The Falcons continued their late season slide with their sixth straight loss--a game where they competed effectively with a very strong team, but in the end lost on their home floor and placed themselves into a tie with CMU. They win home court with a win Saturday, but the way the Falcons are playing, that is far from certain right now.
Certainly, last night represented an improved effort. KSU got only 1 point per possession, BG had a much more solid game on the boards, and matched KSU at the free throw line. In the end, KSU made 2 more FGs than BG did, and that was enough for them to win. This is true both statistically and based on the game flow. I wrote last night that when Kent needed it, they had 2 players drill key jump shots in the same minute to put the game away.
Kent led most of the way. The first half was very low scoring....Kent shot 28% and BGSU 32%. While BG had a good defensive half, Kent still led by 6 at the break largely due to BG not getting to the line even once while the Flashes got made 5 FTs. Anyway, we played good defense but matched it on the offensive end. Neither Thomas nor Calhoun played significantly due to fouls in the first half, so while I felt Kent would start to convert on open looks, I also thought we might get a lift getting those guys back.
It did not appear to be immediately so, but BG didn't allow Kent to get out of touch and you always felt like there was a shot to get back in. With 8 minutes left, Kent had expanded their lead to 49-39. From there, BG went on a 14-4 run that allowed them to tie the game. BG made 6 stops in that period, including two on offensive fouls but no outright turnover. The run also contained Kent's only offensive rebound of the second half.
I've already recounted what happened from 53-53 in. Porrini and Sherman hit dagger-jumpers and from there it was just free throws and it was not a one-possession game again.
For as good as the first half was on defense, the second was not so much. Kent shot 67% from the field and got a ton of what Coach Orr called "easy baskets." They scored 1.21 points per possession in the second half, and as hard as we worked at it, our team is just not set up to play at that offensive pace.
Individually, A'uston Calhoun showed some fantastic moves, including an incredibly hard burst across the face of the basket that got him open a couple of times. He had 15 points and 6 rebounds on 50% shooting in 23 minutes. Jordan Crawford had 13 points and 6 assists on top of 5 turnovers.
Just as we had trouble handing Mavunga in the high post...we also had trouble with Justin Greene, who played a really nice game with 12 points and 14 rebounds. Porrini added 13 points and 9 assists and Sherman added 13 (3-5 from 3FG) and Holt 11. Kent essentially played a six man rotation, while BG had 10 players get 15 minutes or more.
So, the season comes down to its final game, which of course is also the final game at Anderson Arena....well, actually, we hope that to be only ceremonial and that there will be one more, but for now, that's it.
One final observation....I thought Coach Orr was especially animated on the sideline, which is to say he was animated on the sidelines. BG got a +1 and I saw him making the "and count it" signal with his whole big body, and after A'uston Calhoun was stripped on a breakaway he ran all the way down to the baseline in frustration, either at no foul or at Calhoun not going up stronger.
Obviously, the losing is wearing on a team, as it always will. Their play did improve, and I hope they are starting to feel their way back to a winning formula. I hope that we find out on our home floor that we can reach back and finish the regular season with a win. The MAC is crazy--now OU is hot--and the Falcons could be the crazy hot team as much as anyone else.
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