Courtesy of FGCUAthletics.com
LAKEPOINT, Ga. – For the first time in league history a player has been named ASUN Newcomer of the Week five times, and that honor now belongs to Brandon Goodwin as the FGCU point guard garnered the honor again on Monday after a pair of game-high point totals for the Eagles.
The redshirt junior scored a game- and season-high 29 points last Monday against North Florida and followed it up with a game-best 24 points at Jacksonville on Saturday to lead FGCU to a pair of wins, extending the Green and Blue’s winning streak to five in a row. Goodwin averaged 26.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 4 assists over the course of the two contests.
A UCF transfer, Goodwin posted his second double-double of the season – and third of his career – opposite the Dolphins as the 6-2 guard secured a season-best 10 rebounds and passed out a team-high four assists. Thirteen of his points and six of his rebounds came in the 2nd half as Goodwin again took over a contest, leading the Eagles to a 67-57 victory – their 7th-straight road win, tied for the 4th-longest active streak in the nation.
Against UNF, the Norcross High School product set the tone from the start, scoring 21 1st-half points en route to finishing one point shy of his career high in a 74-59 FGCU win. He grabbed a then-season-high-tying seven rebounds, dished out a game-high-tying four assists and went 11-19 from the floor, including 3-4 from 3-point range and 4-5 from the free-throw line.
The five ASUN Newcomer of the Week awards for Goodwin this year are nearly one-quarter of FGCU’s all-time honors (21). Since the league starting issuing the award in the 2011-12 season, four players have won the award four different times, but Goodwin is the first to earn it five times.
The Norcross, Ga., native scored more points (9), grabbed more rebounds (9) and passed out more assists (3) than ASUN Player of the Week Kendrick Ray, but the Kennesaw State guard hit the game-winning shot at NJIT and made four crucial free throws in the final minute against USC Upstate to help the Owls to a pair of wins.
Goodwin is on pace to break the single-season program record for points set last year by Marc-Eddy Norelia (597) as he is averaging a team-best 17.2 per game. In ASUN games, he is averaging 18.4 through the first nine contests. Goodwin – who has hit three game-winning shots this year already – has led FGCU in scoring 14 times and has reached double-figure points in all but two outings.
He has helped spearhead what will likely be FGCU’s 5th-straight 20-win season as the Eagles sit at 19-6 overall and 8-1 in the ASUN after winning 12 of their last 13 games. FGCU is ranked 81 in the official RPI, and in the latest ESPN Bracketology by Joe Lunardi is predicted as a 14 seed in the NCAA Tournament, playing 3rd-seeded Florida State in Orlando.
FGCU is currently three games clear of every team in the ASUN except Lipscomb, which is 7-2 entering a crucial 1st-place showdown at Alico Arena on Thursday at 7 p.m. With a win, FGCU would have a two-game lead over 2nd place and hold the tiebreaker over the Bisons with just four regular-season games remaining.
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