FORT MYERS, Fla. – With the help of a 30-point third quarter, the FGCU women's basketball team (15-6, 4-0) overcame a shaky first half to down NJIT (8-11, 1-3), 73-53. With the win, the Eagles remain undefeated in conference play and have come out on top in their last nine-straight.
 
"I want to give NJIT a lot of credit," said head coach Karl Smesko. "They really outplayed us in the first half. Fortunately for us, we had a really big third quarter and we got the crowd into it. I thought Haley (Laughter) had a great first half in terms of keeping us in it. She was the only one really making any shots at the time. Erica (Nelson) made a few big plays in the third quarter that helped us get the lead. Jordin (Alexander) was really good today at shooting threes with one second on the clock. That was good, but then she found holes in the zone and got to her mid-range jumper, which was great. And of course Tytionia (Adderly) was really good on the boards for us. So a lot of people contributed in different ways, and we feel good about the way we performed in the second half."
 
A strong performance coming out of halftime has been a common theme for FGCU lately, as the Eagles are averaging 35 points in the first half and 45.5 points in the second half since beginning ASUN play.
 
While the rest of the team was slow to find its rhythm, Laughter (Asheville, N.C./Carolina Day School) was hot out of the gate with four triples in the first half. She finished with five threes and a team-leading 20 points – her highest scoring total of the season.
 
Alexander (Fisher, Ind./ Hamilton Southeastern HS/Brown) and China Dow (Louisville, Ky./Christian Academy of Louisville/Middle Tennessee State) also reached double-figure scores with 12 and 13 points respectively.
 
For the second week in a row, Adderly (Jupiter, Fla./Cardinal Newman) dominated the boards with a career-high 16 rebounds on the night. The last time an Eagle reached 16 rebounds was on Mar. 18, 2016 when Whitney Knight climbed to 16 against Bethune-Cookman in the first round of the WNIT.
 
Despite trailing by as much as 11 points in the first quarter, the Eagles displayed excellent ball protection throughout the game, committing a season-low five turnovers, while forcing NJIT to 17 en route to a 31-point swing.
 
The Eagles started the game with a 4-0 lead after a made free throw and a triple from Rosemarie Julien (Port St. Lucie, Fla./Treasure Coast HS/Chipola College). But things went downhill quickly as FGCU fell behind 15-4 thanks to a six-minute scoring drought. The Green and Blue made a small push in the final two minutes of the quarter as Laughter, Alexander (Fisher, Ind./ Hamilton Southeastern HS/Brown) and Taylor Gradinjan (Cudahy, Wis./Cudahy HS) combined for 12 points on four treys.
 
Trailing by four heading into the second, Laughter once again got the Eagles started with her fourth three-pointer of the game. The score tied briefly at 25 after Dow grabbed an offensive rebound and took it to the hoop for two points and the foul.  Highlanders' Alana Dudley took back control with three-straight jumpers. Unlike the earlier, the Eagles went scoreless in the final two minutes of the quarter and hit the locker room for halftime with a 33-27 deficit.
 
When the second half started, Nelson and Alexander got involved early, combining for 13 of the Eagles' first 15 points. Finally, FGCU pulled ahead for the first time since the beginning of the game with yet another triple from Laughter, her fifth.  With a 45-43 advantage, Dow knocked down back-to-back shots. The Eagles capped off the 30-point quarter with a pair of three-pointers from Alexander and Gradinjan for a 57-46 lead.
 
The Green and Blue continued to dominate as they went on an 11-0 run to start the fourth quarter. NJIT followed up with a 5-2 run of their own before Tayler Goodall (Columbus, Ind./Columbus HS) knocked down the Eagles' 13th three-pointer of the night as time expired.
 
The Eagles have now won 41-straight regular season ASUN contests, with their last loss taking place on Feb. 1, 2014 against Northern Kentucky. As it stands, FGCU is just three wins away from tying its all-time record of 44 consecutive conference victories. The only team in the nation with a longer active streak is the UConn Huskies.
 
UP NEXT
FGCU will be back in the Nest on Monday, Jan. 23 to square off with USC Upstate. 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 394-79 at FGCU for a win percentage of 83.2 with a mark of 149-13 (91.9 W%) in ASUN contests and has led the team to an 85-1 (98.8) 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 455-106 (81.1 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.