Redshirt senior Jamail Jones scored a career-high 25 points to carry the FGCU men’s basketball team (18-7, 8-1 Atlantic Sun Conference) to its seventh-straight win, 65-59, at Northern Kentucky (10-14, 4-5 A-Sun) Thursday night to move into sole possession of first place in the A-Sun.
The seventh-straight victory ties a Division-I program record for the longest winning streak, and FGCU received the win it needed at home from USC Upstate, 80-63, over North Florida to propel into first place alone atop the league ledger.
Jones (Atlanta, Ga./Montverde Academy/Marquette) shot an extremely efficient 10-11 from the floor, and scored seven consecutive points late in the contest to keep the Norse at bay.Brett Comer (Winter Park, Fla./Winter Park HS) tallied 11 points and issued a game-high seven assists as the senior finished as FGCU’s only other double-figure scorer.
Despite that, Comer moved into sole possession of second place on FGCU’s career scoring list as the point guard now has 1,371. He trails only teammate Bernard Thompson (Conyers, Ga./Rockdale County HS) with 1,727, who – despite playing just 21 foul-limited minutes – tallied six points on the evening but finished with a game-high-tying and season-best 10 rebounds.
With FGCU’s lead – which at one point in the first half was 10 on multiple occasions – trimmed to only one, 53-52, with less than five minutes remaining, Jones hit two free throws, a pull-up jumper and a 3-pointer on three-straight Eagles’ possessions to counter two NKU buckets and give the Green and Blue a 60-56 lead at the 2:53 mark. A Demetris Morant (Miami, Fla./Bishop Gorman HS/UNLV) free throw with 1:33 left pushed the lead to five, 61-56, before a final hectic closing minute.
NKU’s Todd Johnson hit a 3-pointer with 57 seconds showing to trim the Norse deficit to two, 61-59. On the ensuing FGCU trip, Comer drove, missed his shot, got his own rebound and fed Jones underneath for a layup with 22 seconds remaining to shove the advantage back to four, 63-59. A Thompson steal on NKU’s next possession set up a Julian DeBose (Washington, D.C./St. John College HS/Rice) two-handed dunk to cap the game with an explanation point as the Eagles defeated the Norse for the sixth time in their six all-time meetings.
“We got off to a good start, and it ended up being a little bit of a grinder at the end,” said FGCU head coach Joe Dooley. “The guys withstood a couple runs, played through foul trouble and didn’t particularly rebound the ball well, but Jamail stepped up big and made some huge shots to will us to that win.”
After allowing NKU to shoot 48.3 percent (14-29) from the floor in the first half, FGCU’s league-leading defense clamped down in the second stanza and limited the Norse to just a 29.6-percent clip (8-27). FGCU – which entered the contest with the nation’s third-best 3-point percentage defense at just .260 – lowered that again as it held the Norse to 25 percent from beyond the arc (6-24).
Tayler Persons led the NKU scoring attack with 19 points, while Tyler White added 13 and Jordan Jackson contributed 11 off the bench. Jalen Billups – who ranks fourth in the nation in field-goal percentage at 68.9 – connected on 4-5 shots and finished with nine points and 10 rebounds.
Three of the 10 rebounds came on the offensive end as NKU out-rebounded FGCU on the offensive glass, 12-10. The Eagles had recorded at least 13 offensive rebounds and 12 second-chance points in each of their eight A-Sun games entering the contest, but finished with only six second-chance points against the Norse.
With five A-Sun regular-season games remaining, FGCU holds a one-game lead over North Florida (15-11, 7-2 A-Sun) and a two-game edge over USC Upstate (19-7, 6-3 A-Sun) as the Spartans have now won six in a row. Lipscomb (11-13, 5-4 A-Sun) is alone in fourth place, followed by NKU in fifth, Kennesaw State (9-17, 3-6 A-Sun) in sixth, Stetson (8-17, 2-7 A-Sun) in seventh and Jacksonville (7-19, 1-8 A-Sun) in last.
FGCU, ranked No. 18 in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Poll, will look to complete another weekend A-Sun road trip when it travels to Nashville to take on Lipscomb Saturday at 5:30 p.m. (EST). The Bisons snapped a four-game losing streak with an 87-85 win at home over Stetson on Thursday night.
GAME NOTES: FGCU now owns six-game winning streaks (or better) against four A-Sun members: NKU (6), Stetson (6), Upstate (6) and Kennesaw (7) … Comer surpassed 2005 graduate Ryan Hopkins (1,367) for second place … at 18-7, FGCU is off to its best start in the D-I era through 25 games, and the 8-1 A-Sun start is also the best in program history … additionally, with 18 victories FGCU owns more wins than any other D-I team in the state of Florida … Nate Hicks blocked three shots … Thompson (250 career steals) recorded three steals and now is just 10 thefts shy of setting the A-Sun career record for steals … FGCU shot 43.1 percent from the floor (22-51) … Jones posted his previous career high of 22 points versus Kennesaw State last February.