ABILENE, Texas - Nasrin Ulel scored a game-high 19 points, and Taylor Gradinjan moved within one point of 1,000 in her career as the FGCU women's basketball team drained a program record-tying 22 3-pointers in a 94-55 win over Abilene Christian (3-3) on the road Sunday.

With the win, FGCU (7-2) snapped a two-game losing skid. The team's 22 3-pointers tied the record set against ETSU on Jan. 12, 2013. In fact, the performance is also tied for the third most in NCAA Division I single game history behind Sacramento State, who tallied 25 twice in the 2015-16 season.

"We shot the ball very well today," FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said. "And we did a good job moving the ball to our open shooters. We look good when we share the ball."

As a team, FGCU also finished 22-for-45 (48.9 percent) from 3-point range, which is a new team season-high in percentage. They made 11 3-pointers in each half and eight players made at least one, led by a career-high tying six from Gradinjan (Cudahy, Wis./Cudahy HS).

Gradinjan, who finished with a season-high in points (18), assists (4) and steals (2) on 6-for-10 shooting from 3-point range, now sits at 999 career points entering Tuesday's game at home against Southeastern University. With one more point, she'll become the ninth player in the program's Division-I era with 1,000 points and only the 10th overall since the program started in 2002-03.

Ulel (Murrietta, Calif./Murrietta HS), who scored a season-high 16 first half points, finished with 19 overall in just 20 minutes. She shot 5-for-9 from 3-point range and produced her fifth game with at least 10 points this year.

Chandler Ryan (Groveland, Ill./Morton HS) came off the bench in the second half to finish with season-highs in points (11), 3-point field goals made (3) and attempted (5), and field goals made (4) and attempted (7). She did all of her work in just 12 minutes.

Rosemarie Julien (Port St. Lucie, Fla./Treasure Coast HS), who eclipsed 500 career points in an FGCU uniform against Abilene Christian, finished with 10 points, three assists and one steal to give the Eagles four players in double figures.

Several others also contributed to the win as nine different players scored - Tytionia Adderly (Jupiter, Fla./Cardinal Newman HS) added nine points and seven rebounds; Erica Nelson (Kansas City, Mo./Lee Summit North HS) had eight points, five rebounds and three assists; Sheahen Dowling (Chicago, Ill./Trinity HS) had a season-high seven points; China Dow (Louisville, Ky./Christian Academy of Louisville) had seven points, three rebounds and three assists; and Lisa Zderadicka (Vienna, Austria/HAK Korneuburg) had five points and a team-high four assists.

Alyssa Blair (Sun Prairie, Wis./Sun Prairie HS) chipped in a season-high two blocks along with two rebounds, while Liberty Brown (Forney, Texas/Dallas Bryan Adams HS) had a season-high five rebounds in just four minutes.

NOTES
Overall, FGCU also finished 33-for-61 (54.1 percent) from the field, which is also a season-high for team field goal percentage. The Eagles tied a season-high in assists (24), too.

In the first half alone, Ulel (16) and Gradinjan (15) combined for 31 points, which was six more than Abilene Christian had as a team. Overall, FGCU had the same number of made 3-pointers (22) as Abilene Christian had total field goals made (22-for-52).

Defensively, FGCU had 30 points off 22 Abilene Christian turnovers while producing 22 points in the paint, 11 second chance points and 30 bench points. 

Sunday's game, which was the first ever meeting between the two teams, marked the end of an eight-game road trip for FGCU. The team now returns home to face Southeastern University (11-0) on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m., #22 Kentucky (7-1) on Friday at 7 p.m. and Ave Maria (10-0) next Sunday at 2 p.m.

With the win, FGCU head coach Karl Smesko is now 154-25 (86 percent) in games where he has had four or more days to prepare for an opponent.

FOLLOW ALONG
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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 411-84 (.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 472-111 (.810). 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.