The first half was certainly not looking very good. As noted in the preview, UMBC is not known to be a strong shooting team, but they were shooting 44% from 3FG in the first half with a total of 7 bombs in total, In fact, for the first few minutes it looked like an ABA game...no one was getting any stops at all. It was 12-10 at the first media timeout. UMBC led by 7 with about 11 minutes left and BG rallied back into the game, eventually taking the lead with 8 minutes left. '
BG led 23-22 with 7 minutes left in the first half and then scored only 6 points for the remainder of the half, which ended with UMBC up 4, 33-29.
UMBC started off the second half effectively as well and led for the first 8 minutes of the second half, giving them solid portions of game control over the first 28 minutes. BG took the lead 44-43 with about 11 minutes left and never trailed again, though there were some dicey moments.
BG led by 12 with 4 minutes left and 9 with 1:41 left. At that point you'd like to think things were safe. For a while, it was a flashback to the Orr years when BG could not advance the ball against pressure under any circumstances. In crunch time, BG turned the ball over on 5 straight possessions. After an Ali turnover, UMBC had the ball and was only down 4 with about a minute left. They missed a 3FG that would have made things very interesting, Denny got the board and was immediately surrounded but was smart enough to call timeout. BG got the ball in, was fouled, Ali made both free throws and BG was up 6. Ali turned the ball over on the next possession as well, but by then the lead was too large and BG put it away, winning by 8.
BG made 17 turnovers in the game and 6 came in the last 2:30 or so.
In the end, UMBC couldn't keep drilling shots like that and they were 2 of 11 from 3 FG in the second half and while BG was also dreadful on long balls they shot 48% overall from the field.
For the game, BG had 1.01 points per possession, which is below the current average. UMBC was .9, which is very low.
The numbers were pretty even. BG had a slight advantage shooting. BG is absolutely terrible from long distance, making 3 of 15 from beyond the arc. Overall, BG was 46%, which is not bad, and from 2FG they were 55% was the difference in the game. BG dominated the boards and had were 19 of 25 from the line, which netted to +4 for BG. (UMBC had 2 technical fouls which BG converted into 3 points).
Spencer Parker's game has grown more consistent over the last couple which games which could be very helpful if it can be continued. He had 22 against FGCU, 15 in 19 minutes against Urbana and then 20 against UMBC. That 20 came on 8 of 13 shooting, which is excellent, 6 boards and only 1 turnover. Wes Alcegaire had 15 points on 7 of 14 shooting and Rasheed Worrell had 14 points on 4 of 6 shooting and 6-6 from the line to go with 7 rebounds, 4 of them offensive. Zack Denny added 11 rebounds--4 of them offensive--while continuing to struggle with his shot. Joseph had 3 assists and 3 turnovers.
BG is now 5-2 with four straight wins since the North Dakota loss. The 4-3 Drake Bulldogs come to town on Saturday for the 3rd game in BG's homestand.
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