FORT MYERS, Fla. - The FGCU women's basketball team returns to the Nest to face North Carolina A&T on Wednesday, Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. The Eagles will be in search of their fourth-straight win after defeating Siena and FAU last week.
 
HOW TO FOLLOW
Fans can find a live broadcast of the game on ESPN3. Live stats will also be available from StatBroadcast. For those looking to attend the match and support your FGCU Eagles, tickets can be purchased online at FGCUTickets.com or by calling the university's ticket office at 239-590-7145.
 
THE GREEN AND BLUE
FGCU faces the Aggies at Alico Arena after three-straight victories where they've held teams to 50 or less points.
 
Julien (Port St. Lucie, Fla./Treasure Coast HS/Chipola College) scored a career-high 17 points as part of a 66-42 win over Siena last Friday night and added another 11 on Sunday afternoon at FAU as the Eagles captured a 65-50 victory over the Owls en route to her first ASUN Newcomer of the Week honor.
 
Sharpshooter Haley Laughter (Asheville, N.C./Carolina Day School) returned to the court last week after missing four games and made an immediate impact for the Green and Blue with 16 combined points in two contests. Her three-point shooting percentage of 45.2 ranks second in the ASUN.
 
The team's lone returning starter, Taylor Gradinjan (Cudahy, Wis./Cudahy HS) owns a team-high 19 steals on the season, which ranks second in conference, and has shot 10-of-17 for a 58.8 percent clip in her last two games.
 
SCOUTING NCAT
 ^ The Aggies started the season 1-7 and have lost their last six straight.
^ North Carolina A&T went 0-1 in its only game of the week as the Aggies fell to #23 Florida.
^ North Carolina A&T tallied 13 first-place votes and 317 points to earn the top spot in the MEAC preseason poll.
^ Last season NCAT won the MEAC Women's Basketball Tournament championship with a win over Coppin State and finished the regular season with a 19-12 record (12-4 MEAC).
 
KEY PLAYERS
1 Aliyah Kilpatrick owns a team-high 25 steals so far this season - the second-highest mark in the MEAC. The redshirt senior also owns team-highs in rebounds (5.5 per game) and assists (27).
20 Dana Brown leads the Aggies with 14.5 points per outing. The redshirt senior has knocked down 31 of NCAT's 46 three-pointers on the season - the most in the MEAC by more than 10 triples.
 
SERIES HISTORY
FGCU holds a 1-0 all-time advantage over North Carolina A&T, with the teams' only taking place last November when the Eagles downed the Aggies 30-36 in their season opener.
 
FGCU is 6-0 all-time against MEAC teams, including a 78-51 win against Bethune-Cookman in the first round of the WNIT last season.
 
RAINING THREES
The team's moniker Raining Threes isn't just for show. FGCU has made an incredible 4,160 3-pointers in 14+ seasons for an average of nine per game. The Eagles are riding a 345-game streak with at least one three ball and have made a long-range shot in 460 of 461 games in program history.
 
PROTECTING THE NEST
Alico Arena stands as the second-toughest place to play in all of NCAA Division I women's basketball. The first: UConn's Gampel Pavilion.  The Eagles hold a record of 139-11 at home since making the jump to Division I in 2007-08 and have won 78 out of 80 ASUN games with the home crowd behind them.
 
RECAPPING FAU
FGCU got its revenge with a 65-50 victory over FAU, which handed the Eagles their first home loss in almost two years last season. With the win, FGCU improves its record to 5-5, while the Owls move to 3-6.
 
Gradinjan drained 6-of-9 from the floor including an incredible 4-of-5 from three-point land, for a season-high 17 points. Defensively, the Wisconsin-native added two steals and now leads the Eagles with 19 on the season.
 
Julien and Jessica Cattani (Muskego, Wis./Muskego HS) joined Gradinjan at the top of the stats sheet with 11 and 10 points respectively.
 
With 10 steals on the afternoon, the Eagles reached double-digit for the third-straight game. Jordin Alexander (Fisher, Ind./ Hamilton Southeastern HS/Brown) led the team with three takeaways, while five other players recorded at least one steal. As a team, FAU totaled just four, while turning the ball over 22 times.
 
UP NEXT
The Eagles travel north on Saturday, Dec. 17 to face Illinois for the first time in history. Tipoff is scheduled for 3 p.m.
 
SMESKO
 Head coach Karl Smesko earned his sixth-consecutive ASUN Coach of the Year award with a successful 2015-16 campaign and was named the espnW Mid-Major Coach of the Year. Under his direction, the team has compiled two-straight 30-win seasons with four perfect ASUN regular-season slates in the last five years. The team earned its first top-25 ranking and a third NCAA Tournament appearance as a seven seed in 2014-15 where FGCU won its first ever DI NCAA Tournament game against No. 10 Oklahoma State. With 30 wins and counting this year, Smesko has guided the Eagles to 12-straight 20+ win seasons.  He maintains a record of 383-78 at FGCU for a win percentage of 83.1 with a mark of 145-13 (91.7 W%) in ASUN contests and has led the team to an 81-1 record in conference play in the last five seasons.  The six-time ASUN Coach of the Year earned his 400th career win last season in just 493 career games, two games faster than UConn's Geno Auriemma, and holds a career record of 444-105 (80.9 W%).  Smesko ranks among an elite list of just four active Division I coaches with a career win percentage of .800 or higher, joining 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 visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.