Falcons Win, Finish Humiliating OU, move on to Semis

The last time the Falcons won in the Q was 2002...and you might think we've had better teams before, but this team is playing pretty well right now, executing on both ends of the floor. We are playing as well as anyone in the MAC right now.

The leader on that score is Nate Miller, who seems to raise his game from night to night. In the Q, he scored 22 points, a career high, and shot 9-11 from the field and added 10 rebounds and a steal. It was his best performance of the season, and he is finishing his season at his best.

The Falcons also got some production from a couple of unlikely sources. For example, Erik Marschall had 11 points and 4 rebounds in 22 minutes. It is his first double digit MAC game. And, Chris Knight was back, and he had 7 points and two rebounds in 8 minutes of play. Finally, while Jakubowski only scored once, he put 8 assists on top of 2 turnovers, and that's a pretty good night.

If you boil the game down, the dynamics are not that different from the game on Sunday. BG shot 60%, just as they did Sunday, and while OU didn't shoot 28%, they did shoot 37% and that was good enough. The score would have even been more lopsided, but BG turned the ball over 15 times and OU turned it over 7 times.

Finally, OU only shot 56% from the line, and BG hit 73% and had a +8 advantage on free throws.

NCAA Basketball Stats

The game was tied 10-10, and then the Falcons went running away with it from there, and OU never led at any point. OU made a nice little run in the first half, but Clements hit a late shot near the buzzer, and then the Falcons came out on fire in the second half, and that was the ball game.

NCAA Basketball Stats

Coach Jackson was great in the post-game. Todd Walker asked him about beating OU three times, and Coach Jackson said he didn't believe in that. "We beat them one game a time," he said. "And if we played them again, I'd want to beat them a fourth time."

For his part, this is what OU's coach said....

“After playing them (BG) last Sunday, I thought they couldn’t play any better, but they (BG) did”

“We got beat by a better basketball team today”

I continue to be cautiously optimistic about our team. It is all tough from here on in, but we've got as good a shot as anyone to win this thing. I think we are playing with confidence and execution, and we are really exemplifying a team concept.