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Backed by three double-double performances and a career-high tying 19 points from Marc-Eddy Norelia, the FGCU men’s basketball team (22-9) pulled away late to earn an 81-63 victory over Jacksonville (10-22) in the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship quarterfinal Tuesday night at Alico Arena.
Senior Brett Comer (Winter Park, Fla./Winter Park HS) posted his team-leading sixth double-double of the season with 14 points and 11 assists against just one turnover. Redshirt sophomore Demetris Morant (Miami, Fla./Bishop Gorman HS/UNLV) continued his upward progression with his first career double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds. Redshirt junior Julian DeBose (Washington, D.C./St. John College HS/Rice) also secured his first career double-double with 14 points and a career-best 10 rebounds.
With the win, No. 2-seeded FGCU will host No. 3-seeded USC Upstate (22-10) in the A-Sun Tournament semifinal at Alico Arena on Thursday, Mar. 5, at 7 p.m. General-admission $15 tickets are on sale by visiting FGCUAthletics.com/Tickets, the Alico Arena Ticket Office or by calling 239-590-7145.
Redshirt sophomore Norelia (Orlando, Fla./Olympia HS/Tulane) matched his career high on 6-11 shooting which he set not even one week ago against North Florida. The 6-8 southpaw also just missed a double-double of his own with eight rebounds. Despite Norelia coming up just short, Tuesday marked the first time in program history that FGCU had three different players secure double-doubles in the same game.
FGCU shot a scorching 70.8 percent (17-24) from the floor in the second half as the Eagles finished 55.6 percent for the game (30-54). The 30 made field goals are tied for the most in FGCU’s 10 A-Sun Tournament games, while the 55.6-percent performance from the field is the best by the Eagles in any of their conference tournament contests (30-59, 50.8 percent in the final against Mercer in 2013).
Much of that red-hot shooting in the second stanza was a result of five slams from Dunk City as the Eagles finished with six for the night – four of which were Comer to Morant alley-oop connections.
Jacksonville – which defeated FGCU in the regular-season finale on Saturday, 75-67 – only trailed by six, 66-60, with under six minutes to play before FGCU exploded late behind Comer. Like he has all year, the A-Sun First Team selection put the Eagles on his back down the stretch, scoring seven straight for the Green and Blue with a JU layup mixed in to push the FGCU lead to 73-62. A 6-0 spurt – capped by the final Comer to Morant alley-oop connection – knocked the Dolphins out as FGCU held JU to just one point in the final 4:30 of the night.
“One thing that we did a lot better today was not settling for all 3s,” said FGCU head coach Joe Dooley as the Eagles entered riding a two-game losing streak. “We did a good job getting to the paint. Early on we didn’t make a lot of shots but we took some good shots. Once we got into a rhythm in the second half we did a nice job of turning stops into transition points which was important. We did a nice job of moving the ball and had a lot of possessions where we passed the ball to give up good shots and got great shots.”
Those great shots for FGCU resulted in a 42-22 scoring edge in the paint as the Eagles are now 29-0 dating back to the 2011-12 season when out-scoring their opponents in the paint by at least 15 points. Also, after finishing even on the glass with the Dolphins in Saturday’s meeting, FGCU capped Tuesday with a +17 edge in rebounding, 41-24.
A-Sun Newcomer of the Year Kori Babineaux led Jacksonville with 20 points, while Marcellous Bell was the lone other double-figure scorer for the Dolphins with 15. After shooting 46.2 percent (17-26) from the floor in the first half, including a 43.8-percent clip from 3-point range (7-16), JU struggled in the second half as FGCU’s conference-leading defense locked in and limited the Dolphins to 31 percent from the field (9-29) and 16.7 percent from beyond the arc (2-12).
The triumph advances FGCU to the A-Sun Tournament semifinals for the fourth time in only four seasons of Division-I postseason eligibility. The Eagles have advanced to the championship game each of the previous three seasons and will be looking to stretch that run – which is the only one of its kind in the history of D-I men’s basketball – to four with a win on Thursday.
In Thursday’s other A-Sun semifinal, No. 1 North Florida (21-11) will host No. 5 Lipscomb (14-16). UNF defeated No. 8 Stetson (9-22) on Tuesday, 81-67, while the Bisons outlasted No. 4 Northern Kentucky (13-17) in overtime, 76-73.
GAME NOTES: FGCU is now a league-best 8-2 in A-Sun Tournament contests … Comer now has 831 career assists, two shy of tying him for 25th all-time in the NCAA record books … the Eagles shot 3-5 from 3-point range in the second half after going just 2-11 in the first half …Jamail Jones added nine points, while leading scorer Bernard Thompson chipped in with seven and is now five shy of reaching 1,800 career points … Norelia went 7-9 from the free-throw line and also added career-high-tying three assists.