Courtesy of FGCUAthletics.com
DUNK CITY, Fla. – The FGCU men’s basketball team (2-3) never trailed, assisted on a season-best 23 of its 28 field goals and threw down six highlight-reel dunks as the Eagles cruised to a 69-53 win Wednesday night over Binghamton (3-3) at Alico Arena.
Christian Terrell led all scorers with 12 points as a balanced FGCU offensive attack shot 47.5 percent from the floor (28-59). Antravious Simmons (Miami, Fla./VCU/South Miami HS) finished with 10 points – a total matched by Rayjon Tucker off the bench – as the Eagles had eight players score at least five points.
FGCU led by as much as 25 midway through the 2nd half before settling for the 13-point win – tied for its largest of the young season. The Eagles took advantage in the low blocks, posting a season-high 42 points in the paint to finish with a +12 edge in that category, and had a 13-4 advantage in second-chance points following a 38-30 rebounding differential in their favor.
Wednesday marked Marc-Eddy Norelia’s return to the Eagles’ lineup after FGCU’s leading returning scorer (17.1) and rebounder (9.3) missed the first four games recovering from a broken left shooting hand. Norelia (Orlando, Fla./Tulane/Olympia HS) played nine minutes off the bench, scoring five points, issuing two assists and knocking down the first 3-pointer of his career in what is now four attempts.
The Eagles held Binghamton to just 28-percent shooting (7-25) in the 1st half compared with a 48-percent clip of their own (14-29) to open up a 36-21 halftime lead. The advantage swelled to the aforementioned 25, 56-31, at the 10:34 mark after Norelia threw an alley-oop to Tucker (Charlotte, N.C./Northside Christian Academy). The Green and Blue led by 24 with five minutes to play, but Binghamton finished the contest on a 10-2 run to cut into the final margin.
“Defensively in the 1st half we played pretty well. We got them sped up and we were able to get out in transition,” commented FGCU head coach Joe Dooley. “I was disappointed with how we guarded the last 10 minutes or so, but we moved the ball really well to finish with 23 assists on 28 field goals and I thought we rebounded the ball for the most part pretty well.”
FGCU – coming off a disappointing and controversial one-point loss at then-#13 Michigan State Sunday night – did not allow for a hangover as the Eagles stormed out to a 15-2 start, capped by a Demetris Morant dunk. Binghamton trimmed the deficit to nine on two occasions mid-way through the opening half, but other than those occurrences the Eagles led by double figures for 34 of the game’s final 35 minutes.
The Eagles put the game out of reach early in the 2nd half as they commenced the stanza on a 9-2 run, spearheaded by one of Terrell’s (Jacksonville, Fla./Providence HS) season-high-tying four 3-pointers and capped by one of Morant’s (Miami, Fla./UNLV/Bishop Gorman HS) season-best three dunks.
Morant led all players with two blocks and six rebounds to go along with six points. Zach Johnson (Miami, Fla./Norland HS) finished with nine points, while freshman RaySean Scott Jr. (Compton, Calif./Compton HS) continued to give the Eagles a valuable, young scoring threat off the bench with eight points. For the first time this year, Brandon Goodwin (Norcross, Ga./UCF/Norcross HS) did not lead the Eagles in scoring, but it wasn’t needed as he instead passed out a season-high five assists, a total equaled by Reggie Reid (Harlem, Ga./Harlem HS).
FGCU committed a season-low 10 turnovers to go along with its season-best assist total. Johnson added to that number with four helpers against zero giveaways.
Dusan Perovic came off the bench to lead the Bearcats with 12 points – the lone Binghamton double-figure scorer as no one else even had more than six. The Eagles – who have become known for their perimeter defense – once again locked in from distance on BU, limiting the America East member to just 16.7 percent (3-18) from 3-point range.
The win moves FGCU’s record at Alico Arena to a dominant 61-11 dating back to 2012-13. The six dunks are the 2nd-most in non-conference games in the Dooley era (4th season), behind only seven slams against Furman on Dec. 19, 2014.
Perhaps most importantly for the Eagles – aside from the win – is that no player logged more than 26 minutes (Johnson). FGCU will be playing its fifth game in 10 days on Friday, Nov. 25, when it welcomes Long Beach State (1-5) to Alico Arena for an 8 p.m. tipoff.
LBSU – located just outside Los Angeles – has already played road games at Wichita State, North Carolina, Louisville, UCLA and Washington (all losses) – with the latter coming Tuesday night. The 49ers, who have statistically played the hardest schedule in the nation so far, will be facing an Eagles’ team which has statistically played the 5th-hardest schedule in the country so far this year.
However, LBSU – the preseason Big West Conference favorites which won 20 games last year and played in the NIT – first faces Binghamton on Thursday night at 7 in a neutral-site contest at Alico as a continuation to the mainland portion of the Battle 4 Atlantis.
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