Redshirt junior Marc-Eddy Norelia recorded his third-straight double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds as the FGCU men’s basketball team (3-1) won its third-straight game with a 73-60 victory over North Dakota (2-2) Sunday night at Alico Arena in the second day of the Hilton Garden Inn FGCU Classic.
Redshirt sophomore Antravious Simmons (Miami, Fla./VCU/South Miami HS) recorded 12 points and grabbed a season-high-tying seven rebounds, sophomore Christian Terrell (Jacksonville, Fla./Providence HS) recorded 10 of his 11 points in the second half and issued five assists and freshman Reggie Reid (Harlem, Ga./Harlem HS) dished out a game-best nine assists in only 19 foul-plagued minutes.
After playing a triple-overtime contest just 24 hours earlier, FGCU started flat and shot just 34.5 percent from the floor (10-29) in the first half as the Eagles hit the break trailing for the second-straight night, 31-28. However, FGCU flipped the script in the second half as it connected at a 63.3-percent clip from the field (19-30) in the final 20 minutes.
Powered by Reid and Terrell, the Eagles ran away from the Fighting Hawks after a back-and-forth opening six minutes of the second half. At around the 14-minute mark, the 5-11 Reid blocked a shot at one end and converted a 3-pointer at the other to put the Eagles ahead, 42-40. On the next North Dakota trip, Reid stole the ball and found fellow freshman Rayjon Tucker (Charlotte, N.C./Northside Christian Academy) for a contested lay-in which prompted a UND timeout.
The Green and Blue extended the game-changing run to 7-0 with a Simmons’ jumper from about 18 feet to take a 46-40 lead at the 12:14 mark. UND got the deficit down to four, 48-44, a few minutes later, but Terrell ensured it would get no closer as he scored 10 of FGCU’s next 13 points to put the Eagles up, 61-53. Norelia then finished an alley-oop from Reid and added back-to-back layups as his own 6-0 run put the Eagles up by 14, 67-53, with less than four minutes remaining. The Fighting Hawks got no closer than 11 the rest of the evening.
“Offensively we were a little shaky in the first half, and for the first time the ball stuck a little bit – we didn’t reverse the ball and we took some bad shots,” commented FGCU head coach Joe Dooley. “The difference in the second half was that we moved the ball better and got some stops defensively which allowed us to get out and run and get some easy buckets.”
Norelia (Orlando, Fla./Tulane/Olympia HS) continued his scorching start to the season as after a relatively mundane – for him – opening half he turned it on in the second half with 12 points and six rebounds. After missing a double-double by a single rebound in the season opener at Ohio, Norelia has become the first FGCU player since Sherwood Brown in 2012-13 with three-consecutive double-doubles.
One night after just 16 percent of its scoring came from seniors, only 12 percent of FGCU’s scoring on Sunday came from seniors as the Eagles again relied heavily on its talented, but youthful, roster.
Redshirt seniors Julian DeBose (Washington, D.C./St. John College HS) and Filip Cvjeticanin (Zagreb, Croatia/American School of Madrid) combined for nine points – eight of which came from Cvjeticanin. DeBose tweaked his ankle in the first half and played just 11 minutes, while Cvjeticanin bounced back from a poor shooting performance with an efficient eight points on 3-3 shooting (2-2 from 3-point range) and also corralled eight rebounds in 23 minutes of action.
Reid passed out nine assists for the second-straight game as the freshman now has 29 helpers against just six turnovers through his first four collegiate games. Tucker was also again efficient as he netted seven points on 3-4 shooting, and redshirt freshman Zach Johnson (Miami, Fla./Norland HS) added four points, four assists and a pair of rebounds. Redshirt sophomoreKevin Mickle (Brooklyn, N.Y./Broward/Central Connecticut State/St. Benedict’s Prep)also netted both of the shots he took and added a free throw for five points in 17 minutes.
FGCU also received what will be a huge boost eventually in the low blocks as redshirt juniorDemetris Morant (Miami, Fla./UNLV/Bishop Gorman HS) played 12 minutes, grabbed two rebounds and scored a point in his first action of the year. The uber-athletic and lengthy 6-9 forward was expected to be out until late December as he recovered from surgery to help repair a stress fracture in his right leg, but he healed much faster than expected and will continue to give the Eagles valuable, and unexpected, minutes in the coming weeks.
UND was led offensively by Cortez Seales with 15 points, while Quinton Hooker just missed a double-double as he tallied 14 points and grabbed nine rebounds. No other Fighting Hawks players reached double-figure scoring as the Eagles limited the Big Sky member to 33.8-percent shooting (22-65) and just 21.4 percent (3-14) from 3-point range.
The Eagles have little time to rest as they return to action at The Nest – where they are now 46-7 since 2012-13 – on Monday night in the final game of a three-game-in-three-night stretch at7 p.m. against Bowling Green. The Falcons are 2-2 on the year after defeating Youngstown State Sunday afternoon, 79-72. Bowling Green lost to North Dakota on Saturday afternoon, 77-59. In the first game on Monday at 4 p.m., Youngstown State (0-4) will face North Dakota.
TICKET INFORMATION
An extremely limited amount of season tickets are still available for the 2015-16 FGCU men’s basketball season. Single-game tickets are currently on sale. For the latest ticket information, log on to FGCUAthletics.com or call the Alico Arena Ticket Office at 239-590-7145.