Courtesy of FGCUAthletics.com
DUNK CITY, Fla. – Coming off an 86-77 win over Atlantic 10 Conference member La SalleThursday night, the FGCU men’s basketball team (7-7) returns to action at Alico Arena to face Division-II and 10th-ranked Eckerd (12-1) Saturday at 4 p.m.
OPENING TIP
FGCU snapped a three-game losing streak – all to top-110 RPI teams and by a combined 15 points – with the victory over La Salle. Eckerd, meanwhile, enters on a 12-game winning streak and ranked No. 10 in the D-II Sports Information Directors Association Poll.
WHAT TO KNOW
Tickets are still available and can be secured by logging on to FGCUAthletics.com/Tickets or by visiting the Alico Arena Ticket Office. For those not able to make it to The Nest, the game – like all FGCU home contests – will be broadcast on ESPN3 and via the WatchESPN app with David Moulton and J. Webb Horton on the call. Additionally, live stats are available, and a multitude of social media platforms can also be accessed at the top of this release for fans to keep up with the action and behind-the-scenes coverage.
The contest is the first of a men’s and women’s doubleheader. Fans will have the opportunity to meet the team after the game in the auxiliary gym inside Alico Arena, and those with a ticket to the men’s game will be permitted to stay at no charge to watch the women (11-4 and winners of eight of nine) face Hartford at 7 p.m.
TWEETABLES
1) FGCU will be looking to win its 50th home game (49-10) since the start of the 2012-13 season.
2) The Eagles enter January at .500 (7-7); FGCU was 7-7 heading into January in 2013-14 and won the A-Sun regular season.
3) Ten of FGCU’s 12 games against D-I opponents have been decided by 10 points or less, including seven straight for the first time since 2011-12.
4) Entering this week, only Dayton (6), Wichita State (5) and Kennesaw State (5) had played more top-50 RPI opponents than FGCU (Florida, Texas A&M, Louisiana Tech, South Dakota State).
5) FGCU has scored 80 points or more six times already this year after reaching that mark just five times all of last season.
SERIES HISTORY
Saturday will mark the third all-time meeting between FGCU and Eckerd, with the series tied at 1-1. The Tritons defeated then D-II FGCU in the 2005 NCAA Championship South Regional (First Round), 81-79, before the Eagles claimed a 72-55 victory at Alico in November of 2013.
SCOUTING ECKERD
^ After dropping its season opener against Delta State University, 87-77, Eckerd has won 12 in a row but has not played since a 79-74 decision over Tiffin on Dec. 20.
^ Jerrick Stevenson leads a quartet of double-figure scorers for the Tritons with 13.4 points per game. Drushaun McLaurn averages 11.9, Kevin Walsh contributes 11.6 and Trevon Young scores 10.2 for Eckerd.
^ Eckerd finished 12-16 last year, but returned four starters to this year’s team.
^ The only other D-I team Eckerd has played this year is USF in an exhibition contest early in November, and the Bulls claimed a 78-64 victory.
AMONG THE BEST
FGCU has the 4th-best 3-point percentage defense in the nation, holding opponents to just .258 from beyond the arc. The Eagles finished 5th in that category last year (24.6 percent).
PLAYER QUICK HITS
^ Redshirt senior Julian DeBose (Washington, D.C./Rice/St. John College HS) scored a career-high-tying and season-best 20 points Thursday. It marked the first time he has led FGCU in scoring this year – the fifth different player to achieve that feat. DeBose is now the fourth different FGCU member to score at least 20 points in a game this year (Marc-Eddy Norelia, Zach Johnson, Christian Terrell).
^ Redshirt junior Norelia (Orlando, Fla./Tulane/Olympia HS) finished just shy of securing his seventh double-double of the season against the Explorers with 15 points and nine rebounds. He is one double-double shy of matching the D-I program single-season record of seven held by Chase Fieler in 2013-14. Norelia is second in the A-Sun in rebounding at 8.9 per outing, and ranks seventh in the league with 15.4 points per game.
^ Redshirt sophomore Antravious Simmons (Miami, Fla./VCU/South Miami HS) turned in his first career double-double Thursday with career bests of 17 points and 10 rebounds.
^ After averaging just 3.3 points per game last year, sophomore Terrell (Jacksonville, Fla./Providence HS) has catapulted to 14.5 per game this year – an increase of 11.2 – and has led the Eagles in scoring a team-best six times.
RECAPPING LA SALLE
Simmons got the start and scored six of FGCU’s first eight points as La Salle began the game by turning the ball over on its first four possessions. That set the tone for the duration of the contest as the Eagles built a lead as large as 19, 37-18, in the first half and never led by fewer than six points the rest of the way.
The Eagles shot 83.3 percent (20-24) from the free-throw line, tied for a season best along with – coincidently enough the other A-10 foe they have faced this year – Massachusetts (15-18). For the game from the floor, FGCU connected at a 46.8-percent clip (29-62) compared with 46.6 percent (27-58) by La Salle.
Both teams shot at least 50 percent from the field in the second half, but the biggest difference from the floor was FGCU’s 3-point shooting in the final 20 minutes as after going 5-15 in the first half from beyond the arc, the Eagles made three of their four attempts in the second stanza, compared with 5-14 by La Salle. The Explorers – who received a combined 55 points from Cleon Roberts and Jordan Price – finished the game 10-28 from 3-point range (35.7 percent), while FGCU – which faced a zone defense for a lot of the contest – went 8-19 (42.1 percent).
After La Salle trimmed a 12-3 FGCU lead to 12-9 early in the first half, DeBose knocked down three-straight 3-pointers – the most 3s he had made in an entire game this year – to push the lead to 21-13 at the 9:30 mark. The lead grew to 27-18 with about 5 minutes remaining in the stanza when Filip Cvjeticanin (Zagreb, Croatia/American School of Madrid) hit consecutive 3-pointers 30 seconds apart – the first time he had made multiple 3s in a game since Nov. 23 – to push the Green and Blue lead to 33-18. Those long-range conversions spearheaded a 10-0 FGCU run to create the aforementioned largest lead of the afternoon.
In the second half, the Explorers made a few runs at the Eagles and on multiple occasions got their deficit to single digits. However, each time FGCU had a response, with the last – and most important – rebuttal coming after La Salle trimmed it to 67-61 with 5:30 remaining. On the ensuing FGCU possession, DeBose hit a 3-pointer to start an 8-0 Eagles’ run to nudge the lead back to 14, 75-61, and out of reach.
YOUNG, TALENTED AND DEEP
FGCU has just two seniors on its roster, and so far this year 82 percent of its scoring, 86 percent of its rebounding (excluding team rebounds) and 87 percent of its assists have come from non-seniors.
Not only are the Eagles young and talented, but they are deep as already this year 10 different players have reached double-figure points in a game. The only team in the nation with more is Georgia Southern with 11. Additionally, FGCU has had five different leading scorers this year, and four through the first six contests of the season.
Below is a list of players who have already scored 10 or more points in a game, their season high and how many times they’ve led the team in scoring.
R-Jr. Norelia (5): 34
R-Fr. Johnson (1): 26
So. Terrell (6): 25
R-Sr. DeBose (1): 20
R-Sr. Cvjeticanin (1): 18
Fr. Reggie Reid: 18
R-So. Simmons: 17
Fr. Rayjon Tucker: 15
R-So. Kevin Mickle: 12
R-Jr. Demetris Morant: 11
HOME SUCCESS
FGCU is 49-10 at Alico Arena since 2012-13. Seven of those 10 losses have come since the start of the 2014-15 season. FGCU is 6-3 at home this year, was 13-4 last year, went 15-2 in 2013-14 and 15-1 in 2012-13.
GOLDEN SUMMER
DeBose won a gold medal as part of Team USA at the World University Games (WUG) this summer in South Korea … was one of only two players (SMU’s Nic Moore) on the team not from Kansas University … finished the tournament averaging 4 points, 2.3 rebounds and 10.8 minutes per contest … scored a team-high 18 points in the USA’s final group-round game against Switzerland … connected on 50 percent (13-26) of his shots from the floor during the WUG, including 3-8 from 3-point range … added nine offensive and nine defensive rebounds, with the nine offensive boards representing the second-most by any guard on the roster … also contributed six steals and a block as Team USA won its games by an average of 20.3 points.
NEXT UP
As most conferences around the country enter league play with the turn of the calendar to 2016, FGCU won’t play its first A-Sun game until Jan. 9, leaving the Eagles with a pair of non-D-I opponents to conclude the non-conference docket. Next up, FGCU will face Webber International at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 5.
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