Courtesy of FGCUAthletics.com
BOCA RATON, Fla. – The FGCU men’s basketball team (10-5) never trailed, led by as much as 20 late in the contest and cruised to a dominant 75-62 win at cross-state foe FAU (4-7) Wednesday night, tying the program’s regular-season non-conference record for wins.
Junior Christian Terrell led the Eagles with a season-high 20 points while classmate Brandon Goodwin was just behind the southpaw with 18 points and a team-best four assists. Redshirt senior Demetris Morant just missed what would have been his third-straight double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds as the 6-9 forward went 7-8 from the floor as part of FGCU’s 30-61 (49.2 percent) performance.
Two separate 7-0 runs in the 1st half for FGCU created a 14-point lead at the break for the Eagles, who are now 57-4 under 4th-year head coach Joe Dooley when leading at intermission. The first run – capped by a Rayjon Tucker (Charlotte, N.C./Northside Christian Academy) 3-pointer – opened up a 20-11 lead at the 8:12 mark, and the second run – capped by a near-half-court heave from Terrell (Jacksonville, Fla./Providence HS) just before the halftime break gave the Green and Blue a 38-24 edge which for all intents and purposes was the final dagger.
FAU – which earlier this month beat Ohio State (10-3) in Columbus, 79-77 – could get no closer than 12 points the rest of the night as FGCU used its size and athleticism to finish with a 37-27 rebounding advantage and a 40-32 edge in points in the paint.
“After a little bit of a slow start by both teams, I was pretty pleased with how we performed and executed, especially at the defensive end,” commented Dooley, whose team allowed its 2nd-fewest points to a Division-I opponent this year. “Christian made some big shots, Brandon was his usually steady self and Meech (Morant) continued his strong play, and that’s something we’re going to need him to continue doing.”
ICYMI: @Cterrell35‘s heave from just inside half court which put a dagger in FAU at the end of the 1st half. #DunkCity #ASUNMBB pic.twitter.com/UMLOlZVtza
— FGCU Men’s Hoops (@FGCU_MBB) December 29, 2016
Morant (Miami, Fla./UNLV/Bishop Gorman HS) is now averaging a double-double with 12.2 points and 10.8 rebounds over his past five games. Meanwhile, Goodwin (Norcross, Ga./UCF/Norcross HS) reached double-figure points for the 14th time in 15 games this year, and Terrell – who also grabbed six rebounds – reached the 20-point plateau for the sixth time in his career.
Terrell went 5-5 from the free throw line, half of FGCU’s perfect 10-10 performance from the charity stripe. FGCU – which came into the contest with an RPI of 96 – entered the game ranked 4th in the nation in field goal percentage (52.1) and 3-point percentage defense (27.3).
The Eagles characteristically were just about on their field goal percentage average, but uncharacteristically allowed the Owls to shoot 38.1 percent (8-21) from beyond the arc. However, most of that came in the 2nd half after they had limited the hosts to just 4-15 (26.7 percent) from deep in the opening 20 minutes – a performance deficit too big for the Conference USA member to overcome.
FAU was led by 16 points from Jeantal Cylla, while Justin Massey added 10 points off the bench to finish as the lone double-figure scorers for the Owls. FAU connected at a 43.9-percent clip (25-57) from the floor, and the Eagles forced the Owls into 15 turnovers which led to 15 points.
Although only separated by roughly two hours, Wednesday marked the first time since FGCU’s second D-I season in 2008-09 that it has faced FAU. The Eagles now hold a 2-1 edge in the all-time series.
The Eagles were again without redshirt senior Marc-Eddy Norelia (Orlando, Fla./Tulane/Olympia HS) for the fourth-straight game due to personal reasons. The forward is a Preseason All-ASUN Conference selection and team’s leading returning scorer (17.1) and rebounder (9.3) from a season ago.
FGCU will have an opportunity to set the program’s regular-season non-conference wins record when it concludes the non-league schedule with a home New Year’s Eve matinee against Florida Tech on Saturday, Dec. 31, at 1 p.m. The Division-II member is 9-4 on the year heading into a game on Friday night.
FGCU will then have a week off before beginning ASUN Conference action at Stetson (6-8) on Jan. 7 at 4 p.m. in a rematch of last year’s title game.
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