The FGCU women’s basketball team (25-4, 11-1 A-SUN) rolled to an 88-52 win over Lipscomb (10-17, 6-6 A-SUN) in Alico Arena on Senior Night. With the win, the Eagles are not only 22-0 against the Lady Bison, but are now only one win away from clinching home court throughout the A-SUN Championship.
Prior to the game, the five senior players Jessica Cattani, Erica Nelson, China Dow, Taylor Grandijan and Rose Julien, as well as student manager Dan Hansen were recognized as part of their senior day. The lineup was also changed as all five seniors were in the starting lineup.
In the first quarter, the Eagles got off to a hot start after three straight three-pointers out of four total from Cattani. Julien would follow with back-to-back threes of her own and finished with three in the first, including a buzzer beater as the quarter ended.
“It was a fast paced game, a lot of scoring in the first quarter,” FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said. “I think we gave up five 3-pointers in the first quarter. Fortunately, we were shooting the ball well, too. Then, I thought our defense after the first quarter got a lot better. We had fewer miscommunications, so we didn’t give up quite as many 3-pointers. We played with good discipline.”
From there until the end of the game, the Lady Bison would have no chance to catch up.
Cattani would finish with a team-leading 20 points and eight rebounds.
Grandijan, who is now the all-time leader in games played (142), finished with 12 points all from the 3-point line. Grandijan’s 12 points put her at 1,175 career points where she is now 11 points away from passing Shannon Murphy (1,185) for sixth all-time. Grandijan (284) is also 11 away from passing Whitney Knight (294) for second all-time in career 3-pointers.
Off the bench, sophomore Tytionia Adderly finished with five points and 14 rebounds, five of which were on the offensive end. Adderly now has 210 career offensive rebounds and is 27 away from passing Robyn Swain (236) for third all-time, and eight rebounds away (501) from passing Kaneisha Atwater (508) for sixth all-time.
Up next, the Eagles return to action as they play Kennesaw at home on Feb. 19 at 7 P.M. for their last home game.