Falcons Succumb in Buffalo...

"We just didn't play well enough."  Louis Orr.

So, six words sums it up, and I suspect that it probably does.  BG went to Buffalo last night, played a very poor first half, started a trademark second half rally but Buffalo is a veteran team and they turned it back and ended up winning comfortably.

The game was really lost on the defensive side.  True, the Bulls only had 64 points and they average 73, but there were only 56 possessions in the while game, which is even below BG's typical amount.  Not only was BG slowing the tempo down, but in the second half Buffalo was really milking clock once they got the lead back.

64 points on 56 possessions is 1.14 points per possession, the worst number for a BG defense since the Wavier debacle.

Buffalo shot 51% from the field, which is 23 of 45.  But of those 23 FG, 10 were 3FGs, meaning that their effective FG%, (counting 3FGs as 1.5), was 62%, also the worst since the Xavier game (XU threw 100+ on us, if you recall).  No team has shot 50% from the field against us since Xavier either.

So, while 64 points might look OK, given the tempo of the game, it is a pretty poor performance and clearly spelled the difference.

On offense, BG had 16 turnovers, which is too many on its own, and way too many for a game with a low number of possessions.  BG turned the ball over on 28.6% of its possessions, which is the third highest total of the season.

BG did shoot 46%, which is not too bad, but with 1-10 from beyond the arc, it resulted in .9 points per possession, our lowest since the CMU game.

Bottom line is that Buffalo kicked our butt over the course of the game.  Coach said in the post-game presser that we came out too passive and they came out aggressive and that was what made the difference.

College Basketball

NCAA Basketball

Buffalo has the most experienced team in the MAC, and it showed in games like this.  They can absorb a run and the turn it back, and they know how to win.  I guess they are inconsistent on the defensive end, but if they can bring that around, they have the ability to be dangerous at the Q.

Meanwhile, BG continues to sort of languish in the middle of the field.  Play a nice game here, get spanked there.  I think we still have a decent shot at a home tournament game, but we're mostly looking at a finish in the bottom half of the conference.  The two toughest games of the season are coming up (Akron and Kent), it doesn't get any easier.  This team has, on the other hand, beaten Kent and played well in some tough games and at home, and I don't view any of it as something we can't do.