BG MBB wins...but...

So, one thing is certain after Michael Huger's first game at BG.

There's nowhere to go but up.

In full disclosure, I was not at the game, but it certainly appeared to be a relatively painful display of basketball, both as a Falcon fan and a fan of the sport.

In the end, BG won in overtime against Notre Dame College, a DII team that was picked to finish 7th in the Mountain East Conference.  That's better than losing, but BG had a serious struggle in this one.

BG trailed by 12 at the half and didn't take their first lead until there were 5 minutes left in the game.  Read that sentence again.  At that point it was 47-45.  From there, for what ended up being the last 10 minutes, BG scored 27 points and "held" Notre Dame to 20 and BG ended up winning in OT.  Notre Dame actually led in overtime (once) before BG was able to put it away.

As for the sport of basketball, there were an astounding 65 fouls called.  BG shot 57 free throws in the game, making only 34 (64%).  As I said, I wasn't there but that strikes me as a borderline unwatchable game.

The worst part of the game for BG was the first half, when they were only 4 of 21 from the field and 9 of 21 from the line.  For the game, BG shot 35%, 18% from 3FG and 59.6% from the line.  BG had 20 turnovers to only 18 for Notre Dame.

Maybe the most interesting part of the game was who started and who played.

Starting where Parker, Worrell, Denny Joseph and Alcegaire.  Off the bench, Lillard (28 minutes) and Ali (24 minutes) got the most time, while Wiggins, Malik, Tisdale, Fox and Mayleben did get time as well.

Lillard was BG's leading scorer, with a very effective 20 points on 6 of 9 shooting and 1 of 2 from beyond the arc.  Zack Denny double-doubled at 12 points and 16 rebounds and Ismail Ali had 10 points.

This was an exhbition game.  Repeat.  It was only an exhibition game.  If it was a real game, you would have been informed of where to tune in your area for emergency information.

BG starts the regular season next Saturday against New Orleans.  Just to say this...it appears for now that we are who we feared we might be.  Hopefully, things will improve from here.