Norelia leads FGCU past North Dakota
Redshirt junior Marc-Eddy Norelia recorded his third double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds as FGCU won its third game in a row with a 73-60 victory over North Dakota Sunday at Alico Arena in the finale of the FGCU Classic.
Redshirt sophomore Antravious Simmons recorded 12 points and grabbed a season-high seven rebounds, sophomore Christian Terrell added 10 of his 11 points in the second half and issued five assists while freshman Reggie Reid dished out a game-best nine assists in only 19 foul-plagued minutes for the Eagles (3-1).
After surviving a triple-overtime thriller just 24 hours earlier, FGCU started flat and shot just 34.5 percent from the floor in the first half as the Eagles hit the break trailing 31-28. However, FGCU flipped the script in the second half as it connected at a 63.3-percent clip in the final 20 minutes.
Powered by Reid and Terrell, the Eagles ran away from the Fighting Hawks (2-2) after a back-and-forth opening six minutes of the second half. At around the 14-minute mark, Reid blocked a shot at one end and converted a 3-pointer at the other to put the Eagles ahead 42-40.
“Offensively we were a little shaky in the first half, and for the first time the ball stuck a little bit – we didn’t reverse the ball and we took some bad shots,” said Eagles coach Joe Dooley. “The difference in the second half was that we moved the ball better and got some stops defensively which allowed us to get out and run and get some easy buckets.”
Norelia continued his scorching start to the season as after a relatively mundane opening half he turned it on in the second half with 12 points and six rebounds. After missing a double-double by a single rebound in the season opener at Ohio, Norelia is the first FGCU player since Sherwood Brown in 2012-13 with three consecutive double-doubles.
The Eagles overcame a 15-point second-half deficit and six-point deficit in the third overtime to claim a 104-101 victory over Youngstown State (0-3) Saturday.
Norelia scored 34 points to equal Bernard Thompson’s record performance last year against Ohio. His 18 rebounds are the second-most in D-I program history behind the 19 that Nate Hicks pulled down in a double-overtime contest at USF in December 2013.
Trailing by 15 early in the second half, FGCU got the deficit down to 57-53 with a little more than nine minutes remaining in regulation. However, Youngstown State responded with an 8-0 run to go up 12 with just more than five minutes left. The Eagles. who only received five total points from their seniors in regulation, showed a ton of grit and clawed all the way back to tie the game at 69 on a dunk by Norelia with 40 seconds left to force overtime.
Trailing a 99-98 in the final minute left of the third overtime, Reid found DeBose on the baseline and the captain hit a clutch 3-pointer to put the Eagles ahead for good 101-99.
Women’s Basketball: Backed by another career-high performance from Haley Laughter, FGCU defeated the host Akron Zips 82-64 Saturday in the Akron Classic finale.
The Eagles (2-2) started slow but ultimately used their signature 3-point shooting to outlast Akron. FGCU trailed 17-14 after one quarter but outscored the Zips 26-15 in the second quarter to go into the break with a lead. The Eagles extended the advantage to a game-high 22 points late in the third quarter and never relinquished the game’s momentum as they finished with an 18-point victory.
Kaneisha Atwater and Laughter led the Eagles offense with 19 and 18 points, respectively.
Volleyball: FGCU’s quest for its first NCAA Division I tournament berth came up short Friday as the Eagles (21-11) lost to Kennesaw State in the Atlantic Sun Championships semifinals 22-25, 25-17, 23-25, 21-25).
“We played a brand of volleyball that was not conducive to winning a match like that,” said Eagles coach Matt Botsford. “There were a couple sets that came down to the end but at that point we were already playing pretty sloppy and lucky to even be in a position to pull those sets out. Our ball handling wasn’t where it needed to be, our blocking numbers were below average and our attacking percentages were below our average and all those things played into the end result. We received valiant efforts from Amanda and Leigh offensively. They came out of the break hitting at very high percentages but we couldn’t continue to lean on them. Kennesaw was able to isolate those hitters but those two still did a good job.”