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Eagles prevail over Golden Panthers, 81-64

By Staff | Dec 15, 2009

The Florida Gulf Coast University men’s basketball team earned its first win of the season Saturday night when it topped Florida International 81-64 in front of 1,835 fans at Alico Arena.

Junior guard Reed Baker scored a season-high 20 points and sophomore guard Reggie Chambers was a perfect 6-for-6 from the field and finished with 16 points. FGCU is now 2-0 all-time against FIU as a member of Division I.

“I thought it was important that we won that game by 17 instead of six or four or two,” Eagles coach Dave Balza said. “That was good for our guys’ confidence.”

Chambers got the Eagles going early as he scored 14 of his 16 points in the first seven minutes of the game. He drilled four three-pointers, the last of which he banked, as FGCU opened a 33-17 lead midway through the first half, and took a 43-28 lead into the halftime break.

The Eagles (1-6) led by as many as 20 points in the second half before FIU began to cut into the lead. The Golden Panthers (3-9) of first-year coach Isiah Thomas went on a 12-0 run to cut the lead to 70-64 with 3:05 remaining.

On the Eagles’ next possession Baker drained a 3-pointer and FGCU’s defense held FIU scoreless the rest of the way. The Eagles closed it out on an 11-0 run highlighted by an alley-oop from Chambers to senior forward Kyle Marks that electrified the Alico Arena faithful.

Freshman forward Anthony Banks finished with 13 points for FGCU while Marks and fellow senior forward Derrick O’Neil each finished with nine points.

Baker had a game-high eight boards as FGCU outrebounded FIU 41-26. This is the fourth consecutive game that FGCU has outrebounded their opponent.

“That came into play in a very positive way tonight,” Balza said of the rebounding advantage. “We had a couple clutch, key rebounds that maybe if we didn’t get those it would have been a different story.”

Marlon Bright scored 16 points to lead the Golden Panthers while Marvin Roberts added 15 points of his own for FIU.

The Eagles are back in action at 7 p.m. Monday when they open Atlantic Sun Conference play against USC Upstate in Spartanburg, S.C. They then take on North Carolina Central in Durham, N.C., Wednesday before returning home to face Big East foe DePaul on Dec. 22.