FORT MYERS, Fla. – In its fifth-straight Atlantic Sun Conference Championship appearance, the top-seeded FGCU women's basketball team was upset by No. 2 Jacksonville University Sunday, Mar. 13 at Alico Arena. The Eagles fell 56-54 in the title game and move to 28-5 on the season, while the Dolphins improve to 22-10 and earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
 
"Obviously this is a difficult loss for us," said head coach Karl Smesko. "We had some good moments and good stretches, but the way we finished the third quarter put us in a tough situation. I give Jacksonville all the credit. They out played us. They got the extra possessions. They did a great job today."
 
The loss snaps FGCU's 21-game win streak overall and gives the Eagles their first loss against a conference opponent in 46 games. Sunday's result marks the team's first loss at home against an A-Sun opponent in over seven years.
 
FGCU took a 29-22 lead into halftime and extended the advantage to a game-high 13 points with a 10-1 run midway through the third quarter but the heavy advantage was short lived. The Dolphins responded with a 9-0 run to end the quarter and pushed the score to 43-39 with 10 minutes to play. Kaneisha Atwater (Fort Pierce, Fla./Fort Pierce-Westwood High School/VCU) knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to open the final stanza but the Dolphins produced a seven-point run to cut the deficit to one point midway through the quarter. Jacksonville outscored FGCU 5-0 in the final 70 seconds of action and took the lead with just three seconds left. JU defended FGCU's last-chance shot to keep the score at 56-54 in favor of the Dolphins at the buzzer.
 
Atwater led all players with 22 points on the night. The senior added six rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block and finished the A-Sun Tournament with 56 points and 29 rebounds through three games. She was named to the All-Tournament Team for the second-straight year. Whitney Knight (Winston-Salem, N.C./R.J. Reynolds High School) also earned a position on the All-Tournament Team with 33 points scored in the postseason. Knight scored 17 points with a team-high eight rebounds in Sunday's loss. The senior added four blocks and went 6-for-6 from the free-throw line in 38 minutes on the court.
 
As a unit, the Eagles shot 34.7 percent from the floor with a 50 percent clip from 3-point range. The Dolphins outshot the Eagles at 38.7 percent but went just 3-for-11 from beyond-the-arc compared to FGCU's 7-for-14 performance.  Jacksonville held a heavy gain on the boards with a 48-29 advantage including a 19-6 edge in offensive rebounds.
 
Jacksonville brought the intensity right from the start and immediately took an 8-2 lead with a series of successful layups. The Eagles saw 3-pointers from Knight and Taylor Gradinjan (Cudahy, Wisc./Cudahy High School) near the midpoint of the first quarter to tie the game at eight. The teams traded points in the remaining minutes as JU took a 12-11 lead after 10 minutes.
 
FGCU increased it is offensive production to start the second stanza and used a 10-2 run to take a seven-point lead at the five-minute mark. After a JU jumper, Knight and Atwater combined for five-straight points to bring the score to 26-16 in favor of the Eagles with four minutes left before halftime.
 
Jacksonville closed the deficit to end the half but the Eagles held onto a 29-22 lead at the break.
 
The Dolphins opened the second half with a layup before Atwater sparked the Green and Blue and led the team to a 10-1 run. Atwater laid in back-to-back shots to give FGCU its largest lead of the game at 43-30. The 13-point lead was short lived as the Dolphins outscored FGCU 9-0 over the final four minutes and brought the score to 43-49 after three quarters.
 
Atwater again sparked FGCU with back-to-back 3-pointers in the opening minutes of the final quarter but Jacksonville again produced a run in retaliation. The Dolphins used two mid-range jumpers and a banked-in 3-pointer off the glass to bring the FGCU lead to 49-48 with 6:35 on the clock.
 
The teams traded buckets over a two-minute span as FGCU entered the game's final four minutes with a 54-51 advantage. The Dolphin's stifling defense limited FGCU's opportunities in the final minutes as the Eagles went 0-for-6 from the floor with two turnovers as time wound down. Feeding off the strong defense, the visiting team tied the game at 54 with 37 seconds to play on a single free throw and got the ball back after forcing an FGCU turnover with nine on the clock. The Dolphins crashed the rim and knocked down an off balance shot from the right side to take a 56-54 lead with three seconds to go. After a final timeout, the Eagles sent the inbounds pass to Knight in the corner but with fewer than three seconds to play, the two-time A-Sun Player of the Year was unable to get a strong shot opportunity as time expired with the Eagles trailing.
 
FGCU will learn its future Monday evening as an at large bid to the NCAA Tournament is still possible. If the Eagles do not make the NCAA Tournament, they will hold the A-Sun's automatic bid to the WNIT as the league's regular season champion. The NCAA Selection Show will air live on ESPN Monday at 7 p.m., with the WNIT field announced late Monday evening. Complete details on future games will be available at FGCUAthletics.com as it becomes available.
 
SMESKO
Head coach Karl Smesko earned his sixth-consecutive Atlantic Sun 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 compiled a Division I program best record of 31-3, including a 14-0 mark in conference action and earned its first-ever national ranking last season last season. The team earned its third NCAA Tournament appearance as a seven seed and won its first ever DI NCAA Tournament game against No. 10 Oklahoma State. With 28 wins and counting this year, Smesko has guided the Eagles to 12-straight 20+ win seasons.  He maintains a record of 373-72 at FGCU for a win percentage of 84.0 with a mark of 145-13 (91.7 W%) in Atlantic Sun contests and has led the team to a 81-1 record in conference play in the last five seasons.  The six-time Atlantic Sun 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 434-99 (81.5 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.