Courtesy of FGCUAthletics.com
DUNK CITY, Fla. – Facing a three-point halftime deficit, the FGCU men’s basketball team (17-12, 8-5 A-Sun) used the energy from an Alico Arena standing-room-only sellout crowd on Senior Night and Alumni Weekend to shoot 56.5 percent from the floor in the second half and move into a tie for 2nd place in the Atlantic Sun Conference with a 68-63 win over Kennesaw State (10-19, 6-7 A-Sun) Saturday night.
FGCU trailed at the break, 29-26, as both teams struggled to get their offenses going. But in the second half, the Eagles out-scored the Owls, 42-34, to win their 10th in a row over KSU and remain in contention for a share of the A-Sun regular-season title with its league-leading 14th home win.
Redshirt junior Marc-Eddy Norelia (Orlando, Fla./Tulane/Olympia HS) continued a torrid stretch as he again led FGCU with 22 points – his fifth 20-point game in the last seven outings. The redshirt junior also grabbed a team-best seven rebounds as the Eagles – who entered the game as the A-Sun’s rebounding leader – were uncharacteristically out-rebounded by the league’s worst-rebounding team, 36-27.
Redshirt sophomore Antravious Simmons (Miami, Fla./VCU/South Miami HS) scored all 12 of his points in the second half as the 6-9 big man finished 6-8 from the floor and was responsible for all of the Green and Blue’s bench points – which were one shy of matching the fewest in a game this year. Sophomore Christian Terrell (Jacksonville, Fla./Providence HS) also netted 12 points and made two of the Eagles’ three 3-pointers, while redshirt freshman Zach Johnson (Miami, Fla./Norland HS) netted 12 points as well and went a career-best 8-10 from the free-throw line.
With the win, FGCU moves into a three-way tie with Jacksonville and NJIT for 2nd place in the A-Sun at 8-5. Those three teams are one game behind leader North Florida at 9-4 as the Ospreys clinched at least a share of the regular-season title with a 81-78 home win over USC Upstate (3-10). Lipscomb (7-6) is one game back in 5th place.
The regular season concludes next Thursday with FGCU traveling to Stetson (3-10). North Florida faces rival Jacksonville on the Dolphins’ home floor, while NJIT is at USC Upstate and Lipscomb is home to Kennesaw State. If FGCU and Jacksonville both win, the Eagles will clinch a share of their second A-Sun regular-season title in three years. A plethora of scenarios still exist which would place the Eagles anywhere from a 2 seed to a 5 seed, but FGCU – even with a win at Stetson – will not get the 1 seed. If FGCU wins at Stetson, and UNF wins at JU, the Eagles will get the 2 seed. The top-4 seeds host the first round of the A-Sun Championship, with the highest remaining seed in each matchup thereafter serving as the host for the semifinals and final.
“We really gutted that one out,” surmised FGCU head coach Joe Dooley. “Kennesaw State put us in some tough spots like they did in last year’s game. There wasn’t a lot of flow early on and it was more like a fist fight. We made a little run in the second half to distance ourselves and made some big free throws down the stretch to seal the win.”
Trailing 37-33 early in the second half, FGCU rattled off seven straight to take a 40-37 lead with 13 minutes remaining. Kennesaw State responded and eventually took a 54-53 lead with 6 minutes showing. The game remained tightly-contested into the closing seconds as KSU got a putback layup to fall to pull within one, 64-63, with 12 seconds left.
However, the Eagles – who struggled from the free-throw line most of the night – made their last four attempts in the closing 10 seconds from Norelia and Johnson to ice the contest. Two nights after going 31-39 from the line, the Eagles connected at 65.7 percent (23-35) from the stripe, but made the crucial ones down the stretch.
The youthful and talented Eagles received 59 of their 68 points from underclassmen as redshirt senior Julian DeBose (Washington, D.C./Rice/St. John College HS) scored nine points on 3-5 shooting in 29 minutes of action in his final regular-season home game. The Eagles finished 21-44 from the floor for a 47.7-percent clip as the 68 points are tied for the fewest in a winning effort this year (68-57 vs. Eckerd).
Kendrick Ray tallied a game-high 25 points for Kennesaw State, while Yonel Brown added 11 and Aubrey Williams tallied 10 for the Owls, who had their three-game winning streak snapped. In those three contests, KSU had reached 90 points in each of them, and had defeated North Florida, Jacksonville and Stetson.
Redshirt senior Filip Cvjeticanin (Zagreb, Croatia/American School of Madrid) was also recognized pregame along with DeBose and managers Dan Thomas and Michael Urban. However, Cvjeticanin did not play as he has concussion symptoms after hitting his head on the floor following a Lipscomb illegal screen on Thursday night.
The standing-room-only crowd of 4,633 was the largest of the year for the Eagles, who have now had sellouts in two of their last three home games (4,333 seating capacity + 300 standing-room-only tickets).
FGCU extended its longest winning streak over a conference member with the victory, and concludes its regular season next Thursday, Feb. 25, against the team it has the second-longest winning streak against in the league. The Eagles have won seven in a row over the Hatters, and will look to make it eight in a 7 p.m. tip from DeLand.
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