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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The No. 24 FGCU women's basketball team (29-3 overall, 17-1 ASUN Conference) captured its 13^th ASUN Conference regular season championship in grand style Wednesday, defeating Lipscomb 101-59 at Allen Arena.
 
The Eagles added the 2022-23 ASUN crown – its sixth straight – with regular-season titles from the 2008-09, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons.
 
FGCU had already clinched the No. 1 seed in the upcoming ASUN Tournament, and will host its tournament games at Alico Arena. The ASUN Tournament begins Saturday with the first-round game featuring ninth-seeded Stetson vs. 10^th-seeded Jacksonville at 3 p.m. at Alico Arena. The Green & Blue await the winner of that game in Sunday's 5 p.m. quarterfinal in The Nest. No. 4 Austin Peay and No. 5 Eastern Kentucky are the other two teams in FGCU's half of the bracket, and play in the 3 p.m. Sunday quarterfinals at Austin Peay.
 
Second-seeded Liberty hosts the bottom half of the draw at Liberty Arena in in Lynchburg, Va. Tickets for the ASUN Tournament are on sale now at www.FGCUTickets.com, and at the Alico Arena ticket office. All games in the ASUN Tournament will be available to view on ESPN+.
 
The Eagles have won 11 straight games and 21 of their last 22. FGCU joins Connecticut as the only active programs in the nation to win at least 25 games in 13 straight seasons. FGCU has also recorded 19 straight 20-win seasons dating back to 2004-05.
 
Wednesday's victory was the third time this year that the Green & Blue surpassed the 100-point barrier. The Eagles are 27-0 all-time when scoring 100+ points, and have now defeated Lipscomb (19-11, 13-5) 34 straight times. The Bisons are the No. 3 seed in the ASUN Tournament, and play North Alabama at 6 p.m. Sunday in the quarterfinals at Liberty
 
Fifth year guard Tishara Morehouse (Milwaukee, Wis./Rufus King HS/Nebraska CC) eclipsed the 1,500-point career milestone against the Bisons, doing so in the final two minutes of the third quarter as via two free throws. Morehouse scored the exact 18 points she needed to reach the milestone, while chipping in a game-high eight assists and two steals.
 
Junior guard Alyza Winston (Muskegon, Mich./Muskegon HS/Mississippi State) led the Eagles with 21 points, four rebounds, three steals and two assists. Senior forward Uju Ezeudu (Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg HS/Denver) delivered 16 points, three rebounds and two blocks.

"We got off to a slow start, but we picked up the intensity the second quarter.," said FGCU head women's basketball coach Karl Smesko. "Alyza and TK played great.  Uju and Kae each gave us a big lift."
 
The Bisons jumped on top early with a 16-5 burst, and while the Eagles rattled off a 15-9 flurry they still trailed 25-20 after the first quarter.
 
A 14-4 burst to start the second quarter, with eight points coming from Ezeudu, allowed FGCU to take a 34-29 lead. The Eagles then went on a quarter-ending, 15-6 run to take a 49-35 lead into halftime.
 
The Green & Blue came out firing in the third quarter, as Winston hit back-to-back triples in a 13-0 run to stretch its lead to 62-35. The offensive barrage continued, with the Eagles unleashing a 12-6 flurry to head into the final quarter leading 74-41.
 
Redshirt junior guard Brylee Bartram (Tampa, Fla/ Seffner Christian Academy/ Florida/ Vanderbilt) secured a trey that ignited a 10-0 run and the Eagles never looked back – breaking the 100-point barrier to seal the final regular-season game with a win.
 
Smesko played all 12 available players, with 11 players scoring at least two points. Senior guard Blythe Pearson led Lipscomb with 18 points, and sophomore guard Claria McGowan grabbed six rebounds.
 
The Green & Blue have now hit 383-3-pointers, for an average of 11.9 treys per game – the highest total and per-game average in the country. The Eagles are 1.8 treys per game ahead of Wright State and Tulsa. FGCU has tripled their opponents' treys total, allowing only 128 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 21.8 points per game – with only South Carolina (31.0) and LSU (27.7) sporting higher scoring margins. The Eagles are currently seventh in the nation in assist/turnover ratio with 1.44.
 
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. 


COACH SMESKO   
FGCU head coach Karl Smesko maintains a record of 639-131 (.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 249-19 (.929) mark in ASUN regular-season play and a 30-2 (.938) record in ASUN tournament play. Over the previous 11-plus seasons, he has guided FGCU to a 185-7 (.963) 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 578-104 (.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.
 
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