Early deficit too large for Eagles’ rally
Redshirt freshman Zach Johnson scored 26 points and sophomore Christian Terrell added 21, but the FGCU Eagles dug too big of a hole to climb out of and saw its three-game win streak come to an end Monday night, 82-77, at the hands of Bowling Green 82-77 in the final game of the FGCU Classic at Alico Arena.
Johnson tallied 22 of his career-high point total in the second half. Terrell netted 17 in the second half as he finished one point shy of matching his career best. Both underclassmen came off the bench as the Eagles (3-2) received 58 points from its bench compared with 23 for Bowling Green (3-2).
The loss is just the eighth at home for FGCU since the 2012-13 season as the Eagles are now 46-8 inside Alico Arena in that timeframe.
FGCU will try to bounce back in Gainesville on Friday against Florida (3-1). The game will be televised nationally on the SEC Network and is the first meeting between the state schools since the Gators ended the Eagles’ historic run to the Sweet 16 as a No. 15 seed in 2013.
BGSU led by as much as 16 points in the second half, but FGCU trimmed the deficit to just four, but couldn’t complete the comeback. The Falcons had an answer for nearly every Eagles run, most of which came in the paint.
“I give Bowling Green a ton of credit. They took the fight to us right from the start and we were on our heels most of the night,” said Eagles coach Joe Dooley. “Their energy and rebounding were major factors. Once we got the deficit back to a manageable number, we weren’t able to get the defensive stops we needed and we didn’t rebound the ball. Zach and Christian made some big plays, but hopefully this is a learning point for us.”
FGCU started slow for the third-consecutive night and led just once the entire night at 3-2 after Filip Cvjeticanin hit a 3-pointer at the 17:53 mark of the first half.
The Eagles faced a halftime deficit for the third straight night as well. Unlike the last two nights, they couldn’t pull off the comeback.
The Falcons held a 16-point lead on two occasions, the last at the 14:30 mark, 46-30, before the Eagles started to recover. Johnson and Terrell combined to score 11 of FGCU’s next 18 points as it trimmed the deficit to 54-48 with 10 minutes left.
BGSU extended the lead back to 10, but the Eagles continued to fight. Following a Terrell layup with less than a minute remaining the Falcons’ lead was down to 78-74, but that was as close as the Eagles could get.