BG Loses Big Opportunity in Athens....

As imperfect as it might have been, heading into the last 6 minutes of the game, BG was right where you would want to be.  In fact, it reminded me a little of the Toledo game, in that BG trailed pretty signficantly and then got back into the game....happened a little later in Athens, but it reminded me of that.

Until it didn't.  With about 6 minutes left BG had a 3 point lead and the ball and a run out opportunity to get a transition basket, and BG made a turnover.  OU game down and Cooper nailed a 3 to tie the game.   The trey was the opening to a 9-0 run over 2 minutes that itself fed into a 20-4 run that lasted until the end of the game.  BG ended up losing by 13, in a game where they were ahead with 6 minutes left.

College Basketball Stats

I didn't see the game, but it sounds (and the stats seem to show) that OU came out like a team that had lost 2 in a row and couldn't afford to lose one of their two remaining home MAC games.  They outhustled and outworked Bowling Green, seemed well prepared and even when BG got back into the game, they turned back that challenge with an exclamation point.

This was more or less what Coach said in his post-game.  He was asked if it was a matter of needing more depth, and he said that when you are getting beaten to "fifty-fifty" balls in the first 10 minutes, that isn't about depth.  The victory started on defense, and then continued to the offensive boards.  Based on Todd Walker's description, they were running a pressure man to man defense, and they were sometimes double teaming Crawford on the ball.  They did a great job of denying the ball to A'uston Calhoun, who had only 4 points after starting to look like he was going to emerge as the kind of player he often looks like he can be.

If you read this, you know I don't rip players.  If a guy has 4 points, he has 4 points, but I don't want to get into questioning the heart, motives, or skills of young people.  Their mothers might be reading...here, just to be clear, is what Coach Orr said in the post-game on this topic...

Calhoun's "gotta understand he's gonna have a target on him.  It's not going to come easy, that's all I'm going to say."

Coach also said that when Calhoun has to find other ways to contribute when he is being double-teamed, and noted that he had 0 defensive rebounds in the game.

BG's guards did what they could to take up the slack, but in the end, BG got only .89 points per possession.    At .92 points per possession or lower, BG is winless this season.  Because of the pressure in the paint, BG shot 18 3s, which I am sure is more than we like to see, and we made only 4, which seems to be the normal number so matter how many we attempt. BG had its second worst game of the season on the offensive boards (21%).  Turnovers were a touch below BG's season average at 19% and BG did not get to the line very often.  BG was 13 of 14 from the line, a nice improvement from the UT debacle.

On defense, OU didn't outshoot BG by that much.  They were 4 of 17 from 3, and their EFG was 5% than BG's.  The difference was that BG allowed OU to rebound 47% of their missed shots, second worst in the season.  Those high percentage second chance shot are what pushed their shooting up over the Falcons.  OU also shot 28 FTs and kept BG in the game by only making 18, which is still +5 for the game.

NCAA Basketball

And those rebounds, on both ends of the floor, they just indicate a Bobcat team that was willing to do what they had to do to win the game, and outhustled and outworked the Falcons.

Individually, BG was led by Scott Thomas, who had 17 points and 5 rebounds.  Dee Brown continues to play well, scoring 15, and Jordan Crawford had 11 with 3 assists and 4 turnovers.  None of those 3 guys shot the ball well, so a number of possessions were used up getting those totals.  Craig Sealey had 9 points in 13 minutes off the bench.  Oglesby had 6 rebounds.

So, BG drops behind OU into 5th.  That's a season split.  OU would actually own the tie breaker against BG if they tie.  Bear with me...after head to head, the next tie-breaker is division record, and OU lost twice against the West and BG once, which means that in order to end up in a tie, OU would have to lose one fewer times than BG against the East and therefore have a better record against the East.

Which means OU is actually two games ahead of BG with 4 to play for the final bye.

Conference play takes a bracket buster break now.  When BG returns, it will be at the JAR against the Zips....without question the top team in the MAC in the regular season.  This is the tough part of the schedule.