Fort Myers, FL––The UC Riverside Women's Basketball Team concludes the 2016 Hilton Garden Inn FGCU Classic on Friday, when they take on host Florida Gulf Coast at 4 pm PT inside Alico Arena.
UC Riverside picked up a, 51-48, victory in the opening game of the tournament to give Head Coach John Margaritis his 300th career victory.
The Highlanders shook off a cold shooting first half (6-26) that saw them score a season-low 14 points. They bounced back in the third period to shoot 57.1 percent from the field in outscoring Samford 24-21 en route to the three point win.
Réjane Vérin nearly logged her third double-double of the season with team highs of 19 points and nine rebounds. She leads the team in points (17.1), rebounds (7.8), assists (4.0), and blocks (1.2) per game. Her scoring and rebounding averages both rank third in the conference.
Lauren Holt also scored in double figures with 10 points to go along with six boards. She is averaging 13.9 points over her last five games. Simone DeCoud, who has battled illness since Wednesday, grabbed five rebounds and dished out five assists, while scoring four points in 31 minutes.
Florida Gulf Coast boasts a 7-0 record at home inside the Alico Arena this season, where they have won 19 straight regular season games dating back to last season. The Eagles lost in the Championship game of the 2016 WNIT at South Dakota, who UCR played at home on November 25 (L, 61-55).
FGCU was victorious in the second game of the classic, knocking off Hampton 60-49. They were fueled by a fourth quarter rally led by junior guard China Dow, who had nine of her game-high 14 points in the final three and a half minutes. They also got 11 points from Taylor Gradinjan in the win.
As a team, they shot 7-19 from three, and forced Hampton into 16 turnovers. The Eagles however, had just nine assists to 12 turnovers in the game.
Gradinjan holds the team lead with 32 made triples, scores 9.1 points a game, and takes 77 percent (94-123) of her shots from deep.
FGCU takes nearly half of their shot attempts from three-point range (458-926), and have made 10 or more threes in eight of their 15 games––13 of the 14 players who have seen action this year have made at least two three-pointers.
Defensively, they pick up 9.5 steals a game, and force their opponents into 19.1 turnovers a night. Depth has been also the key to success for this year's team, as they have seven players getting over 16 minutes a night, while no player sees more than 29 minutes a game on average.
Friday night's battle will be the first meeting in the history of the programs.
