By BILL LEVY
FGCU men’s basketball coach Joe Dooley was not a happy man following his team’s 72-59 defeat against Georgia Southern before 3057 fans at Alico Arena on Tuesday night. The game saw the FGCU (7-4) shoot 20 for 51 in field goal attempts and commit 19 turnovers.
“They controlled the energy,” Dooley said. “They controlled the tempo. They were the aggressor the entire night. I am disappointed.”
It was, however, FGCU that took an early 4-0 lead to start the game. Georgia Southern, however, went on a 4-1 run of their own to go up 8-5.FGCU then outscored Georgia Southern (5-5) 5-0 to go back up 10-8. That would be the last lead that FGCU had all night, though. Despite later being able to tie the score at 15 and then again at 17, Georgia Southern went on a 17-8 run to go into halftime leading 34-25.
“It kept happening,” FGCU guard Brandon Goodwin said. “They kept playing hard. Every time we would get close, they would make a tough shot or something. They never took a step back, which made it tough for us to step forward.”
One Georgia Southern opened the second half by going on a 12-4 run to go up 46-29, it became evident that FGCU dug themselves too deep a hole.
“It was just one of those nights,” Goodwin said. “Our shots didn’t fall. We just couldn’t get it going.”
Goodwin and Zach Johnson led the Eagles with 13 points. Demetris Morant added 11 points and 17 rebounds to earn the praise of Dooley.
“He played great,” Dooley said. “He was exemplary. He was in tune. We just need to get the others there.”
Dooley was confident that would happen, though.
“We will figure it out,” he said. “We need to take care of the ball.”