SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The road to the ASUN Men's Basketball Championship once again runs through Alico Arena.
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The FGCU men's basketball team (20-8, 11-0 ASUN) became the first team in the nation to wrap up a regular-season title as the Eagles used a 2nd-half onslaught to erase a 15-point halftime deficit and power themselves to an emphatic 88-71 victory Saturday at USC Upstate (7-21, 2-9 ASUN).
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The triumph secures the Green and Blue's second-straight outright regular-season crown – third overall in the last five years – and positions FGCU as the No. 1 seed with home-court advantage throughout the ASUN Tournament – which the Eagles have claimed each of the past two years and three times in the past five campaigns.
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Trailing by as much as 18 points in the 1st half, the Eagles matched their largest comeback in program history set just last month with a torrid 2nd-half pace. FGCU shot a gaudy 73 percent (24-33) from the floor and scored 59 points – its 2nd-most in any half against a Division-I opponent in program history – to extend its D-I program-best winning streak to 13 in a row, which is currently tied for the 7th-longest in the nation.
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RaySean Scott Jr. led the charge off the FGCU bench with a career-high 21 points on 8-10 shooting to go along with six rebounds. He paced a quintet of Green and Blue double-figure scorers as
Brandon Goodwin had 19,
Zach Johnson and
Christian Terrell each netted 14 and
Antravious Simmons (Miami, Fla./VCU/South Miami HS) put together consecutive double-figure point performances for the first time this year with 11 and six rebounds.
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USC Upstate dominated the 1st half, forging ahead by a 32-14 margin with less than six minutes to play in the opening stanza. The Spartans maintained a comfortable cushion at the half, 44-29. But FGCU – which has now won 13-straight ASUN road games and 14 league contests in a row overall – absolutely throttled the Spartans in the 2nd half.
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The Eagles out-scored Upstate in the 2nd half, 59-27. They scored an absurd 56 of those points in the paint or at the free-throw line. They limited Upstate to just 26-percent shooting (9-34) after it connected at a 42-percent rate (16-38) in the 1st half.
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It all added up to FGCU becoming the first school in the history of the ASUN Conference (which dates back to 1978-79) to post six-consecutive 20-win seasons. Combined with the women's basketball team's 23 victories, FGCU is currently the only school in the nation which has had its men's and women's basketball teams post six-straight 20-win campaigns.
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"We had no answer early; they made a bunch of 3s – and we're usually a good 3-point defensive team," commented FGCU head coach
Joe Dooley of Upstate's nine 1st-half 3-pointers. "But we were able to get some stops in the 2nd half and get out in transition for some easy buckets. We mixed up our defenses a little bit and were able to get Upstate off the 3-point line in the 2nd half."
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FGCU came out of the halftime locker room and completely erased its deficit in only eight minutes. The Eagles took the lead for good on a
Johnson (Miami, Fla./Norland HS) traditional three-point play at the 11:52 mark.
Terrell (Jacksonville, Fla./Providence HS) followed with a steal and a three-point finish of his own on the ensuing possession to put FGCU up 56-51, and the Eagles were never threatened after that.
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Mike Cunningham led all scorers with 26 points for the Spartans, who were out-scored in the paint in the 2nd half, 46-8. Deion Holmes added 16 points and eight rebounds, and Ramel Thompkins netted 13 points and collected six rebounds for Upstate, which shot just 3-18 (17 percent) from 3 in the 2nd half after its 9-20 (45 percent) performance in the 1st half.
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Unanimous ASUN Preseason Player of the Year
Goodwin (Norcross, Ga./UCF/Norcross HS) added team-high-tying totals of six rebounds and six assists, while Terrell matched the redshirt senior's assist number with a season-matching performance in that category. Johnson contributed five assists and three steals as the Eagles passed out 19 helpers compared with just nine turnovers – FGCU's third single-digit turnover performance in the last four games after just two such outings through the season's first 23 contests.
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Scott Jr. (Compton, Calif./Compton HS) eclipsed his previous career high of 15 points set in November against Denver. He went 5-6 from the free-throw line as well – the most the sophomore has made in a single game from the charity stripe.
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The Eagles capitalized on almost all of Upstate's 14 miscues as FGCU finished with a 26-8 edge in points off turnovers, a 56-20 advantage in paint points and a 37-6 cushion in bench points.
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Through its first 10 ASUN games, FGCU had trailed for a total of only 29:40 out of 400 minutes, and 15:58 of that came in one game at Lipscomb (13:42 total time trailing in the nine other ASUN contests). On Saturday alone, the Eagles trailed for 28:40, but led for the final 11:08 when it mattered most.
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The 18-point comeback matches FGCU's 66-48 deficit faced at Lipscomb on Jan. 18 as the program's largest all-time. That contest also signified the only other time the Eagles have trailed at halftime all conference season.
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Making the performance this year even more impressive is that FGCU still hasn't had a single game yet this season where all 12 scholarship players have been healthy/eligible.
The regular-season crown guarantees that FGCU will be playing in the postseason for the sixth-straight season in only seven years of eligibility. While the ultimate goal remains a third-straight journey to the NCAA Tournament, FGCU secured at least a trip to the NIT by virtue of the regular-season championship.
FGCU returns home for a pair of games against Kennesaw State (Feb. 15, 7 p.m.) and Lipscomb (Feb. 17, 7 p.m.). The Owls are 5-6 in the ASUN after winning three-straight games, while the Bisons – picked 2nd in the preseason poll – have won two in a row and are alone in 2nd at 7-4.
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NOTEWORTHY: Ricky Doyle played seven minutes for the first time since Jan. 20 and scored two points, grabbed two rebounds and blocked a shot …
Darnell Rogers (sickness) and
Christian Carlyle (ankle) did not play.
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SOCIAL CENTRAL
For up-to-the-minute information and behind-the-scenes access to the men's basketball program, follow @FGCU_MBB on Twitter and Instagram, Like us on Facebook at /FGCUMBB and watch us on Snapchat at FGCU_MBB.
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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 168-106 (.614), and in his 4+ years with FGCU is 112-54 (.673). 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.
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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.