Wrap Up for EMU
So wrapping up the EMU game....
From watching the game and using the ol'eyeball test, I would have said that what killed BG was an inability to do anything to get in the way of EMU's guards. Talley and Lee seemed to have their way with the BG guards, much of the time on dribble penetration. And they had big scoring games, Lee with 27 and Talley with 21, but at significant cost. The two of them collectively shot 14 of 37, which is 38%. Ward also shot 6 of 14.
Coach Jans said after the game that BG did a good job on "first shot" defense and fell apart after that and you can certainly see that in the numbers. EMU only shot 39%. However, they picked up a ridiculous 46% of their offensive rebounds--the best total against a BG team all year--and while those didn't get converted directly into made shots, they did seem to get converted into fouls and eventually FTs, at +5 for the game.
So, EMU shot poorly but maximized their possessions by only turning the ball over 7 times, getting all those offensive rebounds and getting to the line. The other issue was the 3FG. EMU was a poor 3FG shooting team coming in, but made 41% which was their 4th best game of the year. Overall, BG allowed 1.2 points per possession, the fourth best game for EMU this year.
BG, meanwhile, had a good offensive game at 1.1 points per possession. BG easily outshot EMU, but had 15 turnovers (25%) of possessions and a terrible game on the boards, and that along with the defensive struggles cost them the chance to win the game.
Oh, and one other thing I didn't notice when I watched the game. BG went the last 4:42 without scoring a single point. It was tied with that streak started. Anyway, you aren't going to win very often in tournament basketball not scoring for the last 5 minutes of the game.
So with all that, Coach Jans is right. BG didn't play well enough to win.
Individually, EMU scoring was dominated by 3 guys...as mentioned, Lee, Talley and Ward collectively scored 63 of their 73 points, which is a wow.
For BG, Jehvon Clarke had 18 points on on 7 of 11 shooting. Richaun Holmes had 18 on 6 of 7 shooting, most of it in the first half. where he was dominant. Coach Jans said that Holmes was "out of gas" in the second half due to his layoff. Denny had 13 on 5 of 12 shooting and a team-high 4 turnovers. Holmes, Denny and Parker each had 5 rebounds.
So that's the sad tale of woe. EMU did not advance and UT is in the semi against CMU. We await the Red Streak.
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2 comments :
I feel your comparison of EMU's season average 3FG shooting to Wednesday's performance was indicative of BG's 3FG defense down the stretch. I felt in most of the games since mid February -when BG was in the driver's seat to obtain at least 1 bye- that opposing teams were just raining 3FG, or at least making clutch 3FG that felt like daggers that at many times killed BG's momentum. Especially in both games against Buffalo, and the all out assault Kent put on at The Stroh. Here are the numbers:
2/18 Miami 33.3% (3-9)
2/21 Buffalo 52.9% (9-17)
2/24 Ohio 38.1% (8-21)
2/28 Miami 20.0% (3-15)
3/3 Kent State 61.9% (13-21)
3/6 Buffalo 45.8% (16-23)
3/9 Ball State 36.4% (8-22)
3/11 Eastern 40.9% (9-22)
That comes to a total 69/150 46%. Cant win games allowing teams to do that. Even if you throw out the - OUTRAGEOUS KSU game (16!) and the lowly Miami - outliers we still allowed 50/112 44.6%.
Obviously, BG's 3FG defense left a lot to be desired. That's interesting yet, tough to swallow because of how good the defense was for much of the season.
Good stuff! No doubt the BG defense softened up as the season went on and was the key factor in the key losses--Kent and Buffalo. I think we were overachievers for much of the year, and partly it caught up with us late in the MAC season. Buffalo (as we saw last night) is a really good team.
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