per game.
 
Saturday's matchup pits the league's top two teams against each other in a strong showdown. The Eagles lead the league standings by a full two games with Stetson standing in second place.
 
In her seventh season at Stetson, head coach Lynn Bria holds a record of 124-22. In 20 seasons overall, Bria maintains a mark of 276-305 with previous experience at UCF and Ohio. At Stetson, Bria has guided the Hatters to two conference titles, two NCAA tournament appearances, two WNIT bids and four-consecutive 20+ win seasons.
 
STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE
The Eagle's tough nonconference schedule has been crucial in the team's high RPI ranking this year. The team currently stands at 71 in the official NCAA SOS, ahead of top-25 teams like Nebraska, Mississippi State, Princeton, Rutgers and Seton Hall.
 
SMESKO'S PREPARATION
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 117-20 in games with that much time for preparing for a win percentage of 84 percent. 
 
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.
 
UP NEXT
After two weeks away, the Eagles will return to Alico Arena Thursday, Feb. 12 for a matchup with Northern Kentucky. Tipoff against the league's third-place team is set for 7 p.m.
 
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 last 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.  With 20 wins already in the 2014-15 season, Smesko has guided the Eagles to 11-straight 20+ win seasons.  He maintains a record of 334-66 at FGCU for a win percentage of 83.5 with a mark of 124-13 (90.5 W%) in Atlantic Sun contests and has led the team to a 75-1 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.
 
SUPPORT THE CAUSE
FGCU Athletics sponsors events throughout the year to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visitwww.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.