The FGCU men's basketball team (12-17, 7-7 A-SUN) upset A-SUN Conference leader Lipscomb (21-6, 12-2 A-SUN) 67-61 Wednesday night in Alico Arena.
The Eagles increased their A-SUN-leading home win streak to six games. The victory could not have come at a better time, as the Green and Blue continue to battle for a top-4 spot in the conference standings. With less than two weeks remaining in the regular season, NJIT (19-9, 7-6) maintained its third-place position, while the Eagles are still tied for fourth with North Florida (13-16, 7-7). North Alabama (9-19, 6-7) is in solo sixth, and Jacksonville (11-16, 5-8) sits in solo seventh.
The top four teams at the end of the regular season will earn home games in the opening round of the 2019 A-SUN Championship on March 4.
"I'm really proud of our entire roster tonight. We were able to find a way to play harder than those guys toward the end. They're as good a team as we've played all year," FGCU coach Michael Fly said. "We normally do goals for the game. I told them after the game to throw the goals out because tonight they played as hard as they could possibly play on almost every possession, and that's why we won the game."
“They (FGCU) definitely defended us well. Their plan was good and they gave us some problems early,” Lipscomb head coach Casey Alexander said. “I didn’t think we believed in what we were supposed to do offensively when teams guard us the way they did.
“I thought we panicked a little big and got too stagnant, but we also had some good looks that just didn’t go down.”
The Eagles received big-time efforts from multiple players, including a game-high 16-point contribution from redshirt senior Dinero Mercurius. The senior went 7-for-7 at the free-throw line and added five rebounds. Classmate Schadrac Casimir scored 15 points, while junior Christian Carlyle contributed 13 points of his own. True freshman Zach Scott tallied eight points and a season-high eight rebounds, while sophomore Brian Thomas finished with seven rebounds and a career-high six blocks.
“They guarded us completely different than they did the first time, as they went almost entirely man tonight,” Alexander said. “They switched a lot of screens and let us play 1-on-1 in the post.
“We’ve got really good post players and tonight just wasn’t their night. They have carried us all year long, but we didn’t do enough to help them. We are going to keep throwing it to them.”
The visitors came out early and showed why they are ranked No. 36 in the nation by taking an early 11-5 advantage. The Eagles answered right back and showed the power of Alico by countering with a 6-0 run of their own to tie the game. Neither team went on top by more than four points the rest of the first half, and it was the Bison who were able to grind into a 26-23 lead with less than four minutes left. An and-1 from Carlyle and four points from true freshman Caleb Catto helped FGCU close the half on a 7-2 run to take a 30-28 lead. The result marked the second time all year during league play that Lipscomb both had failed to reach 30 points in the first half and trailed at the break.
The Eagles built a 35-30 advantage across the first two minutes of the second half, but the Bisons scored the next 10 points to move ahead by five. Lipscomb was able to stretch its advantage out to 49-42 with 9:30 remaining on the clock, but the Green and Blue scored the next seven points to pull level at the 6:33 mark.
The next two possessions saw the Bisons continue to find leads, but the home team also continued to counter with buckets of their own. A 5-0 run gave the Eagles a slim 56-53 advantage with four minutes remaining, but a pair of free throws from Lipscomb brought the visitors to within one at the 3:41 mark. That began the most important sequence of the game. FGCU chewed nearly two entire minutes off the clock thanks to three huge offensive rebounds, two that were hauled in by junior Brady Ernst. The possession ended with two Mercurius free throws, and a Carlyle jumper in the paint with 58 seconds left put the Green and Blue on top by five. The Eagles went 11-for-12 on their free-throw attempts down the stretch to make sure they would hold on for the upset victory.
FGCU finished the game with 10 blocks, which was the first time reaching double figures in that category since Dec. 28, 2015 (at South Dakota). The Eagles also led the night in points in the paint (28-26) and bench production (23-18).
The home team shot 39.3 percent (22-for-56) from the field, 21.7 percent (5-for-23) from beyond the 3-point arc and 85.7 percent (18-for-21) at the free-throw line. Lipscomb was held to just 29.4 percent (20-for-68) overall, 31.8 percent (7-for-22) from distance and 77.8 percent (14-for-18) at the charity stripe.
The Bisons were held to their worst overall shooting day since Nov. 18, 2017 (at Texas). This also marked their worst shooting production against a conference opponent since Feb. 15, 2015 (at USC Upstate).
A-SUN leading scorer Garrison Mathews needed 17 shots just to finish with 16 points. This was the second time all season – and the first since Dec. 4 at Belmont – that he scored fewer points than shots taken. Kenny Cooper added 13 points, and Andrew Fleming contributed 10.
Up Next:
FGCU will play one more game inside Alico Arena this regular season on Saturday. The Eagles welcome Kennesaw State at 7 p.m. Feb. 23 for a Whiteout and Senior Night. FGCU topped KSU 72-59 in Georgia on Jan. 19.
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