DUNK CITY, Fla. – For the first time in school history the FGCU men's basketball team had three players record a double-double in the same game as the Eagles (1-0) opened their season with a 63-51 victory over visiting Nova Southeastern University (1-1) Saturday afternoon in front of another sellout crowd at Alico Arena.
 
Atlantic Sun Conference Preseason First Team members Brett Comer (Winter Park, Fla./Winter Park HS) and Jamail Jones (Atlanta, Ga./Montverde Academy/Marquette) posted two of the three double-doubles with Comer scoring 11 points and issuing 11 assists and Jones tallying a game-high 17 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
 
Comer's double-double was the fourth of his career, while Jones also posted a double-double for the fourth time in his career, and all four of those have come in the last nine games dating back to last season.
 
The other double-double performance came from Marc-Eddy Norelia (Orlando, Fla./Olympia HS/Tulane) as the redshirt sophomore was playing his first game with FGCU and exploded in the second half with eight points and 10 rebounds to finish the afternoon with 16 points and a game-best 13 boards.
 
FGCU trailed by as much as 10 midway through the first half and only held a one-point lead at halftime, 34-33. However, the Eagles – who led the A-Sun in scoring defense last year – locked in for the final 20 minutes, allowing the Sharks to score just 18 points in the second half and connect at a 27-percent clip from the field (7-26).
 
With the Green and Blue up just one, 42-41 with 16 minutes remaining in the contest, a Comer layup spearheaded a 10-0 run over the next five-and-a-half minutes to open up FGCU's first double-digit lead of the afternoon, 52-41.
 
Included in that run was a quick 6-0 spurt over the final 50 seconds, which started with a Norelia one-handed put-back slam. A Bernard Thompson (Conyers, Ga./Rockdale County HS) steal on the ensuing possession led to a Comer easy lay-in, and then Norelia capped the stretch with a steal and a coast-to-coast finish on NSU's next possession.
 
After being out-scored in the paint in the first half, 10-8, FGCU exploded in the second stanza to out-score the Sharks, 22-4. The Eagles finished with a +16 edge in the paint, 30-14, extending a streak dating back to 2011-12 of 26 straight victories when scoring at least 15 more points in the paint than their opposition.
 
"They forced us to play small a lot, but I think in the second half we got into a little bit of a rhythm, got some stops but I never thought we got into an offensive rhythm and that's a credit to them," said FGCU head coach Joe Dooley.
 
Brian Cahill was the lone NSU player to reach double figures as he tallied 14 for the Division-II member. After shooting 45 percent (13-29) from the floor in the first half, the Sharks finished the contest at 36 percent (20-55) while the Eagles connected at a 43-percent rate (24-56).
 
Playing in his first collegiate game, freshman Christian Terrell (Jacksonville, Fla./Providence HS) scored seven points in 14 minutes, including his first career points on a baseline 3-pointer late in the first half to put FGCU up, 32-31. The guard then scored back-to-back buckets early in the second half, with his first jumper tying the game at 38-38 and his next layup putting FGCU ahead for good.
 
The nation's active career assist leader, Comer added to his impressive total as he now has reached double-figure assists for the 14th time. Comer moved into sole possession of second place on the A-Sun's all-time assist list with 620 – just 14 shy of breaking the conference's career record of 633 held by Mercer's Langston Hall.
 
The Eagles won comfortably despite Preseason A-Sun Player of the Year Thompson being held to just seven points on 2-11 shooting and 1-6 from 3-point range. FGCU was also without the services of reshirt junior guard Julian DeBose (Washington, D.C./St. John College HS) whose three-game suspension for a violation of team rules was announced before the contest. The Rice transfer averaged double-figure scoring for the Owls as a sophomore in 2012-13. Additionally, highly-touted redshirt freshman Logan Hovey (Orlando, Fla./Paul J. Hagerty HS) sat out with an injury, while big men Nate Hicks (Panama City Beach, Fla./J.R. Arnold HS/Georgia Tech) also did not play and Eric Moeller (St. Louis, Mo./De Smet HS/Missouri/College of Central Florida) played just three minutes.
 
"It was a great opportunity for us to see how we would handle some different situations and lineups that we hadn't been able to work on in practice," added Dooley in reference to the Eagles' rotation, which is still starting to round into form.
 
Despite Thompson's struggles, the senior guard – who was also tabbed as the A-Sun Preseason Defensive Player of the Year and had four steals against NSU – eclipsed the 1,400-point mark as FGCU's all-time leading scorer now has 1,402 points for his career.
 
The sellout crowd of 4,582 marked FGCU's 14th sellout (4,333 seating capacity) dating back to last year, something which had only occurred once in Alico Arena history prior to 2013-14.
 
The meeting between FGCU and Nova Southeastern was the first since the Eagles moved to Division-I in 2007-08; the two teams played six times from 2003-07, and now lead the all-time series, 6-1. FGCU is 10-2 all-time in home openers at Alico Arena (6-2 in the D-I era); the Eagles home opener in 2002-03 was at what is now Germain Arena.
 
FGCU is now 31-3 at Alico Arena since the start of the 2012-13 season. Additionally, the Eagles are now 19-1 against non-conference foes at The Nest since 2011-12.
 
FGCU will have a quick turnaround as the Eagles welcome UC Santa Barbara on Monday, Nov. 17, at 7 p.m. The Gauchos, who went 21-9 last year, opened their season with a 10-point loss at No. 5 Kansas on Friday evening. The game will be the middle game of a three-game-in-five day stretch to open the season for FGCU as the Green and Blue will remain at home to face Ohio on Wednesday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m.
 
GAME NOTES: FGCU held a 42-31 edge on the boards … the lead changed hands eight times and was tied three times … the Eagles went 10-16 from the free-throw line compared with 4-7 for the Sharks.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
General-admission tickets for all FGCU men's basketball games at Alico Arena are still available and can be purchased by logging on to FGCUAthletics.com/Tickets, in person at the Alico Arena Ticket Office or over the phone at 239-590-7145. For up-to-the-minute information and behind-the-scenes access to the men's basketball program, follow @FGCU_MBB on Twitter and Instagram, and "Like" us on Facebook at /FGCUMBB.
 
COACH DOOLEY 
FGCU is led by second-year head coach Joe Dooley, who coached three all-conference selections during his first season and guided FGCU to its first Atlantic Sun Conference Regular-Season Championship and first trip to the NIT. Prior to arriving in SWFL, Dooley spent 10 seasons as an assistant at Kansas under head coach Bill Self. During those 10 seasons, Kansas produced 300 wins, nine straight Big 12 regular-season titles, six Big 12 Tournament championships, six NCAA Sweet 16s, five NCAA Elite Eight appearances and two Final Fours, including the 2008 National Championship.
 
SUPPORT THE CAUSE 
FGCU Athletics sponsors events throughout the year to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visitwww.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.