BG Season Changes With Buffalo Loss

Things are just a little different this morning.  BG has its back to the wall for the first time this year.

Coming into the week, things could not have looked better.  BG had a 1-game lead in the MAC, with two winnable home games up coming, two winnable road games the week after that...BG seemed to have gotten itself into a really solid position.

One week later, it is all gone.  BG lost both of those games at home--something you simply cannot do in the home stretch of the conference season.  Now, BG is one game back of the lead with Buffalo running up behind them and faces two road games that it simply has to have.  BG now faces the possibility that it might have a first round game before getting to Cleveland.

Who knows?  As unexpected as this week was, maybe next week can be the same.

The Falcons are in a shooting slump and when I say that, I say that everyone except Richaun Holmes is in a shooting slump.  Holmes is playing great.  No one else is consistently producing.  Not counting Holmes, BG is 24 of 81 shooting over the last two games, that's 29%.  BG is equally bad from beyond the arc.  Not counting Holmes in the Miami game and Dickerson in the Buffalo game--two guys who should not be your 3FG leaders--BG is 4 of 37 on treys.

You just can't play good enough defense to win with that.  Not that BG was playing great defense Saturday either.  BG played their third worst defensive game of the season, (USF and Ferris were worse) and the second worst rebounding game of the year.

The die was cast in the first half...which Coach Jans called a "disaster."  The game was tied at 7 with 12 left in the first half.  Over the next 9 minutes the Bulls just shredded BG for a 27-10 run...that's 3 points a minute against 1 point a minute.  They did it with uncharacteristic 3FG shooting compared with offensive rebounding and a complete inability of BG to score baskets.  The lead at that point was 17 and BG had it to 14 by the half.

The Falcons did battle back, though it did not happen right away.  With 12 left in the game BG was still down 11.  Over the next 5 minutes, BG went on a 16-4 run to actually take the lead for 42 seconds.  As you often see, BG expended itself getting back in the game and was not prepared to grind it for 7 more minutes.  The lead was 5 with 4 minutes left and moving in the wrong direction.  Henderson missed a FT that could have cut it to 3 and Buffalo came down and drilled a 3 that made it 7 with 3:28 left and from there it was fouls and free throws ending in a Buffalo win...68-56.

Ultimately, Richaun Holmes made the point after the game...it was tough to battle out of the hole BG was in but the Falcons put themselves into that hole.

NCAA Basketball

We have already discussed the overall stats.  BG actually did a decent job on UB's strength--which is the 2FG--holding the Bulls to 28% on that front.  However, Buffalo shot 53% from beyond the arc, dominated the glass, got to the FT a lot and shot 83% when they were there.  Meanwhile, BG had .95 points per possession on 40% and 20% shooting, low turnovers (which saved the line with shooting like that) and 67% FT shooting.

College Basketball Stats

On an individual basis, Richaun Holmes continues to play at a very high level.  He had 15 points on 7 of 10 shooting, 7 rebounds and 5 blocked shots.  As noted above, the issue is getting production from other guys...and maybe getting him the ball more often.  Clarke had 12 points--but on 4 of 11 shooting--and a team high 8 rebounds.  Spencer Parker had 11 points on 3 of 5 shooting and Delvin Dickerson scored 10--including 3 of BG's 4 3FGs--in only 15 minutes of action.

And so it goes.  BG has lost 2 in a row for the first time this year and now has its back to the wall.  Three of the final 4 are away and the home game is to Kent.  This is a tough part of any season...it is a real grind at this point.  It will be interesting to see how BG can recover and it will be a good test for the program.