Thursday, February 04, 2010

FORT MYERS, Fla. – In the worst A-Sun loss of ETSU women’s basketball history the FGCU women’s basketball team grabbed a one-and-a-half game lead in the conference, with a 92-65 victory over East Tennessee State on Thursday night in front of 1,346 fans at Alico Arena.

The FGCU women set a new school record scoring a 62.5-percent field-goal percentage, surpassing the previous school record of 61.4-percent set at Puerto Rico - Cayey on February 2, 2007.

With the win the Eagles improve to 18-4 overall and 13-1 in the A-Sun, while the Lady Bucs drop to 13-8 overall and 11-2 in conference play. The Blue and Green also extended their home winning streak to 21 games, tied for the fifth-longest active streak in Division I.

After Siarre Evans scored the first two points of the contest the Eagles went on a 13-2 run, taking a 13-4 lead and prompting ETSU head coach Karen Kemp to call her first timeout just 6:05 into the game. Brittany Brown (Flint, Mich.) buried a pair of threes and hit two free throws during the run.

Kelsey Jacobson (Barnesville, Minn.) drilled one her four treys with 11:17 to play in the half, giving FGCU a 22-8 lead which forced yet another ETSU timeout. A layup by Courtney Chihil (Tipp City, Ohio) extended the lead to 31-12 and brought the crowd to its feet, again prompting the Lady Bucs to call their third timeout with 7:11 left in the first.

The Blue and Green ended the half on a 10-4 run, capped by a Shannon Murphy (Brighton, Mich.) three-pointer with 8 seconds left, giving the Eagles a 54-27 lead at the halftime break.

The 54 points at halftime were the most points that FGCU has scored in the first half of a game since moving to Division I in 2007. The previous high was 53 points against USC Upstate on Feb. 5, 2009.

Everything the Eagles touched in the first half was golden. The FGCU women shot a blistering 71.4-percent (20-of-28), including 7-of-12 (58.3-percent) from behind the arc. The Blue and Green also went 100-percent (7-of-7) from the free throw line and accumulated 17 assists. ETSU shot 38-percent (12-of-32) from the field and made just 1-of-7 (14-percent) from three-point land.