Quick Start, Hot Shooting Men’s Siege 90-71 Win over Southeast Louisiana

FORT MYERS, Fla. – An explosive first half set the early tune as FGCU men’s basketball overcame Southeast Louisiana 90-71 Saturday night at Alico Arena during day two of the Hilton Garden Inn FGCU Invitational. The Eagles improved to 5-2 on aggregate and won their fourth straight game, while the Lions failed with an overall score of 3-4.

FGCU ended the night with 15 people taking three points, second in single-game history in show history and just one short of the records set in 2005 (vs Fairmont State) and 2018 (compared to Fairmont State) with Lipscomb). The four-game winning streak is the longest since the Eagles won four in a row in a similar period in November 2017 (11/24-29).

“I think we played really, really well in the first half, but there was a period there in the second half where we were sloppy and overturned. I told the team that 29 assists. Making over 33 passes is as good as I am, said the head coach Michael Fly. “But, we had 20 passes and I have to say part of it was them and their pressure although a lot of it was we were careless with the ball. Sometimes when you get older, the players tended to get too loose. We were able to balance the minutes and get the guys in the game who we wanted to play more of.”

29 assists for the Eagles is the second-highest total in show history, but ranks as the fifth most for a game. FGCU has had 30 assists in four other games since 2003. The last time the Eagles had 29 assists was against Webber International in 2017.

Part of that comes from Tavian Dunn-Martin (Huntington, W.Va./Huntington HS/Akron/Duquesne) who had the highest 13 assists of his career – that total is three times that of Bryan Crislip for the show record and comes in at ninth all-time. Although ASUN’s top scorer only had four points, he added five rebounds and two steals with just three turns.

Kevin Samuel (Codrington Village, Barbuda / Redemption HS / TCU) lead the Eagles in scoring with a season-high 18 points with 9 out of 10 points from the pitch, while six more shots were blocked early in the season. Cyrus Largie (Miramar Academy, Fla./Mater Lakes) scored 17 points for a 3/4 effort out of the arc. Rounding out the top scorers are Austin Richie (Glenwood, Ill./Don Bosco Institute / Triton College / Tulsa) with 12 points and Andre Weir (Hollywood, Fla./Chaminade-Madonna Prep/Richmond) with 10 points because each also has five more bounces. Overall, 10 different players scored in the game.

The SLU was led by Gus Okafor, who had a top 23 in the game bolstered by a 9/12 shot at the free-throw line. Jayln Hinton nearly got a brace with 9 points and 10 rebounds.

The Eagles turned off the lights in the first half on their way to a 59-41 lead. FGCU scored 21 of 32 goals (65.6%), including 13 of 21 goals (61.9%) from deep. Caleb Catto (Cape Coral, Fla./ Southwest Florida Christian Institute), Largie and Richie all hit three pointers to help create the lead at the pause.

FGCU has expanded its leads up to 25, 74-49, over one Matt Halvorsen (Kingsport, Tenn./Christ School/Western Carolina) tripled with 13:17 to go, but the Lions were able to cut that number down to 15 by the end of the inning. Victor Rosa (Naranjito, Puerto Rico / Central Pointe Christian Academy) hit three pointers in less than three minutes to push the lead back 18 points to end an 18-8 lap for the SLU.

The Eagles will return to action Sunday night against Purdue Fort Wayne to wrap up the Hilton Garden Inn FGCU Invitational. The opening tip is set for 6pm and the game will be streamed on ESPN+.

For full 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 receive news about FGCU men’s basketball and other programs delivered directly to your inbox by visiting www.fgcuathletics.com/email.

EAGLE CAMPAIGN
IT HAS A TEAM to achieve our latest goal – a $10 million campaign to address student-athletes needs for continued academic success, life skills, mental health , nutrition, strength and conditioning as well as the needs of the divisions in expanding and improving facilities as well as mentoring and leadership training for coaches and staff. The name embodies our mission and purpose of the EAGLE Campaign – Eagle Athletes Create Lifetime Excellence. Join our group and Pledge your gift today to help the Eagles of Tomorrow!

COACH FLY
Michael Fly was inducted as head coach of the fourth FGCU men’s basketball team on April 5, 2018. He had previously served seven years as assistant coach with the Eagles. During his time with the Eagles, he helped FGCU reach a 194-136 (0.583 percent win) record, including six ASUN Tournament Finals, three NCAA Tournament championships, three championships ASUN Tournament and three ASUN Championships Regular Season, two berths in NIT, showing up at CIT and running to Sweet 16. He coached 13 selections of all conferences while with Green and Blue, including two ASUN Player of the Year honors in Sherwood Brown and Brandon Goodwin, two ASUN Defensive Player of the Year picks in Bernard Thompson and Demetris Morant and an 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 Top Scorer Thompson (1,835). Additionally, the Kentucky alum has coached both ASUN’s all-time support frontman Brett Comer (845; 24th in NCAA history) and FGCU’s all-time leading starter player Chase Fielder (714) .

#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), organizations from selected by FGCU Athletics. For more information, including how to contribute, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and use the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.

ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an astounding 86 league and regular league championships in just over 14 seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just nine seasons of post-season DI qualifying , the Eagles have had a total of 42 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. Eight FGCU programs have earned the top 25 national rankings in their respective sports – including women’s basketball (25th, 2021-22), beach volleyball (20th, 2021) and both men’s soccer (2018, 2019) and women’s soccer (2018) are three of the most recent. In 2016-17, Green and Blue finished in the series’ best sixth place in the DI-AAA Learfield Director’s Cup and the top 100 was screened nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS organizations. In 2018-19, the Eagles had one ASUN and seven of Florida’s best teams winning the NCAA’s Recognition Award for Academic Progress Rate in their sport. FGCU also achieved a record GPA of 3.50 in the classroom during the fall 2020 semester and has outperformed the general University student population for 24 consecutive semesters. Each of the Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters saw another major milestone achieved as all 15 programs achieved a group GPA of 3.0 or higher in each. semester. The Eagles also served an all-time high 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 – recognized as one of two runners-up for the first ever NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.

–FGCUATHLETICS.COM–