Isaiah Thompson scored a career-high 31 points as Florida Gulf Coast University dropped a 69-63 decision to Queens University of Charlotte in the first round of the 2024 Atlantic Sun Conference Men's Basketball Championship, ending FGCU's season.
Five days after setting a career-high with eight 3-pointers made in a game, Thompson closed his career with his highest-scoring game in a collegiate uniform. The Zionsville, Indiana native connected on 7-of-11 from long range as part of an 11-of-19 performance from the field. He also tied for game-high honors with three steals.
"People don't realize that IT played through injuries the entire season," FGCU head coach
Pat Chambers said. "He missed time at the start and then missed a lot of time in December. He was trying hard to find his rhythm and conditioning. He was on a little bit of a roller coaster ride through January and February. Isaiah could have sat and said, 'I don't feel 100 percent. I'm not going to play,' but he didn't. And he came up big for us the last few weeks."
The Eagles (14-18) trailed 22-15, but Thompson scored 10 points of a 12-0 FGCU run to push the Eagles into a 27-22 lead with 6:20 to go in the first half. That run would close the scoring for FGCU in the first half as Queens responded with a 9-0 run over the final six minutes to take a 31-27 lead into halftime.
Momentum changed hands numerous times over the opening 10 minutes of the second half. With the Eagles down 46-40, field goals by
Dallion Johnson and
Franco Miller, Jr., helped to set up another Thompson 3-pointer to give the Eagles the 47-46 lead.
While the Green & Blue would keep the game tight over the final 10 minutes, Queens would regain the lead and never relinquish it. FGCU trailed 58-56 after a Thompson basket with 3:37 left, but a 6-0 run by the Royals (14-18) over the next three minutes put the game out of reach as Queens ended FGCU's season for the second consecutive year.
"Batman needs a Robin," said Coach Chambers. "It was unfortunate. People got good looks but they didn't go in. We tried to establish other guys, but it was one of those nights where the ball didn't go in."
As a team, the Eagles made 24 shots from the field, compared to 20 for Queens; however, the Royals made 11 3-pointers to FGCU's eight and went 18-of-22 from the free-throw line compared to FGCU's 7-of-14.
Cyrus Largie had 11 points for the Eagles in the loss as the fifth-year player also grabbed seven rebounds and tied for game-high honors with three steals in his 129th career game for FGCU.
Dakota Rivers had four blocks to tie a season-high end his 124-game career at FGCU with 132 blocks, just two off the school record.
The game was played at a neutral site in DeLand, Florida on the campus of Stetson University.
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