FORT
MYERS, FLA. - Florida Gulf Coast made 20-of-25 free throws in the
second half and rallied for a 47-39 A-Sun men's basketball victory
over Campbell Saturday at Alico Arena.
In a game where both teams connected on less than 30 percent of
their field goal attempts, the Eagles (7-19, 4-12) canned 25-of-35
free throws and won despite making only 10 shots from the
field.
Anthony Banks scored 14 points and grabbed 9 rebounds for FGCU,
while Chase Fieler added 11 points. Point guard Marlon Rivera had
9 points and 10 boards for the Eagles, who hit only 24.4 percent
(10-41) of their shots, but finished with a 44-33 rebounding
margin.
Eric Griffin led Campbell (12-16, 6-12) with 13 points and 12
rebounds, but was limited to just 4 minutes in the opening half due
to foul trouble. Campbell made just 14-of-53 from the floor on the
game (.264) and hit just 19 percent (6-32) in the final period.
The
Camels made just 10-of-18 free throws (.556) for the game, but
stayed in front for the better part of 32 minutes thanks to
converting 20 FGCU turnovers into 18 points.
For the second-straight game, Campbell made just one 3-point shot.
CU's 2nd-leading scorer, Lorne Merthie, the most accurate 3-point
shooter of all active A-Sun players, missed his 5th-straight game
due to a knee injury.
Campbell led 18-13 at half-time as FGCU when just 4-of-20 from the
field and had 13 turnovers in the first period.
Griffin's layup to open the second half pushed the Camel lead to
seven. Griffin's bucket with 12:41 remaining gave the Camels a
26-22 edge, but Campbell went the next 9:52 without a field
goal.
Fieler started a 10-0 FGCU run with a layup at the 12:11 mark and
the Eagles took the lead for good at 29-26 on Sherwood Brown's
three with 10:45 remaining.
During Campbell's drought from the floor CU missed 12-straight
attempts before Griffin's basket with 2:48 to play brought the
Camels within 40-34. However, FGCU went 7-of-8 from the line and
stretched the lead to as much as 13 (47-34) on Fieler's foul shots
with 1:25 to play.
The 39 points were the fewest scored by a Camel team since a 68-36
loss at UNC Wilmington on Dec. 11, 2002, one season before Robbie
Laing took over as head coach.
The Camels return home to Gore Arena on Thursday when they host
defending A-Sun tournament champion East Tennessee State at 7:15
p.m.
