FGCU MBB @ NJIT Recap

A double-double by freshman Dakota Rivers alongside a hot-shooting first half paced the FGCU men's basketball team (9-20, 6-8 A-SUN) to a 55-39 road victory at NJIT (8-19, 5-9 A-SUN) on Saturday evening.

The win moved FGCU into a three-way tie for fifth-place in the ASUN standings. The Eagles are tied with both of next week's opponents - Jacksonville and North Alabama.

Rivers finished the game with 10 points and a career-high 13 rebounds – the most in a single-game this season for the Eagles and since RaySean Scott, Jr., had 14 against Florida International on Nov. 28, 2018. Rivers also added three blocked shots in his 23 minutes of playing time.

Sophomore Caleb Catto led the Eagles overall in scoring with 13 points, while junior Jalen Warren also notched 10 points alongside six rebounds and six assists. In just his second start of the year, freshman Cyrus Largie had eight points, six rebounds, two steals, an assist and a blocked shot.

"We fully believe if you keep working and give full effort, then good things will happen," said head coach Michael Fly. "I think all the work they've put in is starting to pay off and I'm happy to see Dakota and Cyrus get rewarded for the effort they gave tonight. We've had a lot of close games this year and had some good defensive performances, but have struggled shooting at points. We moved Tracy (Hector) into more of a play-maker spot because of his passing and that allowed us to keep more shooters in the game which I think really opened up the floor."

NJIT was led by Zach Cooks who scored 18 points and was the only Highlander to reach double figures.

The Eagles took a 35-24 lead into the intermission thanks to a 20-2 run spanning the latter half of the opening stanza. FGCU shot 14-of-28 from the field while holding the Highlanders to just 9-of-29 shooting. After NJIT scored 11 straight to go up 15-10, back-to-back triples from Rivers and Largie ignited the run for FGCU. Junior Sam Gagliardi's three-pointer at the 2:21 mark put the Eagles up 30-17 capping the 20-2 run which was the largest of the season. A quick five-point burst by NJIT after that closed the gap, but Catto added another triple with 16 seconds to go giving FGCU the 11 point lead at the break.

In the second half, FGCU was able to control a double-figure lead for most of the period. NJIT used a 5-to-2 spurt in the opening three minutes to cut its deficit to eight, 37-29, but back-to-back buckets by Rivers and Hardy put the Eagles back in control with the Highlanders unable to really push back down the stretch.

After a Hardy jumper with 4:16 left in the game, FGCU held NJIT scoreless for the balance while knocking down four straight free throws to give the final margin of victory.

Overall, FGCU held a 42-to-33 advantage in rebounding sparked by Rivers' performance. That limited the extra possessions for the Highlanders who scored their second fewest amount of points for a single game this season.

The first half shooting performance for the Eagles cooled in the second half to finish the game at 20-of-55 overall and 8-of-21 from deep, but defensively, FGCU held the Highlanders to just 25.5 percent (14-of-55) for the game including 5-of-26 after the intermission.