Falcons Win Sixth Straight at Home

One of the things that has been frustrating for MBB fans (and football fans) is that not only have the teams been average at best, but they have tended to struggle to win at home.  You'd like to at least reward your loyal fans with some wins, rather than playing better ball away from home.

So, the Falcons beat Western Carolina yesterday going away, a nice bonus for fans who were able to make a 1pm Friday game.  Here are the superlatives for the home games:

• Bowling Green has started a season 6-0 at home for the first time in Stroh Center history. The Falcons last started a season 6-0 at home in 2008-09.
• Bowling Green has won all six home games in 2018-19 by 10-plus points. Prior to this season, the last time BGSU won six-straight home games by double figures was 1996-97.

Our preview noted that BG was playing a relatively soft pre-season schedule.  Kenpom ranks our schedule at 285 out of 351.  The Green Bay win stands out as proof of performance to some degree...anyway, the first step to being a competitive team is being tough to beat at home, so I hope that the Falcons are finding their way to that.

The final in this one was 73-52.  For most of the first half, WCU was leading a low-scoring battle as the Falcons were maddeningly unable to make zero-foot shots at the basket.  With about fout minutes left, Justin Turner broke a mutual three-minute scoring drought to cut the lead to 21-19.  Laster got a steal on the other end and took it home to tie the game.  To recap, BG hit the 4 minute mark with 17 points and then went on a 15-8 run for the last four minutes to lead 32-25 at the break.

For the second half, the lead kind of kicked around that point for the first 7 minutes or so.  With 13 left, BG was up 8.  A Sierra 3 was followed by a Turner steal/basket and BG had the lead over 10 and it never got closer than 9 the rest of the way.   A couple minutes later BG went on a 9-0 run to get the lead over 20 and it was over.

Actually, this tells the story pretty well.  BG had 1.11 points per possession and held the Catamounts to .79 points per possession.  BG played really good defense the entire way.  They covered WCU hard, and you could just see that they had little room to manuver.  They shot 48% from 2 FG and 28% from 3FG--the latter being a good number against this team, based on their past.  BG shot 59% and 33%.  The number from 3FG isn't great, but not awful, either, and BG was getting to the rim, which was a concern against the WCU defense.

BG did not have a good day on the offensive boards but were very good on the defensive boards.  BG took great care of the ball and didn't force a ton of turnovers, but they did create a couple of key baskets off turnovers, as noted above.  

The other big difference was FTs.  WCU was called for 25 fouls and BG for 13.  BG was a meh 17 of 27 from the line, but WCU was 2-8.  That's +15 just at the line.

Individually, Demajeo Wiggins had one of the stranger stat lines you will see.  He had 11 points and he attempted one FG.  They fouled him a bunch...according to the Blade, 10 times.  WCU's leading scorer was in foul trouble the whole way.  He made 9-13 at the line, which is 69%, and added 9 rebounds.

Justin Turner can play ball, let me tell you that.  When the shot clock gets low, Huger yells "Juice" and they get him the ball at the top of the key and even with the entire defense keying on him, the young man gets to the rim and finishes.  Coach called him "crafty" after the game.  He scored 21 on 9 of 14 shooting, 6 assists over 3 turnovers and 2 steals.  

Antwon Lillard contirbuted 24 nice minutes off the bench for BG. He had 12 on 4 of 6 shooting and 7 rebounds.  Dylan Frye scored 9.  BG got good minutes out of Sierra, Uju and Laster also, off the bench.

So, the holidays are a combination of things.  Coaches have unlimited time with the team, so they can work on some things.  Coach said they would be putting in some new offensive sets, etc.  Then, its Tennesee-Martin and into the MAC.