College basketball: FGCU men survive travel issues, 18-point deficit, storm past Lipscomb

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – First, the Florida Gulf Coast men’s basketball team had to weather travel troubles. Then the Eagles had to survive 20 minutes of frosty shooting and costly turnovers.

But once they settled down and heated up in the second half, FGCU stormed back from an 18-point deficit to defeat Atlantic Sun rival Lipscomb 88-83 on Thursday night at Allen Arena.

All in all, it was an amazing turnaround for FGCU (13-8, 4-0) in its first conference road test of the season. The victory stretched the Eagles’ win streak to six and left them alone atop the league standings after Jacksonville (9-12, 3-1) fell 91-85 at USC Upstate.

“It was a good character win,” said FGCU coach Joe Dooley, who has led the Eagles to postseason appearances in all four of his previous seasons.

“I told our guys we got ourselves in a little bit of a jam. We obviously did a good job of chipping away, our offensive efficiency got better and we got some good stops.”

College basketball: FGCU men at top-notch Lipscomb should be another hot ASUN matchup

Key to the turnaround was the second-half performance by senior guard Brandon Goodwin, the unanimous ASUN Preseason Player of the Year.

Goodwin had just two points at halftime, but finished with a game-high 22. He was joined in double figures by Zach Johnson (14), Dinero Mercurius (12), Antravious Simmons (11) and Michael Gilmore (10).

“Honestly, we started off a little sluggish just because of the road trip, the flight and a whole bunch of other little stuff that kind of added up,” said Goodwin, who was 8 of 15 from the field and 6 of 9 from the foul line while dishing out 22 assists.

 “We finally just came together and talked to each other and said we can come back. We managed to put some stops together, Coach made some great changes where we went zone, and kind of slowed them down a little bit. We were able to pick up our momentum offensively and get everyone involved.”

Johnson, a junior guard, said his team knew what it had to do to win after the tough trip to Music City and the equally tough first half.

“It was an amazing, humbling 24 hours. It was a very good win,” Johnson said. “It was the first time we were down at halftime in the ASUN and it was like, ‘OK, let’s see what we’re made of.' We just played like we were supposed to.”

Lipscomb led 48-40 at halftime, outscoring the Eagles 13-2 over the final 3-1/2 minutes.

In the second half, Goodwin scored five quick points to trim the Eagles’ deficit to six points at 53-47 with 16:06 remaining. But Rob Marberry scored six quick points, Mathews hit another 3, and Greg Jones added a layup to rebuild the Bisons’ lead to 64-48 with 14:05 left.

FGCU had held opponents under 60 points in the five previous games, but Lipscomb eclipsed that mark on Mathews’ trey at the 14:21 mark.

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The Eagles, who played without RaySean Scott and Darnell Rogers because of concussion symptoms, rallied after trailing by as many as 18 (66-48) to cut the deficit to one at 68-67 with 7:47 remaining. FGCU outscored Lipscomb 19-2 over a 4:56 stretch, including a 12-0 run over nearly four minutes.

Behind Goodwin, they built the lead to 81-70 with 3:05 left, but Lipscomb responded with a 9-2 run to close within 83-79 with 1:30 remaining. FGCU scored its last five points at the foul line to hand Lipscomb its first home loss in seven games this season.

Bisons coach Casey Alexander said that when FGCU went to the zone defense, it gave his team (11-8, 1-3) problems atop his team’s own second-half offensive woes.

“Compounding problems is not a good formula against a very good team.” Alexander said.

FGCU’s odyssey to Nashville began Wednesday with a scheduled 5:20 p.m. Delta flight to Atlanta, where the team would connect to Nashville. The first leg of the flight was delayed five times before leaving at 9:30. By the time the Eagles arrived in Atlanta, the connecting flight was delayed and they sat on the runway for another hour and 20 minutes.

The team decided to spend the night in Atlanta — checking into a hotel at 1:30 a.m. — and bus to Nashville on Thursday morning, arriving in Music City at 1:30 p.m. But 14 of the team’s 27 bags got lost in transit, and Tyler Schwab, the team’s director of operations, wound up going to three sporting goods stores to buy shoes, socks and some practice gear. Bags were still arriving at the arena within a half hour of tip-off.

“It’s been a rough 24 hours,” Schwab said. “The guys actually handled it well. They’re used to dealing with things on the fly.”

After a good night’s sleep, FGCU will leave Nashville on Friday morning and bus to Atlanta to continue its ASUN road trip on Saturday at Kennesaw State.

A better night's sleep after that second-half rally.

FGCU 88, LIPSCOMB 83

FLORIDA GULF COAST (13-8)

Gilmore 3-5 1-2 10, Doyle 0-2 4-5 4, Johnson 5-8 2-2 14, Mercurius 3-4 4-4 12, Goodwin 8-15 6-9 22, Simmons 5-9 1-3 11, Thomas 0-0 0-0 0, Ernst 1-1 0-0 2, Carlyle 2-2 0-0 5, Terrell 2-7 3-4 8. Totals 29-53 21-29 88.

LIPSCOMB (11-8)

Pepper 1-5 2-4 5, Marberry 7-11 1-2 15, Buckland 2-5 2-2 8, Mathews 4-13 3-6 15, Cooper 6-12 2-2 15, Rose 4-6 5-7 15, Brammeier 1-1 1-2 3, Fleming 1-3 0-2 3, Jones 2-3 0-0 4, Korn 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 28-61 16-27 83.

Halftime_Lipscomb 48-40. 3-Point Goals_Florida Gulf Coast 9-20 (Gilmore 3-4, Mercurius 2-3, Johnson 2-5, Carlyle 1-1, Terrell 1-4, Goodwin 0-3), Lipscomb 11-26 (Mathews 4-8, Buckland 2-4, Rose 2-4, Fleming 1-1, Pepper 1-3, Cooper 1-3, Jones 0-1, Korn 0-2). Fouled Out_None. Rebounds_Florida Gulf Coast 31 (Simmons 7), Lipscomb 30 (Mathews 7). Assists_Florida Gulf Coast 17 (Goodwin 9), Lipscomb 16 (Marberry 5). Total Fouls_Florida Gulf Coast 21, Lipscomb 26. A_1,147 (5,028).