FORT MYERS, Fla. – Top-seeded Florida Gulf Coast University women's basketball is set to face No. 3 Central Arkansas in the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament championship game Saturday at Alico Arena.
The championship is slated to tip off at 7 p.m. on ESPN+. For tickets, visit https://fgcuathletics.evenue.net/events/WB or the Alico Arena Ticket Office.
FGCU outlasted No. 9 Jacksonville in the quarterfinals, and then took care of business Tuesday in the semifinals against No. 7 Austin Peay, advancing to Saturday's championship for the 13th consecutive year.
FGCU has advanced to the tournament championship every season since earning postseason eligibility in 2011-12. The championship-minded Eagles aim to punch their ticket back to the Big Dance for the seventh consecutive year, 10th all-time in the program's young history. The Green and Blue is 35-2 all-time in the ASUN Tournament with its last loss coming as far back as 2016 in the championship game.
The latest ESPN Bracketology has the Eagles, winners of 21 straight, emerging as the ASUN's automatic qualifier, earning another No. 12 seed to face fifth-seeded Syracuse in Bloomington, Indiana. Just a season ago, FGCU upset fifth-seeded Washington State in the NCAA First Round to become the winningest 12th seed in NCAA Tournament history.
Central Arkansas took down both No. 6 North Alabama and No. 5 Eastern Kentucky for its championship date with the Eagles.
FGCU defeated Central Arkansas 65-43 earlier this season in Fort Myers. Four Eagles reached double figures in the win as Uju Ezeudu produced a game-high 16 points and 13 boards. Jade Upshaw led all UCA scorers with 14 points.
The Eagles are 3-0 all-time when facing the Bears, and Saturday will mark first time the two programs have met in the ASUN Tournament.
NOTES:
- Head coach Karl Smesko has built and engineered the program's historic ascension within the women's college basketball world with its #Raining3s attack, leading the nation in made threes per game the last four seasons. FGCU holds the NCAA record for the most made threes in a single season, sinking 431 during the 2017-18 campaign. This season, the Eagles are third nationally in 3-point attempts per game, averaging 29.7 attempts per game. Of those attempts, FGCU is knocking down 9.3 threes per contest, ranking eighth in the nation.
- The Eagles have soared up to No. 2 overall in the latest CollegeInsider.com's Mid Major Top 25 Poll for the third consecutive week and have received votes in the Associated Press Poll twice this season after knocking off No. 18 North Carolina in the Gulf Coast Showcase - the seventh Top 25 win in the program's history. FGCU has not dropped no lower than No. 6 this season. The Green and Blue has finished in the AP Top 25 in five out of the last six seasons. During the last four campaigns, FGCU is the only mid-major program with four straight AP Top 25 finishes.
- FGCU, South Carolina, Stanford and UConn are the only four Division I programs to record 30 or more wins in three of the last five seasons. Only FGCU and UConn have won at least 25 games for 14 consecutive seasons. The Eagles went 33-4 a season ago, winning their 13th ASUN regular season title and ninth ASUN Tournament Championship, along with capturing their fourth-ever NCAA Tournament First Round victory over fifth-seeded Washington State. FGCU is the winningest 12th seed in NCAA Tournament history.
- With an all-time win percentage of .845, the Green and Blue entered into the 2023-24 season as the winningest program in the history of women's college basketball. FGCU has won 21 straight games, having not yet tasted defeat in 2024. The streaks do not stop there. Eagles have won 31 straight at home and 40 straight games against current ASUN members, the longest active conference win streak in the nation.
- Smesko's career win percentage of .831 (671-136) has him positioned as the third-winningest active Division I head coach, just behind UConn's Geno Auriemma and LSU's Kim Mulkey. In 2021, FGCU shocked the LSU Tigers in Baton Rouge 88-74. Smesko was named to Her Hoops Stats' 2024 preseason watch list for the Kathy Delaney-Smith Mid-Major Coach of the Year Award. Smekso has produced 20 straight 20-win seasons with the Green and Blue dating back to 2004-05, and reached win No. 600 at FGCU this year with a win over Bellarmine.
- Redshirt junior Emani Jefferson was named a semifinalist for the 2024 Becky Hammon Mid Major Player of the Year Award. Kierstan Bell won the honor in 2021 and 2022. FGCU is the only program with three players named semifinalists in the award's short four-year history, as Jefferson now joins Bell and Keri Jewett-Giles.
- Jefferson won the ASUN's postseason triple crown, winning the Player, Defensive and Newcomer of the Year Award. Jefferson is the only player in the program's history to win all three awards in the same season. Uju Ezeudu earned ASUN First Team recognition, and Maddie Antenucci landed on the ASUN All-Academic Team.
