Record Crowd Cheers Eagles To 79-56 Win

Courtesy of Linwood Ferguson

The Blue and Green packed into Alico Arena on Saturday night as Florida Gulf Coast defeated Ave Maria 79-56 for their fourth consecutive victory. The total attendance was pegged at 4,633: a new Alico Arena record.

"I recognized that a lot of the kids in our student body don't know the difference between whether we're playing Eckerd or some huge school. Everyone just wants to come out, support, and have fun," said junior guard Kevin Boyle.

The Eagles certainly gave all those who attended a good show.

A balanced attack allowed FGCU to take a 15 point lead into halftime. They then outscored the Gyrenes 43-35 in the second half to end the game with a 24 point victory. The Eagles, true to form, threw down four dunks.

Dajuan Graf, in his first start, scored 10 points and dished out 5 assists. He joined four other Eagles who tallied double digit points. Brett Comer, FGCU's leading scorer with 18, also threw out 10 assists for a double double. With 12 points and 10 rebounds, Nate Hicks also tallied a double double.

"I thought we moved the ball well - scored 79 points, a pretty efficient offense for the most part. We hadh some guys step up. Kevin [Boyle] gave us good minutes off the bench. Filip..." said Joe Dooley.

The long range shot was kind to the Eagles as they shot 48% from three. Brett Comer started it off by hitting three early threes. Also heating up from long range was Filip Cvjeticanin who nailed 5/8 from beyond the arc.

The Eagles, now 4-1, will be riding a four game winning streak into Raleigh Tuesday night when they battle NC State.

"I've watched tape on them [NC State]. They're talented, an ACC caliber team. They've played in some big games. We'll have our hands full," said Joe Dooley "T.J Warren is a great plaery, can dribble drive the ball...we've got a lot of work to do the next two days."

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