Falcons have home setback against WMU

The Western Michigan Broncos brought a home setback to the Falcons on Saturday.  With the race as tight as it is, you hate to lose at home, and this is a team we could easily end up in a tie-breaker with.  And, from the 7 minutes mark of the first half, this was never really a close game.

Having said that, we have not come out and really laid an egg in quite a while.  These games happen sometimes.  I don't think we have played as well as we are capable of in any of the games against the West, but we were winning.  In this game, we didn't play as well as we were capable of, and WMU was good enough to beat us pretty soundly.

As you can see on the chart below, it was a 4 point game with 7 minutes left in the first half.  WMU then scored 14 straight points, including 4 3s from a team that does not shoot 3s well.  From there, the die was pretty much cast.  Our guys did fight back and play better in the second half, getting the game back to 6 points, and while we stayed in contention, WMU was plenty good enough to keep us in the whole we had dug.

College Basketball Stats

The game boils down to a couple of things, I think.  First of all, BG had .95 points per possession for the game, which is something we have won a couple times with.  We shot about 44% which is also manageable.  We had 12 turnovers, 8 in the first half.  During that 14 point run, we didn't have any, we were just missing shots.  So, while the offense has to be better than this, it wasn't awful.

No, the 14-0 run and the game was built on not defending.  BG did not defend the perimeter during that run, and overall allowed WMU 1.17 points per possession, which is our worst since the loss @KSU and the fourth worst of the season. WMU only shot 41% and shot 17 free throws, making 16.  (They were +9 on free throws alone).  But all this pales in comparison to BG's weak rebounding effort.

WMU is a good offensive rebounding team to start with, getting a very good 40% of the available offensive rebounds.  In this game, WMU got a full 50% of those rebounds.  It is hard to imagine too many teams winning under that circumstance.  The only team that has done better against BG is MSU.  And you can see hear that the rebound battle turned right when the game battle turned.

NCAA Basketball

Here are the four factors.

College Basketball Stats

Individually, A'uston Calhoun had 23 points and 7 rebounds. Scott Thomas had 15 points but only 3 rebounds.  And Danny McElroy played a really nice game, with 12 points and 3 blocks.  Jordan Crawford struggled to score but did have 6 assists.

So, a setback.  The nice thing is that the team gets to jump right back on the horse, and at home, when they host Ball State of Wednesday.  You're going to have a disappointing game once in a while.  The key is that it doesn't become a trend.  It will be a good test for our team.  Ball State has a strong inside game, but we have to be able see what needs to be fixed after that game.  Looking forward to a comeback performance.

Update:  I keep forgetting to note that WMU had their weekday game snowed out and BG had an overtime game at NIU and a long bus trip home.  No excuse, but part of the context.  The next game is the most important.