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FORT MYERS, Fla. – Nothing is sweeter than basketball nets freshly removed from their rims. Just ask the 23^rd-ranked FGCU women's basketball team.

The Eagles (32-3) renewed what is almost a yearly habit once again Saturday night, cutting down the Alico Arena nets in front of a raucous home crowd to celebrate defeating Liberty 84-60 and capturing the ASUN Women's Basketball Tournament championship for a record 10^th time.
 
The victory clinched an automatic berth into next week's 2023 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament – the annual Big Dance that FGCU waltzes into for the ninth time in program history. The NCAA will make it official during the annual NCAA Tournament Selection Show on Sunday night. FGCU is hosting a free watch party for the event starting at 7:30 p.m. at Alico Arena, where it will learn both its first-weekend destination and its first-round opponent.
 
All the NCAA Tournament games will be broadcast on the ESPN family of networks. The games officially tip off March 15-16 with the First Four. The first round will be March 17-18, and there is no time to rest – as the second round starts right afterward on March 19-20.
 
FGCU is an NCAA Tournament participant for a ninth time – with the current team joining squads from the 2021-22, 2020-21, 2018-19, 2017-18, 2016-17, 2014-15, 2013-14, and 2011-12 seasons.
 
Four Eagles scored in double figures in Saturday's victory, led by fifth-year guard Tishara Morehouse (Milwaukee, Wis./Rufus King HS/Nebraska CC) – the ASUN Player of the Year who dropped 20 points and six assists. Graduate guard Emma List (Colorado Springs, Colo./Discovery Canyon Campus/Albany) scored a season-high 16 points, doled out seven assists and nicked a season-high five steals. Graduate guard Sha Carter (Southfield, Mich./Wylie E. Groves HS/Walsh), the ASUN Scholar-Athlete of the Year and First-Team All-ASUN pick, went for 15 points and six rebounds. And redshirt sophomore guard/forward Maddie Antenucci (Cincinnati, Ohio/Indian Hill HS) delivered a season-high 14 points and a game-high eight rebounds.
 
Morehouse, List, and Carter were named to the ASUN Conference All-Tournament Team, with Morehouse earning MVP honors.

The Eagles vanquished a Liberty (24-8) team that was riding a 16-game winning streak into Saturday night's ASUN title game – that can informally be called the Karl Smesko Invitational. The Green & Blue connected on 14-of-28 3-point attempts, giving them an incredible 413 this season. That total is 90 triples ahead of Wright State in 2022-23, and if the Eagles didn't play another game this season it would still rank fourth in NCAA history – just 17 3s behind their own all-time record of 431 in 2017-18.
 
"We had so many great performances today, and everybody contributed. And we get to go dancing!" said FGCU head women's basketball coach Karl Smesko. "I do love this team. They have been a joy to coach all year, they work really hard and get along, and they're just great people. They have made this year really something special for me.
 
"Whomever we play, we have to be ready. We usually don't get the respect from the NCAA Selection Committee that we deserve. We are a Top 25-level team, and that's the quality we have. Selection Sunday is one of the favorite times of the year for me, where you find out where you play and all the coaches work all night to start coming up with a game plan. It is a real highlight for me."
 
FGCU has won 14 straight games, and finished the 2022-23 home season with a 16-1 mark at Alico Arena. The Green & Blue is now 56-7 all-time as a ranked team, 33-2 in ASUN tournament play – with six straight ASUN Tournament titles – and is 47-16 all-time in Division I postseason play. The 2022-23 squad entered Saturday's game against Liberty at No. 38 in the NCAA Women's Basketball NET Rankings.
 
Playing without graduate guard Sophia Stiles (Malta, Mont./Malta HS/Montana), who was injured in the ASUN Tournament semifinals against Austin Peay, FGCU relied on its deep bench to vanquish Liberty. Redshirt junior forward Uju Ezeudu (Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg HS/Denver) earned just her second start of the season and scored nine points on 4-for-4 shooting from the field.
 
Stiles' absence also delivered more playing time for both Antenucci and redshirt junior guard Brylee Bartram (Tampa, Fla./Seffner Christian Academy/Florida/Vanderbilt), the latter of whom was also perfect from the floor – making all three of her shot attempts and scoring eight points.
 
FGCU's suffocating defense, which was on full display against Stetson and Austin Peay during the first two games of the ASUN Tournament, totaled eight steals and limited Liberty to just 12 points in a second quarter that saw the Eagles expand a one-point lead after the first 10 minutes to a 10-point lead at halftime.

"Liberty is loaded with great players, and it took a tremendous effort on the defensive end to try and limit the quality of their shots," Smesko said. "We forced some turnovers that led to transition points for a little bit of a lead, then hit 3s in transition that really separated things."
 
The Green & Blue kept pouring on the offense against an increasingly frustrated Flames defense, opening up a 22-point lead midway through the third quarter and getting as much as a 27-point margin down the stretch in the fourth.
 
FGCU and Connecticut are the only active programs in the nation to win at least 25 games in 13 straight seasons. The Green & Blue joins South Carolina as the only two Division I programs to win 30 or more games in six of the last nine seasons.
 
The Eagles have tripled their opponents' treys total, allowing only 132 this season. FGCU has led the nation in made 3s per game in each of the past three years and in four of the last five seasons.
 
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.
 
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 642-131 (.831) 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 33-2 (.943) 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 13-time ASUN Coach of the Year has led the program to 13 straight 25-win seasons and 19 consecutive 20-win campaigns, including 30-plus wins in six of the last nine years. On top of all that, the Eagles are 581-104 (.848) all-time since Smesko started the program in the 2002-03 season, and the Green & Blue's .848 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 96 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 48 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. Nine FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport - including women's basketball (No. 20, 2021-22 and No. 23 in 2022-23), baseball (No. 24 in 2023), 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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