College basketball: FGCU women take down talented, pesky Southeastern in return to Alico

Naples

Finally, after seven straight games away from home, the Florida Gulf Coast University women's basketball team had its second chance to play in Alico Arena late Tuesday afternoon.

The Eagles opened this season with an 85-61 home whipping of Illinois, then played seven road -- granted, four were on at least semi-neutral floors -- games in 11 days.

On Sunday, they tied a program record with 22 3-point makes during their 94-55 win at Abilene Christian.

Tuesday's matchup was against Southeastern University, an NAIA program that came in at 11-0 and with a gaudy average of 88.9 points.

Those kind of NAIA numbers don't usually mean much against talented Division I foes, but Southeastern gave FGCU a real run in the Eagles' 76-66 win in front of a smaller than usual showing of 1,576 in a women's-men's doubleheader.

"Southeastern, they're an exceptional team," FGCU coach Karl Smesko said. "They've got an excellent opportunity to win the national championship in their division. They're not the typical non-D-I team. A lot of their roster is D-I transfers and some of
them high D-I transfers. So this was a really good team that we played."

Smesko wasn't happy with his team's defense as the Eagles gave up 47.3 percent from the field and 52.9 percent from behind the 3-point line. He also said the passing needs to be much crisper.

FGCU (8-2) next plays Kentucky at home on Friday night.

Senior forward Rosemarie Julien, the Preseason Atlantic Sun Player of the Year, led FGCU with 25 points and senior guard Erica Nelson had 18 points and a game-high six assists. Sophomore Tytonia Adderly had a game-high 10 rebounds, seven points and
four steals.

Nelson's first trey try swished as she made a career-high four of them on seven attempts.

"I'd been struggling with confidence on shooting 3s," Nelson said. "When you see the first one go down, obviously it gives you confidence. I was confident in my shot. I just have to be confident in myself."

The big statistic were the 24 turnovers the Eagles forced -- including 11 steals -- and the 21 points they scored off them.

"That was a big part of our game plan," Smesko said. "We needed to force turnovers and get running because they had a significant size advantage on us and their shooters they surround their size with are exceptional. We did force turnovers, but
still too many points to be giving up."

FGCU (8-2) next plays Kentucky at home on Friday night.

Nelson's first trey try swished as she made a career-high four of them on seven attempts.

The big statistic came in the turnover department. The Eagles forced -- including 11 steals -- 24, and the 21 points they scored off them.

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Southeastern (11-1) -- for whom Barron Collier alum Megan Mosbach, a freshman point guard, did not get minutes against the Eagles -- was skilled, loaded with quickness and quite outsized small FGCU. The Fire -- who have five Division I transfers on the
roster -- employed a really active zone and pushed the tempo as hard as did FGCU.

FGCU led just 37-26 at intermission.

The Eagles pushed that lead to 43-28 early in the third period, but Southeastern -- which had a noisy following of about two dozen on hand -- wouldn't wilt. A three-point play by Anissa Toumi cut the FGCU lead to 43-38. The Eagles sent on a 7-0 run to
lead 61-48, but a Halee Printz trey cut the gap to 63-56 with 6:06 left to play.

"When we built the lead, it was something we tried to keep up," Julien said. "Then when it went down, I just wanted to have a smile on my face and encourage my teammates that, 'We can pull through this.'"

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Back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers by Taylor Gradinjan -- who had 11 points and has now joined FGCU's 1,000-point crowd -- and China Dow and Nelson gave the Eagles breathing room at 72-56.

This time, the Eagles didn't let the Fire back up.

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The Eagles were thrilled to again be able to play in Alico Arena and head to their own beds after this.

"It was really nice," Julien said. "The feeling I got tonight was really great because I really missed our fans and the home games, the feeling of encouragement when we run out and the band. It was a great feeling tonight and I feel like that's where all my
energy came from."

FGCU 76, SOUTHEASTERN 66

SOUTHEASTERN (11-1)
Ana Richter 5-16 2-2 12, Karamovic 5-8 0-0 13, Coe 3-6 0-0 9, Printz 4-9 0-0 10, Schmidt 0-0 0-2 0, Jacobs 1-1 2-4 4, Michalska 5-7 0-0 11, Sara Beth Richter 1-1 0-1 2, Toumi 2-7 0-0 0. Totals: 26-55 5-10 66.

FGCU (8-2)
Nelson 7-13 0-0 18, Dow 3-10 0-0 7, Gradinjan 3-10 0-4 11, Julien 8-18 7-7 25, Adderly 3-6 1-3 7, Cattani 0-0 0-0 0, Blair 0-0 0-0 0, Ryan 0-1 0-0 0, Zderadicka 0-0 0-0 0, Dowling 0-0 0-0 0,Uleal 3-5 1-4 8. Totals: 28-63 9-18 76.

Southeastern 9 17 18 22 -- 66
FGCU 18 19 17 22 -- 76

3-Point Goals -- Southeastern 9-17 (Ana Richter 0-1, Karamovic 3-6, Coe 3-4, Printz 2-4, Michalska 1-2); FGCU 11-33 (Nelson 4-7, Dow 1-3, Gradinjan 3-8, Julien 2-10, Adderly 0-1, Chandler 0-1, Ulel 1-3). Rebounds -- Southeastern 38 (Ana Richter, Schmidt 7); FGCU 34 (Adderly 10). Assists -- Southeastern 13 (Jacobs 3); FGCU 18 (Nelson 6). A -- 1,576