eagles are sizzling going into holidays

On the same night Connecticut won its record-breaking 89th straight game, the Florida Gulf Coast University Eagles had a celebration of their own.

After beating the Indiana Hoosiers 73-69 at home on Dec. 21, the Eagles headed into their two-week holiday break with a 9-0 record, their best start since they joined Division I in the 2007-2008 season. FGCU also won its 28th straight home game, which is the third best behind UConn and Stanford.

The Eagles beat Indiana in front of their largest crowd of the season -- 2,621 -- at Alico Arena. FGCU has played four home games and won all of them.

"It was a great atmosphere," FGCU coach Karl Smesko said in the Ft. Myers News-Press on Dec. 22. "It's good to come out on the winning end of it."

So far, FGCU is one of just six undefeated Division I women's basketball teams. The others are UConn, Duke, North Carolina, West Virginia and Arkansas. All five of those teams are in the top 25.

The Eagles are not in this week's polls. They received just one vote in the AP poll, making it the fourth time in program history received votes in the national poll. FGCU had a vote in the 2009-2010 AP Preseason Top 25 and picked up a vote in back-to-back weeks in the AP Top 25 to close out the season.

UConn, which beat Florida State on Dec. 21 to break the UCLA men's record of 88 straight wins, extended its winning streak to 90 games with an 85-42 win over Pacific on Tuesday. The Huskies play at Stanford on Thursday, hoping to enter the 2011 portion of their schedule with a 13-0 record.

Duke is ranked third at 12-0. The Blue Devils beat Xavier 46-45 on Dec. 21 in the battle of undefeated teams at Duke. Duke plays Temple at home on Thursday.

West Virginia is sixth at 12-0 after beating North Carolina Central on Dec. 21. The Mountaineers play St. Bonaventure on Thursday and Central Connecticut State on Sunday.

North Carolina is ranked 10th at 12-0. The Tar Heels beat College of Charleston 75-49 on Tuesday and are scheduled to play Gardner-Webb on New Year's Eve.

Arkansas, which is ranked 22nd, improved to 12-0 with an 88-47 win over Furman on Tuesday. The Razorbacks begin their SEC play on Sunday at Florida.

FGCU will return to the court on Jan. 3, when it begins its Atlantic Sun Conference home season against Belmont.

The Eagles began their season with back-to-back home victories over Seton Hall and Troy. Then, they traveled to Cancun during Thanksgiving weekend and pulled off wins over Virginia Tech and Montana in the Caribbean Challenge.

FGCU began its Atlantic Sun season with wins over North Florida and Jacksonville on Dec. 2 and 4 respectively. After an eight-day layoff, the Eagles returned on Dec. 12 with a road win over Troy.

On Dec. 15, FGCU beat Florida International 86-71 in its first home game in almost a month. Six days later, the Eagles had four players in double figures in their win over Indiana.

One of those players -- junior Courtney Chihil -- earned A-Sun Player of the Week honors. Chihil finished with 14 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds against Indiana. The 5-foot-8 guard from Tipp City, Ohio is averaging 8.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists.

Junior Kelsey Jacobson is the team's leading scorer with 13.6 points per game. Freshman Sarah Hansen is the team's top rebounder with six per game.

Senior Shannon Murphy is the Eagles' third leading scorer at 12.4 points per game. The team's other senior, Shavonne Butler, played all nine games off the bench and is averaging 2.7 points per game.

All 18 of FGCU's remaining regular season games are in conference play. In early March, the Eagles will play Seattle, Longwood and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in the FGCU Tournament.

Big jump: Even though they got last week off, the Arkansas Razorbacks jumped up three spots to 22nd in this week's polls, the biggest jump among the top 25 teams. Last week, Arkansas earned a No. 25 ranking after upsetting Oklahoma at home.

Welcome back, Texas: After spending last week out of the polls, the Texas Longhorns returned to the top 25 this week. Texas earned a No. 23 ranking after beating South Florida 83-65 on Dec. 20.

The Longhorns will take a 9-3 mark into the New Year after getting an 80-77 win over Cincinnati on Monday. Texas plays Sam Houston State on Sunday.