FORT MYERS, Fla. – While celebrating the team's eight seniors on Senior Day, the FGCU women's basketball team defeated Kennesaw State University 63-41 Saturday afternoon at Alico Arena to secure its sixth-straight Atlantic Sun Conference Championship. The Eagles earn their seventh regular season title in eight seasons and move to 24-4 on the year with a 12-0 mark in league action, while the Owls fall to 10-17 and 5-7 in conference play.
 
The Eagles started the contest cold from the floor and allowed the Owls to take an 11-1 lead early on but constructed a 15-0 run spanning the first two quarters to claim control of the game early in the second quarter. The Owls tested the home team through the first half and brought the score to 27-22 at the break but the Eagles shot 51.9 percent in the second half to extend the lead. FGCU produced a 17-point run to open the fourth quarter and cruised to its 17th-straight win this season and 40th-straight win over an A-Sun foe.
 
"We got off to a slow start and Kennesaw was ready to play," said head coach Karl Smesko. "Their coach does a really nice job with the team and they had a really good game plan. They mixed up the defense against us and we didn't get very many good shots early on. We dug ourselves a little bit of a hole but we had a big run to take the lead. It looked like we got a little bit of a cushion in the third quarter and they fought back again. Fortunately, we made a lot of plays in the fourth quarter to seal the game."
 
Whitney Knight (Winston-Salem, N.C./R.J. Reynolds High School) led all players on the day with her third double-double in four games. Knight scored 21 points and grabbed a season-high 11 rebounds.

The senior also secured a position in the A-Sun record books with three blocks on the day, bringing her career total to a league-record 291. Taylor Gradinjan (Cudahy, Wisc./Cudahy High School) and Kaneisha Atwater (Fort Pierce, Fla./Fort Pierce-Westwood High School/VCU) also produced double-figure points for the Green and Blue with 14 and 10, respectively. Gradinjan knocked down four 3-pointers, while Atwater drove to the rim on four occasions and added two successful free throws.  Senior Katie Meador (Salem, Ill./Salem Community High School) was just one point shy of her first career double-double as she scored nine and grabbed a season-best 11 rebounds on senior day.
 
Including Knight, Atwater and Meador, the team honored eight graduating seniors prior to tipoff. The program celebrated the success of the class which also includes DyTiesha Dunson (Albany, Ga./Westover High School), Bethany Murrell (Palestine, Ind./New Palestine High School), Kady Schrann (York, Pa./York Catholic/Vanderbilt), Stephanie Haas (Avon Lake, Ohio/Magnificat High School) and Jaime Gluesing (Solon, Ohio/Solon High School).
 
As a unit, the Eagles shot 39.6 percent and held the Owls to a 27.9 percent clip from the floor. The Green and Blue knocked down nine 3-pointers at a rate of 32.1 percent and outrebounded KSU 39-33. FGCU also held the advantage with eight turnovers compared to KSU's 15 and dished out nine assists with seven steals.
 
The Owls won the tipoff and took the lead right away with baskets on back-to-back possessions. The Eagles added a single free throw three minutes in but were unable to find the basket on their first 12 attempts. After an eight-minute dry spell that allowed KSU to take an 11-1 lead, Gradinjan drove to the rim to give FGCU its first field goal. The Eagles held the Owls scoreless in the final three minutes and cut the deficit again with a long-range shot from Knight to go into the first break trailing 11-6.
 
Meador started the second stanza with a layup to bring the Eagles within three points. Meador's bucket was followed by back-to-back 3-pointers from Gradinjan and a fast-break layup from Dunson to give FGCU a 10-0 run to start the second quarter. The run gave the Eagles a 16-11 lead and forced KSU into a timeout fewer than two minutes into the second period.
 
The Owls cut the run from the free-throw line and pushed back to bring the score to 16-15 but a long 3-pointer by Knight moved the score to 19-15 in favor of the Green and Blue. The teams traded buckets to end the half but FGCU maintained the advantage and went into the break ahead 27-22.
 
Sparked by two-quick points from Atwater, the Eagles started the second half with an 8-1 run and held the Owls scoreless from the floor in the first six minutes of the third quarter. KSU added five points on six free-throw attempts early on and challenged the Eagles late in the quarter to bring the score to 42-36 after 30 minutes.
 
The Eagles opened the fourth quarter with a 17-0 run that included long-range shots from Meador, Gradinjan and Knight. The team outscored KSU 21-5 in the final 10 minutes to extend the lead to a game-high 25 points and earn a 63-41 victory.
 
FGCU will endure a quick turnaround as the team is set for face Lipscomb at Alico Arena Monday, Feb. 20 in a 7 p.m. tipoff. The Eagles will conclude the regular season next Saturday, Feb. 27 at Stetson.
 
Game Notes: FGCU won its 17th-straight game of the season and is undefeated in A-Sun action since Feb. 1, 2014…the 41-game win streak in conference play stands as the nation's second-best streak behind only UConn…the Eagles are one of nine teams nationwide undefeated in conference play, joining Connecticut, Notre Dame, South Carolina, Colorado State, New Mexico State, Arkansas State, Penn and UC Riverside……FGCU has won 68-straight games against A-Sun foes at Alico Arena…with three blocks against Kennesaw State, Whitney Knight became the Atlantic Sun all-time leader with 291 career blocks…DyTiesha Dunson ranks second all-time in the FGCU record books with 387 career assists…Jaime Gluesing played in her 129th career game Saturday afternoon and is just four games shy of the FGCU games played record.