By BILL LEVY
It wasn’t easy, but the Florida Gulf Coast men’s basketball team ended a three-game losing streak with a 49-36 victory over Ave Maria at the Alico Arena before a crowd of 4,071 on Friday night. After trailing at halftime 13-12, the Eagles (10-5) outscored the Gyrenes 11 to 7 to open the second half and claim a 23-20 advantage. Ave Maria (7-6), a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) then answered with a bucket to make it 23-22. FGCU then took control of the game by going on a 12-0 run, that featured three alley-oop dunks by Demetris Morant, with each one coming off Brett Comer passes, and a 3-pointer from Christian Terrell.
The Comer to Morant connection proved to be a common theme of the second half as the duo combined for seven Morant alley-oop dunks.
“I try to look for (Morant) every time,” Comer said. “No one we play has anyone as athletic as him. I though he did a better job of sealing (in the second half).”
For the game, Morant finished with 14 points while Comer had 12 assists and five points.
“We came out ready to start the game,” Gyrenes head coach Ken Dagostino said. “We just didn’t have it the last 20 minutes.”
Dagostino also admitted his team had a tough time finding an answer for Comer and Morant in the second half.
“They were just throwing it over the top of us,” he said. “It reminded me of (recreation) soccer. When they tried to run their stuff at us it wasn’t working.”
Eagles coach Joe Dooley said the game came down to who controlled the tempo.
“It (the game) set basketball back a few years,” Dooley joked. “They did a good job of controlling the tempo in the first half and we were flat. When you are flat, that sometimes causes you to miss shots. We were 1 for 11 in the first half but we had about nine good looks. We controlled the tempo in the second half and did some of the things we need to.”