After the fire of a potentially historic season was extinguished in the first round of the NCAA tournament by an even hotter Michigan Wolverines team, fans, coaches, and players have been anticipating this new season. Typically, when a college basketball team suffers heartbreak to close out their season, only a few major players return the following year. In FGCU’s case, they return their top 8 scorers from a year ago, meaning most of the team still has that bad taste in their mouth. On Tuesday November 9th Coach Smesko and the Women’s Basketball team begin their revenge tour with an opening night bout versus Florida Memorial. Below we will break down the matchup.

Florida Memorial

The Lions come to Alico having played in 3 games and holding on 0-3 record on the season. The roster has a solid balance of seniority, featuring 7 upperclassmen (3 juniors, 3 seniors, and a grad student). Additionally, FMU possesses rare size in a couple of 6’3″ freshmen. These teams have squared off 13 times before now, with FGCU holding a 13-0 record against them.

FGCU

It is widely noted just how deep with talent this FGCU women’s program is this year, even by its own standards. The common theme among players we talked to is accepting your role and performing it to the best of your ability, thus helping the team complete its goals. The revenge tour starts now and the first stop is in Alico versus FMU.

Starting 5

• G – TK Morehouse
• G – Kierstan Bell
• G – Emma List
• G – Aaliyah Stanley
• G/F – Kerstie Phills

With so much talent, it’s immensely difficult to project a starting 5, but barring health, you’d expect at least Morehouse, Bell, and List to be in the starting 5. Our thoughts are that Aaliyah Stanley’s experience in the system will earn her starts and Kerstie Phills’ return to the team will also mean a return to the starting lineup.

Outlook and Prediction

FGCU should absolutely dominate this game and that is what we should expect from them. I expect starters to play early, build up a nice cushion, and then for the younger players to get a chance to build that lead even further.

Join Us!

Join us tonight at Alico Arena for the FGCU Women’s and Men’s games. Women take the court at 5PM, followed by the men at 7:30!