Going into the Buffalo game, we thought BG had to control the tempo and play its game to compete against Buffalo, and they did, in a close game that ended up coming down to Buffalo's final possession.
Dee Brown nailed a couple of free throws with :39 left to tie the game for the first time since there was 5:38 left in the first half. But, the Bulls are a well coached team, and they came up floor without a time out. Knowing that the worst they could do was probably overtime, they milked the clock until it was in single digits, and then Rodney Pierce created some space and Sean Smiley nailed a really tough 3 with a guy flying at him and :04 on the clock, and that was the game.
In the post-game presser, Coach said that while Smiley hit a tough shot, he considers the shot to be a defensive failure, for the simple reason that in that situation, you can't let a guy get a rhythm-catch-and-shoot opportunity, and we did. This is part of defensive basketball that I think fans sometimes miss. I can remember Dakich talking about it too. It is one thing to contest shots, but in that situation, you can't let the guy even get a shot.
And it was a nice shot.
In the end, BG did keep the tempo where they are more comfortable, and it was a close game the whole way. In the end, BG had no answer at all for Rodney Pierce, who is a really good basketball player, and enough flaws in our own game that the Bulls were able to lead almost all the way, have the ball for the games crucial possession and execute a basket.
Pierce finished with 21 points and 6 assists.
On the positive side for the Falcons, Scott Thomas had his best game of the season. I really like Thomas as a player, though he has struggled to find his rhythm this season. He had a double-double last night, with 21 points and 10 boards and was 6-14 from the field, so he wasn't chewing up a lot of possessions to get that 21 points.
Beyond that, however, the Falcons had some real struggles on the offensive side of the floor. There were long periods of time when it was very difficult to watch us try to move the ball against the Buffalo man to man defense. In retrospect, it wasn't as bad as it look, as BG averaged over 1 point per possession.
Our biggest weakness was that we couldn't play "inside out" because our inside game really struggled. Our inside men were 4-13 shooting for the game, and Buffalo out-performed us on the boards. I haven't done the actual math, but I would suspect that when we get solid inside scoring, we win and we really struggle when we don't.
We took care of the ball, with only 10 turnovers for the game, but it sure seemed like a lot more. I can tell you this, three of them came in second half possessions when BG had a chance to take the lead.
If you want a hidden part of the game that really hurt BG, you can start with about 5:00 left in the first half. The game was tied at 26, and BG was competing very well with the Bulls. For that last 5:00 or so, BG had only one FG, and no FG at all for the last 4:24, allowing Buffalo to go on a 12-3 run and put BG in a position to play catch up in the 2nd half. That set the tone for the entire second half, and while I give our guys credit for keeping it close and eventually tying the game, it just seemed like the "catch up" momentum defined the half.
From a statistical standpoint, you can see the anatomy of a close game right here, with shooting relatively close, BG staying afloat on free throws and taking care of the ball.
Coach emphasized in this post-game presser that the season is a marathon not a sprint. He didn't emphasize, but I will, that BG started out slow last season and eventually finished strong. Last night's loss was certainly disappointing (and it gets worse as we travel to Kent on Sunday).
It seems like we get someone stepping out and playing effectively in each game, but at the same time, some other parts of the game regress a little, and we end up losing games like this one. If the team can get all of its elements clicking at the same time, this could still be an interesting team.
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