The FGCU men's basketball team is preparing themselves for the A-SUN Conference Tournament Quarterfinals against Stetson. Both teams have faced each other twice in the season because all conferences in basketball have to face each other once at home and once away.
FGCU (23-7, 12-2 A-SUN) is in first place in the A-SUN Conference despite having only two losses at home in the A-SUN (USC Upstate: 62-60) and Lipscomb: 65-60). Stetson (11-20, 3-11 A-SUN) has lost both games to FGCU in the season. The first time FGCU faced Stetson at their home in which, FGCU won 89-88.
Five players for FGCU were in double figures in points: redshirt junior Brandon Goodwin (20), sophomore Rayjon Tucker (19), junior Christian Terrell (16), redshirt senior Demetris Morant (16) and redshirt junior Antravious Simmons (13).
Stetson went for a second chance to beat FGCU on our home turf on senior night, and although the Hatters started with a 17-5 run in the first half, FGCU managed to fight them off with an 80-70 win, thus also claiming the A-Sun season crown and the No. 1 seed in the tournament. Three players for FGCU were in double figures in points: redshirt sophomore Zach Johnson (24), Goodwin (18) and Tucker (12).
They will face each other for the third time. Of course, the old saying heard for certain matchups is "Third time is the charm", but this time Stetson will play us as the No. 8 seed in the tournament.
Some of the players that the Eagles have to work on to stop defensively are Divine Myles, Derick Newton and Luke Doyle.
Myles, a junior guard, is scoring 16.6 points per game. Facing the Eagles, he scored 21 points with five rebounds and seven assists in the first game and 11 points, three rebounds and eight assists in the second game. He is a slasher and that is something to keep an eye on.
Newton, a sophomore forward who received A-SUN Second Team All-Conference honors, leads the team in points per game (17.8) and face FGCU, he scored 18 points in the first game and 16 in the second. Newton also leads the team in rebounds per game (5.8).
Doyle, a junior guard scoring 10.6 points per game, scored 18 in the first game and 5 in the second game.
The last time both teams met (FGCU #4 seed, Stetson #7 seed) in the tournament was in the championship game last season, where FGCU was victorious winning the game 80-78 in overtime, thanks to Johnson with a game-saving block to secure them a spot in the national tournament.
Regardless of the conference tournament, Stetson was ineligible to go to the national tournament due to the violation of the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate (APR), so even if the Hatters would have won the championship tournament game, it would mean nothing, and the season champions, the University of North Florida (UNF), who was the No.1 seed in the tournament at the time, would secure the spot to the national tournament.
On our end, the players Stetson would expect to face including Goodwin, Morant and Marc-Eddy Norelia.
Goodwin, a who transferred from University of Central Florida (UCF) last year, and had to sit out the whole 2015-16 season due to the NCAA transfer rules, leads the team in points per game (17.9).
Goodwin was recently named A-SUN Newcomer of the Year and gained First Team All-Conference honors. He leads a strong charge in the eight of the 14 conference games. He scored at least 20 points in the game, so Stetson would have to keep an eye on him.
Morant is mainly used as a defensive role, hence winning the A-SUN Defensive Player of the Year, leads the team with 1.5 blocks per game. Morant's strengths are mainly dunks, rebounding and blocking. Morant, who is averaging 10.5 points per game, is also featured in the competition called the "Dark Horse Dunker"
After missing 10 straight games due to a hand injury and personal reasons, redshirt senior Norelia started making a comeback mainly as a role player, but slowly made his way back as a starter. Norelia is currently scoring 8.6 points per game.
The game started with introductions to both benches, and of course a lot of the fans turned their backs to the Stetson bench and the starters too.
The game went underway and the first basket was made by Norelia. The Hatters took a one point lead, but after a three point shot by Terrell, the Eagles took over the first half 48-30.
It was no difference in the second half, for the Eagles were on cruise control and put in the bench players redshirt junior Joshua Ko, sophomores Dolan Mahoney and Maxx Bleecher and freshman Rendjis Feikners and Christian Carlyle went on to win 87-57 and advance to the semifinals of the A-Sun tournament.
Goodwin finished with 13 points with five rebounds and eight assists.
Norelia finished with a double-double of 12 points and 15 rebounds.
Redshirt sophomore Zach Johnson led the team with 19 points.
Morant finished with eight points and six rebounds.
Sophomores Rayjon Tucker and Reggie Reid, redshirt juniors Antravious Simmons and Kevin Mickle and freshman Raysean Scott Jr. also contributed off the bench earlier in the game.
At the end of the game, the announcer gave updates of the other playoff games in the tournament: No. 5 Kennesaw State beat No.4 USC Upstate 80-70, No. 3 UNF beat No. 6 Jacksonville University 77-74 and No. 2 Lipscomb beat No. 7 NJIT 97-66.
So in the end, the FGCU Eagles will play the Kennesaw State Owls and the Lipscomb Bison will play the UNF Ospreys in the semifinals.
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2 comments:
I love how relevant this blog post is to the FGCU community! We have a big game coming up, and I like that you commented on the past games and what we have coming up! Really good blog post if you want to be informed on what's going on in our basketball world here at FGCU. Love it!
Great post! The timeliness is great because it's right in the heat of basketball season and I've personally seen a lot of hype revolving upcoming games. You did an effective job of giving the reader more insight to the team itself. I feel, having read this post, that I am more knowledgeable on the players that I wouldn't have necessarily paid attention to. You have extensive backgrounds on the player's records, and it's truly shown throughout this article. Great research on your topic. You also captured the significance that revolves around this game for readers who are not sure why it is so important. Keep up the great work and I hope to see a follow up from their game against Kennesaw.
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