FORT MYERS, Fla. – Tavian Dunn-Martin celebrated his birthday with a game-high 33-point performance on Wednesday night to lead the FGCU men's basketball program to a 95-79 win over Detroit Mercy at Alico Arena in the first round of The Basketball Classic.
 
The Eagles (22-11) will wait to find out who they will face in the second round of the tournament, while the Titans finished the season at 14-16 overall.
 
The win marked the first postseason victory for FGCU since a 96-65 win over Fairleigh Dickinson in a NCAA Tournament First Four game in 2016. Overall, this marks the seventh postseason appearance for the Eagles.
 
"I have a ton of respect for Coach Davis and Coach Marsh; Detroit Mercy is a good team with one of the top scorers in the country in Antoine Davis," said head coach Michael Fly. "We focused on cherishing the opportunity to keep playing together, to embrace being in the postseason, and I thought our guys did a terrific job of locking in – I was proud of our guys for sticking together and earning some more time for them to stay together."
 
Dunn-Martin's 33 points extended his single-season record to 688 points while his six assists give him 194 for the season which stand as the fourth-most for a season in program history. His 33 points came on 12-of-19 shooting from the floor including five three pointers.
 
Austin Richie scored 17 points to go with seven rebounds, while Kevin Samuel had 12 points and eight rebounds. Zach Anderson added 10 points and six rebounds.
 
The Eagles finished the night shooting 55 percent from the field (36-of-66) and held a 41-to-31 advantage on the boards. The Titans shot 31-of-66 (47%) for the game.
 
Davis led Detroit Mercy with 24 points going 10-of-20 from the floor. D.J. Harvey had the game's only double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds, while Kevin McAdoo scored 18 points. Madut Akec scored 17 points and added nine rebounds to round out the top performers.
 
Detroit led 49-48 at the intermission thanks to a 12-to-0 run late in the stanza that helped pull them back into the game after the Eagles had built out a 13-point lead.
 
FGCU wasted no time in the second half pushing the lead back to double figures thanks to a 15-to-4 run in the first seven minutes with Dunn-Martin scoring eight in the stretch.
 
The Titans were able to pull back within four over the next six minutes, but another big run for the Eagles pushed the lead to 17, 91-74, with 2:55 remaining. Back-to-back triples by Richie and Dunn-Martin sparked the streak where Richie produced seven. Dunn-Martin capped the run with his fifth triple of the night.
 
The Eagles will find out their next opponent and game date later this week. Tickets will be on sale at the Alico Arena Ticket Office and online at www.FGCUTickets.com.
 
For complete coverage of FGCU men's basketball, follow the Eagles on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @FGCU_MBB and online at www.FGCUAthletics.com. You can also sign-up to have news on FGCU men's basketball and other programs delivered directly to your inbox by visiting www.fgcuathletics.com/email.

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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 90 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 14+ seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just 10 seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 44 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. Eight FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport - including women's basketball (No. 20, 2021-22), beach volleyball (No. 20, 2022) 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 in their sport. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.50 GPA in the classroom in the fall 2020 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 25 consecutive semesters. The past five semesters (Fall 2019 – Fall 2021) each saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher team GPA in each. 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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