By BILL LEVY Click here to see other photos of the game
Make no mistake about it; Florida Gulf Coast State University men’s basketball coach Joe Dooley sent a message to his team in their 77-58 victory over Florida Tech at Alico Arena on Wednesday night. Though the win improved the Eagles to a 7-1 record, Dooley was not happy how the game started, as he pulled all the starters not even three minutes into the game with the score tied at five.
“We got off to a very sluggish start,” Dooley said. “There wasn’t a lot of energy. The effort wasn’t where it needed to be.”
Though the Panthers were able to then outscore FGCU 10-7 to earn a 15-12 advantage near the midway point of the first half, the Eagles then went on a 13-0 run to go up 25-15. That stretch featured six points from Marc-Eddy-Norelia as well as five from freshman Christian Terrell, who led all scorers for the game with a career-high22.
NCAA Division II member Florida Tech, whose record remains at 7-0, due to the fact that this was an exhibition game for them, then went on a 15-5 run of their own to tie the score at 30, before Terrell’s 3-pointer put the Eagles up 33-30 at half.
“The young guys came in and gave us energy,” Dooley said. “The reserves did a nice job.”
Dooley stayed with the reserves to open up the second half, where he saw Terrell connect on two more 3-poineters early on, to help FGCU fight off a pesky Panthers team and cling to a 41-39 lead before he went back to the starters, a little under six minutes into the half.
For the night, Terrell was 5-8 beyond the three-point line.
“He (Terrell) is going to be a special player,” Dooley said. “You can see why we were really excited to get him here. He had great minutes and showed great offensive poise”
“I just let it flow,” Terrell said. “I let it work,”
Dooley explained the significance of keeping the reserves in for so long.
“They needed those minutes,” he said. We wanted to them to work thru things.”
He also explained, in part, why he eventually went back to the starters.
“They (the reserves) were getting tired,” he said, with Terrell nodding in agreement.
Once the starters came back in, they got immediate results, as Bernard Thompson connecting on a 3-pointer and an electrifying ‘alley-oop’ dunk by Demetris Morant, which was assisted by Jamail Jones, to put FGCU up 46-39. From there, they outscored the Panthers 21-11, to take command of the game with a 67-50 advantage, and only approximately six minutes left to play.
“We picked up the effort and we picked up the energy,” Thompson said. “We played better and we played smarter.”
Apparently they got the message.