Courtesy of FGCUAthletics.com
DUNK CITY, Fla. – In an action-packed game with 16 ties and eight lead changes, the 4th-seeded FGCU men’s basketball team (20-13) outlasted Stetson (12-22) by a final score of 80-78 in overtime Sunday night at Alico Arena to claim the 2016 Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament Championship.
The win marks the Eagles’ second A-Sun Tournament Title and the team will return to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in four seasons. In its inaugural appearance in 2013 – just its second year of Division-I postseason eligibility – FGCU became the only 15 seed to ever reach the Sweet Sixteen.
Redshirt freshman guard Zach Johnson (Miami, Fla./Norland HS) came up huge when it mattered most as he tallied 17 of his 19 points in the 2nd half and overtime and iced the game with a block of Stetson guard Divine Myles at the rim with five seconds to play. The play earned the top spot on SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays Sunday night. Redshirt sophomore forwardAntravious Simmons (Miami, Fla./VCU/South Miami HS) turned in a career night with 21 points to go along with 12 rebounds while redshirt junior Marc-Eddy Norelia (Orlando, Fla./Tulane/Olympia HS) scored 16 points and was named the A-Sun Tournament Most Valuable Player.
Behind the performances from the FGCU big men, the Eagles outscored the Hatters, 50-28, in the paint as the Green and Blue won the league title without receiving a single point from seniors.
Trailing 35-30 at the half, FGCU quickly tied the score with a five-point spurt to start the last 20 minutes, and the two teams remained neck and neck throughout the rest of the contest. Stetson tied the game at 69-69 with a free throw by Derick Newton with 25 second to play. However, FGCU prevailed in overtime for the fourth time this season en route to claiming the conference crown.
“It was a great college basketball atmosphere,” commented third-year FGCU head coach Joe Dooley of the 3rd-largest crowd in Alico history (4,670). “I thought the league looked great on TV tonight. The atmosphere in the building and the fans were off the charts. I’m really proud of our guys for sticking with it. We didn’t have a lot of good things going and couldn’t get stops, but we ground it out, got into a rhythm and pulled it out.”
In only the third A-Sun Championship Final to go to overtime, FGCU turned it on late despite playing the 2nd half without redshirt senior Julian DeBose (Washington, D.C./Rice/St. John College HS) who injured his ankle late in the 1st half, the final minutes of regulation without fouled-out Demetris Morant (Miami, Fla./UNLV/Bishop Gorman HS) and most of overtime without leading scorer and rebounder Norelia.
It was the Miami duo of Johnson and Simmons that took over as the young guns stepped up on the biggest stage of their careers. For Simmons, the 6-9 big man filled a huge void with Morant and Norelia in foul trouble much of the night, securing just his second career double-double, going 9-14 from the floor in 23 minutes of action.
Johnson – an A-Sun All-Freshmen Team member – scored 17 points in the final eight minutes of regulation and overtime as the point guard took over by driving downhill and attacking the rim. He also made a potential game-saving play at the end of regulation as he stole the ball from Myles with five seconds left with him driving to break a 69-69 tie.
FGCU raced to a quick 10-0 start before Stetson settled in and not too much later took a 16-14 lead. From there, the Eagles didn’t lead again until Christian Terrell (Jacksonville, Fla./Providence HS) spun his defender in the lane and used the glass to go up 49-47. The FGCU deficit went back to five, 58-53, with just over six minutes remaining, but a 10-0 Green and Blue run in three minutes put FGCU up five, 63-58.
But the Hatters – who won at 2nd-seeded NJIT in the quarterfinals Tuesday and at 6th-seeded Lipscomb in the semifinals Thursday – wouldn’t quit and forced overtime on a Derick Newton free throw with 25 seconds left after the A-Sun Freshman of the Year missed the first attempt.
In overtime, the Eagles went up three, 77-74, with less than a minute remaining on a Terrell layup. Stetson trimmed the deficit to 79-78 with 10 seconds left, and Johnson was fouled and made one of two free throws to provide the final margin. That margin was solidified when Myles drove, but Johnson skied and rejected the potential game-tying layup at the rim – the second time he’s preserved a win in that style this year.
Johnson and Terrell joined Norelia on the A-Sun All-Tournament Team as Norelia missed his 15th double-double of the season by just a single rebound – the sixth time this year he’s fallen short of a double-double by a single carom. After being out-rebounded in the 1st half, FGCU finished with a 40-35 edge for the game, which led to an 18-6 advantage in second-chance points.
Newton led Stetson with a game-high 22 points. Four other Hatters reached double-figure points with Grant Lozoya and Myles netting 11 each and Angel Rivera and Luke Doyle tallying 10 apiece. After shooting 46.4 percent (13-28) from the floor in the first half, FGCU limited the Hatters to just 40 percent (10-25) in the second half and 25 percent (2-8) in overtime, finishing the game at 41 percent (25-61).
The Eagles, meanwhile, shot 50 percent in the first half (12-24), 55.6 percent in the second half (15-27) and 50 percent in overtime (3-6) en route to a 52.6-percent clip (30-57) for the night as FGCU shot better than 50 percent in all three of their A-Sun Championship games. FGCU still shot that percentage despite going just 1-9 from 3-point range.
The victory is the 20th of the year for the Eagles, who have now won 20 games and played in a postseason tournament each of the last four years (2013: 26, NCAA Tournament; 2014: 22, NIT; 2015: 22, CIT).
FGCU moves its all-time A-Sun Championship record to 11-3, with the .785 winning percentage being by far the best among current league members. The tournament final appearance for the Eagles was the fourth in five seasons of eligibility, and FGCU will return 83 percent of its scoring, 87 percent of its rebounding and 88 percent of its assists next year.
FGCU will learn its NCAA Tournament opponent when the bracket is revealed live on the Selection Show next Sunday, Mar. 13, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on CBS.
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