Falcons Beat Chips, By the number

More on the CMU win....

The big challenge for BG was to stop the CMU offense.  The Chips had the best shooting offense in the MAC and was scoring at a highly efficient rate.  It was billed as the best offense against the best defense....and how did it play out.

This is actually a really interesting chart.  BG shot the ball really well.  I'm talking really well.  BG shot 53% and 42% for an effective FG% of 60%, which was their second best shooting game of the season.  So...that was BG exploiting a not-great CMU defense.  Meanwhile BG held CMU to 40.9% and 20%.  That is an effective FG% of 45.5%, which was their fourth worst of the season.

You would not expect a game with that kind of a shooting disparity to be even close.  BG frittered away ALMOST all of that shooting advantage by turning the ball over about 3 times in every 10 possessions, which is their worst game of the year, while CMU took better if not great care of the ball.

For the second straight game, BG struggled mightily against full court pressure.  It was bad.  Might be the one part of the team that is not improved over last year.  They are going to need to figure it out, because I suspect BG will see more of it until they do.  At one point, BG even tried to go over the top on a baseball pass, in both cases throwing the ball away and one time getting it brought all the way back down the floor.

CMU also had a good day on the offensive boards while BG had its second worst game in that respect as well.  I don't know if BG was falling back to protect against the break or if they just weren't getting the boards, but that is a really low number.

Overall, BG had .97 points per possession, which is a tick below the average, whereas CMU scored .95 points per possession which is well below that 1.11 per MAC possession.  Here's the key...they tried 30 threes--the second most for them in a MAC game--and they made 6.  That's right...6.  Hard to win that way.

College Basketball

Individually, the story of the game was Chris Fowler, who was unconscious.  He scored 42 in 42 minutes, playing most of the second half with 4 fouls.  He shot 14 of 23, 2 of 6 from 3FG and 12 of 17 from the line.  DUDE shot 17 FTs.  It was a dominant offensive night where he scored 57% of his team's points.  He had only 2 assists, mostly on account of, oh yeah, 23 shots.  John Simons scored only 10 on 3 of 6 shooting and 7 rebounds.  Other shooters like Rayson, Simmons, Kozinski and Hibbits struggled to get their shots down.

For BG, 5 players were in double figures.  Anthony Henderson had 20 points...20 senior-led, leadership points, with 8 of 12 shooting and 4 of 7 3FG.  He also had 5 rebounds and 3 assists.  Jehvon Clarke had 18 points on 6 of 11 shooting, 2 of 3 from 3FG and 4 steals.  Denny had 12 points...4 of 6 and 1 of 2 shooting and 3 of 4 from the line, including the game clinchers.  He also had 7 rebounds.  Holmes had 10--but on 4 of 5 shooting--with 7 rebounds and Dickerson scored 10 on 4 of 9 shooting with 5 rebounds.  At PG, Joseph went almost the whole way, playing 37 minutes as compared to 9 for Austin.  Jovon had 4 turnovers in those 9 minutes.

So, BG is now 6-3 in MAC play and in a tie for first.  Seven teams are within one game of the lead, so buckle up kids, this could be fun.  BG is in DeKalb on Saturday to try and keep the good times rolling....