Bell leads the 25th Eagle on Tennessee Tech in San Juan

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Despite a rare night of long-range shots from outside, the FGCU women’s basketball team (6-0) escaped the first day of the San Juan shootout with an 81-69 win over Tennessee Tech (2-3). after the season’s highest achievement 39 points from the base Kierstan Bells.

The eagle only shoots 2-10 from outside the arc, but bell (Alliance, Ohio / Canton McKinley / Ohio State) came on 17 for 31 and rose to success when it mattered most, scoring 24 points in the second half.

“Tonight was a tough win,” said the head coach Karl Smesko. “Kierstan [Bell] and Tishara [Morehouse] had excellent games and Seneca [Hackley] got us up and running with six points and a couple of assists from the bench. “

High level Tishara Morehouse (Milwaukee, Wis./Rufus King / Western Nebraska CC) was the only other Eagle with a double score, winning 14. She and Bell each created the highest five assists in the game while Bell dropped the team’s highest six rebounds.

The Eagles took the lead 21-12 after the first half, but the Golden Eagles cut FGCU’s lead to just five with a score of 36-31 after 20 minutes of play.

In the third period, Bell scored 17 points to extend the lead of Green and Blue back to 11 to enter the final stanza.

Tennessee Tech responded to open Wednesday as they cut the deficit to five with less than six minutes into the game. However, three consecutive layoffs by Morehouse, Bell, and Seneca Hackley (Colorado Springs, Colo./Saint Mary’s) pushed Eagle back into the lead to 11 at 70-59 with the remaining score at 4:29, which proved to be enough ground to secure a win.

The Eagles went into the night leading the nation on three points, trying and performing but used a different tactic tonight when they overcame the Golden Eagles 58-20 in the game. The 10 three-point attempts are the fewest FGCUs made in a game since 2014 against Wichita State when they took just nine points and the two they’ve done is the least since they made two against Belmont in 2014. 2012.

Overall, the Eagles shoot 54.8% away while holding Tennessee Tech to 49% and 30.8% from distance.

FGCU will continue to be unbeaten when they wrap up in a penalty shootout in San Juan tomorrow afternoon against Saint Louis. Tipping is scheduled for 4:45pm from Mario Morales Arena.

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.

EAGLE CAMPAIGN
IT HAS A TEAM to achieve our latest goal – a $10 million campaign to address student-athletes needs for continued academic success, life skills, mental health , nutrition, strength and conditioning as well as the needs of the divisions in expanding and improving facilities as well as mentoring and leadership training for coaches and staff. The name embodies our mission and purpose of the EAGLE Campaign – Eagle Athletes Create Lifetime Excellence. Join our group and Pledge your gift today to help the Eagles of Tomorrow!

SUPPORT THE WOMEN’S BABY BABY PROGRAM
Do you enjoy watching or following the FGCU women’s basketball program? Would you like to play a part in the development of the show and help take it to unprecedented heights? If so, you can contact our Director of Progress, Matt Ring, about opportunities to make an impact on our student-athlete experience. He can be reached by email at mring@fgcu.edu or by phone at the office at 239-745-4434.

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.

#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), organizations from selected by FGCU Athletics. For more information, including how to contribute, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and use the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.

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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