Courtesy of FGCUAthletics.com
DUNK CITY, Fla. – Behind a record-setting first half in which it staked itself to a 27-point lead, the FGCU men’s basketball team (10-7, 1-0 Atlantic Sun Conference) rolled to a dominant 82-53 victory Saturday night over Stetson (6-11, 0-2 A-Sun) to open league play at Alico Arena.
The Eagles shot a blistering 71.4 percent (20-28) in the opening stanza, their best percentage in program history in any half against a Division-I opponent. FGCU led by as much as 32 in the second half as the 29-point margin of victory is tied for the third-largest in program history against an A-Sun opponent.
Redshirt freshman Zach Johnson (Miami, Fla./Norland HS) led all scorers with 17 points, redshirt junior Marc-Eddy Norelia (Orlando, Fla./Tulane/Olympia HS) tallied 16 and redshirt senior Filip Cvjeticanin (Zagreb, Croatia/American School of Madrid) added 12 – all off 3-pointers. All three players came off the bench as the Eagles once again displayed their depth as 55 total points came from the bench compared with just 13 for Stetson.
The Hatters scored the first basket of the night, but FGCU took over after that and responded with nine in a row. Following a Stetson bucket to stop the run, the Eagles went on an 11-0 run to open up a 20-4 lead just eight minutes into the contest and never led by fewer than 14 the rest of the night as the Green and Blue won their fourth-straight game.
“We got off to a great start behind hustle plays from Julian (DeBose) and energy plays from Meech (Demetris Morant) when he came off the bench to really set the tone,” commented FGCU head coach Joe Dooley. “Meech really protected the rim when he came into the game. Stetson had some good looks which they missed and that helped us obviously. But our guys played with confidence and shared the ball for the most part, and there really isn’t a lot to complain about.”
Morant (Miami, Fla./UNLV/Bishop Gorman HS) – who had been limited of late in practice with a right-leg issue – rejected five shots in the first half, scored six points and grabbed three rebounds in just 13 minutes of action. Last year at Stetson, the lengthy 6-9 forward rejected seven shots – the most in program history versus a D-I opponent.
The victory over Stetson is the seventh in a row for the Eagles, who have now won five-straight A-Sun openers. It marked the fourth-straight meeting that FGCU has held the Hatters to 55 points or less, made even more impressive by Stetson entering the game with the A-Sun’s second-highest scoring offense at 82.8 per outing. The Eagles, however, came into the game with the A-Sun’s best defense, limiting teams to just 70.3 points per game. FGCU stymied the Hatters, holding them to a season-low point total.
Derick Newton and Divine Myles led Stetson with 11 points, while Brian Pegg just missed a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds. FGCU held Stetson to just 21.4 percent (6-28) from the floor in the first half, but improved to 46.2 percent (12-26) in the second half to finish at 33.3 percent (18-54) for the night.
After connecting at the 71-percent clip in the first half, FGCU cooled off all the way down to 48.4 percent (15-31) from the floor in the second half en route to a season-best 59.3-percent rate (35-59) for the game.
The 29-point victory for the Eagles was just three shy of tying their largest margin in an A-Sun game, set against USC Upstate in 2010-11. FGCU’s second-largest margin of victory against an A-Sun opponent came versus Stetson, 96-65, in January of 2013.
Sophomore Christian Terrell (Jacksonville, Fla./Providence HS) finished just shy of another double-figure point outing with nine, but he also added three rebounds, three assists and two steals. DeBose (Washington, D.C./Rice/St. John College HS) finished with a similar all-around stat line with four points, four rebounds, three assists and a season-best four steals. Antravious Simmons (Miami, Fla./VCU/South Miami HS) posted four points, four rebounds, two assists and two blocks.
In addition to his game-high point total, Johnson passed out a game-best five assists and corralled four rebounds. His assist total was part of FGCU’s 19 assists on the night against just nine turnovers – the second-straight game the Eagles finished with single-digit turnovers.
FGCU has now scored 80 points or more eight times already this year after reaching that mark just five times all of last season. Dating back to 2012-13, FGCU is now 24-2 at home during the regular season against A-Sun opponents, and 52-10 in all home contests over that same period.
Under Dooley, the Eagles are now 42-3 when leading at the half, 45-5 when grabbing more rebounds, 18-2 when scoring at least 80 points and 34-4 when holding their opponents below 40 percent from the floor.
Late in the contest, Dooley emptied his bench and walk-ons Dolan Mahoney (Bradenton, Fla./IMG Academy) and Maxx Bleecher (Boca Raton, Fla./West Boca Raton HS) to score their first collegiate points.
FGCU will remain at home as the Eagles play their fifth-straight home game and nine of 10 inside The Nest against league newcomer NJIT (9-8, 0-1 A-Sun) on Thursday, Jan. 14, at 7 p.m.The Highlanders were picked to finish 3rd in the preseason poll behind North Florida and FGCU, and last year claimed a notable win at then-No. 17 Michigan. NJIT returns four starters from that team, but lost at the buzzer Saturday in their first-ever A-Sun game at home to USC Upstate, 80-78.
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