Courtesy of FGCUAthletics.com
DUNK CITY, Fla. – The FGCU men’s basketball team (6-3) nearly shot 60 percent from the field for the third-straight game, received a career-high 16 points from Demetris Morant and staved off a late Siena (3-7) run to win its fifth in a row with a 73-69 decision over the Saints Friday night at Alico Arena.
The Eagles shot 57.4 percent (27-47) from the floor, but connected at a furious 73.1-percent clip (19-26) in the 1st half to open up a 13-point lead at intermission. The advantage swelled to 17 points with 14 minutes remaining – and was 15 with 6:30 left – but a late 11-0 Siena run helped pull the Saints to within two in the closing 30 seconds, but they marched no closer.
Morant (Miami, Fla./UNLV/Bishop Gorman HS) led a trio of FGCU double-figure scorers as Brandon Goodwin (Norcross, Ga./UCF/Norcross HS) added 14 points and Zach Johnson (Miami, Fla./Norland HS) tallied 11 and matched a career high with four steals. Marc Eddy Norelia (Orlando, Fla./Tulane/Olympia HS) just missed what would have been his first double-double of the year with nine points and a team-high eight rebounds.
“I thought we had some good spurts to begin the game, but we kind of turned it off once we got up 17 in the 2nd half,” commented FGCU head coach Joe Dooley, whose team also held a 17-point lead at nearly the same juncture of its previous at Georgia Southern. “Meech (Morant) saved us, especially early, and had some good spurts, and Marc-Eddy really hit some shots when we needed him to do so. Brandon played hard again as well, but we really need to start finishing games better.”
FGCU – ranked No. 16 in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top-25 Poll and boasting an RPI of 49 entering the contest – claimed its 10th-straight win at home dating back to last year. The triumph also evened the Eagles’ all-time Division-I record (151-151) for the first time since they were 1-1 to start the 2007-08 season.
The Eagles – who entered the contest on pace for a single-season program record with eight made 3-pointers per game – attempted only five 3s all night and made three. They instead pounded the ball in the paint as the Green and Blue finished with 46 points in the paint and another 16 from the free throw line to account for 85 percent of their total points. Over the last three contests, FGCU has totaled 170 points in the paint (56.6 per game).
That total was aided greatly with the torrid closing stretch the Eagles had to the 1st half as they made their final 14 field goal attempts to open up a 45-32 lead at the break. FGCU is now a dominant 54-4 under Dooley when leading at the half since he took over the program in 2013-14.
The Saints – who began the year ranked in the mid-major poll and were picked to finish 2nd in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference – made a run at handing the Eagles just their fifth loss when leading at the break in the past 3+ years, but a defensive stand in the closing seconds sealed the contest.
Thanks in large part to FGCU shooting just 16-30 (53.3 percent) from the free throw line, Siena crawled back and had the ball with 20 seconds remaining looking to tie the game at 72-72 with a 3-pointer. However, the Eagles’ staunch perimeter defense – which entered the game ranked 20th in the nation by holding opponents to 27.6 percent from 3-point range – locked in yet again and forced a bad shot, grabbed the rebound and iced the contest with a free throw.
FGCU limited Siena to just 1-8 (12.5 percent) from 3-point range on the evening, but the Saints matched the Eagles’ paint total and connected at a 78.3-percent clip from the charity stripe (18-23) to keep the game close.
Marquis Wright led the Saints with 16 points, while Brett Bisping narrowly missed a double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds. Javion Ogunyemi rounded out Siena’s double-figure scorers with 11 points.
Siena was the sixth team through FGCU’s first eight D-I opponents this year which won at least 20 games and played in the postseason in 2015-16. FGCU’s RPI has climbed inside the top 50 thanks to already playing three top-20 opponents and going 1-2 versus the group (Baylor, 1; Florida, 5; UT Arlington, 20).
Friday night – which began with the FGCU women claiming a 66-42 win over Siena in the first game of a doubleheader – commenced a three-game homestand over six days for the Eagles. The stretch will continue Sunday at 8:15 p.m. against cross-state foe FIU. The contest is tipping off later in the day due to Alico Arena hosting commencement ceremonies. The Panthers are 3-6 on the year.
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