DUNK CITY, Fla. – Since claiming the outright ASUN regular-season title a week ago with an 11-0 record, the FGCU men's basketball team (20-10, 11-2 ASUN) has now dropped two-straight games, the latest coming on Saturday night at a sold-out Alico Arena on Senior Night and Homecoming Weekend as Lipscomb (19-9, 9-4 ASUN) clipped the Eagles, 90-87.
 
Trailing by 16, 72-56, with just over five minutes remaining, FGCU turned up the pressure on Lipscomb and clipped off an incredible 22-7 run in three minutes – including a 10-0 surge in under 40 seconds – to pull within one point, 79-78.
 
After the Bisons – who blew an 18-point 2nd-half lead to the Eagles last month in Nashville – forged back ahead by seven, 88-81, with 40 seconds remaining, FGCU again fought back and made it a one-point contest, 88-87, with 15 seconds left. A pair of Lipscomb free throws moved the advantage back to three, and Christian Terrell's last-second 3-point attempt to force overtime was just off.
 
Brandon Goodwin (Norcross, Ga./UCF/Norcross HS) posted his second-straight season-best performance of 28 points to lead all scorers, while Terrell (Jacksonville, Fla./Providence HS) secured back-to-back 20-point contests with 22. Zach Johnson (Miami, Fla./Norland HS) rounded out the double-figure-scoring backcourt trio with 19.
 
"If the first thing we're talking about (in the postgame press conference) is the amount of points we gave up, that's not a good thing," stated FGCU head coach Joe Dooley. "We got ourselves in a hole, but a lot of that was actually because of our offense and the ball not moving enough. But for them to shoot 57 percent from the floor is unacceptable, and that needs to get corrected immediately."
 
Through FGCU's first 11 ASUN contests in which they wrapped up its second-straight outright regular-season crown, the Eagles had limited league foes to just 64.6 points per game and 38.8 percent from the floor. In the last two games, the Eagles have surrendered 93.5 points and allowed a field-goal percentage of 55.4.
 
Making the defensive anomaly even more staggering for the Eagles is that this now marks the fourth time in regulation this year they have allowed 90+ points. In Dooley's first four years combined that only occurred twice. Additionally, this is the fourth time this season that FGCU has scored at least 85 points and lost. That hadn't happened even once since the program's first season in 2002-03, and it occurred three times that year.
 
After the uncharacteristically-poor defensive effort on Thursday night in a 97-93 setback to Kennesaw State, the Eagles raced out to a strong start on Saturday in front of a season-best 4,497 fans and held a six-point lead at the midway point of the 1st half. However, Lipscomb stormed back, eventually opened up a seven-point lead at intermission and controlled most of the 2nd half to give FGCU consecutive regular-season home ASUN losses for the first time since the 2011-12 season.
 
Lipscomb – which has now won eight of its last nine – shot 56.9 percent (33-58) from the floor, the highest any team has connected on against the Green and Blue this year. Garrison Mathews led the Bisons with 23 points, while Kenny Cooper added 19 and Rob Marberry tallied 16.
 
The FGCU comeback attempt started with full-court pressure, which in part contributed to FGCU's season-high 19 steals – tied for the 3rd-most in Division-I program history and the most against an ASUN team ever. Goodwin recorded a career-high five thefts, while Johnson and Terrell each had four.
 
FGCU still hasn't had a single game yet this season where all 12 scholarship players have been healthy/eligible. That continued again on Saturday as Christian Carlyle (ankle) and RaySean Scott Jr. (illness) both did not play again. Carlyle (Jacksonville, Fla./Bishop Kenny HS) is one of the team's best defenders and has now missed four-straight games, while Scott Jr. (Compton, Calif./Compton HS) has missed consecutive contests after scoring a career-high 21 points at USC Upstate last Saturday to help the Eagles come back from an 18-point deficit to secure the regular-season trophy.
 
FGCU concludes the regular season at Stetson (12-18, 4-9 ASUN) next Thursday, Feb. 22, at 7 p.m. The Eagles defeated the Hatters, 90-52, at Alico Arena in the league opener in early January.
 
Following the contest with Stetson, No. 1-seeded FGCU will begin its quest for a third-straight ASUN Tournament Championship by hosting a quarterfinal matchup on Monday, Feb. 26. Based off results earlier on Saturday, the Eagles know they will be hosting No. 8 USC Upstate (7-23, 2-11 ASUN). FGCU swept the season series with the Spartans, winning at home by a 75-58 margin and scoring 59 2nd-half points as part of an 88-71 victory in Spartanburg.
 
NOTEWORTHY: Earlier on Saturday, several former men's and women's players participated in a Blue-White Game as part of Homecoming Weekend … Lipscomb out-rebounded FGCU, 34-27 … the Eagles had a season-high 32 points off turnovers … Michael Gilmore had nine points and a game-high-tying seven rebounds.
 
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.
 
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 five years: 2014 NIT; 2015 CIT; 2016 NCAA; 2017 NCAA; 2018 NCAA/NIT. 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 168-108 (.609), and in his 4+ years with FGCU is 112-56 (.667). 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.