Family of Eagles: FGCU volleyball star graduates with Master’s DegreeLCSO: Man shot by car owner protecting property
Family of Eagles: FGCU volleyball star graduates with Master’s Degree Saturday marked a special day for Florida Gulf Coast University as more than 1,800 students graduated. For one student-athlete, graduating from FGCU runs in the family.
lehigh acres LCSO: Man shot by car owner protecting property The Lee County Sheriff’s Office responded to a shooting in Lehigh Acres early Saturday morning.
NORTH FORT MYERS Lee County residents wait hours for D-SNAP assistance The supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) is at the Lee Civic Center all weekend, ready to help southwest Florida.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA First eaglet hatches in famous SWFL eagle nest Welcome E24! The third eaglet from the nest of M15 and F23 has hatched according to the Southwest Florida eagle camera.
Rock for Equality: SWFL non-profit hosts benefit concert for Palestine A Southwest Florida non-profit hosted a benefit concert on Friday night to help with humanitarian aid in Palestine.
Warm, breezy Saturday with a few showers possible The Weather Authority is forecasting a breezy, warm weekend in store across Southwest Florida, with the chance of a few showers, particularly on Saturday.
CAPE CORAL Active investigation underway in South Cape Coral Cape Coral police are investigating at a home on Southwest 49th Terrace in South Cape Coral early Saturday morning.
16 transported after 2 airboats crash in Collier County According to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, two airboats crashed south of U.S. 41 east between mile markers 74 and 75, leaving well over a dozen people injured.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA New bill filed: Auto shop and law enforcement must work together to solve hit-and-run crashes There could be new detectives on the block, located in your nearest auto shop. A new state bill aims at trying to stop hit-and-run drivers from getting away.
CAPE CORAL New leash on life; Cape Coral shelter dog beats cancer with drug being tested for humans A drug now being studied in human trials to kill cancerous tumors, is already approved and helping animals.
CAPE CORAL City of Cape Coral planning a new interchange with I-75 The city of Cape Coral is in the early stages of planning a new interchange with I-75, an idea that has been discussed for more than a decade.
Tracking invasive species after hurricanes Hurricanes Helene and Milton didn’t just bring wind and rain, they brought new threats to southwest Florida’s ecosystem.
PUNTA GORDA Woman in Punta Gorda shooting charged with 2nd degree murder A woman in a homicide investigation on Nasturtium Drive in Punta Gorda has been charged with 2nd-degree murder.
Lee County mother continuing fight to get children a bus stop The school district already told her she lives too close to the school to qualify for a bus route but she has not given up.
NORTH NAPLES Grant Thornton Invitational returns to Tiburon Golf Club Stars on the PGA and LPGA Tours are back in Southwest Florida for the Grant Thornton Invitational at Tiburon Golf Club.
Family of Eagles: FGCU volleyball star graduates with Master’s Degree Saturday marked a special day for Florida Gulf Coast University as more than 1,800 students graduated. For one student-athlete, graduating from FGCU runs in the family.
lehigh acres LCSO: Man shot by car owner protecting property The Lee County Sheriff’s Office responded to a shooting in Lehigh Acres early Saturday morning.
NORTH FORT MYERS Lee County residents wait hours for D-SNAP assistance The supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) is at the Lee Civic Center all weekend, ready to help southwest Florida.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA First eaglet hatches in famous SWFL eagle nest Welcome E24! The third eaglet from the nest of M15 and F23 has hatched according to the Southwest Florida eagle camera.
Rock for Equality: SWFL non-profit hosts benefit concert for Palestine A Southwest Florida non-profit hosted a benefit concert on Friday night to help with humanitarian aid in Palestine.
Warm, breezy Saturday with a few showers possible The Weather Authority is forecasting a breezy, warm weekend in store across Southwest Florida, with the chance of a few showers, particularly on Saturday.
CAPE CORAL Active investigation underway in South Cape Coral Cape Coral police are investigating at a home on Southwest 49th Terrace in South Cape Coral early Saturday morning.
16 transported after 2 airboats crash in Collier County According to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, two airboats crashed south of U.S. 41 east between mile markers 74 and 75, leaving well over a dozen people injured.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA New bill filed: Auto shop and law enforcement must work together to solve hit-and-run crashes There could be new detectives on the block, located in your nearest auto shop. A new state bill aims at trying to stop hit-and-run drivers from getting away.
CAPE CORAL New leash on life; Cape Coral shelter dog beats cancer with drug being tested for humans A drug now being studied in human trials to kill cancerous tumors, is already approved and helping animals.
CAPE CORAL City of Cape Coral planning a new interchange with I-75 The city of Cape Coral is in the early stages of planning a new interchange with I-75, an idea that has been discussed for more than a decade.
Tracking invasive species after hurricanes Hurricanes Helene and Milton didn’t just bring wind and rain, they brought new threats to southwest Florida’s ecosystem.
PUNTA GORDA Woman in Punta Gorda shooting charged with 2nd degree murder A woman in a homicide investigation on Nasturtium Drive in Punta Gorda has been charged with 2nd-degree murder.
Lee County mother continuing fight to get children a bus stop The school district already told her she lives too close to the school to qualify for a bus route but she has not given up.
NORTH NAPLES Grant Thornton Invitational returns to Tiburon Golf Club Stars on the PGA and LPGA Tours are back in Southwest Florida for the Grant Thornton Invitational at Tiburon Golf Club.
n the strength of nine second-half dunks, including seven alley-oop connections between Brett Comer and Demetris Morant, the shorthanded FGCU men’s basketball team (10-5) overcame a slow start to defeat Ave Maria University (7-6) 49-36 Friday night at Alico Arena in the Eagles’ non-conference home finale. Morant (Miami, Fla./Bishop Gorman HS/UNLV) finished with a career-high 14 points and matched a career best with eight rebounds, while Comer (Winter Park, Fla./Winter Park HS) reached double-figure assists for the sixth time this year by issuing a game-high 12. Freshman Christian Terrell (Jacksonville, Fla./Providence HS) earned his first collegiate start and netted 11 points while grabbing a season-high seven rebounds. FGCU was without four players – including three starters – as head coach Joe Dooley elected to rest leading scorer Bernard Thompson (Conyers, Ga./Rockdale County HS) and center Nate Hicks (Panama City Beach, Fla./J.R. Arnold HS/Georgia Tech) while double-figure scorer Jamail Jones (Atlanta, Ga./Montverde Academy/Marquette) served the fifth contest of a six-game suspension and redshirt freshman Logan Hovey (Orlando, Fla./Paul J. Hagerty HS) was unavailable due to an eye injury. The 49 points are the second-fewest in a win in program history for FGCU, which defeated Campbell, then an Atlantic Sun Conference member, 47-39, during the 2010-11 season. The Green and Blue’s defense held Ave Maria to the third-fewest points allowed in program history, with the other two lowest both being 30-point outings by Penn in 2007-08 and Florida Christian College in 2002-03. Both teams struggled mightily in the first half as Ave Maria took a 13-12 lead into the halftime break. FGCU got the spark it needed in the second half as Julian DeBose (Washington, D.C./St. John College HS) scored the Eagles’ first seven points of the stanza, with his 3-pointer at the 17:53 mark tying the game for the first time, 19-19. With FGCU holding a 23-22 lead with 13 minutes left, a stretch of three consecutive alley-oops from Comer to Morant in just one minute awoke the 4,071 fans inside The Nest as FGCU climbed to its largest lead at that point, 29-22. The lead swelled to 15, 37-22, following a Marc-Eddy Norelia (Orlando, Fla./Olympia HS/Tulane) dunk at the 7:20 mark which capped a 14-0 Dunk City run. The Eagles’ defense held the Gyrenes without a point for nearly 10 minutes during the game-deciding stretch. “The first half set basketball back a few years,” remarked Dooley. “Ave Maria did a good job controlling the tempo and we were flat and missed shots – which is not a good combination. Once we got a little bit of momentum in the second half we played a little bit more and got some guys some minutes they needed to get. But we’ll have some things to learn from moving forward.” Aided by those nine dunks, FGCU did not miss a shot from inside the 3-point line in the second half, going a perfect 15-15 as part of a blistering 77.3-percent clip from the floor in the second half (17-22). For the game FGCU shot 51.2 percent (21-41), but the A-Sun’s leading 3-point shooting team struggled from long range en route to just a 3-18 performance from beyond the arc. DeBose finished with nine points and four rebounds, while Comer netted five points and played all but two minutes. Norelia added eight points – the only eight points FGCU received from its bench on the evening. Ave Maria finished with just one assist as a team and was led at the offensive end by Exor Torres who tallied 12 and Jelani Bonnor with 11. The Gyrenes, an NAIA member, shot 31.7 percent from the floor (13-41), marking the first opponent in seven games which the Eagles have kept below 40 percent from the field. The win gave FGCU, ranked No. 15 in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 Poll, double-figure non-conference victories for the first time in program history with the previous record being just eight during the 2012-13 campaign. The Eagles out-scored Ave Maria in the paint, 34-12, representing the 27th-straight win for FGCU when scoring at least 15 more points in the paint than their opponents (dating back to 2011-12). FGCU will conclude its non-conference schedule when its challenging road non-league docket continues by traveling across the country to meet UC Santa Barbara (5-7) on Monday at 10 p.m. EST. The contest will be the second of the year between the two teams as the Gauchos were defeated by the Green and Blue at The Nest in November, 81-75, in overtime. Following the meeting with UC Santa Barbara, FGCU will open its defense of the A-Sun regular-season championship by hosting in-state foe Stetson on Saturday, Jan. 10, at 7 p.m. The game will be the second of a doubleheader as the women (13-2 and No. 15 in the RPI) battle the Hatters in a pivotal matchup at 4 p.m. GAME NOTES: FGCU is now 36-4 at Alico Arena dating back to the start of the 2012-13 season and 24-2 at home versus non-conference foes since 2011-12 … Comer, who entered the game second in the nation with an assist rate of 50.6 percent, was responsible for 80 percent of FGCU’s 15 assists … the Eagles turned the ball over 15 times … FGCU went 4-6 from the free-throw line … the Eagles won the battle on the glass, 30-20 … six of FGCU’s seven non-conference home games had crowds of 4,000 or more (4,333 capacity).