DAYTON -- Florida Gulf Coast has only one player who was part of the "Dunk City" squad which made a magical run to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 four seasons ago. But, on Tuesday night in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, the Eagles appeared poised to do it again.

Marc-Eddy Norelia scored 20 points and guards Julian Debose and Christian Terrell each had 14 as FGCU rolled to an impressive 96-65 win over the Farleigh Dickinson Knights in a First Four matchup at University of Dayton Arena.

The reward for the 16th-seeded Eagles is to face top seed North Carolina on Thursday in Raleigh, N.C.

"I watched them all year because they're always on TV," Norelia said of the Tar Heels. "They like to play fast. We just have to stay confident. Anything can happen."

Senior forward Filip Cvjeticanin is the only member of the current FGCU squad who was part of the 2012-13 team that reached the Sweet 16.

Coach Joe Dooley who's in his third season wasn't around either. He says his team is focused on the task at hand.

"It's hard to get here (to the NCAA Tournament)," Dooley said. "It'll be a whole different animal on Thursday. I told the team to enjoy it."

The Eagles (21-13) dominated much of Tuesday's game.

Sophomore guard Earl Potts Jr. was a bright spot for Fairleigh Dickinson (18-15), scoring 16 points, including 4 of 9 from 3-point range.

Guard Marques Townes added 13 for the Northeast Conference Tournament champions, who went 6 of 28 shooting in the first half and trailed by 21 points at halftime.

"We knew they were very good, long, athletic, well-coached," said FDU coach Greg Herenda of FGCU. "Very disappointed that we didn't play Fairleigh Dickinson basketball in the first half. My guys are still young. We played like it early in the game."

The Knights were 6 of 28 from the field in the first half, but began the second half by going 3 of 4 from 3-point range to claw back to within 15 points.

But, a dunk by forward Demetris Morant and a 3-pointer by guard Zach Johnson pushed the Eagles' lead back to 59-37.

"We knew they were going to make a run," said Terrell. "We handled it pretty well."

Morant finished with 10 points for the Eagles. Johnson had eight.

Guard Darian Anderson fouled out with 7:08 left after scoring 11 points with eight rebounds for FDU which fell to 0-5 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.

Appropriately, "Dunk City"' started the game with just that on a lob to Morant, who stuffed it home.

"Coach drew up the play and we executed it pretty well," Norelia said. "It set the tone."

Johnson, whose blocked shot in the closing seconds helped the Eagles capture the Atlantic Sun Tournament championship, hit a 3-pointer during an 11-0 run to begin the game.

Fairleigh Dickinson began 1 of 9 from the field and had three turnovers as Florida Gulf Coast dominated early.

Norelia and Morant each scored eight points as Florida Gulf Coast built a 23-6 lead after 10 minutes. Norelia scored 14 points and went 7 of 7 from the field.

A 3-point play by Tucker made the score 30-13.

Florida Gulf Coast led 40-19 at halftime. The Eagles went 6 of 17 from the free throw line, which only prevented the score from getting completely out of hand.

FGCU shot 59 percent from the field and Fairleigh Dickinson finished the half on a 2 of 13 slide and shot just 21 percent from the floor in the half.

"We're one of the youngest teams to win a championship," said Herenda. "I think we'll realize what we've done over time. I told our guys there's going to be 67 teams with the same feeling we had (tonight)."

NOTES: Fairleigh Dickinson made its fifth NCAA Tournament appearance, its first since 2005. ... The Knights are the third youngest team in Division I with six freshmen and five sophomores on the roster. ... In 2013, Florida Gulf Coast earned its "Dunk City" moniker by becoming the first No. 15 seed to reach the Sweet 16 when it upset No. 2 Georgetown and San Diego State. ... This was the second NCAA Tournament appearance for the Eagles who only became postseason eligible in 2011-12. ... FGCU improved to 25-3 when scoring 80 or more points under coach Joe Dooley.