Valentine's Day Successful for Falcon Men

With their backs against the wall, Bowling Green bounced back today and picked up a hard fought win over one of the MAC's top 3 teams, the Miami RedHawks.

It was an excellent game, with a lot of back and forth, some melodrama, and coach confrontation....all in front of a small but engaged crowd at Anderson Arena.

The key element of this game was BG's ability to get inside, and our ability, even for a few minutes, to run a little.  Coach Hopson said in the post-game that the scouting report showed that Miami was vulnerable once you got the ball inside, and that if you made a couple nice shuttle passes, you could get an easy basket.  BG certainly lived that out, getting 40 of its 64 points in the paint.  Otis Polk had 12 points and 8 boards in only 24 minutes--he sat out the entire home stretch after (as far as I could tell) letting himself get pushed around in the post on defense.

So, 40 points in the paint, and 8 fast break points, (Miami had 16 and 0), and you have the makings of a victory.  As I said in the preview, Miami's scoring is pretty consistent, and they scored 64, right on their average.  BG, on the other hand, thanks to the above factors, was able to get 67.

As you can see below, the key factors were BG shooting well (though not as well as Miami), and then taking care of the ball and then really crashing the boards effectively.

College Basketball

Individually speaking, in addition to Polk, Erik Marschall had 17 points and 7 boards, along with 4 assists. Coach Hopson said that the scouting report indicated Miami is a shotblocking team but you can pump fake them out, which allowed Marschall to employ his favorite pump fake/reverse layup move.

Dee Brown added 11 points. Scott Thomas struggled shooting, but did finish with 6 points, 10 boards, 6 assists and 3 steals--showing that he does contribute even when he doesn't score.

BG was down 6 at the half, but then came out of the locker room on a 14-0 run and the game was tied before the first media timeout. BG took a lead, then Miami got back in the game. BG finally picked up a 6 point lead in the last two minutes, and was able to hold on, despite some inhuman 3-poing shooting from Kenny Hayes.

NCAA Basketball

So, as we will see later today, that puts BG solely in possession of 7th place in the MAC and in decent position for a home berth.  Even better, we played a nice game today, and if we can keep that up, we can win a couple more.

Finally, Otis made a couple monster jams, including one on a fast break that he caught with his feet moving and everything.  It was a great play, and it really got the crowd hopping.

Next up is Buffalo on the road, Wednesday.  It wold be great to see BG pick up a second straight win against a team we should have beat at AA earlier in the year.