Courtesy of FGCUAthletics.com
WICHITA, Kan. – The FGCU men’s basketball team (7-7) held a lead as large as seven in the 2nd half and were mired in a one-possession game with less than two minutes remaining at #11 Wichita State (10-2) Friday night at Charles Koch Arena, but the Shockers made a late run to hand the Eagles a hard-fought 75-65 setback.
The contest was tied, 61-61, with less than four minutes remaining, and the Eagles trailed by just three, 65-62, with under two minutes showing, but Wichita State – which was ranked #3 in the nation last week – closed the game on a 10-3 run with some clutch shots and free throws to win its 44th-consecutive non-conference home game.
Brandon Goodwin recorded his sixth-straight 20-point performance with exactly that total to lead the Eagles. The redshirt senior took over in the 2nd half, scoring 15 of his points in that stanza after Zach Johnson carried much of the offensive load in the 1st half when he tallied 12 of his 19.
The Eagles shot a season-low 37 percent (25-68) from the floor, but still had an opportunity to snap WSU’s home-court winning streak thanks in part to holding the Shockers to only 39 percent (22-56) from the field. FGCU outscored Wichita State in the paint, 28-16, held a 12-4 advantage in second-chance points and were +6 in points off turnovers.
However, the hosts marched to the free-throw line 26 times – 16 more attempts than what FGCU had, despite the Eagles out-scoring Wichita State in the paint by a dozen. The Shockers made 22 of those free throws (85 percent), while the Green and Blue connected on six of their 10 attempts.
“During crunch time, they (Shockers) made some big plays,” surmised FGCU head coach Joe Dooley. “When we were up we got a little bit impatient offensively, which we’ve had a tendency to do, but we can’t do that. Now, we did clean up some areas in terms of rebounding and a few others, but when you’re on the road against a team of their caliber you can’t make the mistakes that we made with the lead.”
FGCU – which has now lost five of its last six for the first time since 2010-11 – utilized a 13-0 run over 3+ minutes in the early stages of the 2nd half to create a 50-43 lead with less than 13 minutes remaining. The Shockers – who came into the game averaging nearly 87 points per game – responded with a 7-0 run to tie the contest, and the two sides traded blows the rest of the way until the final few minutes.
The Eagles put themselves in position in the 2nd half thanks in large part to the way they closed the final 10 minutes of the opening stanza. FGCU dug itself a 13-point deficit, 27-14, with just more than eight minutes remaining, but finished on an extended 19-8 run to head into the locker room at just a 35-33 halftime margin.
The Shockers – the only team in the nation which has won 30 or more games in four of the last five seasons – were led by a double-double performance from Darral Willis Jr. with 15 points and a game-best 13 rebounds. Landry Shamet paced WSU with 23 points, but those were the only two double-figure scorers for the Shockers, who went 9-24 (37.5 percent) from 3-point range.
In addition to Goodwin’s (Norcross, Ga./UCF/Norcross HS) point total, he grabbed a team-best eight rebounds and passed out a team-high three assists for the Eagles. Johnson (Miami, Fla./Norland HS), meanwhile, made a season-best five 3-pointers – one shy of matching his career high.
The Eagles battled on the boards with the Shockers, finishing just -4 (43-39), and actually out-rebounding them on the offensive end, 14-11.
Wichita State was the fifth opponent already this season for FGCU which finished in the top 40 of the RPI (29), won at least 25 games (31) and played in the postseason (NCAA) last year. The Eagles are now 2-3 against that group, with the wins coming over Illinois State and UT Arlington and the other two setbacks occurring to Middle Tennessee.
The road doesn’t get any easier for the Eagles. Following a couple days off, FGCU will return to action quickly after Christmas as the Eagles head to the Northeast on Dec. 26 before facing Rhode Island (7-3) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 27. The contest will be the second in a row for the Eagles televised nationally as it will air on ESPNU. URI – the preseason Atlantic 10 favorites – is receiving votes both national polls.
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