OU Defends Home Court, Beats BG

One of the things about basketball is the "spurt."  Many times, it is a game of competing spurts--one team has one and then the other team has one back.

Last night's BG-OU game was decided by one spurt....one 5 minute spurt where OU blew a close game wide open and then held the ground for the remainder of the game.

To make up a deficit, you have to have more good possessions--on both ends--than the opponent.  BG was good enough to stay even, but never good enough to consistently get those advantages in the second half.

Here is how it happened.  BG played a really good first half, never leading but fighting back from being 7 down and getting a late follow by Craig Sealey to head into the locker room down 1.

Then, the first 5:00 of the 2nd half were a complete disaster for BG.  OU outscored the Falcons 13-3 over that period.  BG seemed to shoot a lot of 3s in that period and had a couple of turnovers, both of which are things that this team doesn't seem to do when it is going well.

Anyway, the next 15 minutes were just what the first 20 were--even--but the advantage gained in those five minutes was enough.  BG got the lead down to 6 once but never closer, and OU did pump the lead to 16 at one point, but OU won the game on that early second half spurt.

College Basketball

The end of the game got a little "chippy" as we used to say in hockey.  It appeared to be Crawford and Cooper chipping, and they both got T'd up and then La'Monta Stone and an OU assistant were getting verbilie on each other and they got T'd up, none of which meant anything.

Then, in the handshake line the Stone and the OU coach had some words and then there was a little pushing from the players but it all got cleared out before anything serious happened.

After the game, Coach Orr said that it is an emotional game and that will happen sometimes.  And Coach Stone said he was backing up his player and would do it again if it was needed.

Back to the game, OU was held below their season offensive efficiency of 1.08--they scored 1.04.  Unfortunately, that's not really a zone where BG has had very little success winning.  BG scored .91 points per possession, which is also below its season average.

OU had a small advantage shooting, but a big advantage in turnovers and a +6 advantage at the free throw line was enough for the Bobcats to get the win.  BG had a pretty good game on the boards, but it was not enough to turn it around.

OU came in as the best 3-shooting team in the MAC, but the Falcons did a really nice job on that.  OU was only 6-23 from beyond the arc.

College Basketball Stats

Individually, BG had 19 points from Calhoun and 17 from Crawford.  Calhoun shot 7 of 16 and 7 of 13 on 2FG and Crawford was 6 of 14, both of which are OK but not great shooting nights.  Calhoun added 8 rebounds and Crawford had 4 assists and 4 turnovers with no steals.

From the bench, Craig Sealey had a pretty interesting line.  He had 8 points (4-5 shooting) and 12 rebounds in 16 minutes played.  Seriously.  Orr had 7 on 3 of 6 shooting and Holmes had 8 points on 3-5 shooting in only 18 minutes.  Cam Black had 6 rebounds in only 14 minutes.

BG had four players go more than 30 minutes--Calhoun, Crawford, Kraus (0 for 6 shooting) and Orr.  No one else played more than 18 minutes.  Anthony Henderson went from starting to playing 4 minutes.

OU had 10,846 in the house for that one.  Love their hoops down there.

BG is now 9-14 and 7-14 against D1 competition.  BG is now 4-6 in the MAC, with WMU coming to town on Wednesday and then a game @Akron.  This is a very tough period for our team, and I will say this.  A win Wednesday against OU would go a long way toward a respectable MAC season for this team.