RALEIGH, N.C. – The 16th-seeded FGCU men's basketball team (21-14) gave top-seeded North Carolina (29-6) all it could handle, but a big run in the 2nd half by the Tar Heels propelled them to an 83-67 win the First Round of the NCAA Tournament at PNC Arena Thursday night.
 
The Eagles trailed at the half by just one, 41-40, but foul trouble began to become in an issue in the 2nd half. UNC opened the stanza on a 25-6 run during which FGCU big men Antravious Simmons (Miami, Fla./VCU/South Miami HS) and Demetris Morant (Miami, Fla./UNLV/Bishop Gorman HS) each picked up their fourth fouls.
 
Sophomore Christian Terrell (Jacksonville, Fla./Providence HS) finished with the best all-around game of his career on the biggest stage with a team-high 15 points, career- and game-best seven assists and seven rebounds. Terrell was part of an FGCU rebounding edge as the Eagles out-boarded the ACC champions, 43-41.
 
Redshirt junior Marc-Eddy Norelia (Orlando, Fla./Tulane/Olympia HS) recorded his 16th double-double of the season – seven more than anyone else in single-season program history – with 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Coming off the bench, Simmons scored 11 of his 14 points and grabbed five of his eight rebounds in the 1st half before being slowed with foul trouble in the closing 20 minutes.
 
FGCU faced an 11-point deficit, 29-18, just past the midway point of the 1st half and were in danger of getting blown out in front of the predominately-UNC crowd just a half hour down the road from Chapel Hill. However, the young and talented Eagles fought back and only trailed by one at the break after shooting 60 percent from the floor (15-25).
 
That percentage was the best in any half this year against the ACC regular season and tournament champions, and was also the best in any half versus the Tar Heels in an NCAA Tournament game since 1996 – a stretch of 59 games. The Eagles also crawled within one at the intermission by out-rebounding the Tar Heels, 21-14, and out-scoring them in the paint, 22-16.
 
However, the 2nd half was a different story as UNC limited the Green and Blue to just 30.3 percent (10-33) from the floor. UNC quickly flipped the advantage down low in its favor and finished with a 44-32 edge in paint points. Fastbreak points and points off turnovers were also crucial stats as the Tar Heels finished with a 20-0 fastbreak advantage and a 21-4 edge off giveaways.
 
"The start of the 2nd half obviously dictated the outcome of the game," surmised FGCU head coach Joe Dooley. "I'm really proud of our guys. I thought we played as hard as we could. We had a bone-headed start to the 2nd half, but I thought our effort was tremendous. Looking down the road, Carolina will be a team that can contend for a national title."
 
UNC's Brice Johnson finished with 18 points, seven rebounds, eight blocks and three assists, leading a quintet of double-figure scorers. Joel Berry II netted 14, Justin Jackson and Isaiah Hicks tallied 12 each and Marcus Paige added 10 while passing out a team-best six assists.
 
For FGCU, redshirt freshman Zach Johnson (Miami, Fla./Norland HS) totaled nine points, while redshirt senior Julian DeBose (Washington, D.C./Rice/St. John College HS) netted seven points and grabbed five rebounds in his collegiate finale. For FGCU, 60 of the 67 points came from players expected to return next year, in addition to 38 of the 43 rebounds and all 10 assists.
 
DeBose and Filip Cvjeticanin (Zagreb, Croatia/American School of Madrid) have both exhausted their collegiate eligibility and will graduate in May as the future for the Eagles looks extremely bright with a pair of talented redshirts sitting out and high school seniors entering.
 
FGCU is now 3-2 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, with the .600 winning percentage being something that only 30 of the 351 Division-I schools in the nation can boast. In both of their tournament appearances – and after only becoming eligible in 2011-12 – FGCU has won at least one game both times, with the most recent victory coming in the First Four on Tuesday in Dayton over fellow 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson, 96-65.
 
The 2015-16 season concludes a 4th-straight year for FGCU with more than 20 wins and a postseason appearance each time. The Eagles are one of less than 40 teams nationally to have 20 or more victories each of the past four years as the Green and Blue are believed to be the only team in the history of the NCAA to reach a D-I postseason tournament in four of their first five years eligible.
 
SOCIAL CENTRAL
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COACH DOOLEY 
FGCU is led by head coach Joe Dooley, who just completed his 3rd year with the Eagles and has coached eight all-conference selections. He guided FGCU to its first Atlantic Sun Conference Regular-Season Championship and first trip to the NIT in 2014, and in 2015 he led the Eagles to their then-3rd-straight 20-win season and 3rd-straight postseason appearance with 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 7th season overall as a head coach and has a record of 122-90 (.575), and in his 2+ years with FGCU is 65-38 (.631).
 
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