{"id":35233,"date":"2015-03-07T18:51:04","date_gmt":"2015-03-07T23:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=35233"},"modified":"2015-03-07T18:51:04","modified_gmt":"2015-03-07T23:51:04","slug":"fgcu-wbb-head-to-semi-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2015\/03\/fgcu-wbb-head-to-semi-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"FGCU WBB Heads to Semi Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"
By BILL LEVY \u00a0 \u00a0(Click Here<\/a> to see other photos)<\/address>\n

\"\"As if defeating the 20th\u00a0ranked Florida Gulf Coast University women\u2019s basketball team is not difficult enough for their Atlantic Sun Conference opponents, as North Florida found it, it is nearly impossible when they are not playing their best. Such was the case as the Eagles defeated the Osprey 74-35 in front of 1,806 at the Alico Arena\u00a0on Friday\u00a0night in front of 1,806 in the quarterfinals of the A-Sun tournament. The win is the 23rd\u00a0in a row for the Eagles (28-2) which is currently is the third best in the nation. Top seeded FGCU will host fourth seeded Jacksonville University, a 55-54 winner over Kennesaw State in their quarterfinal game, on Wednesday night at 7 in the A-Sun semifinals. The eighth seeded Osprey finished their season at 11-19.It was a well balanced scoring attack for the Eagles as they had five players score in double digits: Kaneisha Atwater (12), Whitney Knight (11), Jenna Cobb (12), Stephanie Haas (11) and Anthi Chatzigiakoumi (10). FGCU shot 24 for 53 on the night, including 16 for 33 in 3-pointers (48.5%).<\/p>\n

FGCU wasted little time in getting going as they raced off to an 8-0 start in two three pointers by Knight and her driving layup. After a basket by the Osprey, FGCU went on a 13-0 run, highlighted by 3-pointers from Atwater, Chatzigiakoumi and Cobb, to go up 21-4. Atwater added two free throws in that stretch and Knight had field goal which came on a strong offensive rebound.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was feeling good,\u201d Knight said. \u201cI came out with a lot of energy and was able to knock down some shots.\u201d<\/p>\n

From there, FGCU was able to go into halftime leading 30-15.<\/p>\n

Any chance that North Florida had at a shocking upset was all but eliminated as the second half started with the Eagles going on a, 11-2 run, with Cobb scoring eight points in that stretch to go up 41-17.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started out rocky,\u201d Osprey coach Mary Tappmeyer said. \u201cThey went after our weakest defender.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tappmeyer was also not pleased with her team\u2019s 14 for 55 shooting efforts (25.5%).<\/p>\n

\u201cOur inability to hit shots affected our defensive transition,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While noting that his team has things to work on, Eagles coach Karl Smesko seemed pleased with the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got off to a good start, which is something we haven\u2019t always been able to do,\u201d he said. \u201cIt seemed like several players gave us a nice burst at different times. The game was never really at risk, but there were times we didn\u2019t execute. Those things will be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

That could be bad news for the remaining opponents on the Eagles\u2019 schedule, as Tappmeyer, who is in her 23rd\u00a0year coaching the Eagles, came away impressed by FGCU.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are more athletic than they have been in past years,\u201d she said. Everyone knows about their offense, but Karl doesn\u2019t get enough credit for how good they are defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Eagles players are also very willing participants to continue on in what has been a spectacular season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an exciting time,\u201d Knight said. \u201cIt is the best time of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BILL LEVY \u00a0 \u00a0(Click Here to see other photos) As if defeating the 20th\u00a0ranked Florida Gulf Coast University women\u2019s basketball team is not difficult enough for their Atlantic Sun… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35233"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}