#25 Women’s Basketball Cap San Juan penalty shootout with victory over Saint Louis

San Juan, Puerto Rico – Behind 16 points and 9 rebounds from fellows Kerstie Phills (Charlotte, NC/Charlotte Christian/Wagner), the FGCU 25th women’s basketball team took their second win in two days in Puerto Rico, beating Saint Louis, 73-65.

The Eagles remained undefeated for the season with a 6-0 scoreline while the Billikens fell 1-5.

“We still have a lot of room to grow, but it’s great to get two wins this weekend,” said the head coach. Karl Smesko. “Kerstie Phills and List of Emma both stepped up and had excellent matches today. “

Phills shot 6 to 10 from the field, including 3 to 5 from downtown to lead Green and Blue with 16 points. Small Kierstan Bells (Alliance, Ohio/Canton McKinley/Ohio State), the nation’s top scorer, faced trouble early on but still scored 14 points and collected seven rebounds. Graduted student Kendall Spray (Mt. Juliet, Tenn./Wilson Central / UT Martin / Clemson) and redshirt-senior List of Emma (Colorado Springs, Colo./Discovery Canyon Campus / Albany) each team won nine points. The list also gives the six highest support games.

In the first inning, Bell fouled twice in the first four minutes forcing her out of the game, but the Eagles responded with a 6-0 run to take a 12-5 lead. The Billikens were back in the fourth round with a 14-10 score, but the Eagles’ 7-2 win to close the half gave them a 21-12 lead after 10 minutes.

FGCU extended their lead to 37-29 at halftime after the second quarter saw Lists and graduates Karli Seay (Flossmoor, Ill./Homewood-Flossmoor/LSU/Western Nebraska CC) each scored five points, including a three-pointer each.

Out of the locker room, the Eagles continued their 10-0 run to extend their lead to 19 with 6:30 left in the third inning.

Entering the final stages, the Eagles led 15 and extended the lead to 17 with a score of 73-58. Saint Louis’ belated 9-0 brought the final result a little closer, but it was too late for the Billikens.

Both teams shot from distance 43% while the Eagles shot 11 to 34 from three and drew Saint Louis with just 4/10 from behind the arc. Another advantage for FGCU was their bench as they overcame the SLU bench 25-11.

The Eagles return to action on Wednesday when they return to Alico Arena to host Princeton. The match against the Tiger is set at 7pm

For full coverage of the women’s basketball program, follow the Eagles on Twitter and Instagram at @FGCU_WBB, on Facebook at /fgcuwbb and online at www.FGCUathletics.com. You can also sign up to receive news about FGCU women’s basketball or other programs delivered directly to your inbox by visiting www.fgcuathletics.com/email.

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COACH SMESKO
Head Coach FGCU Karl Smesko maintains a 586-125 (0.824) overall record of his career, which is the third-highest win rate among active Division I coaches, behind only UConn’s Geno Auriemma and Kim Mulkey’s Baylor. He also led the Eagles with a 217-17 (.927) record in the ASUN regular game and a 27-2 (.931) record in the ASUN league game. Over the past 10 seasons, he has led FGCU to a record 153-5 (.968) in the conference game with six seasons unbeaten. 11-time ASUN Coach of the Year Award-winning coach led the show to 11 consecutive 25-time seasons and 20-time winning campaign, including more than 30 wins in four of seven past year. On top of that, the Eagles are 525-98 (.843) all-time since Smesko started the program in the 2002-03 season, and the Green and Blue’s .824 all-time win rate is the highest in the NCAA Division I calendar history of women’s basketball.

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ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an astounding 85 league and regular league championships in just over 13 seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just nine seasons of post-season DI qualifying , the Eagles have had a total of 42 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. Eight FGCU programs have earned the top 25 national rankings in their respective sports – including women’s basketball (21st, 2020-21), beach volleyball (20th, 2021) and both men’s soccer (2018, 2019) and women’s soccer (2018) are three of the most recent. In 2016-17, Green and Blue finished in the series’ best sixth place in the DI-AAA Learfield Director’s Cup and the top 100 was screened nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS organizations. In 2018-19, the Eagles had one ASUN and seven of Florida’s best teams winning the NCAA’s Recognition Award for Academic Progress Rate in their sport. FGCU also achieved a record GPA of 3.50 in the classroom during the fall 2020 semester and has outperformed the overall undergraduate population for 23 consecutive semesters. Each of the Fall 2019, Spring 2020 and Fall 2020 semesters saw another major milestone achieved as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0 or higher cluster GPA. The Eagles also served an all-time high 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 – recognized as one of two runners-up for the first ever NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.

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