By BILL LEVY
For the Gulf Cost University women’s basketball team, their win streak has reached 12 games by virtue of a convincing 79-61 victory over USC Upstate in front of 1,426 at the Alico Center on Thursday night. With the win, the Eagles improved to 17-2 overall and 4-0 in the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Eagles have not lost since December 29th, when the fell to Ohio State 90-83 in double overtime. The win on Wednesday also marks the fifth straight season FGCU has gotten off to a 4-0 start to begin conference play.
FGCU broke an 11-11 tie on Wednesday by going on a commanding 23-6 run to take a 34-17 lead with approximately five minutes left in the first half. Though the Spartans (9-10, 1-3) then went on a 6-3 run of their own to narrow the lead to 37-23, FGCU closed out the half by outscoring Upstate 6-3 to go into halftime leading 43-26.
Katie Meador, who finished with career high 14 points on the night, had ten in the first half.
“I was feeling good,” she said. “It was a long day, and it felt great to come out and play.”
FGCU then started the second by outscoring Upstate 24-9 to take full control of the game with a 67-35 advantage and under ten minutes left to play.
“I thought we played pretty well in the first half,” Eagles coach Karl Smesko said. “They did a good job defensively and I thought we executed offensively. We didn’t shoot great from 3-point range (6-19; 31.6% for the night) but we picked back up some points in transition. We take what the defense gives.”
Whitney Knight led all Eagles’ scorers with 17 points. DyTiesha Dunson had 11 while Gradinjan Taylor had nine. Kaneisha Atwater and Jenna Cobb each added eight for FGCU.
Upstate’s Raven Jefferson led all scorers with 20.
“On different days, we have different players having really good nights,” Smesko said. “We are getting good production from the bench.”
Though the Eagles are on a good roll, Smesko seems more focused on the next game, then celebrating what his team has already accomplished.
“When there is a next game, you really can’t reflect,” he said. “We will watch this game. We will learn from it. We will see some things we did well. We will see some things that we need to work on. If we don’t play well, any team in this league can beat us.”
The Eagles are slated to out their 12-game winning streak on the line on Saturday as they host Kennesaw State at 7 p.m.