DUNK CITY, Fla. – Despite shooting just 2-24 from 3-point range and trailing by five late in the contest, the FGCU men's basketball team (20-7, 10-1 Atlantic Sun Conference) found a way to gut out a 54-53 victory over Kennesaw State (9-19, 3-8 A-Sun) on Thursday night at Alico Arena to claim its ninth-straight win and remain atop the league standings.
 
Trailing by one with less than a minute left, FGCU recorded its only steal of the game when Bernard Thompson (Conyers, Ga./Rockdale County HS) intercepted a Kennesaw pass and threw the ball ahead to Jamail Jones (Atlanta, Ga./Montverde Academy/Marquette). Jones – the reigning A-Sun Player of the Week – converted a contested layup with his right hand on the left side of the hoop to give the Eagles the winning points with 35 seconds left.
 
Brett Comer (Winter Park, Fla./Winter Park HS) scored a team-high 16 points and added six rebounds and three assists to lead the way for FGCU. Julian DeBose (Washington, D.C./St. John College HS/Rice) contributed 11 points, and Thompson just missed a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds.
 
"Kennesaw came out with great energy, and once they started seeing the ball going in the basket they gave us a lot of problems," said FGCU head coach Joe Dooley. "We didn't see the ball go in the basket, and that affected our defense. We were really fortunate to make some plays at the end."
 
DeBose hit FGCU's first 3-pointer of the night, but after that the Eagles missed 18 in a row until Thompson connected at the 10:44 mark of the second half. That bucket trimmed the Kennesaw lead – which at one juncture was as much as 12 – to six, 46-40, and gave the Eagles a boost they needed.
 
An Orlando Coleman dunk on the ensuing possession pushed Kennesaw's advantage back to eight, but over the final 10 minutes of the night the FGCU defense held the Owls to only five points. The Green and Blue struggled to get going, but enthused by a standing-room-only sellout crowd of 4,633, the Eagles eventually took a 51-50 lead on a Comer lay-in with 1:35 left.
 
Coleman responded with a 3-pointer just eight seconds later before Demetris Morant (Miami, Fla./Bishop Gorman HS/UNLV) made the front end of a 1-and-1 with 49 ticks left. He missed the second, giving the Owls the ball back but ultimately setting up the heroics from Thompson and Jones. After the Eagles got a defensive stop, Jones was fouled with five seconds left and missed the front end of a 1-and-1. However, Kennesaw's final effort was thwarted out by Jones, who forced leading scorer Yonel Brown to step on the sideline with .6 seconds left.
 
The triumph clinches FGCU's third-straight 20-win season as the Eagles' 20-7 start through 27 games and 10-1 commencement to the league slate are both Division-I program bests. The nine-game winning streak is the longest in D-I program history, and is now the third-longest all-time behind only a pair of 14-game runs in 2003-04 and 2006-07.
 
Nigel Pruitt led Kennesaw State with 19 points and nine rebounds, while Coleman finished with 11 points. After shooting 7-11 from 3-point range (63.6 percent) in the first half, FGCU – which entered the game leading the nation in 3-point percentage defense (26.2) – limited the Owls to just 2-12 (16.7 percent) from beyond the arc in the second half.
 
For the game the Eagles shot just 34.5 percent (20-58) – their third-worst field-goal shooting percentage of the year. The second-worst also came against Kennesaw in the first meeting of the year (54-48 FGCU win) as the Eagles shot only 32.1 percent (18-56). In the two contests this year, FGCU shot 4-42 (9.5 percent) from 3-point range, but won both games.
 
With his nine rebounds, Thompson moves into sole possession of second place on the program's all-time rebounding list with 591, surpassing 2013 graduate Sherwood Brown (589). A guard, Thompson only trails 2014 graduate Chase Fieler (714) on the all-time list. For the game, FGCU recorded a season-high 20 offensive rebounds, which coupled with a season-low five turnovers kept the Eagles in the contest.
 
FGCU remains one game ahead of North Florida (17-11, 9-2 A-Sun) for first place in the league and three games clear of third-place USC Upstate (20-8, 7-4 A-Sun) with three games remaining. The Eagles have already clinched a top-4 finish in the league, and with a win over the Spartans on Saturday (Alico Arena, 7 p.m.) will guarantee themselves that they will finish either first or second in the A-Sun. With a win on Saturday and a win over UNF at home next Wednesday, FGCU will secure its second-straight A-Sun regular-season championship and subsequent tournament hosting responsibilities for each round provided it does not lose.
 
GAME NOTES: FGCU has now won eight-straight games against Kennesaw State … coupled with the No. 22/24 women's basketball team's 19-game winning streak, FGCU is one of only two schools (Gonzaga) with winning streaks of that length … Morant came off the bench to play a career-high 29 minutes, score five points, grab six rebounds and block three shots.
 
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. Dooley is in his
 
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.