National Basketball Association
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Belmont 83, Florida Gulf Coast 69
When: 7:00 PM ET, Saturday, March 3, 2012
Where: University Center, Macon, Georgia
Officials: # Rick Crawford, # Marc Ellard, # Freddie Williams
Attendance: 1121

Belmont 83, Florida Gulf Coast 69: Ian Clark scored 16 points to lead five players in double figures as the Bruins won the Atlantic Sun championship for the second consecutive season.

Top-seeded Belmont (27-7), playing in its final Atlantic Sun game before moving to the Ohio Valley Conference next season, finished 5-0 in conference championship games.

Sixth-seeded Florida Gulf Coast (15-17), in only its fifth year as a Division I team and in its inaugural conference tournament, upset No. 3 USC Upstate and No. 2 Mercer to get to the final, but couldn’t hold a three-point halftime lead.

Belmont erased that 42-39 halftime deficit, but led only 51-50 with 12:41 left after Sherwood Brown converted a lay up off an inbounds pass for the Eagles.

Belmont quickly took control with a 17-5 spurt that put the top seed up by double digits for the remainder of the night.

Brett Comer tried to keep the Eagles in it, scoring 10 of his game-high 20 points over a seven-minute stretch as Gulf Coast trailed just 71-61 at the five-minute mark. But the Eagles, who shot 50 percent from the field in the opening half, missed 21 of 31 field goal attempts in the final 20 minutes.

GAME NOTEBOOK:
Florida Gulf Coast came out red-hot shooting the ball, knocking down 14 of its first 21 field goal attempts (66 percent), and led by as many as 13 points in the opening half. ... Belmont had only four made field goals in the first 11 minutes, but Clark knocked down three of his four first-half 3-pointers over the final 8:36, including a long three with one second left.
Top Game Performances
 
Florida Gulf Coast   Belmont
Brett Comer 20 Scoring Ian Clark 16
Brett Comer 7 Assists Kerron Johnson 5
Kevin Cantinol 6 Rebounds Kerron Johnson 11
Brett Comer 3 Free Throws Made Mick Hedgepeth 8
Sherwood Brown 2 Steals Brandon Baker 1
Kevin Cantinol 3 Blocks Brandon Baker 1
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
Florida Gulf Coast 69 41.3 8-29 9-16 11 30 5 8 7
Belmont 83 46.6 8-21 21-25 11 42 2 2 11