JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Behind a furious second-half scoring outburst, the sixth-seeded FGCU men's basketball team (10-7) picked up a huge 72-60 win over third-seeded Lipscomb (15-12) in the ASUN Championship Tournament quarterfinal round. The Eagles will next play fifth-seeded North Alabama on Friday night (7 PM) at UNF Arena in the semifinals.
The Lions defeated fourth-seeded North Florida in the earlier quarterfinal match-up at Jacksonville's Swisher Gymnasium. In the other quarterfinal games, No. 1 Liberty defeated No. 8 Kennesaw State, while No. 7 Stetson defeated No. 2 Bellarmine. That will have the Flames take on the Hatters in the early semifinal match-up at 2 PM on Friday. Both games will be streamed live on ESPN+.
"I was really proud of our guys tonight – I've said it several times that I don't think this season has been a true representation of our team between the pauses and then not having Luis (Rolon) for seven games," said head coach
Michael Fly. "We're still reaching our potential because of never being able to keep a consistent rhythm. Tonight you could see those flashes of how we want to play in transition when Luis is out there which builds up everyone's confidence. Now we have to rest tonight and get locked back in for tomorrow night."
Sophomore
Cyrus Largie (Miramar, Fla./Mater Lakes Academy) finished with a game-high 19 points and five rebounds as one of four players in double-figures. Junior
Caleb Catto (Cape Coral, Fla./Southwest Florida Christian Academy) and senior
Jalen Warren (Milton, Ontario/Eastern Florida State) each had 13 points, while
Eli Abaev (Deerfield Beach, Fla./Austin Peay) notched 11 points to go with seven rebounds. Freshman
Luis Rolon (Ponce, Puerto Rico/Central Pointe Christian Academy) had a career-high nine assists while adding six rebounds and two steals with just two turnovers.
Lipscomb was led by K.J. Johnson who scored 18 points and Ahsan Asadullah who added 14 points and 11 rebounds.
The Bisons used a 21-to-4 run in the first half to build out a 17-point lead, 27-10, midway through the opening stanza. The duo of
Dakota Rivers and
Zach Anderson were able to help the Eagles score 11 straight as FGCU cut the deficit to 27-21 at the 6:18 mark. Lipscomb briefly pushed the lead back to double-figures, but the Green and Blue closed the final 4:26 of the half on a 10-to-3 run trimming the Bisons advantage to 35-31 at the intermission.
Lipscomb opened the second half with five straight points, before Warren scored seven of nine consecutive for FGCU including a lay-up at the 16:06 mark which put the Eagles back on top, 40-39.
Over the next 11 minutes, the Eagles went on a tear outscoring the Bisons 30-to-8 building out a 70-47 lead behind 14 points from Largie. In that stretch, FGCU hit 13-of-18 from the floor while holding Lipscomb to just 2-of-17 including 1-of-9 from deep.
Friday's semifinal match-up will be the third meeting of the year between the Eagles and North Alabama. FGCU swept the two-game series with the Lions during the regular-season. This will mark the eighth time FGCU has reached the ASUN Championship Tournament semifinals and first since finishing runner-up in the 2017-18 postseason. It will also be the first time FGCU and North Alabama have met in the postseason.
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COACH FLY
Michael Fly was introduced as the fourth FGCU men's basketball head coach on April 5, 2018. He had spent the previous seven years as an assistant coach on the Eagles' staff. In his time with the Eagles, he helped FGCU to a 174-115 record (.603 winning percentage), including six ASUN Tournament Final appearances, three NCAA Tournament victories, three ASUN Tournament titles and three ASUN Regular Season Championships, two berths in the NIT, a CIT appearance and a run to the Sweet 16. He has coached 13 all-conference selections while with the Green and Blue, including two ASUN Player of the Year honors in Sherwood Brown and Brandon Goodwin, two ASUN Defensive Player of the Year selections in Bernard Thompson and Demetris Morant and one ASUN Newcomer of the Year in
Schadrac Casimir. Of the top-10 players in career points at FGCU, Fly has helped develop eight of them, including all-time leading scorer Thompson (1,835). Additionally, the Kentucky alumnus has coached both the ASUN all-time assists leader Brett Comer (845; 24th in NCAA history) and FGCU all-time leading rebounder Chase Fieler (714).
#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April 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.
ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 82 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 13 seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just nine seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 38 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. Seven FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport – including women's basketball (No. 24, 2019-20) and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as three of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green and Blue posted a department-best sixth-place finish in the DI-AAA Learfield Directors' Cup and top-100 showing nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS institutions. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and state of Florida best seven teams earn the NCAA's Public Recognition Award for their Academic Progress Rate (APR) in their sport and have had the highest percentage of teams so honored from these two groups over each of the past three years. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.46 GPA in the classroom in the spring 2020 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 22 consecutive semesters. The 2019 Fall and 2020 Spring semesters each saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher team GPA. The Eagles also served an all-time high 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 – being recognized as one of two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.
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