CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The FGCU women's basketball team (6-6) dropped an 82-73 heartbreaker to the Big Ten's Illinois (5-6) on Saturday afternoon despite leading for more than 28 minutes of the game. The loss snaps FGCU's streak of four-straight wins, but the Eagles will have a chance to improve their record before the holidays with a pair of home games next week.
 
"In the first half, I thought we pushed the ball in transition well, and we got the ball to the open kid," said head coach Karl Smesko. "They definitely tightened up their defense in the second half. Between that and our lack of ball movement and player movement, our pace just really slowed down. It led to worse shots from us. In the first half we got great shots. In the second half we didn't work as hard to get good shots and it ended up costing us."
 
It really was a tale of two halves for the Green and Blue, who managed a remarkable 58.6 percent clip in the first half before letting that number fall to 28.1 percent in the second. Still, the Eagles' first half showing gave the team something to build upon as it approaches conference play.
 
Several Eagles gave noteworthy performances including Rosemarie Julien (Port St. Lucie, Fla./Treasure Coast HS/Chipola College), Jordin Alexander (Fisher, Ind./ Hamilton Southeastern HS/Brown) and Mikala McGhee (St. Louis, Mo./Pattonville HS/George Mason/Missouri State) who set new career-highs with 18, 17 and nine points respectively.
 
Taylor Gradinjan (Cudahy, Wis./Cudahy HS) added another four steals bringing her total to a team-high 24, while Alexander matched a personal-best with three takeaways of her own.
 
For the seventh time this season, FGCU drew first blood with a jumper from Julien. The 5-11 junior buried two more baskets to give herself a total of six points in the first two minutes of the game. The Eagles continued to go on a tear as a three-pointer from Haley Laughter (Asheville, N.C./Carolina Day School) put FGCU up 11-6. Illinois responded with a pair of free throws and a triple that tied the game at 14. Things remained tied at 17 until a couple of free throws from Erica Nelson (Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee Summit North HS/Johnson County CC) and a Gradinjan three-pointer gave the Eagles a five-point lead that they carried to the end of the quarter.
 
The Illini cut their deficit to three to start off the second quarter, but another trey from Laughter swung momentum back in favor of the Green and Blue. As the Eagles continued to roll offensively, they gave up a handful of fouls, which allowed Illinois to stay close by converting from the charity line. The Illini tied it up at 37 after a five-point run that began off yet another pair of free throws, but three pointers from Julien and China Dow (Louisville, Ky./Christian Academy of Louisville/Middle Tennessee State) in the final seconds of the second quarter allowed FGCU to go into halftime with a six-point lead.
 
Illinois came out of the break re-energized and took their first lead of the game just three minutes into the third quarter at 49-47. The Eagles answered back with a three from Nelson that gave the Green and Blue a 50-49 advantage. The teams swapped leads twice more before the quarter ended at 58-55 in favor of FGCU.
 
Things looked promising at the start of the fourth when a jumper from McGhee increased the Eagles' lead to five, but the game quickly took a turn as Illinois started to roll. As the teams traded points, FGCU began taking bad shots, which gave Illinois a chance to jump out to a three-point lead with just under two minutes remaining. After a missed three-pointer, the Eagles were forced to begin fouling, which resulted in an 82-73 finish in favor of Illinois.
 
UP NEXT
No rest for the Eagles next week, as FGCU returns to the Nest for back-to-back games against Chattanooga on Tuesday, Dec. 20 and St. Thomas on Wednesday, Dec. 21.
 
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 384-79 at FGCU for a win percentage of 82.9 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 in 2014-15 in just 493 career games, two games faster than UConn's Geno Auriemma, and holds a career record of 445-106 (80.8 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.