FORT MYERS, Fla. – The No. 25 FGCU women's basketball team (25-3 overall, 13-1 ASUN Conference) scored 28 first-quarter points Thursday evening en route to a 78-61 victory over Lipscomb at Alico Arena. 
 
The Eagles have won seven straight games, 17 of their last 18, and are riding a nine-game home winning streak. As the only team with 13 ASUN wins, FGCU remains atop the conference standings – a full game ahead of Liberty (18-7, 12-2). The Green & Blue was the first team to clinch an ASUN Tournament berth, and will host all its ASUN Tournament games if it wins the regular season's final four contests.

The victory also clinched FGCU's 13th straight 25-win season -- the only active team in the nation to do so. FGCU has also recorded 19 straight 20-win seasons dating back to 2004-05.
 
The Bisons fell to 17-19 overall and 11-3 in the ASUN – two games behind FGCU in the conference.
 
Graduate guard Sha Carter (Southfield. Mich./Wylie E. Groves HS/Walsh) scored a game-high 30 points – one off her career high – and pulled down a team-high eight rebounds along with dishing two assists and grabbing two steals.
 
Graduate guard Tishara Morehouse (Milwaukee, Wis./Rufus King HS/Nebraska CC) delivered 18 points, six assists, and grabbed five rebounds. Junior guard Alyza Winston (Muskegon, Mich./Muskegon HS/Mississippi State) went for 11 points, grabbed five rebounds and nicked two steals.
 
"We came out and played great in the first quarter," said FGCU head women's basketball coach Karl Smesko. "Really competed and fortunately we got a good lead, they kept coming at us, but when we really needed a basket somebody would come through – whether it was Sha or TK."
 
The Green & Blue jumped out hot, leaping to a 28-8 first-quarter lead that included seven of FGCU's 18 treys. Graduate guard Emma List (Colorado Springs, Colo./Discovery Canyon Campus/Albany) made three triples in the period.
 
The Bisons responded in the second quarter with a 16-6 run to close the gap to 34-24, but the Eagles closed with an 8-2 flurry for a 42-26 halftime advantage.
 
FGCU started the third quarter with a 16-10 burst to make it 58-36 with 3:19 to go en route to a 63-45 lead heading into the final 10 minutes. Lipscomb outscored FGCU 16-15 in the fourth quarter, but the Eagles' sizeable lead was more than enough to earn the victory.
 
Smesko played eight players, with each earning at least 10 minutes of playing time and scoring at least four points. Senior guard Jalyn Holcomb led the Bisons with 16 points, and redshirt sophomore forward Aleah Sorrentino grabbed a game-high nine rebounds. 
 
The Eagles remain at Alico Arena for their final home regular-season matchup, taking on Austin Peay (15-9, 10-4) at 3 p.m. Saturday. It will be Senior Day at The Nest, as well as Military Appreciation Day.
 
The Green & Blue have now hit 338-3-pointers, for an average of 12.1 treys per game – the highest total and per-game average in the country. The Eagles are 2.2 treys per game ahead of Tulsa and Wright State. FGCU has almost tripled their opponents' treys total, allowing only 115 this season. The Eagles have led the nation in made threes per game the past three years and in four of the last five seasons -- with an NCAA single-season record total 431 in 2017-18.   
 
FGCU is third in the country with a scoring margin of 21.7 points per game – with only South Carolina (33.5) and LSU (30.1) sporting higher scoring margins. The Eagles are currently eighth in the nation in assist/turnover ratio with 1.39.
 
Entering this season, the Eagles were selected by both the coaches and the media to repeat as ASUN champions. FGCU is currently ranked No. 3 in the Collegeinsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll. The Eagles finished with a program-best-ever No. 20 ranking in 2021-22 and have four Top 25 finishes in the past five seasons. Further, only the Green & Blue and defending national champion South Carolina have won at least 30 games in five of the last eight campaigns.     
   
For complete coverage of FGCU women's basketball, follow the Eagles on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @FGCU_WBB and online at www.FGCUAthletics.com. You can also sign up to have news on FGCU women's basketball and other programs delivered directly to your inbox by visiting www.fgcuathletics.com/email. 


INDIVIDUAL TICKETS, MINI PLANS AVAILABLE  
Tickets for the 2022-23 FGCU Basketball season are on sale now and can be purchased by going online to www.FGCUTickets.com or calling 866-FGCU-TIX. Group tickets can also be purchased for 10 or more people – making a memorable evening for families, businesses, or other organizations.  
 
COACH SMESKO   
FGCU head coach Karl Smesko maintains a record of 635-131 (.829) overall in his career, the third-highest winning percentage among active Division I coaches behind only UConn's Geno Auriemma and LSU's Kim Mulkey. He has also led the Eagles to a 244-19 (.927) mark in ASUN regular-season play and a 30-2 (.938) record in ASUN tournament play. Over the previous 10-plus seasons, he has guided FGCU to a 170-6 (.965) record in conference play with six undefeated seasons. The 12-time ASUN Coach of the Year has led the program to 12-straight 25-win seasons and 18 consecutive 20-win campaigns, including 30-plus wins in five of the last eight years. On top of all that, the Eagles are 574-104 (.847) all-time since Smesko started the program in the 2002-03 season, and the Green & Blue's .846 all-time winning percentage is the best in NCAA Division I women's basketball history. 
 
E.A.G.L.E. CAMPAIGN
IT TAKES A TEAM to achieve our newest goal - a $10 million campaign to address student-athlete needs in continued academic success, life skills, mental health, nutrition, and strength and conditioning as well as departmental needs in facility expansion and improvement as well as mentoring and leadership training for coaches and staff. The name embodies our mission and the purpose of the E.A.G.L.E. Campaign - Eagle Athletics Generating Lifetime Excellence. Join Our Team and pledge your gift today to help the Eagles of tomorrow!  
 
#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (https://www.fgcu.edu/adminservices/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 https://www.fgcu.edu/adminservices/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.  
 
ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 94 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 15-plus seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just 11-plus seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 47 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. In 2022, the men's golf team became the first program to earn an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. Eight FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport - including women's basketball (No. 20, 2021-22 and No. 25 in 2022-23) beach volleyball (No. 20, 2022) and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as four of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green & Blue posted a department-best sixth-place finish in the DI-AAA Learfield Directors' Cup and top-100 showing nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS institutions. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and state of Florida best seven teams earn the NCAA's Public Recognition Award for their Academic Progress Rate in their sport. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.66 GPA in the classroom in the fall 2022 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 27 consecutive semesters. The past seven semesters (Fall 2019 – Fall 2022) saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher cumulative team GPA. The Eagles also served an all-time high 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 - being recognized as one of two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.
 
---FGCUATHLETICS.COM---