Courtesy of FGCUAthletics.com
DUNK CITY, Fla. – Hosting one of the strongest mid-major teams in the nation, the FGCU men’s basketball team (6-3) nearly crawled its way out of a 16-point 2nd-half deficit, but despite getting within one point in the closing seconds, the Eagles had their four-game winning streak snapped Saturday night by Middle Tennessee (5-1), 81-76.
FGCU trailed 60-44 with less than 12 minutes remaining, but fought nearly all the way back. With 2.4 seconds left, Brandon Goodwin was fouled shooting a 3-pointer as the Eagles trailed, 77-74. The unanimous ASUN Preseason Player of the Year hit the first two, but the third was just long as Middle Tennessee – which entered the game with an unofficial RPI of 8 – snapped FGCU’s 10-game home winning streak.
Goodwin (Norcross, Ga./UCF/Norcross HS) led the Eagles with a season-high 26 points to go along with six rebounds. On an evening in which FGCU had a shortened bench, sophomore Christian Carlyle (Jacksonville, Fla./Bishop Kenny HS) made his second career start and responded with a season-best 18 points – his most versus a Division-I opponent and one shy of matching his career high.
Dinero Mercurius (Orlando, Fla./Daytona State/UTRGV/USF/Faith Baptist Christian HS) came off the bench to round out the trio of FGCU double-figure scorers with season highs of 12 points and four 3-pointers after missing the previous three full games – and nearly four complete contests – with a shoulder injury.
FGCU was without starting center Ricky Doyle (Cape Coral, Fla./Michigan/Bishop Verot HS) with back spasms, while RaySean Scott Jr. (Compton, Calif./Compton HS) played limited minutes as he recovered from tonsillitis. Doyle was coming off consecutive 10-point games, while sophomore Scott Jr. had grabbed 34 percent of his career rebounds in the previous four contests.
The Eagles missed both players in the low blocks as Middle Tennessee became the first team this year to out-score FGCU in the paint (46-30), and also handed the Green and Blue their first double-figure rebounding deficit (42-28). The Blue Raiders held a 15-7 edge on the offensive glass, leading to a 22-5 edge in second-chance points – which at one point was a 19-0 advantage for the preseason Conference USA favorites.
“We got out-rebounded by 14 and gave up 17 more second-chance points, and that pretty much sums up where we lost this game,” surmised FGCU head coach Joe Dooley. “We did some good things, but we didn’t sustain long enough stretches of that good play.”
Looking to avenge an 85-72 loss at Middle Tennessee on Nov. 21, FGCU raced to an early 13-1 lead, but the Eagles quickly got into foul trouble. The already-short FGCU bench was shortened even more in the 1st half the Eagles had a pair of starters sitting the majority of the opening 20 minutes as Zach Johnson (Miami, Fla./Norland HS) picked up his 2nd foul at the 14:50mark and Antravious Simmons (Miami, Fla./VCU/South Miami HS) was whistled for his 2nd and sat with 8:13 showing.
That, in part, allowed Middle Tennessee to get going as the Blue Raiders battled back and eventually held a 34-31 halftime lead despite FGCU shooting 50 percent (12-24) from the field in the opening 20 minutes.
Middle Tennessee – which had not played since defeating FGCU in Murfreesboro 11 days ago – opened the early stages of the 2nd half on a torrid 14-3 extended run, going 7-8 from the field in that time and creating a 14-point lead, 50-36. That edge eventually grew to as much as the aforementioned 16 before the Eagles started their march back.
The Blue Raiders – who received votes in each of the first two Associated Press polls of the season – were led by a dominant double-double performance from Nick King as the former Memphis and Alabama transfer scored 32 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. He led a quartet of double-figure scorers as Brandon Walters tallied 12, David Simmons added 11 and Gibby Potts contributed 10 for Middle Tennessee, which shot 48.3 percent (29-60) from the field, including a 55.2-percent clip (16-29) in the 2nd half.
Christian Terrell (Jacksonville, Fla./Providence HS) scored seven points and secured a team-best eight rebounds for FGCU, which shot 41.2 percent (7-17) from 3-point range, but lost for just the 15th time at home in the last 95 games (80-15 since 2012-13).
Both Middle Tennessee and FGCU have made the NCAA Tournament three times in the previous five years. Both teams won a game in the tournament in 2016 (16 FGCU def. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson; 15 Middle Tennessee def. 2 Michigan State), while the Blue Raiders also picked up a victory last year (12 Middle Tennessee def. 5 Minnesota). In the history of the NCAA Tournament, 15 seeds have won nine total games – FGCU (2) and Middle Tennessee (1) are responsible for three of those victories.
This was FGCU’s third of six non-conference games against teams that finished in the top 40 of the RPI last year. Each of those teams won at least 25 games and played in the postseason. Along with dropping the pair of games to Middle Tennessee, FGCU defeated Illinois State in the season opener and still has games remaining at UT Arlington, Wichita State and Rhode Island this month.
FGCU will close out its season-high six-game homestand on Tuesday when the Eagles welcome cross-state foe FAU to Alico Arena for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff. The Owls are 4-3 on the year after defeating Bethune-Cookman Saturday night, 93-75, but two of those wins have come over non-D-I opponents. The game will be the backend of a doubleheader as the FGCU women face Southeastern at 4:30 p.m.
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