Courtesy of FGCU Athletics
JACKSONVILLE – The FGCU men’s basketball team (13-10, 4-3 A-Sun) shot better from the floor, out-rebounded and vastly out-scored Atlantic Sun Conference leader North Florida (18-6, 7-0 A-Sun) in the paint, but the nation’s leading 3-point attack proved to be the difference as the Ospreys handed the Eagles their third-straight loss with an 82-76 decision Saturday night at UNF Arena.
Marc-Eddy Norelia (Orlando, Fla./Tulane/Olympia HS) scored a team-high 25 points and grabbed seven rebounds, Julian DeBose (Washington, D.C./Rice/St. John College HS)tallied 13 points, Christian Terrell (Jacksonville, Fla./Providence HS) added 10 points and seven rebounds and Antravious Simmons (Miami, Fla./VCU/South Miami HS) just missed a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds.
FGCU shot 48.4 percent (31-64) from the floor compared with UNF’s 45.8 percent (27-59). The Eagles also secured a 41-30 rebound edge which led to a 12-10 advantage in second-chance points. FGCU dominated the low blocks with a season-high 56 points in the paint to just 24 for the Ospreys, but the difference came from the 3-point line as UNF went 13-32 (40.6 percent) compared with 2-6 (33.3 percent) for FGCU.
Neither team led by more than six all night until midway through the second half when UNF made a game-altering 13-4 run – including a quick 7-0 spurt in less than two minutes – to open up a 71-58 lead with just under 8 minutes remaining. Showing a ton of grit, the young and short-handed Eagles clawed back with a 7-0 run to trim the deficit to 71-65.
Following a Zach Johnson (Miami, Fla./Norland HS) jumper with 1:35 left, the Green and Blue had nearly erased the deficit entirely to trail just 76-74. However, FGCU would get no closer than three the rest of the night as the Eagles dropped their third-straight A-Sun regular-season game for the first time since 2011-12.
“It was a terrific college basketball game, and you have to give UNF a ton of credit,” commented FGCU head coach Joe Dooley. “We had just a couple stretches where we put ourselves in harm way, and they took advantage. But once we were down 13, we did a good job of plugging back into the game. We had a couple looks late that we didn’t convert, and that was the difference.”
FGCU was playing without 6-9 forward Demetris Morant (Miami, Fla./UNLV/Bishop Gorman HS) for the sixth-straight game as the Eagles’ second-leading rebounder and shot blocker in terms of per-game average sat out again with a right leg injury. Additionally, freshman Rayjon Tucker (Charlotte, N.C./Northside Christian Academy) – who scored a career-high 19 points last week at Kennesaw State – played sparingly with a hip flexor sufferedWednesday against Jacksonville when he was fouled and a flagrant 1 was issued as he went up for a dunk.
Both teams took advantage of their strengths right from the tip, with FGCU forcing the issue down low and UNF shooting from deep. Twenty-eight of the Eagles’ first 32 points came in the paint, and the 56 total paint points are eight more than FGCU’s previous high versus a Division-I opponent this year.
UNF entered the contest with the nation’s most dangerous 3-point attack by a wide a margin as the Ospreys had made 290 3s on the year – 31 more than any other team in the country (2nd, Lipscomb). Beau Beech was the biggest issue for the Eagles on Saturday night as he went 5-9 from 3-point range, including four in the second half and three consecutively as part of UNF’s run midway through the second half.
Beech finished with a game-high 27 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Dallas Moore contributed 18 points and a game-best eight assists, while Demarcus Daniels finished with 13 for the Ospreys, who had won their first six A-Sun games by an average of 15 points and all by at least 12.
Playing in front of their most raucous road environment of the year, the Eagles calmly made 12 of 15 free throws (80 percent) and committed just 10 turnovers to keep themselves in the contest throughout.
The Eagles will quickly shift their attention to Jacksonville as FGCU (4-3 in the A-Sun) and the Dolphins (5-2 in the A-Sun) face each other for the second time in six days Monday night at JU at 7 p.m. Jacksonville has won three in a row to move into sole possession of 2nd place in the league, while the Eagles are a game back in 3rd place. FGCU and North Florida will also meet again in short order as the two sides square off at Alico Arena next Saturday night at 7.
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