FORT MYERS, Fla. - China Dow produced her second double-double of the season to lead the FGCU women's basketball team (17-3, 3-0 ASUN) to a 93-60 win over USC Upstate in Alico Arena Monday.

With the win, the nation's No. 1 ranked mid-major team has now won a season-high seven in a row, which tops the six-game streak to open the season. The Eagles also concluded a seven-game home stand undefeated and pushed its overall home record to 11-0 this year. The team will be back in action this coming Saturday at 2 p.m. at Kennesaw State.

"We got off to a really fast start," FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said. "I thought we played a great first quarter, (which) gave us a little bit of a cushion. The second and third quarters were really even. Upstate is hard to guard and if you don't use the right technique, they're going to get open shots, and I think they did that in the second and third quarters. Fortunately at the beginning of the fourth quarter, we made one final push to kind of extend it and put the game away."

Dow energized the home crowd from the moment she entered with 6:16 left in the opening quarter. The senior guard hit a 3-pointer on her first offensive possession and finished the opening quarter with 13 points en route to 22 points, 10 rebounds, three steals and three assists overall. She finished 9-for-12 from the field, and her nine field goals is a new season-high, topping the eight she had against Siena College on Nov. 20. Also, with her performance, Dow topped the 500 point plateau in an Eagle uniform.

Outside of Dow, four others also reached double figures including Erica Nelson (14), Nasrin Ulel (14), Rosemarie Julien (11) and Lisa Zderadicka (10), while Taylor Gradinjan (9) finished just shy of the group.

Nelson (Kansas City, Mo./Lee Summit North HS) was all over the place. She finished 5-for-8 from the field while adding three rebounds, three assists, three steals and a career-high three blocks. In fact, Nelson's defensive prowess helped FGCU set a new season-high with five blocks. The Eagles also produced 14 steals, which is the team's highest output against a Division-I foe this year.

Ulel (Murrietta, Calif./Murrietta HS), who entered Monday 3-for-22 over her past three games from long distance, made her opening attempt and finished 4-for-8 from 3-point range. Overall, she went 5-for-10 from the field and added two assists, two rebounds and one steal. Her single theft came when she converted a fast break layup to finish off a personal 5-0 run to open the second half.

Julien (Port St. Lucie, Fla./Treasure Coast HS) and Zderadicka (Vienna, Austria/HAK Korneuburg) combined to shoot 10-for-17 from the field. Zderadicka tied a season-high with six rebounds, while adding four assists, one steal and one block, while Julien had three rebounds, two assists and two steals. Gradinjan (Cudahy, Wis./Cudahy HS) produced all of her points from 3-point range (3-for-5) for the seventh time this season. The sixth-year senior also added two rebounds, one block and one steal. In fact, she now has 100 steals in her career, tied DyTiesha Dunson (132, 2012-16) and Sarah Hansen (132, 2009-14) for fourth place in career games played and needs one more start to tie Courtney Chihil (111, 2008-12) for third most games started. She's now 16 points shy of 1,100 in her career.

Another player who reached a career milestone was Tytionia Adderly, who finished with six points, seven rebounds, a season-high four assists and a steal. She now has 427 career rebounds, which pushes her past Katie Meador (422, 2012-16) for eighth on the program's career list. Next up is Gradinjan, who currently has 439. Only six players in program history have tallied 500 or more rebounds, and Adderly (Jupiter, Fla./Cardinal Newman HS) is on pace to do it before the end of her sophomore season. In fact, she would become only the second player to do it in two years (Robyn Swain, 640, 2002-04) and the first in the Division-I era.

Jessica Cattani (Muskego, Wis./Muskego HS) had her eight-game streak of making at least one 3-pointer snapped, but she finished with four points, three rebounds, two steals and an assist. Alyssa Blair (Sun Prairie, Wis./Sun Prairie HS) converted a layup late in the game as her and Sheahen Dowling (Chicago, Ill./Trinity HS) combined for three points off the bench.

The Eagles had six players record multiple assists, four players record a pair of steals, 10 players tally at least two rebounds and eight players produce at least two made field goals. As a team, FGCU finished 38-for-73 (52.1 percent) from the field, which is the team's third highest percentage of the season. The team also made 11 3-pointers, which is the 16th time this year they've reached double digits as a team. Defensively, the team forced 21 turnovers, which marks the 11th time they forced at least 20. They're undefeated on the season when forcing 15 or more.

In the opening quarter, FGCU went on a 10-0 run to open up an 18-4 lead. Nelson found a cutting Cattani for a right side layup to finish the run, and Dow closed the quarter with four points in the final 33 seconds on a pair of layups, the second of which came on an offensive rebound. In fact, that final flurry was part of an 11-0 run that spanned just over a minute of game action from the end of the first and into the second quarter. Julien hit a 3-pointer to finish it off and give the Eagles a 22-point lead.

USC Upstate responded with a 9-0 run as FGCU went scoreless over the next four minutes. Adderly, Nelson and Cattani, however, finished layups during a 7-0 run that helped the Eagles take a 46-26 lead at the half. FGCU led by as many as 25 in the third quarter and eventually stretched it to as many as 37 with 2:48 left in the game following back-to-back layups from Zderadicka. The Eagles led by at least 30 over the final six minutes.

Monday represented the 20th matchup between FGCU and USC Upstate all-time. The Eagles hold an 18-2 record, including 13 straight wins and an 11-0 performance at home.

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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 421-85 (.832) at FGCU, including a 160-15 (.914) mark in ASUN play. Over the past six + seasons, he has guided FGCU to a 96-3 (.970) record in conference play with four undefeated seasons. 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 482-112 (.811). 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.