Poor shooting, turnovers costly in FGCU loss
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The FGCU men’s basketball team connected on just 29 percent of their shots from the floor in the first half Monday night and committed 19 turnovers in a 63-50 loss at UC Santa Barbara.
The turnovers led directly to 26 points for the Gauchos (7-7) as the Eagles concluded their non-conference schedule on a sour note.
The Eagles (10-6) return to Alico Arena Saturday night to begin their Atlantic Sun Conference slate against Stetson (5-10). The Eagles are 6-1 this season on their home floor compared to 4-5 on the road.
After not scoring and attempting just two shots in the first half, Bernard Thompson erupted in the second half and finished with an FGCU team-high 16 points while grabbing a team-best seven rebounds. Thompson was the lone double-figure scorer for the Eagles. Redshirt junior Julian DeBose added nine and freshman Christian Terrell came off the bench to contribute seven points to go with six rebounds in just 17 minutes.
FGCU connected at a 52-percent clip in the second half, but the turnovers continued to hamper any thought of a comeback.
With the ball and a chance to potentially cut the deficit to just two late in the first half, an FGCU turnover sparked a quick 4-0 spurt by the Gauchos turning a 22-17 game into a 26-17 contest with less than two minutes remaining in the half. The Gauchos, who lost in overtime at FGCU in November, didn’t allow the Eagles to get within single digits the rest of the night.
“They were very aggressive, especially in the first half, and we weren’t,” Eagkes coach Joe Dooley said. “They got after it on the offensive glass as well. We turned the ball over a lot and they converted those into a bunch of points. We’ve got some things to work on and we’ll work on them this week.”
FGCU concludes its 16-game non-league slate with a Division-I program record 10 wins, but the Eagles have lost four of their last five after starting 9-2.