FGCU handles Kennesaw State to advance to A-Sun semifinals

Led by a 13th double-double from Marc-Eddy Norelia, a team-best 15 points from Christian Terrell and 14 points from Zach Johnson, the 4th-seeded FGCU men’s basketball team (18-13) advanced to the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship semifinals with a 74-64 win over 5th-seeded Kennesaw State (11-20) Tuesday night at Alico Arena.

The Eagles will next face North Florida on the top-seeded Ospreys’ home floor at 7:30 p.m. Thursday on ESPN3. However, due to a pair of quarterfinal upsets, if FGCU were to win that game, the Eagles would host the tournament final on Sunday at 7 p.m.

UNF defeated 8th-seeded USC Upstate, 92-69. In the other two games, 7th-seeded Stetson won at 2nd-seeded NJIT, 82-67, and 6th-seeded Lipscomb won at 3rd-seeded Jacksonville in overtime, 92-89. Lipscomb will host Stetson in the other semifinal on Thursday at 7 p.m. Eastern.

Norelia (Orlando, Fla./Tulane/Olympia HS) totaled 14 points and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds – nearly half of what Kennesaw State had as a team – as he established the program’s single-season rebound record with 282, surpassing the previous mark of 274 by Adam Liddell in 2006-07.

Terrell (Jacksonville, Fla./Providence HS) gave the Eagles a huge spark in the second half as he totaled 13 of his 15 points in that stanza, knocking down all three of his 3-pointers to finish with his highest point total since he netted 16 at Kennesaw State on Jan. 21.

Together, Norelia and Terrell teamed up early in the second half to go on a 10-0 run to create enough separation for the rest of the night for the Eagles. Leading by just one, 42-41, with 17:30 left in the game, Terrell fed Norelia for a fastbreak dunk then knocked down consecutive 3-pointers before Norelia cut baseline and threw down another slam to cap the three-minute stretch which gave FGCU a 52-41 lead at the 14:30 mark. Kennesaw State would get no closer than six the rest of the night.

“We struggled guarding the ball, especially early in the game, and gave up some scores late in the shot clock that hurt us,” said FGCU head coach Joe Dooley. “In the second half we did a better job on the defensive end. Christian making a couple 3s really opened the floor up, we got some consecutive stops and run-outs and that gave us the energy we needed.”

Looking for energy from the outset, Antravious Simmons (Miami, Fla./VCU/South Miami HS) started for the first time in exactly a month and made an immediate impact for the Eagles, scoring four points and collecting three rebounds before the first media timeout. The 6-9 big man would finish the first half with seven points and eight rebounds, adding just two more points in the second half.

Neither team led by more than seven in the first half, and the contest remained tight until FGCU’s aforementioned run. The Owls got their deficit back down to 58-52 with less than 10 minutes remaining, but the Eagles again responded, this time with a 7-0 run which was capped by a Johnson steal and one-handed throwdown to put FGCU up 13, 65-52, and the Green and Blue led by double figures the rest of the night.

FGCU shot 52 percent from the floor (26-50), its second-highest percentage in an A-Sun Championship game (55.6 vs. Jacksonville in last year’s quarterfinal). The Eagles also finished with a +14 rebound edge, 39-25, to represent their second-largest rebound differential in an A-Sun tournament game (+17 last year vs. Jacksonville).

The A-Sun’s highest-scoring duo in Yonel Brown and Kendrick Ray were the lone Kennesaw State players to reach double-figure scoring, finishing with 19 and 13, respectively. After allowing the Owls to shoot 54.2 percent (13-24) from the floor in the first half, FGCU clamped down and limited KSU to just 33.3 percent in the second half (10-30) en route to its 11th-straight win over the Owls – the longest streak against any current A-Sun member.

All but nine of FGCU’s points on the night came from underclassmen as redshirt senior Julian DeBose (Washington, D.C./Rice/St. John College HS) totaled all those. All eight FGCU players who logged game action scored. The Eagles also finished with a 36-28 edge in paint points and a 13-6 advantage in second-chance points.

The win moves FGCU’s all-time A-Sun Championship record to 9-3 as the Eagles have now advanced to the semifinals in every single season they’ve been eligible since 2011-12. FGCU’s .750 winning percentage in A-Sun Championship games is by far the best among current league members, with UNF (6-5, .545) being the only other team in the league with a tournament winning percentage better than .500. Ironically enough, FGCU and UNF are also the only two current A-Sun members that have won an A-Sun Men’s Basketball Championship crown.

FGCU and UNF split the regular-season series, with each team defending home court. FGCU lost at UNF, 82-76, before handing the Ospreys their largest A-Sun loss of the season in Alico a week later, 81-65. The 65 points were by far the fewest UNF scored in the A-Sun all year as the Ospreys reached 80 points in every other game with the exception of a 78-point outing versus USC Upstate.