FORT MYERS, Fla. – The FGCU women's basketball team gave an impressive all-around performance in its 68-55 win over Chattanooga on Tuesday night. With the victory, the Eagles improve to 7-6 on the season and remain perfect at home at 5-0, while the Mocs slide to 5-7.
 
It truly rained threes in Alico Arena, as the Eagles drained 10-of-22 triples for an impress 45.5 percent clip, marking their best three-point shooting performance of the season. FGCU also limited mistakes in the game, committing just 10 turnovers to the Mocs 20, and with 14 steals on the night, tallied their seventh game with double-digit takeaways.
 
"This was probably our best performance of the season so far," said head coach Karl Smesko. "I thought we played outstanding in the first 15 minutes. We were very active on both ends of the floor. For us, we're still having trouble maintaining that intensity and level of execution throughout the course of 40 minutes. We almost let them back in the game with a lot of fouling on defense and some breakdowns. But overall, we shot the ball well from three, which is always helpful, and I like the energy we played with. We did a better job taking care of the ball, and getting 14 steals is a great number of defensive plays.
 
Jessica Cattani (Muskego, Wis./Muskego HS), who was recently promoted to the Eagles starting lineup, continued to prove herself tonight, tying Rosemarie Julien (Port St. Lucie, Fla./Treasure Coast HS/Chipola College) with a team-high 15 points, including 3-of-3 baskets from three-point land.
 
Julien added four rebounds and two steals to her own 15 points, and has now reached double-figures in four of the last five contests.
 
China Dow (Louisville, Ky./Christian Academy of Louisville/Middle Tennessee State) led the Eagles defensively with a career-high eight rebounds and swiped two steals. The Louisville-native now owns 19 steals on the season, which ranks second on the team behind Taylor Gradinjan (Cudahy, Wis./Cudahy HS). After collecting a pair of steals of her own tonight, Gradinjan is tied for first in the conference with 26.
 
The Eagles flew around the court to start the game, outscoring Chattanooga 30-to-12 as they shot an incredible 80.0 percent from the floor in the first quarter. Julien and Cattani combined for 16 points. Meanwhile, the Mocs managed just 4-of-11 for a 36.4 percent clip and committed five turnovers.
 
The Eagles continued to roll with six steals by five different players in the second quarter. FGCU gained a 25-point advantage after a three pointer from Haley Laughter (Asheville, N.C./Carolina Day School) capped off a 7-2 run. From there, the Mocs managed a 7-3 run of their own bringing the score to 45-24 as the teams enter the locker rooms for halftime.
 
At the beginning of the third, a pair of layups from Julien and a triple from Cattani gave FGCU its largest lead of the night at 51-25. Chattanooga responded with seven-straight points and outscored the Eagles by 10 to finish out the quarter at 59-43 in favor of the Green and Blue.
 
The Eagles started out the final stanza with a layup from Julien sandwiched between three-pointers from Mikala McGhee (St. Louis, Mo./Pattonville HS/George Mason/Missouri State) and Gradinjan. With 5:17 remaining, the Mocs took a defensive stand and shutting out FGCU 10-0, but the Eagles' lead proved too much to overcome as time expired, handing the Green and Blue their fifth-straight win at Alico Arena.
 
UP NEXT
The Eagles are back at it again on Wednesday, Dec. 21 with a game against NAIA foe St. Thomas. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 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 385-79 at FGCU for a win percentage of 83.0 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.