Falcon Men Deliver in Final Minute, beat Chips.

Big win last night for BG Men's basketball.  On the road against a team that had yet to lose at home, flu winding through the team, coming off a heart breaking loss, and then delivering the road win.  It was a very good win for the team...and how it happened is just as important as what happened.

The thing started in a bad way.  Again, coming off the big loss, flu bug running through the team, and then 10 minutes into the game CMU had an 11 point lead.  You could have reasonably feared that this would be like the first game at Akron, where it starts like that and just balloons out to a lost night.

It did not.  BG scored the next 7 and had the lead back to 4 and an overall 17-6 run had the game tied with about 90 seconds left.  CMU got a late hoop to head into the locker room up 2, but BG had taken the first punch and was still standing.

Then BG delivered a punch of its own.  In about 3:30 BG went on a 12-1 to open up a 9 point lead.  From there BG held the line for almost the whole way, punching the lead as high as 10 and as close as 3.

With about 2 minutes left, BG was up 5.  Chris Fowler nailed a 3, BG turned it over twice (bringing back memories of the Akron game) before Fowler scored again on a lay to tie the game with 1:30 left.

That's a second punch from the Chips.  Crowd gets in the game, big push, lead evaporated, tired team on the road with the flu...you are standing right on the edge of the cliff.

BG had the ball and Holmes was called for a charge on a really nice play by Fowler--technically that's 3 turnovers in about 60 seconds--and BG got one miss, failed to control the offensive board (hello Akron) and the Chips capitalized with a Fowler jumper to go up 2 with :34 left.

And here is where things changed.  BG came down, Clarke missed a shot and Holmes grabbed the offensive board while John Simon was using a move he borrowed from pro wrestling.  Holmes had 2 shots and he calmly stroked them both to tie the game back up.

CMU still had :12 left and Fowler did what he did all night, which was torch the BG defense (more later) but this time he dished the ball to a wide open Austin Stewart.  Richaun Holmes made what was probably the play of the game...spanning from help defense on Fowler to elevate on Stewart at a very high point and block the shot to preserve the tie.  That kind of agility and the ability to elevate that quickly is just remarkable athleticism.

So, OT.  On the road, flu ridden team.  Anthony Henderson drilled a 3 to start it off and BG got a stop and had a chance to take a two score lead.  Instead, BG turned the ball over.  From there, the game was either tied of a BG lead until 1:30 was left, when Chris Fowler (again) drilled a 3 to put CMU up 1.

Henderson responded with his own 3 and BG had the lead by 2.  Fowler nailed 2 FTs to tie it back up with :55 left.  Jehvon Clarke hit a 2FG jumper to put BG up 2 with :43 left.  On the other end, Fowler (who else) took a 3FG and missed (WOW) and then Simon had the offensive board (seem familiar) except Pep Joseph stole it from him, in what was probably the second play of the game.

It wasn't over yet.  Dickerson was fouled and missed both FTs, so CMU was still down only 2.  This time Kozinski took a relatively low percentage 3FG with :10 left, this time BG cleared the board (Zack Denny) who was fouled, nailed both FTs and BG had secured the win.

I'll look more on how this all happened later, but in the meantime, it was a big win for BG in a game that they had opportunities to lose in the last minutes.  As a contrast to the Akron game, this time they made enough plays to win...it was a gutsy win for our guys and they deserve to be proud of it.  They have not lost 2 straight all season, which to me is the sign of a good team.