Courtesy of FGCUAthletics.com
MACON, Ga. – Following a pair of 20-point games, his 11th double-double of the season and a pair of victories, FGCU’s Marc-Eddy Norelia has been named the Atlantic Sun Conference Men’s Basketball Co-Player of the Week on Monday by league officials. Norelia shares the honor this with North Florida’s Demarcus Daniels.
The honor is the third Player of the Week recognition this year for Norelia (Orlando, Fla./Tulane/Olympia HS), who previously won it outright on Nov. 23 and shared it on Jan. 4. The redshirt junior averaged 23.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game as he led the Eagles to a pair of victories to move into a tie for 2nd place in the A-Sun, just one game out of 1st with one regular-season contest remaining.
Norelia began the week with game highs of 25 points and 12 rebounds as he shot an efficient 7-10 from the floor and made a career-high 11 free throws in 14 attempts as part of an 82-67 FGCU win over Lipscomb on Thursday. He followed it up with team highs of 22 points and seven rebounds on Saturday as the Eagles completed the season sweep of Kennesaw State with a 68-63 victory.
The 6-8 forward leads the Green and Blue in nearly every offensive category as he ranks 6th in the A-Sun in scoring with 16.7 points per game, 2nd in rebounding at 8.9 per game and 4th in field-goal percentage with .541. Norelia now has five games of 20 or more points in the last seven outings, and in A-Sun games his scoring average is 17.7 (6th in the league) and his rebound average is 9.2 (2nd in the conference).
The double-double against the Bisons was Norelia’s 11th of the year, further separating himself as the program’s all-time single-season leader as the previous record was nine by Robinson Tisme in the inaugural 2002-03 campaign.
Norelia’s 16.7 point-per-game average would be the best in Division-I program history (since 2007-08). His 485 points are 9th on the program’s all-time single-season list, just 14 shy of moving into 5th place and 96 shy of overtaking the record of 580 held by Ryan Hopkins in 2002-03.
Additionally, Norelia needs just 17 more rebounds to break the program’s all-time single-season record for rebounds which is 274 held by Adam Liddell in 2006-07. Norelia’s 8.9 average would shatter the best single-season mark all-time in program history as only one other player (Liddell, 8.3 in ’06-’07) has ever even averaged 8 per game in a season.
In total, FGCU has won or shared a league-high seven A-Sun Player of the Week or A-Sun Newcomer of the Week awards this year. In addition to Norelia’s three POTW honors, FGCU has claimed four A-Sun Newcomer of the Week honors (complete list below).
UNF’s Daniels averaged 24 points and 6.5 rebounds per game as the Ospreys won a pair of games over NJIT and USC Upstate at home. Daniels went 10-13 from the floor against the Highlanders, and followed it up with a 10-18 effort from the field against the Spartans.
FGCU is 17-12 on the year and 8-5 in the A-Sun, tied with both Jacksonville and NJIT. Those three teams are all chasing North Florida as the Ospreys are 9-4 heading into their regular-season finale at JU Thursday night. Meanwhile, FGCU travels to face Stetson (3-10) on Thursday, while NJIT is at USC Upstate (3-10) that same night.
The Eagles can still win a share of the A-Sun regular-season title and receive anywhere from a 2-5 seed for the upcoming A-Sun Championship. Should FGCU and UNF both win, the Eagles will receive a 2 seed. However, if the Eagles lose and Lipscomb (7-6) wins at home against Kennesaw State (6-7), FGCU will dip to a 5 seed. A plethora of other seeding scenarios exist as well, and the complete list can be found by clicking here.
FGCU WEEKLY A-SUN AWARD WINNERS
Nov. 23: Marc-Eddy Norelia, Player of the Week
Nov. 23: Reggie Reid, Newcomer of the Week
Dec. 14: Rayjon Tucker, Newcomer of the Week
Jan. 4: Marc-Eddy Norelia, Co-Player of the Week
Jan. 18: Zach Johnson, Co-Newcomer of the Week
Feb. 8: Zach Johnson, Co-Newcomer of the Week
Feb. 22: Marc-Eddy Norelia, Co-Player of the Week
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