Courtesy FGCUAthletics.com
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Trailing 49-43 with 14 minutes remaining Thursday night, FGCU head coach Joe Dooley called a timeout, and his Eagles (15-11, 6-4 A-Sun) responded with a 15-0 run and held on for a crucial 71-64 Atlantic Sun Conference victory at USC Upstate (8-19, 2-8 A-Sun) to move within one game of first place in the league.
Redshirt junior Marc-Eddy Norelia (Orlando, Fla./Tulane/Olympia HS) missed a double-double by a single rebound for the fifth time this year as he finished with game highs of 22 points and nine rebounds. Freshman Rayjon Tucker (Charlotte, N.C./Northside Christian Academy) stepped up in a big way with several family members and friends in attendance with 15 points on 5-6 from the floor and 4-6 from the free-throw line.
Playing his second game back after missing the previous seven with an injury, redshirt juniorDemetris Morant (Miami, Fla./UNLV/Bishop Gorman HS) scored eight of his 10 points and grabbed four of his six rebounds in the second half as he also went 5-6 from the field, giving the Eagles a vital low-presence with 22 minutes of action.
Out of the game-changing timeout, FGCU switched to a 2-3 zone, and it threw Upstate totally off-kilter. The first six points of the run came from Julian DeBose (Washington, D.C./Rice/St. John College HS), Tucker and Norelia, and then freshman Reggie Reid (Harlem, Ga./Harlem HS) knocked down a baseline 3-pointer in front of the Eagles’ bench to put the visitors up, 52-49.
Morant then scored the last six points of the run, the final two coming on an alley-oop finish from redshirt freshman Zach Johnson (Miami, Fla./Norland HS) as the Green and Blue completely flipped the contest over to their favor in a span of just more than four minutes to take a 58-49 lead. Upstate got its deficit down to five, 60-55, with 5:30 left, but 90 seconds later the Eagles had opened up their first double-digit lead of the night, 66-55, following a 6-0 spurt to put the game out of reach.
“Tonight was a night that we couldn’t put Upstate away, so credit to them,” commented FGCU head coach Joe Dooley. “When we did get ahead they made some shots to get back into it. But we were able to stem the tide and get a road win. Marc-Eddy and Demetris did a great job down low, and Rayjon gave us some big minutes off the bench.”
The win moves FGCU to within one game of North Florida and Jacksonville for 1st place as both teams dropped road contests at Kennesaw State and Lipscomb, respectively, to move to 7-3 in the A-Sun. The Eagles are knotted with NJIT for 3rd place at 6-4, and the two sides square off in Newark on Saturday at 4 p.m.
FGCU attempted 18 fewer field goals than Upstate, but made them count as the Eagles finished the night 27-47 from the floor for 57.4 percent compared with 22-65 for 33.8 percent for the Spartans. After allowing each of their previous seven opponents to shoot at least 40 percent from the floor for the first time since 2010-11, FGCU has now held back-to-back foes to 35 percent or lower. The Eagles limited the Spartans to just 20 percent from 3-point range as well (4-20).
Malik Moore came off the bench to lead Upstate with 13 points, while Josh Cuthbertson and Michael Buchanan each had 12 and Mike Cunningham added 11. Buchanan matched Norelia’s nine rebounds as FGCU out-rebounded Upstate, 42-35, after being tied at the half in that category, 17-17.
The Eagles – who entered the contest averaging 51.3 points in the paint over the past three games – again took advantage in the low blocks, finishing with a 42-36 edge.
DeBose just missed a double-double as well with eight points and eight rebounds – three more than his previous season high. The redshirt junior also added a game-high four assists in 36 minutes of action.
FGCU has now won nine of its last 10 overall against USC Upstate, including four in a row at the Hodge Center – the smallest Division-I arena in the nation which seats just 818. The Eagles now own a 14-5 all-time record against the Spartans.
Leave a Reply