Early fouls came back to haunt the FGCU men's basketball team as it dropped a 64-59 result to Robert Morris on Saturday night at Alico Arena. In a game that saw nine lead changes and nine ties, it was ultimately the Colonials' trips to the charity stripe in the final minutes that made the difference.
"We're frustrated because I think we are a better team than our record shows. I thought tonight we saw us take some positive steps forward in certain areas, we're just a play or two away, unfortunately, from really having success. I still think we are going to mature into a good team, but the scoreboard just isn't indicating that right now. It's hard to win games when you are young and inexperienced. These are some growing pains that I know frustrate our fans, who have been so tremendously supportive of us, but I do see a bright future ahead for us."
Though FGCU (2-10) opened up the night with a 5-0 run, Robert Morris (3-8) eventually broke the seal around the 17-minute mark and proceeded to take its first lead of the game shortly after. Redshirt sophomore Malik Hardy gave the home team a 21-20 edge with two minutes left in the first half, but the Colonials responded with an 8-0 run to take a 28-21 advantage into the break.
In the opening minutes of the second half, Robert Morris continued to find success on the offensive end of the floor and led by as much as 11 at one point. The Green and Blue slowly chipped away at the lead until a dunk from junior Justus Rainwater and an ensuing free throw pulled the home team within two at the 11:36 mark.
FGCU eventually took its first lead since the opening half when senior Tracy Hector Jr. found sophomore Zach Scott, who made a layup that put the team up 46-45 with just under seven minutes to go. The Colonials used being in the bonus to their advantage and tried to pull away with free throws until Scott tied things up once again at 49 points apiece with five minutes left in the game.
The teams kept things close in the final minutes of play. Sophomore Caleb Catto's back-to-back treys regained the lead for the home team at 55-54 with four and a half minutes to go, but Robert Morris' trips to the charity stripe powered the visiting team past the Eagles.
A free throw by junior Jalen Warren cut the edge down to just three in the final seconds of play, but the home team could not find the momentum to overtake the Colonials.
Despite the loss, FGCU held a 28-20 advantage in points in the paint, which was boosted by a perfect 5-of-5 night from Rainwater. In addition to his 11-point contribution, both Scott (14) and Warren (12) finished with double-digit points. The Eagles also held a 38-36 advantage in second-half scoring, but it wasn't enough to overcome Robert Morris' first-half margin.
Up Next:
Following an 11-day break for exams, the Eagles will hit the road to take on South Dakota State on Wednesday, Dec. 18. Tip-off against the Jackrabbits is slated for 7 p.m. and the game will be streamed on ESPN+.
About Me
Robert's 3s Sends Saints Marching in Final 2019 Home Game
After being down by as much as 12 points, the SCF basketball team (10-4) pulled away with their second sweep of the season as they defeated Santa Fe (6-6) in a tight knit game by a score of 84-80. With the win, the Manatees are now 7-10 against the Saints and have closed out their final home game of 2019.
"It was a really ugly basketball game today," said head coach Tom Parks. "Both teams came out way too relaxed, although Santa Fe was less relaxed than us. I feel like we just handed them a 12-point lead to start the game and then decided to show up and play basketball for the next 35 minutes or so."
"It was an up-and-down game today," said sophomore Remy Robert II on the game. "We started slow, but I think that we came back in the first half and really put our standpoint that we were here to play once we picked ourselves up. In the second half, once again we were up and down yet we made some big winning plays to win the game. It definitely felt good to get the final home win of 2019, especially when we're trying to protect the home court that we play at home and we don't like losing at home, so it felt really good to come out and put on a show for the crowd to get the win."
The first half started with the Saints taking a 7-0 run for the first two and a half minutes until sophomore Isiah Dasher got the Manatees on the board with a layup. One minute later, with the score 10-2 Santa Fe, freshman Jordan Clark would get the next points on the board with a layup of his own to make it 10-4 still in favor of Santa Fe.
With five minutes in to the first half, the Saints held an 11-point lead until Dasher hit a 3-point shot that cut it to eight, but as the Manatees kept adding to their boxscore the Saints would continue to extend their lead, yet the Manatees kept fighting with big rebounds from freshman Sam Grayson and sophomore Max Bell-Ramos. Eventually, the Manatees cut the Saints' lead to one point after a dunk by Bell-Ramos before the first half ended with the score 45-43 still in favor of Santa Fe.
At the start of the second half, the Manatees got off to a very rocky start after giving up five straight points, but after a quick timeout by Parks and a rebound and putback shot by Grayson, the Manatees started to fight while taking advantage of several Saints' turnovers and eventually at the 16 minute mark, Clark would hit a hook shot and tie the game at 50-50. A rebound by Hodge and another putback shot by Grayson gave the Manatees their first lead of the game until a dunk by sophomore Ryan Leonard tied the game at 52-52 before Grayson hit a layup of his own to regain the Manatees' lead and a layup by Hodge and dunk by Clark off a Saints turnover extended the lead to 58-52 SCF before the Saints called a timeout.
Around the 12 minute mark, the Saints cut the Manatees lead to two before eventually tying the at 60-60 until a 3-pointer by redshirt freshman Calvin McCutcheon gave the Manatees a 63-60 lead. Strong rebounding by Bell-Ramos and Hodge continued to help the Manatees until a Leonard 3-pointer helped regain the Saints lead to 64-63, but the Manatees then found an equalizer behind the arch in Robert as he a 3-pointer off a bank shot to give the Manatees back their lead and get ahead by two. From there, back-to-back dunks by Hodge extended the Manatees lead to six before a 3-pointer by Dasher extended it to nine points.
With less than two minutes left and the Manatees ahead 77-76, the Manatees took a gamble with another shot Robert as the Baton Rouge native hit a second 3-pointer to give the Manatees an 80-76 lead until a Leonard layup made it 80-78 still in favor of SCF before a layup by freshman Yaw Obeng-Mensah tied the game up at 80 a piece before Parks called a timeout.
"Getting those 3-point shots shows my teammates trusting me and finding me a position to be successful which I got into," said Robert on his 3-pointers.
With 40 seconds left, Hodge attempted to give the Manatees a lead with a 3-pointer but was fouled behind the line and made two of three free throw attempts. The Saints would try to tie the lead after two shots by freshman Josiah Tynes before Obeng-Mensah was blocked by Bell-Ramos. Hodge would secure the key rebound before drawing the intentional foul with 2.9 seconds left and scoring two successful free throws before securing the final win. The win for the Manatees turned out to be the final home game of 2019 before the new year.
Four Manatees scored in double figures, but it was once again Hodge that led the Manatees offensively. The sophomore and upcoming transfer to Cleveland State led the team with 25 points (9-for-19 FG, 3-for-8 3PT, 4-for-5 FT), seven rebounds, three assists and five steals. Hodge was named NJCAA National Player of the Week last week.
"D'Moi was a little frustrated today," said Parks on Hodge. "He's finding that it is becoming more and more difficult for him to score as teams are now cluing in on him. I told him after the game 'If you score 44 points on somebody for the first time, what do you expect for the next time?' and so I think we knew that they (Santa Fe) were going to clue in on him and I don't think we were prepared as much because we kind of thought that things worked themselves out, which they did, but they probably don't work themselves out if you're playing the top three or four team in Florida. Despite getting flustered, D'Moi made a few big plays late in the game, which he typically does."
Dasher followed Hodge with 14 points (6-for-20 FG, 2-for-5 3PT), four rebounds, one assist and two steals before fouling out. Clark had 11 points (4-for-8 FG, 1-for-1 FT), three rebounds, four assists and three steals, while Grayson rounded out the lineup with a season-high 10 points (3-for-5 FG, 4-for-4 FT) and five rebounds.
"Although I'm still on the road to recovery, I'm getting fitter every day," said Grayson on his performance. "I'm learning and getting better every day. It kind of showed on the court today because I'm starting to get back to where I was. I played a good game, but there's still stuff I need to learn so I can improve a lot more."
"Sam nowhere near where he's going to be," said Parks on Grayson. "Sam and I had a heart-to-heart talk about a week ago on the things he needs to do to take the next step on our team. Sam is great and super coachable based on his energy levels, but while he's a forward where he gets trapped into that 'I'm a big slow guy and this is how I move' kind of feel. I did tell Sam that he needs to get a little more pep in his step and when we start practice, you need to be ready to go and not take another 20 minutes to warm up so you can try to get as many reps in. He's got in a lot better shape in the last week and that's a big part of it. Sam's a good athlete, but he hasn't been in shape due to past health issues the past six months when he was back in Australia."
"We went to this game thinking it's just another game and we beat them last time in overtime," said Grayson on the game. "I know we could've been a lot more better than last time, so there's things we had to improve on from last time to this game. To be honest, I don't think we executed that well, but in the end we got the win and that's all we can hope for but we just got to keep learning as a team and doing stuff we need to do. Every time we play at home, we don't want to lose and that's just our number one rule that we don't lose at home and to win on a close game at the end felt really good, even though it should have been a bigger score. We still got the win at home and that's all that matters."
Robert II finished with six points and four assists in the game.
"If you're a guard on our team and not starting, then you got to do some really really good things to be on the floor. When you have player A (Hodge) averaging 27 (points) a game, player B (Dasher) adding 17 points a game and player C (Clark) averaging 15 a game and they're all guards, then you better bring something to the table and Remy (Robert) brings to the table is that he is a very good defender," said Parks on Robert. "Most people think he's a shooter and he is a good shooter, but he's a much better defender than he is a shooter. He just really solid and takes a lot of pride in his shot. When he steps on the floor, he's on a mission defensively and will allow his man to get anything easy."
"It feels good to get the final win," said Parks on the win. "But it's also a little disappointing because we had two losses at home in 2019 with one of them to FSW, which I did not like at all, but it is what it is and it was good to finish on a good note."
"This is somewhere where we can embrace and take a lot of pride in our facilities and being at home, we can take more pride in it and I just think today is a game and I tell our guys regardless of the score it is, win or loss, I'm going to coach you based on our performance, not our outcome and so after the game it was like 'hey good job, you guys got the win against a Florida JUCO'. To me, that's a team you got to beat 98 times out of 100 and I just felt we didn't approach the game that way and I thought we'd assumed things were going to be handed to us and roll the ball out. I didn't like our mindset for the game, but the great part about it was we won and we're going to learn from a win lots of places that will be brushed under the rug and they won't learn from it but will celebrate it. We still got to figure out how to handle success and how to get better in a way. We're going to dissect some film during this long week of practice so we can clean some stuff so we can get better."
Bell-Ramos and freshman Marshall Kearing finished with seven points each. Bell-Ramos (3-for-6 FG, 1-for-2 FT) added two rebounds, an assist and a block, while Kearing (3-for-3 FG, 1-for-1 FT) added three rebounds, an assist and a steal.
McCutcheon finished with four points, one rebound, one assist and three steals, while freshman Michael Gavin added three rebounds and two assists.
Four Saints ended up in double figures in scoring. Leonard led with 23 points and seven assists, while Obeng-Mensah had a double-double of 16 points and 13 rebounds and Tynes contributed 13 points and four assists. Freshman Jovan Jovanovic rounded out the lineup finishing with 12 points and five rebounds off the bench.
Personal Note: I had to miss the entire first half and a couple of minutes of the second half because of work, which is understandable. And of course, I did say I was going to be late for the game and as soon as I arrived, the Manatees had some life in them.
Other Suncoast Scores:
#7 Florida Southwestern (11-1) defeated Combine Academy by a score of 112-74 at home Friday night. The Buccaneers will travel to Miami to take on Miami Dade Tuesday night, December 10 at 7:30 pm.
Polk State (10-2) defeated Santa Fe College 92-81 Wednesday night before competing in the Chipola College Classic in Mariana, Florida with two upset wins over #6 Gulf Coast State (73-67) and #15 Chipola (73-69). The Eagles will join SCF and compete in the two-day Florida College's Men's Basketball Shootout, hosted by CCF. They will face Florida State College at Jacksonville on day one before facing Pensacola College on day two.
St. Pete College (6-6) competed in Georgia where they defeated Southern Crescent Technical College 63-35 Friday night, December 7 before defeating Gordon State by a score of 50-49 Saturday afternoon, December 8. The Titans will compete in the two-day Florida College's Men's Basketball Shootout. They will face #15 Chipola at 6 pm Friday night, December 14 before facing ASA Miami at 1 pm Saturday afternoon, December 15.
Hillsborough (4-6) fell to Indian River State on the road losing by a score of 101-77. The Hawks will be back in action as they face ASA Miami Sunday afternoon, December 8 at 1 pm before joining the rest of the Suncoast Conference at the JUCO Shootout
Notes:
With his 25 points, Hodge now has 954 career points and is now 46 away from reaching 1,000 career points.
Dasher's 14 points put him at 748 and is now 252 shy of also reaching 1,000 career points.
SCF Fun Fact (2012-present):
The Manatees are 6-3 when winning the final home game before the new year.
Up Next:
The Manatees will return to Ocala on neutral grounds as they compete in the two-day weekend Florida College's Men's Basketball Shootout, hosted by CCF December 14-15. The Manatees will face ASA Miami (3-8) on Friday afternoon at 2 pm and Florida State College at Jacksonville (4-6) Saturday afternoon at 4 pm.
"It was a really ugly basketball game today," said head coach Tom Parks. "Both teams came out way too relaxed, although Santa Fe was less relaxed than us. I feel like we just handed them a 12-point lead to start the game and then decided to show up and play basketball for the next 35 minutes or so."
"It was an up-and-down game today," said sophomore Remy Robert II on the game. "We started slow, but I think that we came back in the first half and really put our standpoint that we were here to play once we picked ourselves up. In the second half, once again we were up and down yet we made some big winning plays to win the game. It definitely felt good to get the final home win of 2019, especially when we're trying to protect the home court that we play at home and we don't like losing at home, so it felt really good to come out and put on a show for the crowd to get the win."
The first half started with the Saints taking a 7-0 run for the first two and a half minutes until sophomore Isiah Dasher got the Manatees on the board with a layup. One minute later, with the score 10-2 Santa Fe, freshman Jordan Clark would get the next points on the board with a layup of his own to make it 10-4 still in favor of Santa Fe.
With five minutes in to the first half, the Saints held an 11-point lead until Dasher hit a 3-point shot that cut it to eight, but as the Manatees kept adding to their boxscore the Saints would continue to extend their lead, yet the Manatees kept fighting with big rebounds from freshman Sam Grayson and sophomore Max Bell-Ramos. Eventually, the Manatees cut the Saints' lead to one point after a dunk by Bell-Ramos before the first half ended with the score 45-43 still in favor of Santa Fe.
At the start of the second half, the Manatees got off to a very rocky start after giving up five straight points, but after a quick timeout by Parks and a rebound and putback shot by Grayson, the Manatees started to fight while taking advantage of several Saints' turnovers and eventually at the 16 minute mark, Clark would hit a hook shot and tie the game at 50-50. A rebound by Hodge and another putback shot by Grayson gave the Manatees their first lead of the game until a dunk by sophomore Ryan Leonard tied the game at 52-52 before Grayson hit a layup of his own to regain the Manatees' lead and a layup by Hodge and dunk by Clark off a Saints turnover extended the lead to 58-52 SCF before the Saints called a timeout.
Around the 12 minute mark, the Saints cut the Manatees lead to two before eventually tying the at 60-60 until a 3-pointer by redshirt freshman Calvin McCutcheon gave the Manatees a 63-60 lead. Strong rebounding by Bell-Ramos and Hodge continued to help the Manatees until a Leonard 3-pointer helped regain the Saints lead to 64-63, but the Manatees then found an equalizer behind the arch in Robert as he a 3-pointer off a bank shot to give the Manatees back their lead and get ahead by two. From there, back-to-back dunks by Hodge extended the Manatees lead to six before a 3-pointer by Dasher extended it to nine points.
With less than two minutes left and the Manatees ahead 77-76, the Manatees took a gamble with another shot Robert as the Baton Rouge native hit a second 3-pointer to give the Manatees an 80-76 lead until a Leonard layup made it 80-78 still in favor of SCF before a layup by freshman Yaw Obeng-Mensah tied the game up at 80 a piece before Parks called a timeout.
"Getting those 3-point shots shows my teammates trusting me and finding me a position to be successful which I got into," said Robert on his 3-pointers.
With 40 seconds left, Hodge attempted to give the Manatees a lead with a 3-pointer but was fouled behind the line and made two of three free throw attempts. The Saints would try to tie the lead after two shots by freshman Josiah Tynes before Obeng-Mensah was blocked by Bell-Ramos. Hodge would secure the key rebound before drawing the intentional foul with 2.9 seconds left and scoring two successful free throws before securing the final win. The win for the Manatees turned out to be the final home game of 2019 before the new year.
Four Manatees scored in double figures, but it was once again Hodge that led the Manatees offensively. The sophomore and upcoming transfer to Cleveland State led the team with 25 points (9-for-19 FG, 3-for-8 3PT, 4-for-5 FT), seven rebounds, three assists and five steals. Hodge was named NJCAA National Player of the Week last week.
"D'Moi was a little frustrated today," said Parks on Hodge. "He's finding that it is becoming more and more difficult for him to score as teams are now cluing in on him. I told him after the game 'If you score 44 points on somebody for the first time, what do you expect for the next time?' and so I think we knew that they (Santa Fe) were going to clue in on him and I don't think we were prepared as much because we kind of thought that things worked themselves out, which they did, but they probably don't work themselves out if you're playing the top three or four team in Florida. Despite getting flustered, D'Moi made a few big plays late in the game, which he typically does."
Dasher followed Hodge with 14 points (6-for-20 FG, 2-for-5 3PT), four rebounds, one assist and two steals before fouling out. Clark had 11 points (4-for-8 FG, 1-for-1 FT), three rebounds, four assists and three steals, while Grayson rounded out the lineup with a season-high 10 points (3-for-5 FG, 4-for-4 FT) and five rebounds.
"Although I'm still on the road to recovery, I'm getting fitter every day," said Grayson on his performance. "I'm learning and getting better every day. It kind of showed on the court today because I'm starting to get back to where I was. I played a good game, but there's still stuff I need to learn so I can improve a lot more."
"Sam nowhere near where he's going to be," said Parks on Grayson. "Sam and I had a heart-to-heart talk about a week ago on the things he needs to do to take the next step on our team. Sam is great and super coachable based on his energy levels, but while he's a forward where he gets trapped into that 'I'm a big slow guy and this is how I move' kind of feel. I did tell Sam that he needs to get a little more pep in his step and when we start practice, you need to be ready to go and not take another 20 minutes to warm up so you can try to get as many reps in. He's got in a lot better shape in the last week and that's a big part of it. Sam's a good athlete, but he hasn't been in shape due to past health issues the past six months when he was back in Australia."
"We went to this game thinking it's just another game and we beat them last time in overtime," said Grayson on the game. "I know we could've been a lot more better than last time, so there's things we had to improve on from last time to this game. To be honest, I don't think we executed that well, but in the end we got the win and that's all we can hope for but we just got to keep learning as a team and doing stuff we need to do. Every time we play at home, we don't want to lose and that's just our number one rule that we don't lose at home and to win on a close game at the end felt really good, even though it should have been a bigger score. We still got the win at home and that's all that matters."
Robert II finished with six points and four assists in the game.
"If you're a guard on our team and not starting, then you got to do some really really good things to be on the floor. When you have player A (Hodge) averaging 27 (points) a game, player B (Dasher) adding 17 points a game and player C (Clark) averaging 15 a game and they're all guards, then you better bring something to the table and Remy (Robert) brings to the table is that he is a very good defender," said Parks on Robert. "Most people think he's a shooter and he is a good shooter, but he's a much better defender than he is a shooter. He just really solid and takes a lot of pride in his shot. When he steps on the floor, he's on a mission defensively and will allow his man to get anything easy."
"It feels good to get the final win," said Parks on the win. "But it's also a little disappointing because we had two losses at home in 2019 with one of them to FSW, which I did not like at all, but it is what it is and it was good to finish on a good note."
"This is somewhere where we can embrace and take a lot of pride in our facilities and being at home, we can take more pride in it and I just think today is a game and I tell our guys regardless of the score it is, win or loss, I'm going to coach you based on our performance, not our outcome and so after the game it was like 'hey good job, you guys got the win against a Florida JUCO'. To me, that's a team you got to beat 98 times out of 100 and I just felt we didn't approach the game that way and I thought we'd assumed things were going to be handed to us and roll the ball out. I didn't like our mindset for the game, but the great part about it was we won and we're going to learn from a win lots of places that will be brushed under the rug and they won't learn from it but will celebrate it. We still got to figure out how to handle success and how to get better in a way. We're going to dissect some film during this long week of practice so we can clean some stuff so we can get better."
Bell-Ramos and freshman Marshall Kearing finished with seven points each. Bell-Ramos (3-for-6 FG, 1-for-2 FT) added two rebounds, an assist and a block, while Kearing (3-for-3 FG, 1-for-1 FT) added three rebounds, an assist and a steal.
McCutcheon finished with four points, one rebound, one assist and three steals, while freshman Michael Gavin added three rebounds and two assists.
Four Saints ended up in double figures in scoring. Leonard led with 23 points and seven assists, while Obeng-Mensah had a double-double of 16 points and 13 rebounds and Tynes contributed 13 points and four assists. Freshman Jovan Jovanovic rounded out the lineup finishing with 12 points and five rebounds off the bench.
Personal Note: I had to miss the entire first half and a couple of minutes of the second half because of work, which is understandable. And of course, I did say I was going to be late for the game and as soon as I arrived, the Manatees had some life in them.
Other Suncoast Scores:
#7 Florida Southwestern (11-1) defeated Combine Academy by a score of 112-74 at home Friday night. The Buccaneers will travel to Miami to take on Miami Dade Tuesday night, December 10 at 7:30 pm.
Polk State (10-2) defeated Santa Fe College 92-81 Wednesday night before competing in the Chipola College Classic in Mariana, Florida with two upset wins over #6 Gulf Coast State (73-67) and #15 Chipola (73-69). The Eagles will join SCF and compete in the two-day Florida College's Men's Basketball Shootout, hosted by CCF. They will face Florida State College at Jacksonville on day one before facing Pensacola College on day two.
St. Pete College (6-6) competed in Georgia where they defeated Southern Crescent Technical College 63-35 Friday night, December 7 before defeating Gordon State by a score of 50-49 Saturday afternoon, December 8. The Titans will compete in the two-day Florida College's Men's Basketball Shootout. They will face #15 Chipola at 6 pm Friday night, December 14 before facing ASA Miami at 1 pm Saturday afternoon, December 15.
Hillsborough (4-6) fell to Indian River State on the road losing by a score of 101-77. The Hawks will be back in action as they face ASA Miami Sunday afternoon, December 8 at 1 pm before joining the rest of the Suncoast Conference at the JUCO Shootout
Notes:
With his 25 points, Hodge now has 954 career points and is now 46 away from reaching 1,000 career points.
Dasher's 14 points put him at 748 and is now 252 shy of also reaching 1,000 career points.
SCF Fun Fact (2012-present):
The Manatees are 6-3 when winning the final home game before the new year.
Up Next:
The Manatees will return to Ocala on neutral grounds as they compete in the two-day weekend Florida College's Men's Basketball Shootout, hosted by CCF December 14-15. The Manatees will face ASA Miami (3-8) on Friday afternoon at 2 pm and Florida State College at Jacksonville (4-6) Saturday afternoon at 4 pm.
FGCU WBB @ Houston Recap
Senior Tytionia Adderly and grad student Ashli O'Neal combined for 31 points to lead FGCU women's basketball team (9-1) to its sixth-straight victory in a 57-45 win over Houston (4-5) on the road in the Fertitta Center on Wednesday afternoon.
The 9-1 start is the second-best in the program's Division I era behind a 14-0 beginning for the 2010-11 team. It was the first time the Eagles have played Houston on the road, and they improved to 2-0 in the all-time series.
"Ty was outstanding, and Ashli gave us a big spark off the bench," FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said. "Keri also really helped us on the boards today. Defensively, I thought we did a pretty good job for most of the game. Offensively, we were a little stagnant, but our defense kept us in it."
Adderly matched her season-high on 7-for-12 shooting while adding seven rebounds, two steals and one assist, while O'Neal shot 3-for-7 from long distance and made all four of her free throw attempts.
Redshirt senior Davion Wingate added 11 points and a career-high three blocks, while classmate Keri Jewett-Giles had nine points and seven rebounds, which tied Adderly for the team high.
The Green and Blue never trailed in the game, getting a go-ahead 3-pointer from Adderly with 7:46 left in the opening quarter as the senior tallied seven of her team's first nine points. The Cougars were able to tie the game for a second time at 11 apiece, but O'Neal and redshirt junior Kerstie Phills hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give FGCU a four-point cushion through one.
Wingate scored four points during a 6-0 run that give the Eagles a 26-16 lead with 5:53 left in the half. She later teamed with O'Neal on a 5-0 run that stretched the margin to 15 with 53 seconds left before FGCU went into the break with a 33-20 lead.
The Cougars were able to cut their deficit down to nine with 3:37 left in the third quarter, but a 7-2 run by the Eagles pushed the lead back up to 14.
O'Neal then scored the final five points of the frame and tacked on four more to open up the fourth, which gave her team a game-high 16-point lead with 6:39 left. The Eagles lead never dipped below 11 the rest of the way.
Notes:
With her seven rebounds, Adderly has 947 in her career, which moves her past Kristy Brown (Stetson, 2001-05, 941) for 14th-most in A-SUN history. Next up is Kat Sungy (Jacksonville, 1999-2003, 956). She is looking to become one of only 12 players in conference history to reach 1,000 career rebounds.
O'Neal pushed her career scoring total to 940, which puts her 60 shy of becoming the fourth player on this year's team to reach 1,000 in an NCAA career.
Lisa Zderadicka, who played for the Eagles over the past two years and led the team to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances, was in attendance at the game.
Up Next:
FGCU will now return home for three straight, beginning with a 7 p.m. tilt against Florida Memorial on Dec. 9. Following that, they'll host Central Connecticut State on Dec. 17 at 7 p.m. before a big showdown with No. 25 LSU on Dec. 19 inside Alico Arena.
The 9-1 start is the second-best in the program's Division I era behind a 14-0 beginning for the 2010-11 team. It was the first time the Eagles have played Houston on the road, and they improved to 2-0 in the all-time series.
"Ty was outstanding, and Ashli gave us a big spark off the bench," FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said. "Keri also really helped us on the boards today. Defensively, I thought we did a pretty good job for most of the game. Offensively, we were a little stagnant, but our defense kept us in it."
Adderly matched her season-high on 7-for-12 shooting while adding seven rebounds, two steals and one assist, while O'Neal shot 3-for-7 from long distance and made all four of her free throw attempts.
Redshirt senior Davion Wingate added 11 points and a career-high three blocks, while classmate Keri Jewett-Giles had nine points and seven rebounds, which tied Adderly for the team high.
The Green and Blue never trailed in the game, getting a go-ahead 3-pointer from Adderly with 7:46 left in the opening quarter as the senior tallied seven of her team's first nine points. The Cougars were able to tie the game for a second time at 11 apiece, but O'Neal and redshirt junior Kerstie Phills hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give FGCU a four-point cushion through one.
Wingate scored four points during a 6-0 run that give the Eagles a 26-16 lead with 5:53 left in the half. She later teamed with O'Neal on a 5-0 run that stretched the margin to 15 with 53 seconds left before FGCU went into the break with a 33-20 lead.
The Cougars were able to cut their deficit down to nine with 3:37 left in the third quarter, but a 7-2 run by the Eagles pushed the lead back up to 14.
O'Neal then scored the final five points of the frame and tacked on four more to open up the fourth, which gave her team a game-high 16-point lead with 6:39 left. The Eagles lead never dipped below 11 the rest of the way.
Notes:
With her seven rebounds, Adderly has 947 in her career, which moves her past Kristy Brown (Stetson, 2001-05, 941) for 14th-most in A-SUN history. Next up is Kat Sungy (Jacksonville, 1999-2003, 956). She is looking to become one of only 12 players in conference history to reach 1,000 career rebounds.
O'Neal pushed her career scoring total to 940, which puts her 60 shy of becoming the fourth player on this year's team to reach 1,000 in an NCAA career.
Lisa Zderadicka, who played for the Eagles over the past two years and led the team to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances, was in attendance at the game.
Up Next:
FGCU will now return home for three straight, beginning with a 7 p.m. tilt against Florida Memorial on Dec. 9. Following that, they'll host Central Connecticut State on Dec. 17 at 7 p.m. before a big showdown with No. 25 LSU on Dec. 19 inside Alico Arena.
SCF VB Finishes Final Match on a Good Note
The SCF volleyball team (5-19) finished their final season match on a good note as they shutout Florida Gateway (10-25) 3-0 (25-12, 25-19, 25-16) in their second ever matchup.
Thank you SCF volleyball for letting me write about y'all this season and I look forward to writing more about you next season.
It was freshman Lisa Jaunet that led the Manatees offensively as she finished with nine kills, eight digs, two block and an ace, while classmates Bailey Sikkema and Jazmin Spencer followed with seven kills each. Sikkema added three aces, an assist, two digs and a block, while Spencer added two digs and seven blocks (one solo).
Freshman Gracee Carpino led the Manatees with 50 assists to go along with three kills, two aces, six digs and a block.
Defensively, aside from Spencer's seven blocks, sophomore Barbora Tichackova led the team with eight blocks to go along with four kills, while classmate Daviya Bernard added four blocks (two solo) of her own to go with her lone kill and lone assist.
Sophomore Sydney Jaco wrapped up her final match as she finished with 11 digs, an ace and six assists.
Sophomore Hannah Strickland (two digs) and freshmen Brooke Henry (one dig) and Leilani Wilcox-Nanai (an ace and two digs) also contributed for the Manatees.
Freshman Courtney Williamson led the Timberwolves offensively with a team-leading six kills and a block, while classmate Kaeley Kellar followed with five kills and five digs. Freshman Karen Hill finished with 13 assists and two digs.
Defensively for the Timberwolves, freshman Kaci Law led the way with 11 digs.
Suncoast Conference Record Change:
It was just found out that the Manatees were now 2-4 in the Suncoast Conference and finished in third place in conference play.
Q: How did the Manatees end up in third when they were 0-6 in conference play?
A: SPC, who were originally the runner-up behind Suncoast Regular Season Champions Hillsborough and were scheduled to play in the FCSAA State Tournament, had an ineligible player that played during the season, which is a symbol of cheating. As a result of the situation, all of the Titans wins, including the ones Suncoast play, were changed to loss and they would officially finish 0-16 overall with an 0-6 record in the Suncoast.
Furthermore, Florida Southwestern State (FSW) took their place as Suncoast runner-up and competed in the FCSAA State Tournament.
This concluded the season for Jaco, Tichackova, Bernard, Strickland and classmate Lakeesha Esseboom as they close off their sophomore campaign and put together their highlights for their next journeys. Jaco now ends her volleyball career at SCF with 1,230 career digs.
Sophomore Emily Sauceda is still deciding whether or not to play this season for SCF or continue at the next collegiate level since she technically still has one year of eligibility remaining.
Freshman Gracee Carpino led the Manatees with 50 assists to go along with three kills, two aces, six digs and a block.
Defensively, aside from Spencer's seven blocks, sophomore Barbora Tichackova led the team with eight blocks to go along with four kills, while classmate Daviya Bernard added four blocks (two solo) of her own to go with her lone kill and lone assist.
Sophomore Sydney Jaco wrapped up her final match as she finished with 11 digs, an ace and six assists.
Sophomore Hannah Strickland (two digs) and freshmen Brooke Henry (one dig) and Leilani Wilcox-Nanai (an ace and two digs) also contributed for the Manatees.
Freshman Courtney Williamson led the Timberwolves offensively with a team-leading six kills and a block, while classmate Kaeley Kellar followed with five kills and five digs. Freshman Karen Hill finished with 13 assists and two digs.
Defensively for the Timberwolves, freshman Kaci Law led the way with 11 digs.
Suncoast Conference Record Change:
It was just found out that the Manatees were now 2-4 in the Suncoast Conference and finished in third place in conference play.
Q: How did the Manatees end up in third when they were 0-6 in conference play?
A: SPC, who were originally the runner-up behind Suncoast Regular Season Champions Hillsborough and were scheduled to play in the FCSAA State Tournament, had an ineligible player that played during the season, which is a symbol of cheating. As a result of the situation, all of the Titans wins, including the ones Suncoast play, were changed to loss and they would officially finish 0-16 overall with an 0-6 record in the Suncoast.
Furthermore, Florida Southwestern State (FSW) took their place as Suncoast runner-up and competed in the FCSAA State Tournament.
This concluded the season for Jaco, Tichackova, Bernard, Strickland and classmate Lakeesha Esseboom as they close off their sophomore campaign and put together their highlights for their next journeys. Jaco now ends her volleyball career at SCF with 1,230 career digs.
Sophomore Emily Sauceda is still deciding whether or not to play this season for SCF or continue at the next collegiate level since she technically still has one year of eligibility remaining.
Thank you SCF volleyball for letting me write about y'all this season and I look forward to writing more about you next season.
2nd Herd Returns Home for Santa Fe
The SCF basketball team (9-4) return home from their trip in Ocala as they welcome Santa Fe (6-4) to Hal Chasey Gymnasium Saturday afternoon, December 7 at 4 pm. This will be the Manatees' final home game of 2019.
Last Time Out:
The Manatees are coming off of facing Central Florida in a heartbreaker as they fell 87-79 in Ocala, thus splitting the series.
Sophomores D'Moi Hodge and Isiah Dasher and freshman Jordan Clark predominantly lead the Manatees offense.
Hodge, who was named the NJCAA Region 8 Player of the Week for the fourth straight week and the NJCAA National Player of the Week, is averaging 27.6 points, 8.2 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 2.3 steals and 2.7 blocks per game. Hodge finished his game against CCF with 20 points, nine rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block.
In his career, the native of Tortola, British Virgin Islands current has 929 career points and is 71 away from reaching 1,000 in his career.
Dasher, who is also on path to getting 1,000 career points, is averaging 17.2 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game. Dasher had 17 points, seven rebounds and five assists against CCF. Dasher is 269 points away from reaching 1,000 career points.
Clark is averaging 13.4 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. Against CCF, Clark had 18 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals.
Freshman Marshall Kearing and sophomore Chris Scarborough continue to do their roles as the big men on the team.
Kearing is averaging 10.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game. Kearing was held to four points and three rebounds against CCF, but did have five blocks
Scarborough is averaging 4.2 points and 3.4 rebounds per game. Scarborough had eight points and four rebounds against CCF.
Redshirt freshmen Calvin McCutcheon plays a key role at the point guard position as he is averaging 6.1 points and 3.7 assists per game. McCutcheon had 10 points and four assists against CCF.
Scouting Santa Fe:
The Saints are coming off of two straight home games where they fell to Florida Gateway 61-58 before defeating Palm Beach State 80-73. They will face Polk State Wednesday night, November 4 at 7 pm prior to playing SCF.
Sophomore Luka Filipovic is averaging 10.7 points and 8.8 rebounds per game per game while redshirt freshman Nikola Jerotic leads the team with 12.5 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. Against Palm Beach, Filipovic had eight points and seven rebounds while Jerotic was held to six points and three rebounds.
Sophomore Ryan Leonard is averaging 10.8 points and four rebounds per game. Against Palm Beach, Leonard had 18 points and four rebounds.
Series History:
The Manatees are 6-10 against the Saints. The Manatees faced Santa Fe earlier in the season on the road in Gainsville and won 101-92 in overtime.
How to Keep Up:
The game will air livestream on the SCF Sports Network. Fans can also follow both teams on Twitter
SCF: @SCF_Basketball
Santa Fe: @SFSaintsMBB
Livestream Link: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/scf/
Last Time Out:
The Manatees are coming off of facing Central Florida in a heartbreaker as they fell 87-79 in Ocala, thus splitting the series.
Sophomores D'Moi Hodge and Isiah Dasher and freshman Jordan Clark predominantly lead the Manatees offense.
Hodge, who was named the NJCAA Region 8 Player of the Week for the fourth straight week and the NJCAA National Player of the Week, is averaging 27.6 points, 8.2 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 2.3 steals and 2.7 blocks per game. Hodge finished his game against CCF with 20 points, nine rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block.
In his career, the native of Tortola, British Virgin Islands current has 929 career points and is 71 away from reaching 1,000 in his career.
Dasher, who is also on path to getting 1,000 career points, is averaging 17.2 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game. Dasher had 17 points, seven rebounds and five assists against CCF. Dasher is 269 points away from reaching 1,000 career points.
Clark is averaging 13.4 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. Against CCF, Clark had 18 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals.
Freshman Marshall Kearing and sophomore Chris Scarborough continue to do their roles as the big men on the team.
Kearing is averaging 10.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game. Kearing was held to four points and three rebounds against CCF, but did have five blocks
Scarborough is averaging 4.2 points and 3.4 rebounds per game. Scarborough had eight points and four rebounds against CCF.
Redshirt freshmen Calvin McCutcheon plays a key role at the point guard position as he is averaging 6.1 points and 3.7 assists per game. McCutcheon had 10 points and four assists against CCF.
Scouting Santa Fe:
The Saints are coming off of two straight home games where they fell to Florida Gateway 61-58 before defeating Palm Beach State 80-73. They will face Polk State Wednesday night, November 4 at 7 pm prior to playing SCF.
Sophomore Luka Filipovic is averaging 10.7 points and 8.8 rebounds per game per game while redshirt freshman Nikola Jerotic leads the team with 12.5 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. Against Palm Beach, Filipovic had eight points and seven rebounds while Jerotic was held to six points and three rebounds.
Sophomore Ryan Leonard is averaging 10.8 points and four rebounds per game. Against Palm Beach, Leonard had 18 points and four rebounds.
Series History:
The Manatees are 6-10 against the Saints. The Manatees faced Santa Fe earlier in the season on the road in Gainsville and won 101-92 in overtime.
How to Keep Up:
The game will air livestream on the SCF Sports Network. Fans can also follow both teams on Twitter
SCF: @SCF_Basketball
Santa Fe: @SFSaintsMBB
Livestream Link: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/scf/
2nd Herd Drops Rematch to CCF
The SCF basketball team (9-4) dropped a heartbreaking rematch as they fell to RV CCF (10-2) by a score of 87-79. With the loss, the Manatees are now 2-15 against the Patriots and have split the series with them.
Offensively, it was sophomore D'Moi Hodge who led the Manatees as he was one rebound shy of a double-double finishing with 20 points (7-for-20 FG, 3-for-11 3PT, 3-for-3 FT), nine rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block. Classmate Isiah Dasher followed with 17 points (7-for-14 FG, 1-for-1 3PT, 1-for-2 FT), seven rebounds, five assists and two steals, while freshman Jordan Clark, who was two rebounds shy of a double-double, had 18 points (8-for-17 FG, 2-for-2 FT), eight rebounds, five assists and two steals. Redshirt freshman Calvin McCutcheon rounded out the Manatees in double digit scoring with 10 points (4-for-8 FG, 1-for-1 3PT, 1-for-2 FT), a rebound, four assists and one steal.
Sophomore Chris Scarborough finished with eight points (4-for-5 FG) and four rebounds.
Sophomore Max Bell-Ramos (two points and one rebound), redshirt freshman Jaylen Jones (one rebound) and freshmen Marshall Kearing (four points, three rebounds, two steals and five blocks), Michael Gavin (one rebound and one assist) and Sam Grayson (one rebound) also contributed in the game.
The win for the Patriots increased their winning streak to seven games. Sophomore Angelo Johnson and Edoardo Del Cadia finished with a double-double each. Johnson had 20 points and 10 assists, while Del Cadia had 20 points and 12 rebounds. Johnson added six rebounds and two steals, while Del Cadia added one steal.
Freshman Wayln Napper followed Johnson and Del Cadia with 19 points and six assists, while sophomore Jaron Williams rounded out the game with 14 points and five rebounds. Sophomore David Anukaenyi had six points and a game-high 17 rebounds.
Notes:
With his 20 points, Hodge now has 929 career points and is now 71 shy of reaching 1,000 career points.
Dasher's 14 points put him at 731 in his career and needs 269 to reach 1,000 career points.
Other Suncoast Scores:
#7 FSW (10-1) played ASA Miami (3-7) in a rematch at home Sunday afternoon winning by a score of 91-60. The Buccaneers will be back in action Friday night, December 6 at 7 pm at as they welcome Combine Academy to the Suncoast Credit Union Arena.
Polk State (7-2) will be back in action Wednesday night, December 4 at 7 pm on the road as they face Santa Fe College (6-4).
Hillsborough (4-6) fell to Broward College (5-2) by a score of 97-84. The Hawks will return to action on the road as they face Indian River State (5-6) Saturday afternoon, December 7.
St. Pete (4-6) will be action on the road in Georgia for the weekend as they first travel to Griffin, Georgia face Southern Crescent Technical College (5-4) Friday night, December 7 at 7 pm before traveling to Barnesville to face Gordon State (1-3) Saturday afternoon, December 8 at 1 pm.
Up Next:
The Manatees will return home to Hal Chasey Gymnasium as they welcome Santa Fe (6-4) Saturday afternoon, December 7 at 4 pm. The game will be their final home game of 2019.
Offensively, it was sophomore D'Moi Hodge who led the Manatees as he was one rebound shy of a double-double finishing with 20 points (7-for-20 FG, 3-for-11 3PT, 3-for-3 FT), nine rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block. Classmate Isiah Dasher followed with 17 points (7-for-14 FG, 1-for-1 3PT, 1-for-2 FT), seven rebounds, five assists and two steals, while freshman Jordan Clark, who was two rebounds shy of a double-double, had 18 points (8-for-17 FG, 2-for-2 FT), eight rebounds, five assists and two steals. Redshirt freshman Calvin McCutcheon rounded out the Manatees in double digit scoring with 10 points (4-for-8 FG, 1-for-1 3PT, 1-for-2 FT), a rebound, four assists and one steal.
Sophomore Chris Scarborough finished with eight points (4-for-5 FG) and four rebounds.
Sophomore Max Bell-Ramos (two points and one rebound), redshirt freshman Jaylen Jones (one rebound) and freshmen Marshall Kearing (four points, three rebounds, two steals and five blocks), Michael Gavin (one rebound and one assist) and Sam Grayson (one rebound) also contributed in the game.
The win for the Patriots increased their winning streak to seven games. Sophomore Angelo Johnson and Edoardo Del Cadia finished with a double-double each. Johnson had 20 points and 10 assists, while Del Cadia had 20 points and 12 rebounds. Johnson added six rebounds and two steals, while Del Cadia added one steal.
Freshman Wayln Napper followed Johnson and Del Cadia with 19 points and six assists, while sophomore Jaron Williams rounded out the game with 14 points and five rebounds. Sophomore David Anukaenyi had six points and a game-high 17 rebounds.
Notes:
With his 20 points, Hodge now has 929 career points and is now 71 shy of reaching 1,000 career points.
Dasher's 14 points put him at 731 in his career and needs 269 to reach 1,000 career points.
Other Suncoast Scores:
#7 FSW (10-1) played ASA Miami (3-7) in a rematch at home Sunday afternoon winning by a score of 91-60. The Buccaneers will be back in action Friday night, December 6 at 7 pm at as they welcome Combine Academy to the Suncoast Credit Union Arena.
Polk State (7-2) will be back in action Wednesday night, December 4 at 7 pm on the road as they face Santa Fe College (6-4).
Hillsborough (4-6) fell to Broward College (5-2) by a score of 97-84. The Hawks will return to action on the road as they face Indian River State (5-6) Saturday afternoon, December 7.
St. Pete (4-6) will be action on the road in Georgia for the weekend as they first travel to Griffin, Georgia face Southern Crescent Technical College (5-4) Friday night, December 7 at 7 pm before traveling to Barnesville to face Gordon State (1-3) Saturday afternoon, December 8 at 1 pm.
Up Next:
The Manatees will return home to Hal Chasey Gymnasium as they welcome Santa Fe (6-4) Saturday afternoon, December 7 at 4 pm. The game will be their final home game of 2019.
2nd Herds Readies for CCF Rematch
The SCF basketball team (9-3) will be going for a rematch as they travel to Ocala to take on RV Central Florida (9-2) at the Patriot Gym Tuesday night, December 3 at 7:30 pm.
Last Time Out:
The Manatees are coming off defeating Indian River State 84-80 last Tuesday night before playing one of their most hard fought games at their hosted SCF Classic this past weekend. The Manatees welcomed #16 USC Salkahatchie and pulled an upset after being down by 13 points and eventually winning by a score of 98-92. The Manatees would then go on to defeat Impact 110-72 before RV Polk State defeated Salkahatchie 87-67 following the Manatees' win.
Sophomores D'Moi Hodge and Isiah Dasher and freshman Jordan Clark predominantly lead the Manatees offense.
Hodge is averaging 28.3 points, 8.1 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 2.4 steals and 2.8 blocks per game. Although he didn't play against Impact as he was given a much needed rest, the two-time NJCAA Region 8 Player of the Week had 28 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals and four blocks against Indian River before going off on Salkahatchie scoring 39 points, seven rebounds, two assists, three steals and three blocks after being knocked down hard before coming back into the game during the second half.
In his career, the native of Tortola, British Virgin Islands current has 909 career points and is 91 away from reaching 1,000 in his career.
Dasher, who is also on path to getting 1,000 career points, is averaging 17.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game. Dasher has 24 points, six rebounds and two assists against Indian River State, 16 points, six rebounds and six assists against Salkahatchie and 11 points, three rebounds and eight assists against Impact. In his career, the New Jersey native has 717 career points and needs 283 to reach the milestone.
Clark is averaging 13 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. Clark was held to two points against Indian River while adding four rebounds and three assists, but against Salkahatchie he had 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists and 10 points, one rebound and one steal against Impact.
Freshman Marshall Kearing and sophomore Chris Scarborough continue to do their roles as the big men on the team.
Kearing is averaging 10.7 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game. Kearing had a total of 33 points, 24 rebounds and 11 blocks, which included a game-high five against Salkahatchie.
Scarborough is averaging 3.9 points and 3.4 rebounds per game. Scarborough had six points and five rebounds against Impact, while against Salkahatchie and Indian River he had no points, three rebounds and two blocks combined.
Wildcard Manatees:
There are five Manatees that have become strong wildcards in rotation, sophomore Max Bell-Ramos, freshmen Michael Gavin and Sam Grayson and redshirt freshmen Jaylen Jones and Calvin McCutcheon.
Bell-Ramos, who earned his first collegiate start, is averaging 4.5 points and 2.6 rebounds per game. The Venezuelan had a career-high 14 points and three rebounds against Impact while combining two points and six rebounds against Salkahatchie and Indian River.
Gavin averages 7.1 points per game while shooting 42.5% from behind the 3-point line. Gavin did not play against Salkahatchie, but had 24 points against Indian River and Impact with 18 of them being behind the 3-point line.
Although he only played in six games, Grayson averaging 4.2 points per game. Grayson had a combined 10 points and four rebounds in all three games last week, which included six points against Impact.
Like Grayson, Jones only played in six games so far. Jones is averaging seven points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. Jones had a season-high 17 points against Impact and four points against Indian River State.
McCutcheon is averaging 5.8 points and 3.8 assists per game. McCutcheon had a combined 18 points and 14 assists, which included a season-high seven assists against Impact.
Scouting CCF:
The Patriots, who are entering on a six-game winning streak and are receiving votes in the NJCAA National Poll, recently played Miami Dade where they won by a score of 94-86 at home. In fact, all six of their games on their winning streak were all at home.
Sophomores Jaron Williams (16.5 ppg) and Latrell Jones (15.4 ppg) and freshman Wayln Napper (15.4 ppg) lead the Patriots in scoring. Williams is also averaging six assists per game, while Jones averages 3.3 rebounds per game and Napper averages 4.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game.
In their game against MDC, Williams had 12 points, one rebound and two assists, Jones had 15 points and four rebounds and Napper had a triple-double of 19 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
Sophomore David Anukaenyi leads the team averaging 10.5 rebounds and 5.8 points per game. Anukaenyi had six points and seven rebounds against MDC.
Series History:
The Manatees are currently 2-14 against the Patriots. The Manatees defeated the Patriots earlier in the season (11/15) where they won by a score of 93-91. This was the game where Clark made the game-winning shot with six seconds left in the second half.
How to Keep Up:
The game will be livestream on the CCF Sports Network. Fans can also keep up to date with both teams on Twitter:
SCF: @SCF_Basketball
CCF: @cfpats
Livestream Link: http://www.cfpatriots.net/livestream/index
Last Time Out:
The Manatees are coming off defeating Indian River State 84-80 last Tuesday night before playing one of their most hard fought games at their hosted SCF Classic this past weekend. The Manatees welcomed #16 USC Salkahatchie and pulled an upset after being down by 13 points and eventually winning by a score of 98-92. The Manatees would then go on to defeat Impact 110-72 before RV Polk State defeated Salkahatchie 87-67 following the Manatees' win.
Sophomores D'Moi Hodge and Isiah Dasher and freshman Jordan Clark predominantly lead the Manatees offense.
Hodge is averaging 28.3 points, 8.1 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 2.4 steals and 2.8 blocks per game. Although he didn't play against Impact as he was given a much needed rest, the two-time NJCAA Region 8 Player of the Week had 28 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals and four blocks against Indian River before going off on Salkahatchie scoring 39 points, seven rebounds, two assists, three steals and three blocks after being knocked down hard before coming back into the game during the second half.
In his career, the native of Tortola, British Virgin Islands current has 909 career points and is 91 away from reaching 1,000 in his career.
Dasher, who is also on path to getting 1,000 career points, is averaging 17.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game. Dasher has 24 points, six rebounds and two assists against Indian River State, 16 points, six rebounds and six assists against Salkahatchie and 11 points, three rebounds and eight assists against Impact. In his career, the New Jersey native has 717 career points and needs 283 to reach the milestone.
Clark is averaging 13 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. Clark was held to two points against Indian River while adding four rebounds and three assists, but against Salkahatchie he had 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists and 10 points, one rebound and one steal against Impact.
Freshman Marshall Kearing and sophomore Chris Scarborough continue to do their roles as the big men on the team.
Kearing is averaging 10.7 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game. Kearing had a total of 33 points, 24 rebounds and 11 blocks, which included a game-high five against Salkahatchie.
Scarborough is averaging 3.9 points and 3.4 rebounds per game. Scarborough had six points and five rebounds against Impact, while against Salkahatchie and Indian River he had no points, three rebounds and two blocks combined.
Wildcard Manatees:
There are five Manatees that have become strong wildcards in rotation, sophomore Max Bell-Ramos, freshmen Michael Gavin and Sam Grayson and redshirt freshmen Jaylen Jones and Calvin McCutcheon.
Bell-Ramos, who earned his first collegiate start, is averaging 4.5 points and 2.6 rebounds per game. The Venezuelan had a career-high 14 points and three rebounds against Impact while combining two points and six rebounds against Salkahatchie and Indian River.
Gavin averages 7.1 points per game while shooting 42.5% from behind the 3-point line. Gavin did not play against Salkahatchie, but had 24 points against Indian River and Impact with 18 of them being behind the 3-point line.
Although he only played in six games, Grayson averaging 4.2 points per game. Grayson had a combined 10 points and four rebounds in all three games last week, which included six points against Impact.
Like Grayson, Jones only played in six games so far. Jones is averaging seven points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. Jones had a season-high 17 points against Impact and four points against Indian River State.
McCutcheon is averaging 5.8 points and 3.8 assists per game. McCutcheon had a combined 18 points and 14 assists, which included a season-high seven assists against Impact.
Scouting CCF:
The Patriots, who are entering on a six-game winning streak and are receiving votes in the NJCAA National Poll, recently played Miami Dade where they won by a score of 94-86 at home. In fact, all six of their games on their winning streak were all at home.
Sophomores Jaron Williams (16.5 ppg) and Latrell Jones (15.4 ppg) and freshman Wayln Napper (15.4 ppg) lead the Patriots in scoring. Williams is also averaging six assists per game, while Jones averages 3.3 rebounds per game and Napper averages 4.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game.
In their game against MDC, Williams had 12 points, one rebound and two assists, Jones had 15 points and four rebounds and Napper had a triple-double of 19 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
Sophomore David Anukaenyi leads the team averaging 10.5 rebounds and 5.8 points per game. Anukaenyi had six points and seven rebounds against MDC.
Series History:
The Manatees are currently 2-14 against the Patriots. The Manatees defeated the Patriots earlier in the season (11/15) where they won by a score of 93-91. This was the game where Clark made the game-winning shot with six seconds left in the second half.
How to Keep Up:
The game will be livestream on the CCF Sports Network. Fans can also keep up to date with both teams on Twitter:
SCF: @SCF_Basketball
CCF: @cfpats
Livestream Link: http://www.cfpatriots.net/livestream/index
2nd Herd Upsets Salkahatchie with Clean Sweep at SCF Classic
The SCF basketball team (9-3) played it big at SCF Classic at Hal Chasey Gymnasium as they pulled off a miraculous comeback after being down by 13 in the first half defeating #16 USC Salkahatchie (7-2) 98-92 on day one before defeating Impact Academy 110-72. This was the first time in program history that the Manatees have upset a nationally ranked team and the win over Impact put them at 5-0 overall.
SCF vs USC Salkahatchie:
"The game honestly came down to mentality," said head coach Tom Parks. "Since the losses Daytona and Indian River, we've really bought in to just getting better every day and trusting the process. I told the guys in the locker room after the game and said 'I kind of looked up at the clock with eight minutes left in the second half and I don't remember who was winning and remember it was a close game'. Then I just thought in my head if we win this game, I'll be really excited, and if we lose this game, I'm going to be proud of this group on how they're playing and the fact that they're down 13 at half to one of the top teams in the country. The fact that they really battled and fought while buying into the game plan, it was really cool to see."
"We've been working on this game plan for a while with this one we have circled since they decide to come to this tournament, and it wasn't really much different than any other typical game in which we were more focused on ourselves than we were on them," said Parks on before the game. "They threw a lot of different defenses at you and we did have to do some preparation with playing against different defenses and we had a really good practice yesterday and a good shootaround earlier before the game, which I thought was a good reason to prepare. I told the guys that we were prepared for this and nothing changes, we just got to show up for the test."
The game started off with a layup by sophomore Isiah Dasher and a 3-pointer by classmate D'Moi Hodge, but as soon as Hodge missed his second 3-point attempt, the Indians started to get hot with several 3-pointers and offensive rebounds that put them up in double digit points first. Eventually, freshman Jordan Clark hit a layup to put the Manatees in double digits despite being down by five until Hodge hit another three, but it looked like every time the Manatees tried to cut the deficit, the Indians would continue to get hot offensively and defensively and that took a toll on the Manatees when they were down in double digits and their shooting started to become inconsistent after several misses and multiple successful threes by the Indians.
By the end of the first half, the score was 47-34 in favor of Salkahatchie. Despite being down, the Manatees still had a heartbeat in them.
"At halftime, it was just a matter of taking care of the ball and finding shooters when they were 11-for-17 from the 3-point line, which were both big ones. It's something where we wanted to pressure the ball a lot more because they were able to catch and look at the rim and survey everything. They're all really good shooters because if you go down the list, they have six or seven guys that shoot over 40% from the 3-point line, which is not something where they got lucky. They're a very high-powered offensive team even from an individual standpoint. Each guy can shoot and score, so we talked about applying pressure and taking care of the ball. The biggest thing was going to the basket strong and not be scared of their length or athleticism, but the guys came out and responded by attacking the basket hard and taking care of the ball."
"Coach Parks went over what we want to do in the whole game at the start before the game," said freshman Marshall Kearing on before and during halftime. "He was going over how they're going to play, what they might do in defense and offense and how we got to play to match that. When we were down going into halftime, he wanted us to go over some stuff and switch things over, which gave us a bit more energy to hype us up."
At the start of the second half, the Manatees were off to a sluggish start, but then things started to go from mellow to almost vengeful in a way three minutes into the second half as Hodge went for a dunk and was blocked before hitting the ground hard. While that happened, Salkahatchie was issued a technical foul after sophomore Ahmad Rand showboated on the floor in celebration in front of the SCF bench while Hodge was still down on the ground. This became the biggest turning point of anger in the game, especially from first-year assistant coach Nav Gill.
"D'Moi drove it for the layup and got blocked and then they (Salkahatchie) went down the other end and scored," said Parks on the turning point. "On the next possession, I told D'Moi to dunk on him (Rand) and he tried to. He gets fouled with no call and falls to the ground and when they (Salkahatchie) scored, they celebrated by taunting like they were excited when D'Moi fell to the ground and I ran over to the basket to make sure he was ok. When D'Moi is down and on the ground, he's hurt and he's one of the toughest kids I've been around in my life. He got up, went to the training room and had no idea whether he was going to continue to play or if he was done for the season. He didn't know and truthfully I was optimistic because I didn't know what was going to happen, but our team came together and their whole demeanor changed. D'Moi has put our team on his back and made plays countless times and at that point, the team didn't have to say it, all their face from all five on the floor, on the bench and from every coach said that they were going to win that game for D'Moi Hodge and they did."
And right as rain it did starting with a Kearing put back for a successful and-one and a layup by sophomore Max Bell-Ramos before two Salkahatchie free throws. When Hodge reentered the game five minutes in, the Manatees started to get hot when Hodge shot a three from the wing and a Dasher layup cut the deficit to seven. This would be followed by a steal and and-one by Clark that cut the Indians' lead to 57-52 before they called a timeout.
After the timeout and Clark free throw, the Indians tried to extend the lead but another 3-pointer by Hodge brought more life to the Manatees. Defense and rebounding by Kearing, Dasher, Hodge and Clark continued to push the Manatees harder as they kept fighting. A big 3-pointer by redshirt freshman Calvin McCutcheon, a Hodge block and Clark layup cut the Salkahatchie lead to four before Hodge cut the deficit to one with a clutch 3-pointer and eventually a Dasher putback and a McCutcheon 3-pointer gave the Manatees their first lead since the start of the first half as they went ahead by a score of 75-73. Another 3-pointer by Hodge extended the Manatees lead by five, but slowly the Indians try to sneak their way to retake the lead until successful passes by Dasher, McCutcheon and Clark to Kearing and baskets by Hodge and Clark made it more difficult for them.
With less than a minute, the Indians had to revert to fouls as they continued to send McCutcheon to the line where he shot one of two free throws before Hodge sent a put back shot and with two last free throws by Dasher, the Manatees pulled away with the upset win.
Four Manatees ended up with double-digit scoring. It was once again Hodge who took the reins offensively. The two-time NJCAA Region 8 Player of the Week finished with 39 points (13-for-23 FG, 7-for-13 3PT, 6-for-6 FT), eight rebounds, four assists, four blocks and three steals.
"D'Moi is just 'D'Moi'," said Parks on Hodge. "It's funny because it's been two straight weeks where I nominated him for NJCAA Region 8 Player of the Week and he got it last week and this week, but in both times, he has never gotten National Player of the Week, and both times I thought he was more deserving of it than some of the others and obviously I'm bias because that's my guy."
"In a way, he keeps asking himself what does he have to do to get National Player of the Week and putting 39 points on the number 16 in the country helps.
Dasher followed Hodge with 16 points (6-for-14 FG, 1-for-2 3PT, 3-for-5 FT), four rebounds, five assists and one steal, while Kearing, who was one rebound shy of his third collegiate double-double, had 13 points (6-for-9 FG, 1-for-1 FT), nine rebounds, two assists, a steal and five blocks before fouling out. Clark, who was two rebounds shy of a double-double, rounded out the lineup with 12 points (5-for-10 FG, 2-for-4 FT), eight rebounds, four assists and a steal.
"I wasn't as aggressive in the first half in and around the rim," said Kearing on his performance. "Defensively I was sort of there. In the second half, I started to pick it up and got all my blocks and baskets from there."
"Marshall was really really good in the second half and I don't think people realize how hard some of the finishes he had were, especially the last one he had caught with his back to the basket turned in the air with such soft," said Parks on Kearing. "I don't think there's a bag full of bigs that can do commit to a play like that."
"Isiah played well and I thought Jordan (Clark) made some good plays mainly in the second half," said Parks on Dasher and Clark.
McCutcheon had one of his best home games as he finished with nine points (2-for-4 FG, 2-for-3 3PT, 3-for-6 FT), one rebound, five assists and three steals.
"I had a pretty good game coming in and just played my role," said McCutcheon on his game. "The shots were falling, I didn't force anything and just continued to do what I needed to do to get us the win."
"Calvin stepped up in so many ways," said Parks on McCutcheon. "He took care of the ball while continuing to distribute it, running the whole team, playing defense, he did everything. It's funny I get on Calvin a lot because he's a point guard, but he wants it and thrives in situations where he can continue to learn. He didn't play for a whole year during his redshirt year. The Calvin your seeing right now, you're going to see a lot more of him, which is really exciting."
Bell-Ramos (two points and a rebound), sophomores Remy Robert II (five points, one assist and one steal) and Christnoff Scarborough (three rebounds, a steal and two blocks), redshirt freshman Jaylen Jones (one assist) and freshman Sam Grayson (two points and two rebounds) all contributed in the game.
For the Indians, sophomore Vince Cole led the team offensively as he finished with 37 points (9-for-18 FG, 7-for-8 3PT, 12-for-12 FT) and six rebounds while classmate Mardrez McBride followed with 21 points (7-for-12 FG, 3-for-5 3PT, 4-for-6 FT) and two assist. Cole and McBride were the only two players to score in double digits. Rand and freshman Michael Marsh were the closest to reaching double digits as they each had eight points. Rand added eight rebounds and seven blocks, while McBride added seven rebounds.
"They (Salkahatchie) are a really good and tough team," said Kearing on Salkahatchie. "We came out trying to get the same toughness back and it was neck and neck. In the second half, we started playng a little harder and picked it up when D'Moi (Hodge) went down. We wanted to pick that up after that and started going on a roll and kept in our lead for the rest of the game."
"It was a big team coming up and we already knew we were going to have a tough matchup with them being number 16 in the nation," said McCutcheon on Salkahatchie. "We already knew they were a long, athletic, scrappy team and we just had to stick to our game plan and lock in from the whole past week. Going into the game, we just competed and that's all we had to do mainly play defensive."
Personal Note: It's the day after Thanksgiving and of course fans and students are not all going to be at the game. But even the smallest crowds can make a whole lot of noise that can be followed by one to start it.
"It was good to have people come down to see us play," said Kearing on the crowd. "Despite it being the day after Thanksgiving, it was still good to have people come support us. Even if the crowd was small, that gave us a lot of energy."
"Any crowd is helpful when they cheer for us no matter how big or small it is," said McCutcheon on the support.
"Energy is contagious and the best kind of energy is positive energy," said Parks on the crowd's energy. "I think that we have the best gym in the country because there is a lot of character in that gym and I love when I get alum that says that this is the same gym I played in no matter what age they were and that was really cool just to know that there's been a lot of different groups that go through a lot of pain, sweat, tears and happiness in our gym."
Parks did give a shoutout to Michelle, the mother of upcoming redshirt freshman Rae Miller, for bringing energy and life to the team.
And of course, I want to give shoutouts to SCF volleyball freshman players Leilani Wilcox-Nanai, Bailey Sikkema and Lisa Jaunet for attending the game and rooting the team on.
SCF vs Impact:
Parks decided to give Hodge a much needed rest after the win over USC Salkahatchie. Bell-Ramos would be placed in the starting lineup, thus earning his first collegiate start.
For the game against Impact, it was Jones that led the Manatees over Impact as he finished with a season-high 17 points (6-for-14 FG, 2-for-8 3PT, 3-for-3 FT), two rebounds, two steals and a block, while Bell-Ramos and Kearing had 14 points each. Bell-Ramos (6-for-8 FG, 2-for-3 3PT) added three rebounds, one assist and one block, while Kearing (7-for-7 FG) added three rebounds, a block and a steal.
Dasher, Clark and freshman Michael Gavin finished with double digit scoring as well. Dasher, who was two assists shy of a double-double, had 11 points (5-for-6 FG, 1-for-2 3PT), eight assists and two rebounds, Clark had 10 points (3-for-5 FG, 2-for-3 3PT, 2-for-2 FT), one rebound and one steal and Gavin had 13 points (6-for-14 FG, 4-for-9 3PT), three rebounds, an assist and a steal.
McCutcheon finished with nine points (4-for-6 FG, 1-for-3 3 PT), two rebounds, four assists and two steals, while Scarborough finished with eight points (3-for-3 FG, 2-for-3 FT), five rebounds, two assists and Grayson follow with six points of his own to go along with three rebounds. Robert II (six points, three rebounds, five assists and a steal) and freshman J-Quon Ferrol (two points, five rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal) also contributed against Impact.
Other Suncoast Scores:
Following SCF's win over Impact Academy, RV Polk State (7-2) also upset #16 Salkahatchie at the SCF Classic as they won by a score of 87-67. The Eagles will return to action as they travel to Gainsville to take on Santa Fe Wednesday night, December 4 at 7 pm.
#6 FSW (9-1) will face ASA Miami Sunday afternoon, December 1 at 1 pm. The Buccaneers faced ASA Miami in a previous game winning by a score of 69-61.
Hillsborough (4-5) will return to action as they face Indian River State Tuesday night, December 3 at 7 pm.
St. Pete College (4-6) will return to action on the road as they travel to Georgia to take on Southern Crescent Technical College (NJCAA Region 17) Friday night, December 6 at 7 pm.
Up Next:
The Manatees will return on the road as they travel to Ocala to face Central Florida (9-2) Tuesday night, December 3 at 7:30 pm.
SCF vs USC Salkahatchie:
"The game honestly came down to mentality," said head coach Tom Parks. "Since the losses Daytona and Indian River, we've really bought in to just getting better every day and trusting the process. I told the guys in the locker room after the game and said 'I kind of looked up at the clock with eight minutes left in the second half and I don't remember who was winning and remember it was a close game'. Then I just thought in my head if we win this game, I'll be really excited, and if we lose this game, I'm going to be proud of this group on how they're playing and the fact that they're down 13 at half to one of the top teams in the country. The fact that they really battled and fought while buying into the game plan, it was really cool to see."
"We've been working on this game plan for a while with this one we have circled since they decide to come to this tournament, and it wasn't really much different than any other typical game in which we were more focused on ourselves than we were on them," said Parks on before the game. "They threw a lot of different defenses at you and we did have to do some preparation with playing against different defenses and we had a really good practice yesterday and a good shootaround earlier before the game, which I thought was a good reason to prepare. I told the guys that we were prepared for this and nothing changes, we just got to show up for the test."
The game started off with a layup by sophomore Isiah Dasher and a 3-pointer by classmate D'Moi Hodge, but as soon as Hodge missed his second 3-point attempt, the Indians started to get hot with several 3-pointers and offensive rebounds that put them up in double digit points first. Eventually, freshman Jordan Clark hit a layup to put the Manatees in double digits despite being down by five until Hodge hit another three, but it looked like every time the Manatees tried to cut the deficit, the Indians would continue to get hot offensively and defensively and that took a toll on the Manatees when they were down in double digits and their shooting started to become inconsistent after several misses and multiple successful threes by the Indians.
By the end of the first half, the score was 47-34 in favor of Salkahatchie. Despite being down, the Manatees still had a heartbeat in them.
"At halftime, it was just a matter of taking care of the ball and finding shooters when they were 11-for-17 from the 3-point line, which were both big ones. It's something where we wanted to pressure the ball a lot more because they were able to catch and look at the rim and survey everything. They're all really good shooters because if you go down the list, they have six or seven guys that shoot over 40% from the 3-point line, which is not something where they got lucky. They're a very high-powered offensive team even from an individual standpoint. Each guy can shoot and score, so we talked about applying pressure and taking care of the ball. The biggest thing was going to the basket strong and not be scared of their length or athleticism, but the guys came out and responded by attacking the basket hard and taking care of the ball."
"Coach Parks went over what we want to do in the whole game at the start before the game," said freshman Marshall Kearing on before and during halftime. "He was going over how they're going to play, what they might do in defense and offense and how we got to play to match that. When we were down going into halftime, he wanted us to go over some stuff and switch things over, which gave us a bit more energy to hype us up."
At the start of the second half, the Manatees were off to a sluggish start, but then things started to go from mellow to almost vengeful in a way three minutes into the second half as Hodge went for a dunk and was blocked before hitting the ground hard. While that happened, Salkahatchie was issued a technical foul after sophomore Ahmad Rand showboated on the floor in celebration in front of the SCF bench while Hodge was still down on the ground. This became the biggest turning point of anger in the game, especially from first-year assistant coach Nav Gill.
"D'Moi drove it for the layup and got blocked and then they (Salkahatchie) went down the other end and scored," said Parks on the turning point. "On the next possession, I told D'Moi to dunk on him (Rand) and he tried to. He gets fouled with no call and falls to the ground and when they (Salkahatchie) scored, they celebrated by taunting like they were excited when D'Moi fell to the ground and I ran over to the basket to make sure he was ok. When D'Moi is down and on the ground, he's hurt and he's one of the toughest kids I've been around in my life. He got up, went to the training room and had no idea whether he was going to continue to play or if he was done for the season. He didn't know and truthfully I was optimistic because I didn't know what was going to happen, but our team came together and their whole demeanor changed. D'Moi has put our team on his back and made plays countless times and at that point, the team didn't have to say it, all their face from all five on the floor, on the bench and from every coach said that they were going to win that game for D'Moi Hodge and they did."
And right as rain it did starting with a Kearing put back for a successful and-one and a layup by sophomore Max Bell-Ramos before two Salkahatchie free throws. When Hodge reentered the game five minutes in, the Manatees started to get hot when Hodge shot a three from the wing and a Dasher layup cut the deficit to seven. This would be followed by a steal and and-one by Clark that cut the Indians' lead to 57-52 before they called a timeout.
After the timeout and Clark free throw, the Indians tried to extend the lead but another 3-pointer by Hodge brought more life to the Manatees. Defense and rebounding by Kearing, Dasher, Hodge and Clark continued to push the Manatees harder as they kept fighting. A big 3-pointer by redshirt freshman Calvin McCutcheon, a Hodge block and Clark layup cut the Salkahatchie lead to four before Hodge cut the deficit to one with a clutch 3-pointer and eventually a Dasher putback and a McCutcheon 3-pointer gave the Manatees their first lead since the start of the first half as they went ahead by a score of 75-73. Another 3-pointer by Hodge extended the Manatees lead by five, but slowly the Indians try to sneak their way to retake the lead until successful passes by Dasher, McCutcheon and Clark to Kearing and baskets by Hodge and Clark made it more difficult for them.
With less than a minute, the Indians had to revert to fouls as they continued to send McCutcheon to the line where he shot one of two free throws before Hodge sent a put back shot and with two last free throws by Dasher, the Manatees pulled away with the upset win.
Four Manatees ended up with double-digit scoring. It was once again Hodge who took the reins offensively. The two-time NJCAA Region 8 Player of the Week finished with 39 points (13-for-23 FG, 7-for-13 3PT, 6-for-6 FT), eight rebounds, four assists, four blocks and three steals.
"D'Moi is just 'D'Moi'," said Parks on Hodge. "It's funny because it's been two straight weeks where I nominated him for NJCAA Region 8 Player of the Week and he got it last week and this week, but in both times, he has never gotten National Player of the Week, and both times I thought he was more deserving of it than some of the others and obviously I'm bias because that's my guy."
"In a way, he keeps asking himself what does he have to do to get National Player of the Week and putting 39 points on the number 16 in the country helps.
Dasher followed Hodge with 16 points (6-for-14 FG, 1-for-2 3PT, 3-for-5 FT), four rebounds, five assists and one steal, while Kearing, who was one rebound shy of his third collegiate double-double, had 13 points (6-for-9 FG, 1-for-1 FT), nine rebounds, two assists, a steal and five blocks before fouling out. Clark, who was two rebounds shy of a double-double, rounded out the lineup with 12 points (5-for-10 FG, 2-for-4 FT), eight rebounds, four assists and a steal.
"I wasn't as aggressive in the first half in and around the rim," said Kearing on his performance. "Defensively I was sort of there. In the second half, I started to pick it up and got all my blocks and baskets from there."
"Marshall was really really good in the second half and I don't think people realize how hard some of the finishes he had were, especially the last one he had caught with his back to the basket turned in the air with such soft," said Parks on Kearing. "I don't think there's a bag full of bigs that can do commit to a play like that."
"Isiah played well and I thought Jordan (Clark) made some good plays mainly in the second half," said Parks on Dasher and Clark.
McCutcheon had one of his best home games as he finished with nine points (2-for-4 FG, 2-for-3 3PT, 3-for-6 FT), one rebound, five assists and three steals.
"I had a pretty good game coming in and just played my role," said McCutcheon on his game. "The shots were falling, I didn't force anything and just continued to do what I needed to do to get us the win."
"Calvin stepped up in so many ways," said Parks on McCutcheon. "He took care of the ball while continuing to distribute it, running the whole team, playing defense, he did everything. It's funny I get on Calvin a lot because he's a point guard, but he wants it and thrives in situations where he can continue to learn. He didn't play for a whole year during his redshirt year. The Calvin your seeing right now, you're going to see a lot more of him, which is really exciting."
Bell-Ramos (two points and a rebound), sophomores Remy Robert II (five points, one assist and one steal) and Christnoff Scarborough (three rebounds, a steal and two blocks), redshirt freshman Jaylen Jones (one assist) and freshman Sam Grayson (two points and two rebounds) all contributed in the game.
For the Indians, sophomore Vince Cole led the team offensively as he finished with 37 points (9-for-18 FG, 7-for-8 3PT, 12-for-12 FT) and six rebounds while classmate Mardrez McBride followed with 21 points (7-for-12 FG, 3-for-5 3PT, 4-for-6 FT) and two assist. Cole and McBride were the only two players to score in double digits. Rand and freshman Michael Marsh were the closest to reaching double digits as they each had eight points. Rand added eight rebounds and seven blocks, while McBride added seven rebounds.
"They (Salkahatchie) are a really good and tough team," said Kearing on Salkahatchie. "We came out trying to get the same toughness back and it was neck and neck. In the second half, we started playng a little harder and picked it up when D'Moi (Hodge) went down. We wanted to pick that up after that and started going on a roll and kept in our lead for the rest of the game."
"It was a big team coming up and we already knew we were going to have a tough matchup with them being number 16 in the nation," said McCutcheon on Salkahatchie. "We already knew they were a long, athletic, scrappy team and we just had to stick to our game plan and lock in from the whole past week. Going into the game, we just competed and that's all we had to do mainly play defensive."
Personal Note: It's the day after Thanksgiving and of course fans and students are not all going to be at the game. But even the smallest crowds can make a whole lot of noise that can be followed by one to start it.
"It was good to have people come down to see us play," said Kearing on the crowd. "Despite it being the day after Thanksgiving, it was still good to have people come support us. Even if the crowd was small, that gave us a lot of energy."
"Any crowd is helpful when they cheer for us no matter how big or small it is," said McCutcheon on the support.
"Energy is contagious and the best kind of energy is positive energy," said Parks on the crowd's energy. "I think that we have the best gym in the country because there is a lot of character in that gym and I love when I get alum that says that this is the same gym I played in no matter what age they were and that was really cool just to know that there's been a lot of different groups that go through a lot of pain, sweat, tears and happiness in our gym."
Parks did give a shoutout to Michelle, the mother of upcoming redshirt freshman Rae Miller, for bringing energy and life to the team.
And of course, I want to give shoutouts to SCF volleyball freshman players Leilani Wilcox-Nanai, Bailey Sikkema and Lisa Jaunet for attending the game and rooting the team on.
SCF vs Impact:
Parks decided to give Hodge a much needed rest after the win over USC Salkahatchie. Bell-Ramos would be placed in the starting lineup, thus earning his first collegiate start.
For the game against Impact, it was Jones that led the Manatees over Impact as he finished with a season-high 17 points (6-for-14 FG, 2-for-8 3PT, 3-for-3 FT), two rebounds, two steals and a block, while Bell-Ramos and Kearing had 14 points each. Bell-Ramos (6-for-8 FG, 2-for-3 3PT) added three rebounds, one assist and one block, while Kearing (7-for-7 FG) added three rebounds, a block and a steal.
Dasher, Clark and freshman Michael Gavin finished with double digit scoring as well. Dasher, who was two assists shy of a double-double, had 11 points (5-for-6 FG, 1-for-2 3PT), eight assists and two rebounds, Clark had 10 points (3-for-5 FG, 2-for-3 3PT, 2-for-2 FT), one rebound and one steal and Gavin had 13 points (6-for-14 FG, 4-for-9 3PT), three rebounds, an assist and a steal.
McCutcheon finished with nine points (4-for-6 FG, 1-for-3 3 PT), two rebounds, four assists and two steals, while Scarborough finished with eight points (3-for-3 FG, 2-for-3 FT), five rebounds, two assists and Grayson follow with six points of his own to go along with three rebounds. Robert II (six points, three rebounds, five assists and a steal) and freshman J-Quon Ferrol (two points, five rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal) also contributed against Impact.
Other Suncoast Scores:
Following SCF's win over Impact Academy, RV Polk State (7-2) also upset #16 Salkahatchie at the SCF Classic as they won by a score of 87-67. The Eagles will return to action as they travel to Gainsville to take on Santa Fe Wednesday night, December 4 at 7 pm.
#6 FSW (9-1) will face ASA Miami Sunday afternoon, December 1 at 1 pm. The Buccaneers faced ASA Miami in a previous game winning by a score of 69-61.
Hillsborough (4-5) will return to action as they face Indian River State Tuesday night, December 3 at 7 pm.
St. Pete College (4-6) will return to action on the road as they travel to Georgia to take on Southern Crescent Technical College (NJCAA Region 17) Friday night, December 6 at 7 pm.
Up Next:
The Manatees will return on the road as they travel to Ocala to face Central Florida (9-2) Tuesday night, December 3 at 7:30 pm.
FGCU WBB vs South Dakota State: Cancun Challenge Day Three Recap
Grad student Ashli O'Neal went coast-to-coast for a game-winning layup with 4.7 seconds left to give the FGCU women's basketball team (8-1) a 71-70 win over South Dakota State (5-3) in the championship game of the Cancun Challenge at the Hard Rock Hotel on Saturday.
"Somehow we found a way to beat another great team today," FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said. "Keri and Davion made big plays late in the game, and Ashli made a game-winning play for the second day in a row."
FGCU has now won five straight games, including three straight over the defending national runner-up (Notre Dame), No. 20 USF and reigning NCAA Sweet 16 participant South Dakota State. The Eagles will not have much time to celebrate as they will travel to face Houston on Wednesday at 3 p.m.
O'Neal's basket came after South Dakota State's Myah Selland gave the Jackrabbits a one-point lead with nine seconds left. Tori Nelson missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer, capping a wild final quarter and setting off a celebration at center court for the Green and Blue.
The Eagles entered the final quarter with a seven-point deficit, but redshirt senior Keri Jewett-Giles sank a pair of 3-pointers and hit a short jumper from the left side of the rim to give her team a 57-56 lead with 7:31 left.
Despite Jewett-Giles scoring 14 straight points for FGCU to open the quarter, the Jackrabbits battled four lead changes and a tie to take a 68-63 lead with 33 seconds left.
Following a timeout, redshirt senior Davion Wingate made a 3-pointer from the right wing to pull the Eagles within two. On the ensuing possession, Selland was called for an offensive foul on the mid-court inbounds pass. Wingate was then fouled attempting another 3-pointer and sank all three free throws to give FGCU a 69-68 lead with 13 seconds left.
South Dakota State then used its final timeout to set up the inbounds play for Selland before O'Neal's game winner.
In the fourth quarter alone, which featured seven lead changes and two ties, FGCU shot 7-for-13 from the field, including 5-for-10 from 3-point range.
Jewett-Giles, who was named to the All-Cancun Challenge team, scored a game-high 24 points and added two steals on 8-for-13 shooting, including a 6-for-8 finish from 3-point range. Senior Nasrin Ulel finished second in scoring with 16 while adding three rebounds and a steal, and Wingate chipped in 13 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Redshirt junior Kerstie Phills, who made two big 3-pointers early in the third quarter, finished with eight points, while O'Neal tallied seven.
Senior Tytionia Adderly, who was named the MVP of the Cancun Challenge, added a game-high 11 rebounds along with a team-high four assists, two steals and two points. She totaled double-digit rebounds in each game while pushing her overall streak to four straight and six of seven. This weekend, she averaged nine points, 12 rebounds, four assists and two steals per game.
FGCU was aided by a 16-for-17 (.941) performance from the foul line, which is the fifth-best percentage in a game in the program's Division I era.
Cancun Challenge All-Tournament Team:
Tytionia Adderly (FGCU) - MVP
Keri Jewett-Giles (FGCU)
Myah Selland (South Dakota State)
Paiton Burckhard (South Dakota State)
Anaya Peoples (Notre Dame)
Elena Tieneke (USF)
"Somehow we found a way to beat another great team today," FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said. "Keri and Davion made big plays late in the game, and Ashli made a game-winning play for the second day in a row."
FGCU has now won five straight games, including three straight over the defending national runner-up (Notre Dame), No. 20 USF and reigning NCAA Sweet 16 participant South Dakota State. The Eagles will not have much time to celebrate as they will travel to face Houston on Wednesday at 3 p.m.
O'Neal's basket came after South Dakota State's Myah Selland gave the Jackrabbits a one-point lead with nine seconds left. Tori Nelson missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer, capping a wild final quarter and setting off a celebration at center court for the Green and Blue.
The Eagles entered the final quarter with a seven-point deficit, but redshirt senior Keri Jewett-Giles sank a pair of 3-pointers and hit a short jumper from the left side of the rim to give her team a 57-56 lead with 7:31 left.
Despite Jewett-Giles scoring 14 straight points for FGCU to open the quarter, the Jackrabbits battled four lead changes and a tie to take a 68-63 lead with 33 seconds left.
Following a timeout, redshirt senior Davion Wingate made a 3-pointer from the right wing to pull the Eagles within two. On the ensuing possession, Selland was called for an offensive foul on the mid-court inbounds pass. Wingate was then fouled attempting another 3-pointer and sank all three free throws to give FGCU a 69-68 lead with 13 seconds left.
South Dakota State then used its final timeout to set up the inbounds play for Selland before O'Neal's game winner.
In the fourth quarter alone, which featured seven lead changes and two ties, FGCU shot 7-for-13 from the field, including 5-for-10 from 3-point range.
Jewett-Giles, who was named to the All-Cancun Challenge team, scored a game-high 24 points and added two steals on 8-for-13 shooting, including a 6-for-8 finish from 3-point range. Senior Nasrin Ulel finished second in scoring with 16 while adding three rebounds and a steal, and Wingate chipped in 13 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Redshirt junior Kerstie Phills, who made two big 3-pointers early in the third quarter, finished with eight points, while O'Neal tallied seven.
Senior Tytionia Adderly, who was named the MVP of the Cancun Challenge, added a game-high 11 rebounds along with a team-high four assists, two steals and two points. She totaled double-digit rebounds in each game while pushing her overall streak to four straight and six of seven. This weekend, she averaged nine points, 12 rebounds, four assists and two steals per game.
FGCU was aided by a 16-for-17 (.941) performance from the foul line, which is the fifth-best percentage in a game in the program's Division I era.
Cancun Challenge All-Tournament Team:
Tytionia Adderly (FGCU) - MVP
Keri Jewett-Giles (FGCU)
Myah Selland (South Dakota State)
Paiton Burckhard (South Dakota State)
Anaya Peoples (Notre Dame)
Elena Tieneke (USF)
FGCU MBB vs Georgia Southern Recap
Georgia Southern used a 61.5 percent shooting effort in the second half to overcome the FGCU men's basketball team 72-57 on Sunday evening at Alico Arena. After the Green and Blue held the visiting Eagles to under 30 percent in the first half, Georgia Southern connected on 16-of-26 field goals in the second half to come back from a five-point halftime deficit.
"Unfortunately, tonight was a tale of two halves – we were the more aggressive team in the first half, we were up double-figures in the first half, we had the most energy in the first half, but Georgia Southern made a run in the second half to counter-punch us," said head coach Michael Fly. "We talked at the break that the first four minutes would be critical, but they won that stretch and we couldn't recover unfortunately. Credit Georgia Southern for how they were able to turn things around the last three minutes of the first half and into the second half."
Junior Sam Gagliardi led FGCU with 13 points highlighted by four three pointers. Junior Justus Rainwater nearly posted a double-double with 10 rebounds and eight points. Redshirt sophomore Malik Hardy rounded out the top scorers with nine points while adding four rebounds and two assists.
Georgia Southern (5-3) was led by 16 points from both Elijah McCadden and Ike Smith, while Quan Jackson added 15 points.
The first half saw the FGCU (2-8) take a 35-30 lead into the locker room as the defense held Georgia Southern under 30 percent shooting from the floor and Gagliardi hit all four of his three pointers for 12 points at the break. The home Eagles led by as many as 11, 35-24, with 1:55 before the intermission.
The second half was all Georgia Southern from the start, however, as the Eagles went on a 20-to-5 run opening up a 50-40 lead at the 11:40 mark.
FGCU cut the lead under double digits on five occasions after that including a jumper by freshman Jalen Harper, but Georgia Southern re-extended their lead to as many as 18 with 2:27 to go.
Freshman Dakota Rivers had a lay-up and a free throw in the last minute of play to give the final score.
Overall, FGCU shot 21-of-58 from the floor, while Georgia Southern finished 26-of-60. Georgia Southern also held a slight edge on the glass, 39-to-34, but were able to convert 12 rebounds into 17 second chance points compared to seven for FGCU.
FGCU will return to action on Wednesday night when the Eagles travel to Miami to face FIU (7 PM). The game will be streamed live on CUSA.tv.
"Unfortunately, tonight was a tale of two halves – we were the more aggressive team in the first half, we were up double-figures in the first half, we had the most energy in the first half, but Georgia Southern made a run in the second half to counter-punch us," said head coach Michael Fly. "We talked at the break that the first four minutes would be critical, but they won that stretch and we couldn't recover unfortunately. Credit Georgia Southern for how they were able to turn things around the last three minutes of the first half and into the second half."
Junior Sam Gagliardi led FGCU with 13 points highlighted by four three pointers. Junior Justus Rainwater nearly posted a double-double with 10 rebounds and eight points. Redshirt sophomore Malik Hardy rounded out the top scorers with nine points while adding four rebounds and two assists.
Georgia Southern (5-3) was led by 16 points from both Elijah McCadden and Ike Smith, while Quan Jackson added 15 points.
The first half saw the FGCU (2-8) take a 35-30 lead into the locker room as the defense held Georgia Southern under 30 percent shooting from the floor and Gagliardi hit all four of his three pointers for 12 points at the break. The home Eagles led by as many as 11, 35-24, with 1:55 before the intermission.
The second half was all Georgia Southern from the start, however, as the Eagles went on a 20-to-5 run opening up a 50-40 lead at the 11:40 mark.
FGCU cut the lead under double digits on five occasions after that including a jumper by freshman Jalen Harper, but Georgia Southern re-extended their lead to as many as 18 with 2:27 to go.
Freshman Dakota Rivers had a lay-up and a free throw in the last minute of play to give the final score.
Overall, FGCU shot 21-of-58 from the floor, while Georgia Southern finished 26-of-60. Georgia Southern also held a slight edge on the glass, 39-to-34, but were able to convert 12 rebounds into 17 second chance points compared to seven for FGCU.
FGCU will return to action on Wednesday night when the Eagles travel to Miami to face FIU (7 PM). The game will be streamed live on CUSA.tv.
FGCU MBB vs Campbell Recap
A nip-and-tuck battle for much of the night went the way of the visiting Camels as Campbell defeated the FGCU men's basketball team 51-46 on Saturday evening at Alico Arena. The game featured nine lead changes and six ties including 41-41 with 6:18 remaining in regulation.
The Eagles (2-7) will take on Georgia Southern on Sunday (5 PM) in the finale of the Hilton Garden Inn FGCU Classic. The defending Big South regular-season champion Camels (5-2) will take on North Dakota at Noon.
Redshirt sophomore Malik Hardy led all scorers with 13 points and had a game-high 12 rebounds – both career highs as well. Junior Jalen Warren added 10 points and five rebounds, while junior Justus Rainwater had nine points and seven rebounds to lead the Eagles.
Campbell was led by Cedric Henderson (seven rebounds) and Trey Spencer (six rebounds) who each had 10 points.
"I thought we had effort tonight, I thought we competed tonight and I thought we gave ourselves a chance to win the game," said head coach Michael Fly. "Their press slowed us down and obviously we are at our best when we're running and playing fast. I thought multiple times tonight we slowed down and got bogged down because of that. We held them to 38 percent shooting; normally when you hold a team to that, out-rebound them and get to the free throw line more you win the game – we just had a tough night shooting and couldn't convert on some key plays."
The Eagles led 26-25 at the break thanks to a jumper by sophomore Calen Catto and a triple by Hardy. In the final 2:16 of play.
In the second half, the Camels were able to go ahead early building out a five point lead for much of the first 10 minutes of the half. The Eagles were able to briefly retake the lead by a point, 39-38, with 8:12 to go after a Catto free throw.
After Campbell retook the lead on a pair of Henderson lay ups, a three-point play by Warren knotted the score at 41 each at the 6:18 mark.
Campbell then used a 8-to-0 run to take the largest lead of the game before five consecutive free throws by sophomore Zach Scott pulled the Eagles within three with seven seconds to go.
FGCU fouled on the ensuing possession with Austin McCullough hitting a pair of free throws putting Campbell back up 51-46. The Eagles were able to get a look at a three-pointer just after that, but it was off the mark allowing time to expire.
The Eagles were able to hold a 40-to-34 advantage on the glass, but struggled from the floor hitting just 12-of-55 field goals (22%). Defensively, FGCU was able to hold Campbell to 38 percent shooting (18-of-47). The tough shooting night for the Eagles negated a plus-10 advantage in free throws where they converted 19-of-22.
The Eagles (2-7) will take on Georgia Southern on Sunday (5 PM) in the finale of the Hilton Garden Inn FGCU Classic. The defending Big South regular-season champion Camels (5-2) will take on North Dakota at Noon.
Redshirt sophomore Malik Hardy led all scorers with 13 points and had a game-high 12 rebounds – both career highs as well. Junior Jalen Warren added 10 points and five rebounds, while junior Justus Rainwater had nine points and seven rebounds to lead the Eagles.
Campbell was led by Cedric Henderson (seven rebounds) and Trey Spencer (six rebounds) who each had 10 points.
"I thought we had effort tonight, I thought we competed tonight and I thought we gave ourselves a chance to win the game," said head coach Michael Fly. "Their press slowed us down and obviously we are at our best when we're running and playing fast. I thought multiple times tonight we slowed down and got bogged down because of that. We held them to 38 percent shooting; normally when you hold a team to that, out-rebound them and get to the free throw line more you win the game – we just had a tough night shooting and couldn't convert on some key plays."
The Eagles led 26-25 at the break thanks to a jumper by sophomore Calen Catto and a triple by Hardy. In the final 2:16 of play.
In the second half, the Camels were able to go ahead early building out a five point lead for much of the first 10 minutes of the half. The Eagles were able to briefly retake the lead by a point, 39-38, with 8:12 to go after a Catto free throw.
After Campbell retook the lead on a pair of Henderson lay ups, a three-point play by Warren knotted the score at 41 each at the 6:18 mark.
Campbell then used a 8-to-0 run to take the largest lead of the game before five consecutive free throws by sophomore Zach Scott pulled the Eagles within three with seven seconds to go.
FGCU fouled on the ensuing possession with Austin McCullough hitting a pair of free throws putting Campbell back up 51-46. The Eagles were able to get a look at a three-pointer just after that, but it was off the mark allowing time to expire.
The Eagles were able to hold a 40-to-34 advantage on the glass, but struggled from the floor hitting just 12-of-55 field goals (22%). Defensively, FGCU was able to hold Campbell to 38 percent shooting (18-of-47). The tough shooting night for the Eagles negated a plus-10 advantage in free throws where they converted 19-of-22.
FGCU WBB vs USF: Cancun Challenge Day Two Recap
Nasrin Ulel scored a game-high 23 points, while Keri Jewett-Giles scored 12 of her 19 points in the final quarter as the FGCU women's basketball team (7-1) knocked off No. 20 USF 81-77 in the Hard Rock Hotel as part of the Cancun Challenge on Friday.
With the win, FGCU produced its fourth all-time win over a ranked team, and USF is the second-highest ranked team they've defeated behind No. 15 Missouri in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. The Eagles will now meet South Dakota State (5-2) at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday for the championship after the Jackrabbits also defeated Notre Dame and USF over the past two days.
"We beat a very good and well-coached team," FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said. "It was great to see so many people make positive contributions. Nasrin was excellent. Ashli hit all those free throws down the stretch. Ty played great, and players that maybe weren't feeling 100 percent like Phills came in and really battled for us. It was just a great all-around win. To beat a team that good, you have to have a lot of people contributing. I thought Keri had an excellent second half. Whenever we needed a basket or needed to do something, someone stepped up."
USF scored 19 of the game's first 28 points and led by 10 with 2:03 left in the first quarter. In response, Kerstie Phills and Alyssa Blair hit a pair of 3-pointers, and Ashli O'Neal found Tytionia Adderly for a buzzer-beating layup to pull the Eagles within four through the first 10 minutes.
A 3-pointer from Ulel pulled FGCU within one with 7:46 left in the half, but the Bulls pushed their lead back to six twice over the next three minutes. Davion Wingate, who had been held scoreless up to that point, caught fire by sinking a pair of free throws and converting back-to-back layups to pull the Eagles within two. USF converted a layup with 23 seconds left, but Wingate found Ulel for another buzzer-beater, which came via a 3-pointer.
With that shot, Ulel surpassed 1,000 points in the Green and Blue. She ranks 10th on the program's Division I era scoring list with 1,015, just one shy of Courtney Chihil (1,016, 2008-12) for ninth-place. Her milestone marked the third-consecutive game that an Eagle has reached 1,000 points in her NCAA career - joining Jewett-Giles against Saint Francis and Wingate against Notre Dame.
FGCU couldn't seem to gain the lead to open the second half as USF took a five-point lead twice. Adderly, though, changed all that with her second 3-pointer of the game with 5:24 left in the third. Moments later, Adderly found Ulel for another one from long distance to push the lead to five, although the Bulls trimmed their deficit to one entering the fourth.
The Eagles opened the fourth on a 5-0 run, and a trio of free throws and a layup from Jewett-Giles pushed the margin to nine with 6:31 left. The senior guard also hit two key free throws with 1:14 left after USF trimmed its deficit to three.
From there, O'Neal made 5-of-6 from the foul line and drew an offensive foul that wiped out a made 3-pointer from USF that would have pulled the Bulls within three with 26 seconds left. The Eagles then sealed the game at the foul line as USF's last-second layup proved meaningless.
O'Neal finished 7-for-8 from the foul line in the final quarter while drawing five fouls and adding two assists. Wingate (8-for-8) became the 11th player in the program's Division I era to make at least eight free throw attempts without a miss.
Offensively, Ulel (23), Jewett-Giles (19) and Wingate (12) combined for 54 of FGCU's 81 points, while Adderly and O'Neal each added nine. In fact, Adderly had a team-high 10 rebounds along with four assists and two steals while falling just one point shy of her second-consecutive double-double, while Jewett-Giles finished second in rebounds with six. O'Neal had a game-high six assists, and Ulel led the way with three steals.
Notes
Emma List earned her first start of the season.
After getting outrebounded 25-12 in the first half, FGCU responded with an 18-16 advantage in the second half while shooting 10-for-22 from the field, including 5-for-10 from 3-point range with three of those coming from Ulel, who had the second-most field goal attempts in a game in the program's Division I era with 22, falling just shy of Kaneisha Atwater's 24 vs Western Michigan on Dec. 21, 2015.
FGCU is now 3-2 all-time against USF after winning the first neutral site matchup between the two programs. The Eagles have also won two in a row in the series dating back to a home win on Dec. 4, 2013.
South Dakota State defeated Notre Dame 65-59 in the other game of the day.
With the win, FGCU produced its fourth all-time win over a ranked team, and USF is the second-highest ranked team they've defeated behind No. 15 Missouri in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. The Eagles will now meet South Dakota State (5-2) at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday for the championship after the Jackrabbits also defeated Notre Dame and USF over the past two days.
"We beat a very good and well-coached team," FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said. "It was great to see so many people make positive contributions. Nasrin was excellent. Ashli hit all those free throws down the stretch. Ty played great, and players that maybe weren't feeling 100 percent like Phills came in and really battled for us. It was just a great all-around win. To beat a team that good, you have to have a lot of people contributing. I thought Keri had an excellent second half. Whenever we needed a basket or needed to do something, someone stepped up."
USF scored 19 of the game's first 28 points and led by 10 with 2:03 left in the first quarter. In response, Kerstie Phills and Alyssa Blair hit a pair of 3-pointers, and Ashli O'Neal found Tytionia Adderly for a buzzer-beating layup to pull the Eagles within four through the first 10 minutes.
A 3-pointer from Ulel pulled FGCU within one with 7:46 left in the half, but the Bulls pushed their lead back to six twice over the next three minutes. Davion Wingate, who had been held scoreless up to that point, caught fire by sinking a pair of free throws and converting back-to-back layups to pull the Eagles within two. USF converted a layup with 23 seconds left, but Wingate found Ulel for another buzzer-beater, which came via a 3-pointer.
With that shot, Ulel surpassed 1,000 points in the Green and Blue. She ranks 10th on the program's Division I era scoring list with 1,015, just one shy of Courtney Chihil (1,016, 2008-12) for ninth-place. Her milestone marked the third-consecutive game that an Eagle has reached 1,000 points in her NCAA career - joining Jewett-Giles against Saint Francis and Wingate against Notre Dame.
FGCU couldn't seem to gain the lead to open the second half as USF took a five-point lead twice. Adderly, though, changed all that with her second 3-pointer of the game with 5:24 left in the third. Moments later, Adderly found Ulel for another one from long distance to push the lead to five, although the Bulls trimmed their deficit to one entering the fourth.
The Eagles opened the fourth on a 5-0 run, and a trio of free throws and a layup from Jewett-Giles pushed the margin to nine with 6:31 left. The senior guard also hit two key free throws with 1:14 left after USF trimmed its deficit to three.
From there, O'Neal made 5-of-6 from the foul line and drew an offensive foul that wiped out a made 3-pointer from USF that would have pulled the Bulls within three with 26 seconds left. The Eagles then sealed the game at the foul line as USF's last-second layup proved meaningless.
O'Neal finished 7-for-8 from the foul line in the final quarter while drawing five fouls and adding two assists. Wingate (8-for-8) became the 11th player in the program's Division I era to make at least eight free throw attempts without a miss.
Offensively, Ulel (23), Jewett-Giles (19) and Wingate (12) combined for 54 of FGCU's 81 points, while Adderly and O'Neal each added nine. In fact, Adderly had a team-high 10 rebounds along with four assists and two steals while falling just one point shy of her second-consecutive double-double, while Jewett-Giles finished second in rebounds with six. O'Neal had a game-high six assists, and Ulel led the way with three steals.
Notes
Emma List earned her first start of the season.
After getting outrebounded 25-12 in the first half, FGCU responded with an 18-16 advantage in the second half while shooting 10-for-22 from the field, including 5-for-10 from 3-point range with three of those coming from Ulel, who had the second-most field goal attempts in a game in the program's Division I era with 22, falling just shy of Kaneisha Atwater's 24 vs Western Michigan on Dec. 21, 2015.
FGCU is now 3-2 all-time against USF after winning the first neutral site matchup between the two programs. The Eagles have also won two in a row in the series dating back to a home win on Dec. 4, 2013.
South Dakota State defeated Notre Dame 65-59 in the other game of the day.
FGCU WBB vs Notre Dame: Cancun Challenge Day One Recap
Senior Tytionia Adderly produced a season-high 16 points and a game-high 14 rebounds as the FGCU women's basketball team (6-1) stunned defending national runner-up Notre Dame (4-3) 69-60 in the opener of the Cancun Challenge on Thursday afternoon in the Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya.
The Eagles will now face No. 20 USF at 1:30 p.m. on Friday.
"That was one of the best games that Ty has ever played," FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said. "She was fantastic - rebounding, defending and looking to score a lot more. It was just a great performance."
Notre Dame had not lost to a mid-major since DePaul handed them a 70-69 loss on Feb. 28, 2011 and likely their biggest upset loss since Northwestern State defeated them on March 24, 1995 in the WNIT. It was the second win of the season for FGCU over a reigning NCAA Tournament participant (UCF) and the program's 17th all-time against a Power 5 school, including its sixth over an ACC team.
redshirt senior Davion Wingate (19), Adderly (16), redshirt senior Keri Jewett-Giles (12) and senior Nasrin Ulel (11) all scored in double-figures for the Eagles, while 11 of Adderly's 14 rebounds came on the offensive glass. Jewett-Giles led all players with five assists and added four steals, while junior Alyssa Blair also had four steals in her third consecutive start.
Over the game's first few minutes, FGCU struggled to find its shot as the Eagles opened 1-for-11 from the field, which allowed Notre Dame to open up a 9-2 lead. A 3-pointer from Ulel ended the drought, however, and grad student Ashli O'Neal scored five straight off the bench as FGCU went on a 16-0 run over a six-and-a-half-minute stretch that lasted into the second quarter.
The Green and Blue never trailed again, but it wasn't easy. Notre Dame trimmed the deficit to one with 5:24 left in the first half, but Wingate hit back-to-back 3-pointers, and FGCU eventually took a nine-point lead into the break following another 3-pointer from O'Neal, who finished with eight points.
Both teams then combined for 49 points in the third quarter, although FGCU withstood Notre Dame's surge behind two key baskets from Jewett-Giles, who made a layup and a 3-pointer after the Fighting Irish trimmed their deficit to three on a pair of occasions with under three minutes left in the frame.
Redshirt sophomore Tyra Cox then subbed in late in the quarter and banked in a 3-pointer from the right wing to give FGCU a 10-point lead through three. In that crucial quarter, both teams combined to shoot 19-for-30, but FGCU turned it over just once compared to four times for Notre Dame and outscored the Fighting Irish 16-6 in the paint and 5-2 off turnovers.
Following the 3-pointer from Cox, the Eagles concluded a 13-2 run with a straightaway 3-pointer from Ulel with 6:56 left to push the margin to 63-47, their largest of the game.
Notre Dame, however, responded with a 10-0 run as the Green and Blue committed four of its 10 total turnovers over the next four minutes. Wingate answered with back-to-back layups, with the second one on a beautiful pump fake and finish. Adderly then sealed the game from the foul line in the final minute.
"You have to give (Notre Dame) a lot of credit," Smesko said. "They didn't quit and really started attacking us. They were able to score quickly and get back in the game. We did a good job taking care of the ball until the end of the game and then we kind of fumbled it a couple times, which really hurt us. Fortunately, we made plays down the stretch and were able to pull out a very good victory."
Despite the size differential, FGCU outscored Notre Dame 34-26 in the paint and 13-2 in second chance points. They also held a 20-9 advantage in points off turnovers.
Notes:
Adderly fell just one shy of matching her season-high rebound total while tallying double-digits for the fourth time in five games.
With her first of the back-to-back 3-pointers in the second quarter, Wingate joined Jewett-Giles as a member of the 1,000 point club. She now has 1,015 in her NCAA career. Ulel is eight points away from joining the duo.
Thursday's game was the first time Smesko and Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw faced each other. Smesko (3rd, .815) and McGraw (5th, .770) both ranked among the top five winningest active women's basketball coaches in Division I history. Each of them has led their programs to nine-straight 25-win seasons, two of only four teams to do that along with UConn and Baylor.
South Dakota State knocked off No. 20 USF 61-50 in the other game on Thursday.
The Eagles will now face No. 20 USF at 1:30 p.m. on Friday.
"That was one of the best games that Ty has ever played," FGCU head coach Karl Smesko said. "She was fantastic - rebounding, defending and looking to score a lot more. It was just a great performance."
Notre Dame had not lost to a mid-major since DePaul handed them a 70-69 loss on Feb. 28, 2011 and likely their biggest upset loss since Northwestern State defeated them on March 24, 1995 in the WNIT. It was the second win of the season for FGCU over a reigning NCAA Tournament participant (UCF) and the program's 17th all-time against a Power 5 school, including its sixth over an ACC team.
redshirt senior Davion Wingate (19), Adderly (16), redshirt senior Keri Jewett-Giles (12) and senior Nasrin Ulel (11) all scored in double-figures for the Eagles, while 11 of Adderly's 14 rebounds came on the offensive glass. Jewett-Giles led all players with five assists and added four steals, while junior Alyssa Blair also had four steals in her third consecutive start.
Over the game's first few minutes, FGCU struggled to find its shot as the Eagles opened 1-for-11 from the field, which allowed Notre Dame to open up a 9-2 lead. A 3-pointer from Ulel ended the drought, however, and grad student Ashli O'Neal scored five straight off the bench as FGCU went on a 16-0 run over a six-and-a-half-minute stretch that lasted into the second quarter.
The Green and Blue never trailed again, but it wasn't easy. Notre Dame trimmed the deficit to one with 5:24 left in the first half, but Wingate hit back-to-back 3-pointers, and FGCU eventually took a nine-point lead into the break following another 3-pointer from O'Neal, who finished with eight points.
Both teams then combined for 49 points in the third quarter, although FGCU withstood Notre Dame's surge behind two key baskets from Jewett-Giles, who made a layup and a 3-pointer after the Fighting Irish trimmed their deficit to three on a pair of occasions with under three minutes left in the frame.
Redshirt sophomore Tyra Cox then subbed in late in the quarter and banked in a 3-pointer from the right wing to give FGCU a 10-point lead through three. In that crucial quarter, both teams combined to shoot 19-for-30, but FGCU turned it over just once compared to four times for Notre Dame and outscored the Fighting Irish 16-6 in the paint and 5-2 off turnovers.
Following the 3-pointer from Cox, the Eagles concluded a 13-2 run with a straightaway 3-pointer from Ulel with 6:56 left to push the margin to 63-47, their largest of the game.
Notre Dame, however, responded with a 10-0 run as the Green and Blue committed four of its 10 total turnovers over the next four minutes. Wingate answered with back-to-back layups, with the second one on a beautiful pump fake and finish. Adderly then sealed the game from the foul line in the final minute.
"You have to give (Notre Dame) a lot of credit," Smesko said. "They didn't quit and really started attacking us. They were able to score quickly and get back in the game. We did a good job taking care of the ball until the end of the game and then we kind of fumbled it a couple times, which really hurt us. Fortunately, we made plays down the stretch and were able to pull out a very good victory."
Despite the size differential, FGCU outscored Notre Dame 34-26 in the paint and 13-2 in second chance points. They also held a 20-9 advantage in points off turnovers.
Notes:
Adderly fell just one shy of matching her season-high rebound total while tallying double-digits for the fourth time in five games.
With her first of the back-to-back 3-pointers in the second quarter, Wingate joined Jewett-Giles as a member of the 1,000 point club. She now has 1,015 in her NCAA career. Ulel is eight points away from joining the duo.
Thursday's game was the first time Smesko and Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw faced each other. Smesko (3rd, .815) and McGraw (5th, .770) both ranked among the top five winningest active women's basketball coaches in Division I history. Each of them has led their programs to nine-straight 25-win seasons, two of only four teams to do that along with UConn and Baylor.
South Dakota State knocked off No. 20 USF 61-50 in the other game on Thursday.
FGCU WBB: Cancun Challenge Preview
The FGCU women's basketball team (5-1) will face tough competition this week in the Cancun Challenge at the Hard Rock Riviera Maya Hotel.
The Eagles are slated for a Thanksgiving Day meeting with defending national runner-up Notre Dame (4-2) before facing No. 20 USF (5-1) on Friday and defending Sweet 16 participant South Dakota State (3-2) on Saturday with all three games at 1:30 p.m. ET. FGCU's game against Florida Memorial on Dec. 9 in Alico Arena will also be considered part of the event.
Cancun Challenge:
The 15th edition of the Cancun Challenge features 10 teams in two groups:
Mayan - FGCU, Notre Dame, South Dakota State and South Florida
Riviera - Creighton, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Temple and West Virginia
The games will take place in the modified ballroom of the all-inclusive Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya in a setting where teams and fans can walk from their rooms to the restaurants to the games.
The full schedule is as follows, with all game times being in the Eastern time zone and the home teams being listed second.
Thursday, Nov. 28
Mayan Tournament
South Dakota State vs. South Florida, 11 a.m.
FGCU vs. Notre Dame, 1:30 p.m.
Riviera Tournament
Missouri vs. New Mexico, 4 p.m.
West Virginia vs. Creighton, 6 :30 p.m.
Temple vs. North Carolina, 9 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 29
Mayan Tournament
Notre Dame vs. South Dakota State, 11 a.m.
South Florida vs. FGCU, 1:30 p.m.
Riviera Tournament
New Mexico vs. West Virginia, 4 p.m.
North Carolina vs. Missouri, 6:30 p.m.
Creighton vs. Temple, 9 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 30
Mayan Tournament
South Florida vs. Notre Dame, 11 a.m.
South Dakota State vs. FGCU, 1:30 p.m.
Monday, Dec. 9
Florida Memorial vs FGCU, 7 p.m.
In-Depth:
The Notre Dame matchup is an intriguing one for several reasons. It will be the first time Karl Smesko and Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw have faced each other. McGraw (2nd, .853) and Smesko (3rd, .815) both rank among the top three winningest women's basketball coaches in Division I history. The duo has combined for 1,109 career victories. Furthermore, each of them has led their programs to nine-straight 25-win seasons, two of only four teams to do that along with UConn and Baylor.
FGCU, meanwhile, owns a 2-2 record all-time against USF with the home team winning each game, although the teams haven't faced each other since the Eagles produced a 60-55 win in Alico Arena on Dec. 4, 2013. Current WNBA star Courtney Williams of the Connecticut Sun scored seven points in that game for USF. This will be the first neutral site matchup in the history of the series. The Eagles are 3-14 all-time against ranked teams at the Division I level - although they're 3-4 in the last seven of those.
South Dakota State, meanwhile, knocked off FGCU 80-62 in Brookings, S.D. last year in the season opener for the Eagles, who own a 2-1 record all-time against the Jackrabbits. Interestingly, the Green and Blue has defeated South Dakota State in Mexico once already - 84-59 on Nov. 29, 2013 in Puerto Vallarta.
FGCU vs. Power-5:
The Notre Dame game will be the first of at least three Power-5 matchups for the Green and Blue in 2019-20, including two in Alico Arena - LSU on Dec. 19 and Duke on Dec. 29. The Eagles are 16-27 all-time in 43 games against such schools.
Power 5 history by location
10-3 in Alico Arena
5-11 in neutral site matchups
1-13 in true road matchups
Power 5 history by conference
5-7 vs SEC
5-10 vs ACC
4-5 vs B1G
1-2 vs Big 12
1-3 vs Pac 12
Power 5 history game-by-game
*11/09/07 - L 93-53 vs No. 19/19 Florida State (Fort Myers, Fla.)
12/04/07 - L 78-52 @ Florida (Gainesville, Fla.)
#03/24/08 - L 60-55 @ Florida (Gainesville, Fla.)
11/14/08 - W 88-86 vs Florida (Fort Myers, Fla.)
11/16/08 - L 81-62 @ No. 21/24 Florida State (Tallahassee, Fla.)
11/21/09 - L 58-48 @ Georgia Tech (Atlanta, Ga.)
12/13/09 - L 94-71 @ No. 21/24 Michigan State (East Lansing, Mich.)
#03/18/10 - L 70-57 @ Miami (Coral Gables, Fla.)
11/25/10 - W 73-65 vs Virginia Tech (Riviera Maya, Mexico)
12/21/10 - W 73-69 vs Indiana (Fort Myers, Fla.)
#03/21/11 - L 74-69 vs Florida (Fort Myers, Fla.)
11/19/11 - W 59-58 vs Michigan State (Fort Myers, Fla.)
12/21/11 - W 69-41 vs Virginia Tech (Fort Myers, Fla.)
12/28/11 - L 69-64 vs NC State (Honolulu, Hawaii)
11/23/12 - L 65-46 vs South Carolina (U.S. Virgin Islands)
12/16/12 - W 63-56 @ Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, Va.)
12/28/12 - W 76-70 vs LSU (Fort Myers, Fla.)
11/26/13 - L 68-47 vs TCU (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico)
11/27/13 - L 83-59 vs No. 6/5 Stanford (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico)
12/17/13 - L 69-46 @ No. 12/12 LSU (Baton Rouge, La.)
12/21/13 - L 85-56 vs Virginia (Fort Myers, Fla.)
^03/22/14 - L 61-60 (OT) vs Oklahoma State (West Lafayette, Ind.)
11/20/14 - L 72-69 @ Auburn (Auburn, Ala.)
11/28/14 - W 86-61 vs Clemson (U.S. Virgin Islands)
11/29/14 - L 90-83 (2 OT) vs Ohio State (U.S. Virgin Islands)
^03/21/15 - W 75-67 vs Oklahoma State (Tallahassee, Fla.)
^03/23/15 - L 65-47 @ Florida State (Tallahassee, Fla.)
12/19/15 - L 65-60 vs No. 9/9 Mississippi State (San Juan, Puerto Rico)
12/20/15 - W 57-55 vs Arizona (San Juan, Puerto Rico)
12/30/15 - W 52-45 vs Auburn (Fort Myers, Fla.)
#03/21/16 - W 67-48 vs Wake Forest (Fort Myers, Fla.)
#03/31/16 - W 71-62 vs Michigan (Fort Myers, Fla.)
11/25/16 - L 79-66 vs No. 8/8 Ohio State (Estero, Fla.)
12/17/16 - L 82-73 @ Illinois (Champaign, Ill.)
^03/18/17 - L 62-60 @ Miami (Coral Gables, Fla.)
11/12/17 - W 85-61 vs Illinois (Fort Myers, Fla.)
11/24/17 - L 104-62 vs No. 9/8 Ohio State (Las Vegas, Nev.)
12/08/17 - W 70-64 vs No. 20/23 Kentucky (Fort Myers, Fla.)
^03/17/18 - W 80-70 vs No. 17/15 Missouri (Stanford, Calif.)
^03/19/18 - L 90-70 @ No. 15/19 Stanford (Stanford, Calif.)
11/23/18 - L 88-65 vs No. 8/7 Stanford (Honolulu, Hawaii)
12/30/18 - L 57-41 @ Duke (Durham, N.C.)
^03/22/19 - L 69-62 @ Miami (Coral Gables, Fla.)
*FGCU's Division-I debut
^ NCAA Tournament
#WNIT
Road Trippin' with the Green and Blue:
Over the past 10 seasons, FGCU has hit the road to face big-name opponents and tough competition nine times - in addition to hosting the Gulf Coast Showcase in November 2016. This is the team's third trip to Mexico, including the Hardwood Tournament of Hope in Puerto Vallarta in 2013-14 and the Caribbean Challenge in Riviera Maya in 2010-11.
2010-11 - Caribbean Challenge (Riviera Maya, Mexico)
2011-12 - Rainbow Wahine Invitational (Honolulu, Hawaii)
2012-13 - U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam (U.S. Virgin Islands)
2013-14 - Hardwood Tournament of Hope (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico)
2014-15 - U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam (U.S. Virgin Islands)
2015-16 - Puerto Rico Classic (San Juan, Puerto Rico)
2016-17 - Gulf Coast Showcase (Estero, Fla.)
2017-18 - Play4Kay Shootout (Las Vegas, Nevada)
2018-19 - Rainbow Wahine Showdown (Honolulu, Hawaii)
2019-20 - Cancun Challenge (Riviera Maya, Mexico)
Rebounding Legend:
Senior forward Tytionia Adderly pulled down 21 rebounds over two games last week to break Sarah Hansen's (887, 2010-14) career record among players to wear the Green and Blue. She pushed her total to 905 and is now attempting to become the first player in program history with 1,000 rebounds, which would also make her only the 12th in ASUN history to achieve that milestone. She currently ranks 17th in conference history and is 27 away from surpassing Tamika Coley (UCF, 1993-96, 931) for 16th.
Jewett-Giles reaches 1,000, others looking to join her:
With a 3-pointer late in the second half against Saint Francis, Keri Jewett-Giles eclipsed 1,000 points in her NCAA career, which includes 499 in the Green and Blue. Meanwhile, three others are looking to join her this season, including Davion Wingate (996), Nasrin Ulel (981) and Ashli O'Neal (901).
Should all four reach the milestone, it would give FGCU four players on the roster that scored at least 1,000 points in their NCAA career for the first time since the 2015-16 season - Whitney Knight (1,574), Kaneisha Atwater (1,498), Taylor Gradinjan (1,234) and Stephanie Haas (1,138). However, it would be the first season in program history in which four players reached 1,000 points in the same year.
O'Neal wins ASUN newcomer of the week award:
On Tuesday, graduate transfer guard Ashli O'Neal was named the ASUN's newcomer of the week following her season-best 20-point performance off the bench in the team's win over Saint Francis. She tied her career-high with five 3-point field goals in 10 attempts. In doing so, she became the first Eagle this year to win a weekly award from the conference.
Livestats Links: http://cancuntournament.sidearmsports.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary
Livestream Link: https://www.flohoops.com/signup?redirect=%2Flive%2F12024-2019-women-s-cancun-challenge&utm_campaign=43193womenscancun&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=participatingschools&utm_content=participatingschools&rtid=43193&coverage_id=6356495
Audio Links:
vs Notre Dame: https://und.com/wbb-live-radio-broadcast/
vs USF: https://www.iheart.com/live/usf-bulls-unlimited-7424/
vs South Dakota State: https://gojacks.com/watch/?Live=2775&type=Live
The Eagles are slated for a Thanksgiving Day meeting with defending national runner-up Notre Dame (4-2) before facing No. 20 USF (5-1) on Friday and defending Sweet 16 participant South Dakota State (3-2) on Saturday with all three games at 1:30 p.m. ET. FGCU's game against Florida Memorial on Dec. 9 in Alico Arena will also be considered part of the event.
Cancun Challenge:
The 15th edition of the Cancun Challenge features 10 teams in two groups:
Mayan - FGCU, Notre Dame, South Dakota State and South Florida
Riviera - Creighton, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Temple and West Virginia
The games will take place in the modified ballroom of the all-inclusive Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya in a setting where teams and fans can walk from their rooms to the restaurants to the games.
The full schedule is as follows, with all game times being in the Eastern time zone and the home teams being listed second.
Thursday, Nov. 28
Mayan Tournament
South Dakota State vs. South Florida, 11 a.m.
FGCU vs. Notre Dame, 1:30 p.m.
Riviera Tournament
Missouri vs. New Mexico, 4 p.m.
West Virginia vs. Creighton, 6 :30 p.m.
Temple vs. North Carolina, 9 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 29
Mayan Tournament
Notre Dame vs. South Dakota State, 11 a.m.
South Florida vs. FGCU, 1:30 p.m.
Riviera Tournament
New Mexico vs. West Virginia, 4 p.m.
North Carolina vs. Missouri, 6:30 p.m.
Creighton vs. Temple, 9 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 30
Mayan Tournament
South Florida vs. Notre Dame, 11 a.m.
South Dakota State vs. FGCU, 1:30 p.m.
Monday, Dec. 9
Florida Memorial vs FGCU, 7 p.m.
In-Depth:
The Notre Dame matchup is an intriguing one for several reasons. It will be the first time Karl Smesko and Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw have faced each other. McGraw (2nd, .853) and Smesko (3rd, .815) both rank among the top three winningest women's basketball coaches in Division I history. The duo has combined for 1,109 career victories. Furthermore, each of them has led their programs to nine-straight 25-win seasons, two of only four teams to do that along with UConn and Baylor.
FGCU, meanwhile, owns a 2-2 record all-time against USF with the home team winning each game, although the teams haven't faced each other since the Eagles produced a 60-55 win in Alico Arena on Dec. 4, 2013. Current WNBA star Courtney Williams of the Connecticut Sun scored seven points in that game for USF. This will be the first neutral site matchup in the history of the series. The Eagles are 3-14 all-time against ranked teams at the Division I level - although they're 3-4 in the last seven of those.
South Dakota State, meanwhile, knocked off FGCU 80-62 in Brookings, S.D. last year in the season opener for the Eagles, who own a 2-1 record all-time against the Jackrabbits. Interestingly, the Green and Blue has defeated South Dakota State in Mexico once already - 84-59 on Nov. 29, 2013 in Puerto Vallarta.
FGCU vs. Power-5:
The Notre Dame game will be the first of at least three Power-5 matchups for the Green and Blue in 2019-20, including two in Alico Arena - LSU on Dec. 19 and Duke on Dec. 29. The Eagles are 16-27 all-time in 43 games against such schools.
Power 5 history by location
10-3 in Alico Arena
5-11 in neutral site matchups
1-13 in true road matchups
Power 5 history by conference
5-7 vs SEC
5-10 vs ACC
4-5 vs B1G
1-2 vs Big 12
1-3 vs Pac 12
Power 5 history game-by-game
*11/09/07 - L 93-53 vs No. 19/19 Florida State (Fort Myers, Fla.)
12/04/07 - L 78-52 @ Florida (Gainesville, Fla.)
#03/24/08 - L 60-55 @ Florida (Gainesville, Fla.)
11/14/08 - W 88-86 vs Florida (Fort Myers, Fla.)
11/16/08 - L 81-62 @ No. 21/24 Florida State (Tallahassee, Fla.)
11/21/09 - L 58-48 @ Georgia Tech (Atlanta, Ga.)
12/13/09 - L 94-71 @ No. 21/24 Michigan State (East Lansing, Mich.)
#03/18/10 - L 70-57 @ Miami (Coral Gables, Fla.)
11/25/10 - W 73-65 vs Virginia Tech (Riviera Maya, Mexico)
12/21/10 - W 73-69 vs Indiana (Fort Myers, Fla.)
#03/21/11 - L 74-69 vs Florida (Fort Myers, Fla.)
11/19/11 - W 59-58 vs Michigan State (Fort Myers, Fla.)
12/21/11 - W 69-41 vs Virginia Tech (Fort Myers, Fla.)
12/28/11 - L 69-64 vs NC State (Honolulu, Hawaii)
11/23/12 - L 65-46 vs South Carolina (U.S. Virgin Islands)
12/16/12 - W 63-56 @ Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, Va.)
12/28/12 - W 76-70 vs LSU (Fort Myers, Fla.)
11/26/13 - L 68-47 vs TCU (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico)
11/27/13 - L 83-59 vs No. 6/5 Stanford (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico)
12/17/13 - L 69-46 @ No. 12/12 LSU (Baton Rouge, La.)
12/21/13 - L 85-56 vs Virginia (Fort Myers, Fla.)
^03/22/14 - L 61-60 (OT) vs Oklahoma State (West Lafayette, Ind.)
11/20/14 - L 72-69 @ Auburn (Auburn, Ala.)
11/28/14 - W 86-61 vs Clemson (U.S. Virgin Islands)
11/29/14 - L 90-83 (2 OT) vs Ohio State (U.S. Virgin Islands)
^03/21/15 - W 75-67 vs Oklahoma State (Tallahassee, Fla.)
^03/23/15 - L 65-47 @ Florida State (Tallahassee, Fla.)
12/19/15 - L 65-60 vs No. 9/9 Mississippi State (San Juan, Puerto Rico)
12/20/15 - W 57-55 vs Arizona (San Juan, Puerto Rico)
12/30/15 - W 52-45 vs Auburn (Fort Myers, Fla.)
#03/21/16 - W 67-48 vs Wake Forest (Fort Myers, Fla.)
#03/31/16 - W 71-62 vs Michigan (Fort Myers, Fla.)
11/25/16 - L 79-66 vs No. 8/8 Ohio State (Estero, Fla.)
12/17/16 - L 82-73 @ Illinois (Champaign, Ill.)
^03/18/17 - L 62-60 @ Miami (Coral Gables, Fla.)
11/12/17 - W 85-61 vs Illinois (Fort Myers, Fla.)
11/24/17 - L 104-62 vs No. 9/8 Ohio State (Las Vegas, Nev.)
12/08/17 - W 70-64 vs No. 20/23 Kentucky (Fort Myers, Fla.)
^03/17/18 - W 80-70 vs No. 17/15 Missouri (Stanford, Calif.)
^03/19/18 - L 90-70 @ No. 15/19 Stanford (Stanford, Calif.)
11/23/18 - L 88-65 vs No. 8/7 Stanford (Honolulu, Hawaii)
12/30/18 - L 57-41 @ Duke (Durham, N.C.)
^03/22/19 - L 69-62 @ Miami (Coral Gables, Fla.)
*FGCU's Division-I debut
^ NCAA Tournament
#WNIT
Road Trippin' with the Green and Blue:
Over the past 10 seasons, FGCU has hit the road to face big-name opponents and tough competition nine times - in addition to hosting the Gulf Coast Showcase in November 2016. This is the team's third trip to Mexico, including the Hardwood Tournament of Hope in Puerto Vallarta in 2013-14 and the Caribbean Challenge in Riviera Maya in 2010-11.
2010-11 - Caribbean Challenge (Riviera Maya, Mexico)
2011-12 - Rainbow Wahine Invitational (Honolulu, Hawaii)
2012-13 - U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam (U.S. Virgin Islands)
2013-14 - Hardwood Tournament of Hope (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico)
2014-15 - U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam (U.S. Virgin Islands)
2015-16 - Puerto Rico Classic (San Juan, Puerto Rico)
2016-17 - Gulf Coast Showcase (Estero, Fla.)
2017-18 - Play4Kay Shootout (Las Vegas, Nevada)
2018-19 - Rainbow Wahine Showdown (Honolulu, Hawaii)
2019-20 - Cancun Challenge (Riviera Maya, Mexico)
Rebounding Legend:
Senior forward Tytionia Adderly pulled down 21 rebounds over two games last week to break Sarah Hansen's (887, 2010-14) career record among players to wear the Green and Blue. She pushed her total to 905 and is now attempting to become the first player in program history with 1,000 rebounds, which would also make her only the 12th in ASUN history to achieve that milestone. She currently ranks 17th in conference history and is 27 away from surpassing Tamika Coley (UCF, 1993-96, 931) for 16th.
Jewett-Giles reaches 1,000, others looking to join her:
With a 3-pointer late in the second half against Saint Francis, Keri Jewett-Giles eclipsed 1,000 points in her NCAA career, which includes 499 in the Green and Blue. Meanwhile, three others are looking to join her this season, including Davion Wingate (996), Nasrin Ulel (981) and Ashli O'Neal (901).
Should all four reach the milestone, it would give FGCU four players on the roster that scored at least 1,000 points in their NCAA career for the first time since the 2015-16 season - Whitney Knight (1,574), Kaneisha Atwater (1,498), Taylor Gradinjan (1,234) and Stephanie Haas (1,138). However, it would be the first season in program history in which four players reached 1,000 points in the same year.
O'Neal wins ASUN newcomer of the week award:
On Tuesday, graduate transfer guard Ashli O'Neal was named the ASUN's newcomer of the week following her season-best 20-point performance off the bench in the team's win over Saint Francis. She tied her career-high with five 3-point field goals in 10 attempts. In doing so, she became the first Eagle this year to win a weekly award from the conference.
Livestats Links: http://cancuntournament.sidearmsports.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary
Livestream Link: https://www.flohoops.com/signup?redirect=%2Flive%2F12024-2019-women-s-cancun-challenge&utm_campaign=43193womenscancun&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=participatingschools&utm_content=participatingschools&rtid=43193&coverage_id=6356495
Audio Links:
vs Notre Dame: https://und.com/wbb-live-radio-broadcast/
vs USF: https://www.iheart.com/live/usf-bulls-unlimited-7424/
vs South Dakota State: https://gojacks.com/watch/?Live=2775&type=Live
FGCU MBB vs Florida Tech Recap
Behind 18 points from both junior Sam Gagliardi and freshman Dakota Rivers, the FGCU men's basketball team (2-5) rolled past Florida Tech, 73-59, on Tuesday night at Alico Arena. The 18 points for both players were season-highs with Gagliardi hitting six three pointers and Rivers going 7-of-10 from the floor.
The game marked the opening contest of the Hilton Garden Inn FGCU Classic which will resume with six more games from Friday through Sunday. The Eagles will next be in action on Friday at 7 PM against North Dakota. Fans are encouraged to bring canned food items to benefit the FGCU and Harry Chapin Food Banks along with new, unwrapped toys to donate to Toys for Tots and Golisano's Childrens Hospital.
Friday, Nov. 29
Campbell vs. Georgia Southern - 4:30 PM
FGCU vs. North Dakota - 7 PM
Saturday, Nov. 30
Georgia Southern vs. North Dakota - 4:30 PM
FGCU vs. Campbell - 7 PM
Sunday, Dec. 1
North Dakota vs. Campbell - Noon
FGCU vs. Georgia Southern - 5 PM
In Tuesday night's action, Gagliardi's six three pointers marked a season high as the junior has averaged 11.0 points over the last four games including tonight. In that same span, Rivers has also had a break-out stretch with three double-figure games and an average of 11.5 points. Nine players overall tallied points in the game including redshirt sophomore Malik Hardy who saw his first action as an Eagle recording five points in 13 minutes. Junior Justus Rainwater hauled in a season-high 12 rebounds which also served as a game-high.
"I thought Florida Tech did a great job being competitive against us tonight," said head coach Michael Fly. "We still need to improve on closing games out, especially when we have a double-digit lead. But I was encouraged that we out-rebounded them because they had some physical players and I was extremely pleased that we took care of the ball and had just 12 turnovers. We showed a lot of positives in the game and it's always good to get a win, especially at home. We still have some growth to see in certain areas, but I was happy overall with how we performed."
Sesan Russell led Florida Tech with 23 points as the top scorer on the night while adding nine rebounds. Mate Papai added nine points, while Trey Schaneville had eight points to lead the Panthers (2-3).
Overall, FGCU was bolstered by going 12-of-26 from beyond the arc compared to 6-of-18 for Florida Tech. The Eagles also converted 22 points off 17 FIT turnovers.
FGCU built out an early 13-2 lead in the first four minutes of play thanks to a pair of sophomore Zach Scott three pointers and the first of six for Gagliardi. Over the next six minutes, the Eagles lead stretched to 16 before going into the break up 42-24 on a Jalen Warren lay-up just before time expired.
The lead swelled to 19, 45-26, early in the second half on another Gagliardi three pointer and never dipped below double-figures for the remainder of the game. Florida Tech did manage to whittle it down to 57-47 with 9:40 to go, but the Eagles pushed it back to 19 over the next seven minutes.
The game marked the opening contest of the Hilton Garden Inn FGCU Classic which will resume with six more games from Friday through Sunday. The Eagles will next be in action on Friday at 7 PM against North Dakota. Fans are encouraged to bring canned food items to benefit the FGCU and Harry Chapin Food Banks along with new, unwrapped toys to donate to Toys for Tots and Golisano's Childrens Hospital.
Friday, Nov. 29
Campbell vs. Georgia Southern - 4:30 PM
FGCU vs. North Dakota - 7 PM
Saturday, Nov. 30
Georgia Southern vs. North Dakota - 4:30 PM
FGCU vs. Campbell - 7 PM
Sunday, Dec. 1
North Dakota vs. Campbell - Noon
FGCU vs. Georgia Southern - 5 PM
In Tuesday night's action, Gagliardi's six three pointers marked a season high as the junior has averaged 11.0 points over the last four games including tonight. In that same span, Rivers has also had a break-out stretch with three double-figure games and an average of 11.5 points. Nine players overall tallied points in the game including redshirt sophomore Malik Hardy who saw his first action as an Eagle recording five points in 13 minutes. Junior Justus Rainwater hauled in a season-high 12 rebounds which also served as a game-high.
"I thought Florida Tech did a great job being competitive against us tonight," said head coach Michael Fly. "We still need to improve on closing games out, especially when we have a double-digit lead. But I was encouraged that we out-rebounded them because they had some physical players and I was extremely pleased that we took care of the ball and had just 12 turnovers. We showed a lot of positives in the game and it's always good to get a win, especially at home. We still have some growth to see in certain areas, but I was happy overall with how we performed."
Sesan Russell led Florida Tech with 23 points as the top scorer on the night while adding nine rebounds. Mate Papai added nine points, while Trey Schaneville had eight points to lead the Panthers (2-3).
Overall, FGCU was bolstered by going 12-of-26 from beyond the arc compared to 6-of-18 for Florida Tech. The Eagles also converted 22 points off 17 FIT turnovers.
FGCU built out an early 13-2 lead in the first four minutes of play thanks to a pair of sophomore Zach Scott three pointers and the first of six for Gagliardi. Over the next six minutes, the Eagles lead stretched to 16 before going into the break up 42-24 on a Jalen Warren lay-up just before time expired.
The lead swelled to 19, 45-26, early in the second half on another Gagliardi three pointer and never dipped below double-figures for the remainder of the game. Florida Tech did manage to whittle it down to 57-47 with 9:40 to go, but the Eagles pushed it back to 19 over the next seven minutes.
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