Falcons Win Tourney Game, Head to Cleveland

In what really was the last men's basketball game at Anderson Arena, the Falcons won a comfortable victory over the NIU Huskies, which they really should have.  If you're going to compete in tourney basketball, you need to be playing well.  NIU was a poor team with Xavier Silas, and without him, they should be beatable on your home floor by any team that purports to be a MAC title contender.

And that's what happened.  The first half was tight, with BG sinking a 3 to take a 2 point lead into the locker room.  Things got better in the second half....BG shot 57% in the 2nd half, was 5-9 from beyond the arc and made only 2 turnovers, while to 32% shooting, 1 of 6 from beyond the arc and 10 turnovers.  BG outscored NIU 40-22 in the second half for the 74-54 win.

College Basketball

It was BG's biggest win of the season in D1 competition.  It was also tied for its best points per possession on both offense and defense in D1 competition.

Again, this was a short-handed NIU team that wasn't very good to start with.  But, we have played down to teams in the past, especially during our run through the West, so it was nice to see us beat a team like we did last night.

As you can see, shooting and turnovers were the primary difference.  BG took excellent care of the ball and was very efficient when it did get a shot up.  There was not much offensive rebounding either way, and the game was blissful for the lack of fouls.  It took 15 minutes less than a normal game.

College Basketball

A'uston Calhoun had a dominant game for BG, scoring 25 points and adding 9 rebounds.  He shot 12 of 18 from the field, which is good even for an inside guy.  He torched the Huskies inside.  Scott Thomas had 12 points including 3 of 5 from the field, and he added 9 assists on top of that, as NIU was running out to cover him.  He had 5 steals, too.

Dee Brown had 10 points and Jordan Crawford had 9.

One other note:  little used Wiley Roberts, who has been the team manager for 3 seasons and was added this year to the active roster, was able to get into the game.  The team ran some plays for him, and after a couple of misses he drained a 3 with 29 seconds left, to an explosion of cheers from the home crowd and jubilation on the home bench.  It was his first collegiate basket.  Further, he will now go down in history as the last Falcon to score in Anderson Arena.  Coach Stone talked about his unselfish contribution to the team--despite his lack of playing time--and I'm going to suggest that Anderson Arena, humble and workmanlike, would find him to be a fitting player to close its scoring with.

So, it is on to Cleveland for a game with Western Michigan, a team which has been beating us lately, but who we have the ability to match up with.  They have a good MAC record, but they also got it through six games with EMU, UT and NIU.  On a neutral floor, I'd like to think we have a shot at competing with them.