DURHAM, N.C. - For the second straight game, the FGCU women's basketball team (9-4) struggled offensively, which led to a 57-41 loss to Duke University (8-4) at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Sunday.

"I was really proud of our effort defensively," FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said. "I thought we really competed on the defensive end. Offensively, Duke has some really good athletes (with) length, and I thought they made us a little tentative in our zone offense attack. We weren't moving the ball as well as we would have liked and that led to us having some tough shots, and when we got wide open shots maybe we were a little rushed or something, but we didn't shoot it like we were hoping to."

Nasrin Ulel led the Eagles offensively with 11 points. Tytionia Adderly added eight points, eight rebounds and a team-high three steals, while Destiny Washington had seven points and team-highs in rebounds (9) and blocks (3). As a team, the Green and Blue shot just 7-for-37 (18.9 percent) from 3-point range and had 15 points over the game's final 21 minutes.

Neither team played particularly well early on as Adderly's (Jupiter, Fla./Cardinal Newman HS) shot clock buzzer-beating 3-pointer with 4:46 left in the first quarter was the first field goal for either team. FGCU had each of its four first-quarter field goals from 3-point range, and the final two were banked in from Ulel (Murrietta, Calif./Murrietta HS) and Alyssa Blair (Sun Prairie, Wis./Sun Prairie HS) to give the Eagles a 13-6 lead through one.

Duke opened the second quarter on an 8-0 run and pushed its lead to six following a three-point play from Haley Gorecki with 3:21 left in the half. Washington (Indianapolis, Ind./Lawrence North HS) and Adderly, however, combined for all six points in a 6-0 run that knotted the game at 26 apiece with 1:08 left in the half.

Following a timeout, however, Duke closed the half on a 5-0 run and opened up a seven-point lead following a Miela Goodchild layup 1:15 into the second half. Ulel responded with five straight points to pull the Green and Blue within two, but the Blue Devils answered with a 5-0 run of their own and opened up a 44-35 lead through three.

From there, the Eagles failed to trim the deficit. A 3-pointer from Kerstie Phills (Charlotte, N.C./Charlotte Christian HS) with 5:45 left was her team's first points of the quarter, and they ended up accounting for half of FGCU's points in the quarter, and that included a buzzer-beating putback layup from Brittany Johnson (Pickerington, Ohio/Pickerington North HS) to end the game.

FGCU will be back in action next Saturday at home in Alico Arena against Liberty. The first-ever matchup between the two teams will mark the beginning of conference play.

Notes
FGCU assisted in 11 of its 16 field goals, led by four from Keri Jewett-Giles (Fort Myers, Fla./Dunbar HS).
 
Defensively, the Eagles had nine steals.
 
WE'VE GOT YOUR SEAT
Experience FGCU basketball this season. The following ticket opportunities are on sale now:
Group Sales
Bring your group of 20 or more to an FGCU men's or women's basketball game. All group tickets include an FGCU hat ($15 value), a $5 game day discount at The Boardwalk restaurant, in-game group recognition and more. For more information on group outings, click HERE or call 239-590-7145.
Single Game Tickets
Single game tickets are available for all remaining home games. Discounts are available for current or former Military and Youth ages 3-15. Purchase online HERE or call 239-590-7145.
Military Appreciation Games
Military Appreciation Night is Saturday, Jan. 5. Discounted tickets are available for current or former Military and their families. Women's tickets start at $8 each and Men's tickets start at $9 each and the first 50 military discount orders include a free $10 gift card for Mission BBQ. Purchase online HERE or call 239-590-7145.

COACH SMESKO
FGCU head coach Karl Smesko led the 2017-18 Eagles to another historic season. The Green and Blue finished 31-5 overall and 13-1 in ASUN play, capturing the program's eighth ASUN regular season championship and fifth ASUN tournament championship. The team finished the season ranked 25th in the final USA Today Coaches Poll, recaptured the NCAA record for most 3-point field goals made in a season with 431 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in seven seasons, where the Eagles knocked off 5th-seeded and No. 15 ranked Missouri in the opening round. It was the team's second tournament win over the past three appearances. Over the course of the season, FGCU knocked off three ranked teams - No. 15 Missouri, No. 20 Kentucky and No. 21 DePaul.

Over the past four seasons, Smesko has guided FGCU to three 30 plus win seasons while recording a 121-23 (.840) record overall. The now eight-time ASUN Coach of the Year rallied the 2016-17 team to its seventh straight 25-win campaign, culminating in an ASUN tournament title and NCAA Tournament appearance. In 2015-16, he was named the espnW mid-major coach of the year following a run that witnessed the Eagles claim a WNIT runner-up finish and a Division-I program best ever 33-6 record. In 2014-15, the team achieved its first-ever top-25 ranking and made another trip to the NCAA Tournament, where the Eagles earned a No. 7 seed and won the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament game, toppling No. 10 seed Oklahoma State.

Including the 2017-18 campaign, Smesko has guided the Eagles to 14-straight 20-win seasons and eight-straight 25-win seasons. He maintains a record of 505-118 (.811) overall in his career, including a 170-16 (.914) mark in ASUN play. Over the past seven seasons, he has guided FGCU to a 106-4 (.964) 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. Entering 2016-17, he ranked 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. Over the past year, first-year NCAA Division-I head coaches Nancy Fahey (Illinois) and Bart Brooks (Belmont) pushed the list to six.

FOLLOW ALONG
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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 contribute, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help.