FORT MYERS, Fla. - The FGCU women's basketball team (10-3) will square off against Harvard (5-4) and SIU Edwardsville (3-6) as part of the Hilton Garden Inn Classic on Wednesday and Thursday. Akron will also visit Alico Arena as part of the two-day, four-team event. The game against Harvard is being presented by The Reef.

Promotions
On Wednesday, fans are urged to wear their favorite Christmas sweaters as the loudest Dirty Birds will win prizes, and there will be a contest at halftime.

Wednesday will also be the final opportunity for fans to donate to a holiday toy drive sponsored by the FGCU athletics department, the FGCU police department, the Lee County Sheriff's Office and Heroes Unlimited. New, unwrapped toys are being collected and will be delivered to Golisano Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida on Friday, Dec. 23. Collection boxes have been placed in the lobbies of Alico Arena, UPD and the FGCU Family Resource Center until Wednesday. No toy is too small, and all toys will be wrapped prior to delivery.

Also on Wednesday, we will be honoring the winners from the 2017 Celebration of Excellence, which recognizes distinguished faculty including teachers, scholars and service-minded members of our living-learning community.

The Green and Blue
FGCU enters Wednesday's action having won four of its past five despite a 68-61 loss to Chattanooga on Sunday. With that result, the Eagles are now 4-3 against teams that made either the NCAA Tournament or WNIT last season, and the wins have come against DePaul, Kentucky, Kent State and Abilene Christian. Harvard and South Dakota State, who comes to town Dec. 29, both also made the WNIT last year - thus giving FGCU a couple more chances to strengthen its resume prior to conference season.

Wednesday's game against Harvard will also kick off a seven-game home stand for FGCU that extends into conference play, which begins with a Jan. 6 tilt against Stetson. The stretch concludes against USC Upstate on Jan. 15.

In terms of resume building, FGCU checked in 21st in the latest NCAA RPI rankings for games through Dec. 13. The Eagles are also ranked third in the latest CollegeInsider.com mid-major poll with a new one expected out later on Tuesday. They have been ranked as high as No. 2 in that poll this year. The espnW mid-major poll has the Eagles ranked fourth.

Redshirt senior guard Jessica Cattani (Muskego, Wis./Muskego HS) has led FGCU in scoring the past two games. After tying a career-high with 21 points in a 99-35 win over Ave Maria on Dec. 10, she contributed a team-high 12 points off the bench in the loss to Chattanooga. Tytionia Adderly (Jupiter, Fla./Cardinal Newman HS) also pulled down a team-high 12 rebounds in that game. She now has a career-high four straight games with at least 10 rebounds - topping the three times she recorded three straight as a freshman last year. Erica Nelson (Kansas City, Mo./Lee Summit North HS) swiped a career-high four steals while adding nine points against Chattanooga, while China Dow (Louisville, Ky./Christian Academy of Louisville) had 10 points and five rebounds. It was her fifth game this year with double digit scoring, and she's now just 26 points shy of 800 in her NCAA career, which began at Middle Tennessee.

Senior guard Rosemarie Julien (Port St. Lucie, Fla./Treasure Coast HS) is a two-time ASUN player of the week this year (Dec. 12, Nov. 28), while redshirt junior guard Lisa Zderadicka (Vienna, Austria/HAK Korneuburg) was named the ASUN's newcomer of the week for the first time on Dec. 12.

Sixth-year senior Taylor Gradinjan, who was just named the female scholar athlete of the month at FGCU, scored six points on two more 3-pointers against Chattanooga. She now has 1,032 career points, which is ninth most in program history and eighth most in the Division-I era. She needs 31 points to pass Kate Schrader (1,062, 2005-07) on the overall scoring list and 104 more to eclipse Stephanie Haas (1,135, 2012-16) for seventh place on the Division-I list.

On top of that, Gradinjan (Cudahy, Wis./Cudahy HS) is looking to move up several other career lists including field goals made (356, 9th), field goals attempted (883, 8th), 3-point field goals made (249, 3rd), 3-point field goals attempted (664, 3rd), 3-point field goal percentage (.375, 8th), rebounds (422, t-7th), defensive rebounds (318, 8th), games played (126, 8th), games started (104, 4th) and minutes (3,133, 9th).

In the total rebounds category, Gradinjan needs just one more to pass Katie Meador (422, 2012-16) for seventh most in program history. Additionally, she needs 28 more minutes to pass Kaneisha Atwater (3,160, 2013-16) for 8th most minutes, eight more starts to pass Courtney Chihil (111, 2008-12) for 3rd most and three more games played to pass Adrianne McNally (128, 2006-10) for 7th most. She is currently on pace to become the program's all-time leader in games played, a record currently held by Jaime Gluesing (140, 2012-16), and needs 15 more to do so.

Scouting Harvard
Harvard will enter Wednesday carrying a 5-4 record, which includes a 79-69 win over Northeastern on Dec. 6 in the most recent game. Thus, the game against FGCU will be the team's first action in two weeks.

Sophomore Katie Benzan produced a career-high 27 points in the Northeastern game, while Kirby Porter did the same by netting 12 points. Benzan, though, has joined junior Madeline Raster in reaching double figures in scoring in seven of the team's nine games this year. Raster's season-high in scoring came against Siena (15 points).

The Crimson committed just four turnovers against Temple on Dec. 2. It was the fewest turnovers in a game for Harvard in program history, topping the previous record of five against Princeton on Jan. 8, 1993.

Harvard is making 8.1 3-pointers per game this year and holding opponents to 38 percent shooting, which is the second-best mark in the Ivy League. Additionally, the Crimson ranks second in the Ivy League in offensive (14.8) and defensive rebounds (27.1) per game. Taylor Rooks leads the team in rebounding at eight per contest, which is fifth best in the league.

Harvard was selected third in the Ivy League Preseason Media Poll. The Crimson has finished in the top three of the Ivy League standings every year since the 2006-07 campaign. The Crimson earned 98 points in the poll, just behind Princeton, picked second in the poll with 120 points, and Penn, picked first with 129 points. Harvard finished the 2016-17 campaign in third place at 8-6 in the Ivy League, behind Princeton (9-5) and conference regular season champion Penn (13-1).

Following the game against FGCU, Harvard will meet Akron for the first time in Thursday's opener. The Crimson has a 4-3 record all-time against teams from the Mid-American Conference.

Scouting SIU Edwardsville
For SIU Edwardsville (3-6), senior forward Gwen Adams needs just 14 points to become the 25th player in school history to record 1,000 points. She has double-digit scoring efforts in two of the past three games.

The Cougars are coming off an 86-75 loss to Northern Illinois on Dec. 17. Lauren White, a redshirt senior guard, scored a career-high 28 points on 9-for-17 shooting, including 3-for-5 from 3-point range. She leads the team at 14 PPG, while pulling down 4.8 RPG and grabbing 24 assists and nine steals in nine games. Senior forward Donshel Beck added 17 points and 13 rebounds against NIU. She joins White as one of two double figure scorers on the team at 11.8 PPG. She also adds a team-high 6.4 RPG and has 16 assists and 13 steals in nine games. Nakiah Bell is averaging nine points over seven games, while Adams checks in fourth at 6.8 per game.

After starting the season 3-1, SIU Edwardsville has lost five in a row, including a 78-48 decision to No. 17 Missouri on Dec. 10. The Cougars will meet Akron in the opening game on Wednesday.

Series History
FGCU is a combined 3-0 against Harvard and SIU Edwardsville. The Eagles knocked off SIU Edwardsville 73-68 on March 6, 2011 in the final game of the Hilton Garden Inn FGCU Classic, while also picking up wins over Harvard Jan. 2, 2015 on the road (68-58) and Dec. 5, 2015 at home (74-65). 

Fun Fact
Chandler Ryan (Groveland, Ill./Morton HS), a redshirt freshman guard for FGCU, grew up 30 miles from SIU Edwardsville's Cloe Churchill. The two have competed against each other since third grade and this will be their first collegiate matchup. The duo also played their final two years of AAU travel basketball together for the Springfield Predators coached by FGCU team manager Brooklyn Crum's dad, Joby.

Up Next
Following this week, the Eagles will have off until Dec. 29-30 when the team hosts South Dakota State at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 29 and Florida Memorial at 7 p.m. on Dec. 30. Then, FGCU begins ASUN play at home against Stetson on Jan. 6 at 4 p.m. Tickets for those games can be purchased here.

FOLLOW ALONG
For up-to-the-minute information and behind-the-scenes access to the women's basketball program, follow @FGCU_WBB on Twitter and Instagram and like us on Facebook at /FGCUWBB.

COACH SMESKO
FGCU head coach Karl Smesko rallied the 2016-17 Eagles to their seventh-straight 25-win campaign, which culminated in the team's fourth NCAA tournament appearance in six seasons of eligibility. The seven-time ASUN Coach of the Year was named the espnW Mid-Major Coach of the Year in 2015-16 following a run that witnessed the Eagles finish a best-ever 33-6. Over a five-year stretch starting in 2011-12, FGCU racked up four ASUN seasons with a perfect record and capped the run with back-to-back 30 plus win seasons. In 2014-15, the team earned its first top-25 ranking and another NCAA Tournament trip as a seven seed, where FGCU won its first ever NCAA Division-I Tournament game against No. 10 Oklahoma State. With 26 wins in 2016-17, Smesko has guided the Eagles to 13-straight 20-win seasons.  He maintains a record of 414-85 (.830) at FGCU, including a 160-15 (.914) mark in ASUN play. Over the past six seasons, he has guided FGCU to a 93-3 (.969) record in conference play. Smesko earned his 400th career coaching win in 2014-15 in just 493 career games, two games faster than UConn's Geno Auriemma. He holds a career head coaching record of 475-112 (.809). 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.

TOYS FOR TOTS
The FGCU Athletics Department, FGCU Police Department, Lee County Sheriff's Office and Heroes Unlimited have teamed up to participate in a holiday toy drive. New, unwrapped toys are being collected and will be delivered to the Golisano Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida on Friday, Dec. 23. Collection boxes have been placed in the lobbies of Alico Arena, UPD and the FGCU Family Resource Center until Wednesday, Dec. 20. No toy is too small, and all toys will be wrapped prior to delivery.