Well, on a really cold night the day after a major holiday, Bowling Green's men's basketball team came home from a long 5-game road trip and played their best game of the season, a game that gives us optimism that we will be able to compete in the MAC season. (59-50 win).
Coach Orr always says the season is a marathon, and you have to be resilient, and after a couple of losses and then a less-than-stellar performance at Towson, the Falcons needed to come up with a strong game and reward themselves with the victory.
As noted in my preview, the Billikens are a very solid team that would be very competitive in the MAC. Obviously, they have a strong coach. They are a very young team that has hardly played on the road at all, and that showed a little bit out there I think, but it was still a very nice win for our team.
The key thing you have to look at is defense. The Falcons played an absolutely stifling defense, especially in the first half. Yes, the Billikens missed some easy shots, as teams will do, but Bowling Green never let them get into any kind of a rhythm. In the first half, NONE of their starters had a single point, and that is a pretty remarkable stat.
Beyond the shooting, Bowling Green was dominant on the glass. When BG shot, we got the board 40% of the time, but when St. Louis missed, we got it 80% of the time. This is a credit to the inside play of Otis, who is stringing together some productive games now, and Erik Marschall and Marc Larson, who Coach said had his best game in a while. The ability of our team to get a missed shot and then, time and again, grab the rebound, was key to our victory.
Coach talked about the fact that everyone in the program now recognizes that the zone is our defense. I think it is to our credit, though, that we have installed features to the zone that allow it to become a more aggressive defense, rather than a sit on your heels defense. BG ran a half court trap off the zone, and it was very effective in keeping St. Louis out of their game. That's just solid coaching from a really good staff.
And, as a reward, St. Louis made 19 turnovers.
As far as game flow goes, BG bolted out to a 9-0 lead and never trailed in the game. In fact, the game was pretty steady, with BG maintaining a solid lead throughout the first half and then blowing it open in the second half because St. Louis got a few garbage points at the end to get it inside 10. In reality, the game was not that close.
Beyond the rebounding and the turnovers and the scoring defense against St. Louis, the other key element that allowed this to be a win was that BG finally had some consistent free throw shooting. BG was 18 of 21, at 86%, which is a great night in anyone's book. We were getting fouled at the end a lot, and BG kept hitting the free throws and extending the lead.
I think the chart below pretty much gives us the tale of the tape in how the Falcons won this game.
Individually, we played a 7 man rotation pretty effectively. Otis has 13, Dee 12 and Marschall 11, and Otis and Larson each had 9 boards and Marschall had 7. Coach felt that the inside guys played very well, with the exception of some turnovers.
It cannot be stated how important it is for the inside game to be clicking. Both Larson and Martchall are solid players, but the key here is Otis, who is finally starting to put together consistent play that matches not just his physical presence but the ability he has shown in spurts throughout his career. As a senior, if he can produce through the MAC season consistently as he has been, he is a force in this conference and makes us tough to beat right there. He even nailed his free throws!
Anyway, it was a really nice night to be a Falcon, and it was great to see BG come up with such a solid win against a good team. ...can't wait to see the conference season unfold.
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