The FGCU men’s basketball team hosted Jacksonville in what would be the first-place battle of the ASUN Tournament. The Eagles extended its eight-game winning streak to nine after beating the Dolphins in a close 68-62 victory.
The Eagles were led offensively by Zach Johnson and Brandon Goodwin, who finished with 18 and 16 points respectively.
The Dolphins were led by Jace Hogan, who finished the game with 23 total points, shooting 10-for-16 from field goal range.
The first half started with a lot of back and forth play with very little scoring. The Eagles then went on a 6-1 run before Jacksonville called a timeout with 13:51 left in the first half.
Jacksonville came out from the timeout scoring two back to back before Ernst hit a shot from beyond the arc to extend the Eagles lead to 13-9. The Dolphins kept responding point after point, keeping the deficit to only four.
With 10 minutes left in the half, the Dolphins took the lead 16-15. The teams continued to go back and forth with Jacksonville remaining on top by one.
The Eagles tied it up at 22-22 with six minutes left in the half. However, a foul on Goodwin from beyond the arc allowed the Eagles to take the lead 26-24 with under four minutes left in the half.
A six-point run highlighted by Johnson’s slam dunk put the Eagles up 30-24 before the Dolphins responded to make it 30-26 with under two minutes left in the half.
FGCU added five more before going into halftime, making the score 35-26 in favor of the Eagles.
To start the second half, the teams went point for point with FGCU maintaining its nine-point lead.
With both teams playing strong in the paint, play went back and forth for the first seven minutes of the second half. The Dolphins were able to cut the deficit to five before FGCU responded with a fouled layup, giving the Eagles a 46-38 lead.
A 5-0 run from the Dolphins cut the Eagles lead to just three with nine minutes left in the game before FGCU called a timeout.
Out of the timeout, the Eagles went on an 8-point run extending its lead to 11 points over the Dolphins. However, Jacksonville responded by going on an 11-2 run, cutting the deficit to just two with four minutes left in the game.
With just two minutes left in the game, the score was tied at 62 apiece before the Eagles took a four-point lead with a minute left.
A dunk from Gilmore put the Eagles up six points with 36 seconds left in the game, with the crowd’s energy working in FGCU’s favor. FGCU was able to pull out a win over the Dolphins with a final score of 62-68.
Next, the Eagles will host UNF Monday, Jan. 29 with tipoff at 7 p.m.