So, as the dust clears a little, we have a chance to look back at last night's win over the NIU Huskies at Anderson Arena. The key thing to me is that this is a game we should have won on our home floor, and we did. It was a long struggle to get there, including a horrifying period of play late in the first half, but in the end BG had enough to win the game.
BG was up 25-19 with 4:20 left to go in the first half, and from there on in, NIU outscored the Falcons 19-2 to take a halftime lead of 11 points. That means you are giving up 4 points per minute, which, multiplied out to a whole game is pretty cataclysmic. This during a time when BG attempted only 4 FGs and committed 4 turnovers, each a steal and 3 of which led directly to fast break baskets.
Coach Stone said in the post-game that the team was challenged during the halftime, and they did respond well. In 4 minutes, the lead was down to 2 points, and BG had taken the lead with about 10 minutes left. From there it was a really tight contest, with no lead bigger than 3 until the last minute of play. As I mentioned last night, BG went on a nice 7 point run from 1:24 to :18 that put the game away finally.
Statistically speaking, BG did not have a great defensive performance. NIU shot 44% which is well above their season average. They did a good job of getting inside on our zone, and they had 5 3s in the first half (all by one guy). In the second half, the new and improved Falcons clamped them down to the tune of 36.7% fro the field and 10% from beyond the arc, which is the kind of defense that gets you back into games. On top of that, BG shot 57% in the second half from the field and attempted 21 free throws, something you hoped to be able to do against a team that fouls a lot.
So, while NIU probably shot better for the game than BG would hope, in the end, BG held them down long enough and produced some shooting of their own, finally taking advantage of a team that does not play strong defense. 19 turnovers for BG is very poor, but 14 were in the first half. Finally, NIU really crashes the boards, and it is to our team's credit that we put together a really nice rebounding game, getting 40% of the available offensive rebounds.
Individually, Scott Thomas had a huge game with 26 points and 6 rebounds. 17 of those points came in the second half. Otis had a double-double at 11-11, and that included 5 defensive boards, which Coach Stone said had been a point of emphasis. Dee Brown had 14 points and Jakubowski had 7 points and 7 assists. Erik Marschall had only 3 points but grabbed 11 rebounds.
Statsheet.com has been doing plus/minus stats. The idea is built on hockey, where the concept is that if a team does well when a player is on the floor, he must be making some kind of contribution. I am still trying to figure out exactly what this means, but let me give you an interesting example.
Erik Marschall played 27 minutes. BG won those 27 minutes 62 to 33. The 13 minutes he was off the floor BG lost 36 to 11.
Falcons really had their backs against the wall here, so it's nice to see that they were able to come back in a situation that almost always spells a lost.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, the women are starting to drift downhill. You win some, you lose some...literally.