Akron Delivers Gut Punch....Again

The Falcons MBB is playing better and competitively to date, and certainly better than during November and December.  They should have beaten Akron last night, but didn't.  But I don't think the team that lost at home to TN-Martin would have been expected to be even that competitive with a team in the top-tier of the conference.

Sadly, that team is Akron and BG lost.

BG led for 24 minutes.  BG easily outshot Akron.  BG played good defense much of the way...but it can come down to a few plays and it did.

The first was in the opening half. BG led by 9 coming out of the last media timeout. 

Elsasser got blocked in the paint and UA came down for a 2FG. (+7)

Akron went to a trap and some kind of odd-ball zone and it worked.  BG turned the ball over on the next three possessions and Akron got a 2FG, a 3FG and 2FTs off them.  BG called time.  From the block to the time out was 1:01 and UA had tied the game, which is how the half ended.

That's just 1 minutes of play but highly significant.  And it shows how resourceful Akron is and always has been.  They changed the face of the game.  Coach said after the game that they didn't do anything special, we just didn't handle it.  In which case, that's the difference between where we are now and where we have been trying to get.

Inside of two minutes, BG was down 1 at the end of the game.  BG gets a stop at 1:27.  They end up on the other end on a baseline in bound.  They're struggling and the ball is fed in and gets loose and Agee grabs it and a foul is called.

Sadly, Agee missed both FTs.  UA was on the other end running a play and Castenada slipped up by the right point (and not for the first time in the game, oddly).  Metheny gets a steal.  BG calls time with :28 to play.

BG has really only excelled in this situations when they could isolate Juice and let him put the defender on skates. I don't have stats, but I feel like we struggle on these last minute chalkboard plays.  And this was no different.  BG worked the ball and ended up with Ayers driving into the paint for a heavily contested shot that stayed on the rim for a while but fell away.

BG fouled Freeman.  He split his pair, leaving BG with life.  Another time out.  :07 to play.  Coach says the play was to find Metheny for the 3FG off a screen but he got tangled up so Curtis drove to the rim and missed another heavily contested shots.

So, look, UA wasn't great in the last minute.  But BG completely whiffed and that's how you lose games you should win.  It boiled down to 2 minutes at the end of each half.

You don't often lose a game with this kind of shooting disparity.  But BG had uncharacteristic turnovers and was terrible on the offensive glass (worst since 2016 against....Akron), and while FTAs were similair, BG was 8 of 13 and UA was 13 of 14, not missing until the final seconds.

Ayers led BG with 19 on 7 of 13 and 1 of 3 shooting, so an efficient game.  Metheny had 16 on 2 of 2 and 4 of 10 shooting, again, very efficient.  Added 6 rebounds and and 6 assists. Rashaun Agee had 11 on 3 of 6 and 1 of 1 shooting.  Mills had 9 and 6 boards on 3-4 shooting from 3FG. 

So BG falls to 2-1.  @WMU on Saturday, which is a game that we need to win.  This was a disappointing loss but we're competitive at this point, which is something to build on.