Monday, March 07, 2016
On to the Big Dance!!
Just a few
weeks ago, all of the naysayers were predicting that the Florida Gulf
Coast Eagles would not go very far in the playoffs. They play in the
Atlantic Sun Conference against seven other teams: North Florida, USC
Upstate, Kennesaw State, Jacksonville, Lipscomb, NJIT (Newark, New
Jersey), and Stetson. There are many other conferences throughout the
nation. The purpose of the exercise is to qualify for the NCAA
tournament held every March. Hence the term: “March Madness”.
A team
qualifies automatically if they win the conference title. FGCU was on
the cusp when the playoffs began. They finished fourth in regular
season play, and had to play Kennesaw State in the quarter finals,
and won that game 74-64. With that win, they faced the first seed
North Florida in the semi-final game. The Eagles shocked the North
Floridians 89-56 to earn a berth in the final.
On Sunday
night, the Eagles faced the Hatters from Stetson in the St.
Petersburgh area. The Hatters were led by an outstanding freshman
from California, Derick Newton. Newton entered the game against the
Eagles with 531 points, the most by any Hatter since 1996. He was
also named to the All-Freshmen team for the conference. His teammate
Brian Pegg was named to the Second All Star team. Kevin Ndahiro, a
freshman from Ottawa, played almost 20 minutes for the Hatters.
The Eagles
matched up well against the Hatters with Marc-Eddy Norelia, and Zach
Johnson, a Floridian on the All freshman team.
Zach Johnson Marc-Eddy Norelia
The Alico
Arena was packed with almost 5 000 fans. The band was in fine form,
the cheerleaders performed admirably as did the school dance team.
Caleb Houston Katie Jones
The Eagles
won the tip, and stormed to a 10-0 lead. Coach Corey Williams called
a timeout, and settled the young Hatters. He knows a thing or two about the game. He won a title, once upon a time, playing with Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. The Hatters then went on a 16-4 run to
take the lead, and finished the first half leading by five points,
35-30.
Coach Williams, after the game.
With six
minutes remaining, the Eagles trailed by five points. Zach Johnson
cut the lead with two bruising drives to the hoop. Newton replied for
the Hatters, and the teams battled to a 69-69 draw at the end of
regulation.
Teams were
even in almost every regard at that point in the game. Stetson had 32
rebounds to 30 for the Eagles. The Hatters shot 6 for 17 from outside
the arc, whereas FGCU nailed only one attempt in seven tries. Neither
team did well from the foul shot line. The Eagles shot 66% and the
hatters 73%.
The five
minutes of overtime basketball proved to be equally exciting, and the
crowd was deafening. The lead went back and forth several times.
Johnson blocked a shot as time expired, and the Eagles won 80-78.
Norelia was
named the tournament MVP. He and his teammates climbed the ladder to
cut pieces of net. The spoils for the victors! The Eagles will likely
play March 15th or 16th in Dayton, Ohio.
We will be
watching, needless to say.
James Hurst
sportslices.blogspot.com
# posted by James Hurst @ 10:33 AM 
