DUNK CITY, Fla. – At the midway point of the ASUN men's basketball season, FGCU is exactly where the league's coaches picked the Eagles to be at the end of it: alone at the top.
 
It wasn't pretty at times, but FGCU (16-8, 7-0 ASUN) showed why it was the conference's preseason favorite as the Eagles closed the game on an 8-0 run to claim a 68-62 win Saturday night against Jacksonville (11-13, 5-2 ASUN) at Alico Arena.
 
The victory was FGCU's ninth in row, but more importantly gave the Green and Blue a two-game lead – and the tiebreaker – over 2nd-place Jacksonville as the Eagles grabbed a stranglehold of the ASUN regular-season race.
 
Zach Johnson (Miami, Fla./Norland HS) tallied 12 of his team-high 18 points in the 2nd half, Brandon Goodwin netted 12 of his 16 points in the closing stanza and Christian Terrell (Jacksonville, Fla./Providence HS) broke a six-game single-digit scoring streak with an 11-point performance as the talented backcourt trio put FGCU on their collective backs to continue the program's best-ever conference start.
 
"It wasn't pretty, and we were very streaky, but our defense bailed us out tonight. We got some timely stops," stated FGCU head coach Joe Dooley. "But give JU credit; they switched and did some things defensively which put us in harm's way. The ball stuck for us tonight and that hurt us offensively, but our defense got stops late when it mattered most."
 
Three of FGCU's games of scoring 50 or more points in the paint since 2015-16 have come against Jacksonville, and that almost happened again on Saturday as the Eagles clipped off 48 in the paint. Combined with 13 points from the free-throw line, 61 of FGCU's 68 points came either in the paint or at the charity stripe.
 
That was needed as the Eagles – who have been much better from the 3-point line this year compared with Dooley's first four seasons – made a season-low one 3-pointer against Jacksonville. However, the Green and Blue locked down on JU beyond the arc, limiting the Dolphins to just 2-18 (11 percent) from 3-point range.
 
Mired in a 24-24 tie at the four-minute mark of the 1st half, FGCU closed the opening 20 minutes on an 11-2 run, capped by a steal and fastbreak layup from Goodwin (Norcross, Ga./UCF/Norcross HS) in the final seconds.
 
That surge gave the Eagles a 35-26 lead and marked the fifth time already through seven conference games they have held their opponent under 30 points in the 1st half.
 
The two sides traded buckets for most of the early portion of the 2nd half before JU eventually trimmed its deficit down to just three, 50-47, with less than 10 minutes remaining.
 
That prompted a timeout from Dooley, whose team responded with an 8-0 run to forge ahead by 11. However, the Dolphins counter-punched – thanks in large part to a switch in defenses from man to zone – which the Eagles struggled against during a 13-0 JU run to put the visitor's ahead, 62-60.
 
FGCU stopped the surge with a Goodwin layup as he sliced through the zone to tie the game at 62-62 with three minutes remaining. That spearheaded the final 8-0 push as the Eagles – who lead the ASUN in defense – clamped down when it mattered most behind the support of a season-high 4,427 fans.
 
Jace Hogan scored a game-high 23 points as the Navy transfer shot 10-16 from the floor. JD Notae added 15 points for the Dolphins, who shot 41.8 percent (28-67) and went just 4-6 from the free-throw line compared with 13-20 for FGCU.
 
Making the performance even more impressive is that FGCU hasn't had a single game yet this season where all 12 scholarship players have been healthy/eligible. That continued on Saturday as FGCU won despite not having Ricky Doyle (Cape Coral, Fla./Michigan/Bishop Verot HS) and RaySean Scott Jr. (Compton, Calif./Compton HS) (concussion protocol for both).
 
Combined with the women's basketball team's win over former 1st-place Jacksonville, FGCU is now the only school in the nation that has both its men's and women's basketball teams undefeated in conference action.
 
Since 2012-13, FGCU is now 38-5 (.884) in the regular season against ASUN opponents at Alico Arena. Overall in that same timeframe, the Eagles extend their record to 86-17 (.835) at The Nest.
 
They will look to improve on that mark once again in just two days when the Eagles battle North Florida (10-14, 4-3 ASUN) for the second time in five days on Monday at 7 p.m. inside Alico Arena. UNF won at Stetson on Saturday afternoon, 73-65.
 
NOTEWORTHY: With the win, FGCU evens the all-time series with Jacksonville at 11-11; Lipscomb is the only remaining team in the ASUN that has a winning record (11-9) against the Eagles … Brady Ernst (Iowa/Indian Hills CC/Iowa State/Clinton HS) scored seven points and grabbed four rebounds off the bench in 11 minutes … Michael Gilmore (Jacksonville, Fla./Miami/VCU/Rickards HS) secured a game-high 10 rebounds and added six points … the Division-I program record for consecutive wins is 10 set in 2014-15.
 
SOCIAL CENTRAL
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COACH DOOLEY
FGCU is led by head coach Joe Dooley, who is in his 5th season with the Eagles in 2017-18 and has coached eight all-conference selections in that time. He has led FGCU to 20+ win seasons and postseason appearances in all four years: 2014 NIT; 2015 CIT; 2016 NCAA; 2017 NCAA. Dooley was named the 2017 ASUN Coach of the Year and the 2017 NABC District 3 Coach of the Year after leading the Eagles to a D-I program record 26 wins. In 8+ seasons overall as a head coach, Dooley has a record of 164-106 (.607), and in his 4+ years with FGCU is 107-54 (.665). 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 visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.