No. 1 FGCU (27-4) vs No. 4 Stetson (19-10)
FGCU Head Coach: Karl Smesko | Kent State '93 | 14th Season at FGCU: 372-71 (83.9%) | 17th Season as Head Coach: 433-98 (81.5%)
Stetson Head Coach: Lynn Bria | Charleston '90  | 8th Season at Stetson:  150-105 (58.8%) | 21st Season as Head Coach: 303-318 (48.7%)
When: Wednesday, March 9 | 7 p.m.
Where: Alico Arena | Fort Myers, Fla.
Watch: ESPN3 with David Moulton and J. Webb Horton
Stats: via StatBroadcast.com
All-Time Series: FGCU leads 18-3 since first meeting in 2008; Eagles have won six-straight since loss in 2013
Atlantic Sun Championship Bracket: available here
 
 
FORT MYERS, Fla. – After a convincing victory over No. 8 NJIT Friday evening, the top-seeded FGCU women's basketball team continues postseason play Wednesday, Mar. 9 in the Atlantic Sun Conference Sun Semifinal. The Eagles will host No. 4 Stetson in a 7 p.m. tipoff at Alico Arena.
 
The Green and Blue secured its sixth-straight A-Sun Regular Season Championship and its seventh title in eight seasons in the league with a 14-0 mark in conference play. The unblemished conference record stands as the team's fourth in five years.
 
General-admission tickets to see the top-seeded Eagles take on the Hatters are just $15 and are available via FGCUTickets.com or through the FGCU Ticket Office. FGCU students with a valid Eagle ID are admitted free of charge, while students from other A-Sun institutions are $5. Complete information can be found at FGCUTickets.com. Fans in attendance are encouraged to wear blue for a 'Blue Out'.
 
QUICK HITS:
-RAINING THREES: FGCU's 300 total 3-pointers made this season ranks fifth nationally, while the 9.7 makes per game ranks seventh among the nation's best.
-The Eagles have held opponents to just 48.7 points per game this season for the nation's second-best defensive mark. The team also ranks among the top-20 in field goal percentage defense by holding foes to a 35.3 percent clip.
-The Green and Blue is the nation's only team to rank among the top-10 in 3-point shooting and the top-50 in team defense.
-With a 14-0 mark in A-Sun play, FGCU is one of just six Division I teams to finish conference play without a loss, joining Connecticut, South Carolina, Colorado State, UC Riverside and Notre Dame.
- The Eagles are 145-13 in A-Sun contests since 2007 with just one regular-season loss since the 2011-12 campaign for a record of 81-1 and a win percentage of .987 in that span. The team boasts four perfect seasons in the last five years has won six-straight regular season championships with seven overall since joining the A-Sun. Currently, the team is undefeated against conference foes since Feb. 1, 2014.
-The 44-game win streak against Atlantic Sun Conference foes ranks second in the nation, behind only Connecticut's 75-game run. The team previously won 44-straight A-Sun games with a streak that spanned from Feb. 28, 2011 to the Feb. 1, 2014 loss.
-The team's 20-game win streak this season stands fourth nationally, behind Connecticut (68), Colorado State (25) and Notre Dame (24).
-FGCU boasts a 70-game win streak in home games played against Atlantic Sun Conference foes and holds a 92.8 percent win percentage at Alico Arena all-time.
-In the final espnW ranking of the year, FGCU stands as the nation's No. 1 Mid-Major team.
-Whitney Knight (Winston-Salem, N.C./R.J. Reynolds High School) became the seventh player in A-Sun to repeat as Player of the Year when she picked up the league's top honor last week.
-Knight took over as the program's second all-time scorer at the end of the regular season, passing Adrianne McNally and now stands at 1,462 career points. She also took over as the second all-time rebounder in Friday's game and now has 662 career rebounds.
-The Eagles also picked up the league's highest academic honor this season with Stephanie Haas (Avon Lake, Ohio/Magnificat High School) earning her second-straight Scholar-Athlete of the Year award.
 
The Eagles enter the postseason with an overall record of 27-4. The team extended the win streak to 20 games with a victory against NJIT in the A-Sun Quarterfinal and is unbeaten since before the Christmas holiday.  With the nonconference success and the unblemished 14-0 conference slate, the team currently holds an official RPI of 67 with a nonconference strength of schedule rating of 61. The Eagles continue a quest for a fourth conference title in the last five years with Wednesday's game.
 
ATLANTIC SUN HONORS
In the days leading up to the A-Sun Tournament, the league announced its major award winners, highlighted by the Green and Blue. Knight was honored as A-Sun Player of the Year for the second-consecutive season, while classmate DyTiesha Dunson (Albany, Ga./Westover High School) earned the A-Sun Defensive Player of the Year nod and head coach Karl Smesko was named Coach of the Year for the seventh time in eight seasons.
 
In addition to the major awards, Knight and classmate Kaneisha Atwater (Fort-Pierce, Fla./Fort Pierce-Westwood High School/VCU) were both unanimously selected to the All-Conference First Team. Knight earned her third First Team accolade, with Atwater taking the honor for the second-straight year.
 
On the academic side, Haas was named the A-Sun Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the second year in a row, while Dunson and Taylor Gradinjan (Cudahy, Wisc./Cudahy High School) joined Haas on the All-Academic Team.
 
STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE
The nonconference slate put the Eagles up against nine top-125 teams this season to push the team to a strength of schedule rating of 61. The slate included eight teams that made the postseason last year with seven programs that finished the 2014-15 season among the top-100.
 
The Eagles compiled a record of 6-3 against the top-125 teams with notable victories at George Washington (24) and Akron (123) as well as against Auburn (57), Quinnipiac (86), Harvard (93) and Arizona (122). The triumph over GW in Washington, D.C. stands as the team's strongest win of the season as it was a true road game played without reigning A-Sun Player of the Year Whitney Knight. The Eagles were also without Knight during losses to top-50 teams Ohio (42) and Arkansas State (39), while the senior played limited minutes on doctor's orders when the team battled No. 14 Mississippi State (21) to a 65-60 finish in Puerto Rico.
 
WITH WHITNEY
The 2016 A-Sun Player of the Year missed the first eight games of the season while battling a foot injury but picked up right where she left off upon return with 16 points and 10 rebounds at Providence on Dec. 12. In 22 games on the court, Knight has led all players with 13.1 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. She also tops the team and the league with 68 blocks in her 22 games played. During her recovery, the team faced tough competition in Ohio, Akron, Arkansas State, George Washington and Harvard and amassed a 5-3 record to start the year. With Knight, the team is 21-1 with a 20-game win streak and has outscored opponents by an average of 63.4 to 46.3 points per game.
 
THE GREEN AND BLUE
Atwater currently tops FGCU's three double-figure scorers at 13.6 points scored per game through the regular season. Atwater has added 5.6 rebounds per contest with 91 assists and 42 steals. Since her return from injury, Knight has added 13 points per game with a team-high 6.5 rebounds. Knight has blocked 68 shots so far this season with 58 shots made from the perimeter. Gradinjan has also contributed double-digits for the Eagles with 10 points per contest. The strong shooter has made a team-best 76 3-pointers this season and ranks third in the league.
 
Dunson has facilitated the offense with 140 assists on the year. Dunson's assist to turnover ratio of 3.18 ranks fifth nationally.
 
As a unit, the Eagles have scored 64.4 points per game, while holding opponents to just 48.7 points per contest. The defensive mark ranks second nationally, only behind Connecticut. FGCU has converted 38.5 percent of shots with 9.7 makes from 3-point range per game. The Eagles have been narrowly outrebounded 36.7 to 37.4 boards per game but hold a heavy advantage in turnovers as the squad has forced 17 miscues per game with only 10.6 turnovers of its own. The margin of 6.1 ranks seventh nationally, while the limited number of turnovers is the country's second-best mark.
 
ROAD WARRIORS
The Eagles are known nationally for their success at home, but this season the team is excelling away from Southwest Florida as well. FGCU holds a 12-0 record in games played on the home court of its opponent with an average margin of victory of over 19 points. The team has held foes to just 49.2 points per game with a 35.5 percent clip from the floor. The road slate this year includes a win in Washington, D.C. over A-10 power George Washington (while Knight was out with injury). The Eagles are one of just three teams nationwide with an unblemished record on the road, joining Connecticut (14-0) and South Carolina (11-0).
 
POWERFUL WINS
After defeating the Pac-12's Arizona in Puerto Rico before the holidays, the Eagles have now defeated at least one team from each of the Power Five conferences since making the jump to Division I. With a home win over Auburn to end 2015, the team has picked up 11 total wins against the BCS programs.  – SEC: Auburn (Dec. 30, 2015), LSU (Dec. 28, 2012), Florida (Nov. 14, 2008); ACC: Clemson (Nov. 28, 2014) Virginia Tech (Dec. 16, 2012/Dec. 21, 2011/Nov. 25, 2010), Big Ten: Michigan State (Nov. 19, 2011), Indiana (Dec. 21, 2010); Big 12: Oklahoma State (Mar. 21, 2015); Pac-12: Arizona (Dec. 20, 2015).
 
RAINING THREES
FGCU tops the Atlantic Sun with 9.7 3-pointers made her game and 300 long-range makes on the year. The Eagles' signature shot has produced 900 of the team's 1,995 points on the year. On the national stage, the total 3-pointers made rank fifth among the NCAA's 349 teams, while the makes per game mark stands at seventh. The team has consistently ranked among the nation's top 3-point shooters and held the NCAA single-game record with 22 made on 41 attempts until recently when Sacramento State hit 25. The Eagles led the nation during the 2012-13 season with 342 long-range makes and followed with 319 in the 2013-14 season. That mark 342 now stands as the third-best performance in NCAA history. The team also sank 10.7 3-pointers per game in that season, an average that also stands as the third-best overall mark.
 
THE STETSON HATTERS
Stetson enters Wednesday's semifinal with a record of 19-10 overall after compiling an Atlantic Sun Conference mark of 9-5. The Hatters started the season with a win over Trinity Baptist and have since earned notable wins against UCF, UNC Wilmington, Georgia Southern and Hampton with losses to Georgia, Minnesota, Boise State, Georgia State and Tennessee in the nonconference season. The Hatters took the No. 4 seed to begin the postseason and defeated Kennesaw State 74-56 at home last week. The team currently holds an official RPI of 194.
 
After going 23-8 with an early exit from the A-Sun Championship on a loss to Northern Kentucky last season, the Hatters entered the 2015-16 slate ranked second in the preseason poll. The Hatters returned just one starter from last year's team but outscored foes by nearly seven points per game. This year's team averages 67.5 points per contest and has held opponents to 61 points per game. The Hatters lead the A-Sun with a shooting percentage of 43.1 percent and have limited opponents to a clip of 38.7 percent. Stetson has made 5.9 3-pointers an outing with a success rate of 29.8 from 3-point range and leads the league with a 73.8 percent mark from the free throw line.
 
Stetson pulls down 35.9 rebounds per contest, a near match to its opponents and records 7.9 steals to help force 15.6 turnovers per game. Junior Brianti Saunders leads all players in the league with 18.4 points per game. She tops the league with 121 made shots on 144 attempts from the charity stripe and has dished out 74 assists through the team's 29 games so far. Juniors Breana Bey and Aisha Turner also contribute to the offense with 11.6 and 8.9 points per game, respectively. Bey paces the team and ranks second in the A-Sun with a shooting percentage of 55.1, while three other Hatters have shot over 45 percent this season. Bey also tops the team with 7.3 rebounds per game and adds 18 total blocks. Turner has contributed a team-high 93 assists with 51 steals.
 
MILESTONES MOUNTING
With such an experienced squad, several players on the team hold and are within reach of program milestones.
 
Dunson leads the team and ranks second in program history with 405 career assists.
 
FGCU CAREER ASSISTS

1	Shannon Murphy	2007-11	419
2	DyTiesha Dunson	2012-16	405
3	Megan Jones	2002-05	338
4	Adrianne McNally	2006-10	335
5	Courtney Chihil	2008-12	333

 
Knight tops the FGCU record book with 302 blocked shots in her career and took over the top spot in the league records Saturday, Feb. 20.
                                                                                                                                                                           
ATLANTIC SUN CAREER BLOCKS

1	Whitney Knight	2011-16	302
2	Jessica Bobbit	Belmont 05-09	290
3	Katie Beth Pate	Lipscomb 03-07	264
4	Albena Branzova	FIU 91-95	250
5	Denise Hogie	CoC 91-93	248

                                                         
On the offensive end, Knight passed Adrianne McNally to move to second all-time with 21 points scored Feb. 20.
 
FGCU CAREER POINTS

1	Sarah Hansen	2009-14	1,901
2	Whitney Knight	2011-16	1,462
3	Adrianne McNally	2006-10	1,415
4	Kelsey Jacobson	2008-12	1,263
5	Shannon Murphy	2007-11	1,185

 
Knight also ranks fourth in the FGCU record books with 192 career steals, seven away from the second position in the record books.
 
FGCU CAREER STEALS

1	Sarah Hansen	2009-14	249
2	Courtney Chihil	2008-12	199
3	Whitney Knight	2011-16	192
4	Shannon Murphy	2007-11	168
5	Brittany Kennedy	2011-13	148

 
Knight entered the 2015-16 season with 516 career rebounds and will continue to climb the FGCU records. She recently moved to second all-time in the record books, behind only Hansen.
 
FGCU CAREER REBOUNDS

1	Sarah Hansen	2009-14	887
2	Whitney Knight	2011-16	662
3	Adrianne McNally	2006-10	658
4	Robyn Swain	2002-04	640
5	Courtney Chihil	2008-12	603

 
Gluesing tops the squad with 132 games played through a four-year career. The senior matched Sarah Hansen's all-time appearances record in the Quarterfinal and will become FGCU's all-time leader in Wednesday's game, while Haas and Meador also stand in the program's top-five.
 
FGCU CAREER APPEARANCES

1	Sarah Hansen	2009-14	132
	Jaime Gluesing	2012-16	132
3	Stephanie Haas	2012-16	131
	Adrianne McNally	2006-10	128
5	Katie Meador	2012-16	127

 
UP NEXT
With a win in Wednesday's Semifinal, the Eagles will advance to the A-Sun Championship for the fifth-straight season. The Eagles would face the winner of Wednesday's No. 2 Jacksonville/No. 3 USC Upstate semifinal matchup in the title contest set for Sunday, Mar. 13 at 2 p.m. on ESPN3.
 
General-admission tickets for the semifinal start at just $15 and are available via FGCUTickets.com or through the FGCU Ticket Office. FGCU students with a valid Eagle ID are admitted free of charge, while students from other A-Sun institutions are $5. Complete information can be found at FGCUTickets.com.
 
SMESKO
Head coach Karl Smesko earned his sixth-consecutive Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year award after a successful 2015-16 campaign. 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 27 wins and counting this year, Smesko has guided the Eagles to 12-straight 20+ win seasons.  He maintains a record of 372-71 at FGCU for a win percentage of 83.9 with a mark of 145-13 (91.6 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 433-98 (81.4 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.