PHILADELPHIA – The FGCU men's basketball team (7-5) dug itself an 11-point 1st-half deficit, fought back to lead most of the 2nd half but eventually fell just short in the closing minutes at La Salle (5-4) Saturday afternoon, 84-80.
 
Redshirt junior Brandon Goodwin scored a season-high 26 points to lead FGCU offensively for the eighth time already this year. Sophomore Rayjon Tucker came off the bench to add a career-high 23 points, and Zach Johnson finished with 18 points, but the Eagles dropped their second game in a row.
 
Hampered by foul trouble and without the services of forward Marc-Eddy Norelia, FGCU's usually-strong interior presence produced a season-low 24 points in the paint. Adaptably, the Eagles switched to their perimeter offense and made a season-high 12 3-pointers. However, 16 turnovers which led to 25 La Salle points proved to be the difference as the Green and Blue finished with a minus-15 differential (25-10) in points off turnovers.
 
"The story of the game, and really our season to this point, has been careless turnovers, and it hurt us again this afternoon," stated FGCU head coach Joe Dooley. "The 15-point differential in points off turnovers was the difference in the game, and most of them were unforced. We need to get that corrected."
 
FGCU led 74-70 with 4:30 remaining, but eight-straight points from the Atlantic 10 Conference member opened up a 78-74 La Salle lead before Goodwin (Norcross, Ga./UCF/Norcross HS) hit a pair of free throws with 32 seconds left to stop the run. FGCU and La Salle traded buckets over the closing seconds, but every Eagles' response was answered by an Explorers' free throw –mostly from Syracuse transfer B.J. Johnson – who finished with a career-high 35 points.
 
The Eagles shot 50 percent (12-24) from 3-point range, and connected at a 77-percent clip from the free-throw line (20-26) for the game. FGCU was able to limit La Salle's vital 3-point attack to just 32 percent (8-25), but the Explorers made 24 of 30 free-throw attempts (80 percent) – the 2nd-most makes an FGCU opponent has had this year – to seal the contest.
 
La Salle jumped out to a 19-8 lead just more than 3 minutes in, but FGCU gradually chipped away despite low-post foul trouble which saw Demetris Morant (Miami, Fla./UNLV/Bishop Gorman HS) and Antravious Simmons (Miami, Fla./VCU/South Miami HS) miss most of the opening half.
 
The scoring load was taken on by Goodwin and Tucker (Charlotte, N.C./Northside Christian Academy), the latter of whom tied his season high with 14 points on a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer. That long-distance 3 knot only tied his season high, but it tied the game at the half, 39-39, as the Eagles erased the 11-point deficit.
 
Morant and Simmons – who combined for just four points and six rebounds (one rebound from Simmons) – each had four fouls by the middle stage of the 2nd half, but FGCU continued to battle. After scoring just three points in the 1st half, Johnson (Miami, Fla./Norland HS) tallied 15 in the 2nd, including three of his career-high-tying four 3-pointers. His jumper at the 4:30 mark in the paint gave the Eagles their aforementioned 74-70 lead.
 
After a pair of La Salle free throws trimmed its deficit to 74-72, the Eagles committed a pair of turnovers on consecutive possessions which led to La Salle buckets and ultimately a 76-74 lead which was never surrendered by the hosts.
 
Despite the low-post issues for the Eagles, they still finished with a 34-28 edge on the glass. Goodwin and Tucker – who wore No. 25 in place of his normal No. 3 – both secured team- and season-high rebounding totals with seven each.
 
La Salle's Johnson exploded for 28 of his 35 points in the 2nd half, going 9-12 from the floor and 7-8 from the free-throw line while not coming out the final 20 minutes. He carried the La Salle offense as only Jordan Price with 16 was the lone other Explorer to reach double-figure points.
 
The game was the backend of a home-and-home series with La Salle which started last year at Alico Arena. FGCU never trailed in that meeting en route to an 86-77 win over the Explorers.
 
The Eagles were without redshirt senior Marc-Eddy Norelia (Orlando, Fla./Tulane/Olympia HS) as he did not travel with the team due to personal reasons. He also will not play in FGCU's game Tuesday at Louisiana Tech as the Green and Blue will remain on the road.
 
FGCU (15 seed) and La Salle (13 seed) both reached the Sweet Sixteen in 2013, marking the first time in the same NCAA Tournament two teams seeded 13 or lower have reached that round. The Eagles made their run at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, and the matchup with the Explorers marked their first return to the City of Brotherly Love since that record-setting March.
 
FGCU's challenging road trip continues when it heads to Ruston, La., to face Louisiana Tech (6-4) on Tuesday, Dec. 20, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern (6:30 p.m. local). The Bulldogs, who defeated the Eagles at Alico last year, 66-63, are 6-4 on the year entering a Saturday evening contest with Grambling State. Since February of 2012, La Tech is 71-2 (.973) at home – the best winning percentage in the nation during that time.

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COACH DOOLEY 
FGCU is led by head coach Joe Dooley, who is in his 4th season with the Eagles in 2016-17 and has coached eight all-conference selections over his first three campaigns. Dooley guided FGCU to a 4th-straight 20-win season and 4th-consecutive postseason appearance in 2015-16 as the Eagles claimed the ASUN Tournament Championship and won their First Four NCAA Tournament game in 31-point record-setting fashion. He led FGCU to its first ASUN Regular-Season Championship and first trip to the NIT in 2014, and in 2015 he led the Eagles to a berth in the CIT. 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 8th season overall as a head coach and has a record of 129-95 (.576), and in his 3+ years with FGCU is 72-43 (.626).
 
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 visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.