For the first time in program history, the FGCU men’s basketball team (23-7, 12-2 ASUN) claimed the outright ASUN regular-season championship with an 80-70 win Thursday night at a sold-out Alico Arena over Stetson (11-20, 3-11), giving the Eagles the No. 1 seed in the ASUN Championship.
Led by a season-high-tying 24 points from Zach Johnson, the Eagles wrapped up their second ASUN regular-season title overall (shared with Mercer in 2013-14) as they finished one game ahead of Lipscomb.
With Stetson’s loss and NJIT’s comeback win over USC Upstate, the Hatters slide from the No. 7 seed to the No. 8 seed and will be right back at Alico Arena for an ASUN quarterfinal matchup with FGCU on Monday, Feb. 27, at 7 p.m.
FGCU secures home-court advantage throughout the ASUN Championship as the Eagles – provided they win – will host all three rounds, continuing with the semifinals on Thursday, March 2, at 7 p.m., and concluding with the final next Sunday, March 5, at 3 p.m. on ESPN.
Here are all the ASUN quarterfinal matchups:
1 FGCU (12-2) vs. 8 Stetson (3-11)
2 Lipscomb (11-3) vs. 7 NJIT (3-11)
3 North Florida (8-6) vs. 6 Jacksonville (5-9)
4 USC Upstate (7-7) vs. 5 Kennesaw State (7-7)
The tiebreaker for Stetson and NJIT came down to official RPI, with NJIT’s 298 being better than Stetson’s 333.
Tickets are on sale now for the quarterfinal game, and with a sellout crowd expected, fans are encouraged to secure their seats in advance by visiting FGCUTickets.com, stopping by the Alico Arena Ticket Office during normal business hours or by calling 239-590-7145.
A sellout crowd – in fact, a standing-room-only atmosphere of 4,700 (two shy of matching the all-time program record set in the 2014 ASUN Championship Final) – witnessed FGCU conclude its record-setting regular season on Thursday as the 23 victories are the most in the program’s Division-I era.