Biggest Win of Season for Falcons

The Falcons picked up their biggest win of the season to date today at the convo, in a 52-51 thriller that I think Coach Orr would say pretty much represents his view of how the game of basketball is supposed to be played.

Stats by StatSheet.com

As you can see here, the game was tight all the way. This would have been an easy one to lose. With 2:50 left, OU was holding a 2-point lead on their floor, and it was gut check time for the Falcons.

Clements then nailed a trey, putting BG in the lead, but Tillman got to the line and hit two FTs, and with :50 left, the Bobcats were back in the lead. But Clements got into the paint and hit a jumper, and with :46 left BG was back in the lead.

First, Marc Larson committed his fifth foul and OU had two free throws. They missed them both, and OU fouled BG on getting the rebound. However, BG was not in the bonus, and had a possession to either run the clock out or extend the lead. We didn't score, though, and OU had a couple chances in the last few seconds. Chris Knight had a huge block on Tillman.

Say it however you like, we were able to hang on and get our first road win of the season.

There were other reasons why this win was a good one and against the odds....

We committed an astounding 24 fouls in the game. Larson fouled out in 15 minutes and Polk in 20, so our ability to stay with them on the inside game was severely compromised.

Along the same lines, OU was 19-25 from the line. Conversely, BG was 6 of 8. I doubt if there are too many games where a team holds an 11 point FT deficit and wins the game.

How did we do it?

Stats by StatSheet.com

Well, the first thing is OU shot 26.5% from the field for the game. This is pretty much a dream game for our defense. Coach Orr felt that we contested a lot of shots. In general, I think a FG% that low has to include some good looks that didn't fall, but it doesn't matter. We know our FG defense is strong, and we had to have played a role in getting that good a result. (Tillman was 3 of 15 from the field, and shot 13 free throws, consuming a huge amount of the OU possessions).

We didn't shoot very well--36%--but in this case, it was good enough to get enough FGs to win.

Nate Miller had 15/6, continuing a very productive senior season for him. Otis Polk and nine boards in his 20 minutes, which is actually very productive. Daryl Clements had 8 boards and our last five points. Moten was back in double figures with 11 points.

So, on this Saturday in Athens, our team did win without scoring or shooting well, and won before nearly 11,000 fans in Athens. It just has to be a confidence booster for our team.

So, now we head to the West, where we hope to make up some ground and at least get some victories under our belt.

I am always amazed how much better things look after a win. This is especially true with a win like that. And getting the road monkey off our back....that just can't be measured.

In the post-game, Coach Orr talked about perseverence. And this team has certainly not done that. He also talked about how the team was not desperate, with so much time to be played. Still, a 1-4 record would have made things really tough. This one earned back one of the home losses.

As I said earlier, we exceeded expectations in this one, after kind of doing what was expected for the few weeks. Looking forward to seeing more from this team.....