BG MBB Beats Campbell, Wins Second Creek Game

So, the Falcons are now 5-1 on the young season, their best start since 2014-15.  There's still a lot to be learned about this team, but they are winning the games on their schedule and it's very pleasing.

This game was a road win over Campbell, on their home court, the second game of the Creek Classic.  The big note here is the Campbell's high-scoring G Chris Clemons, who has been battling injury but played on Friday, did not play in this one.

BG controlled the game much of the way.  Campbell got out to a 10-4 lead, but BG went on unusually strong start to lead 26-13 with about 11 minutes to go in the half.  From there the lead stayed pretty stable, with BG leading by as much as 16 several times and heading into the locker room at +14.

Campbell came out of the locker room like a team facing two straight home losses at their own tournament and scored the first 10 points.  With about 3 minutes gone in the half, BG was up 4 and they still managed to hold that lead until Campbell took a 1-point lead with 6:16 left. 

The game then went through a two minute period where neither team scored, a streak that was broken when Rodrick Caldwell nailed a 3 with 4:21 to put BG in the lead---a lead that would never surrender.  In fact, it was never a one-possession game and BG made 6 FTs in the last minutes (out of 6, 4 by Caldwell) to put the game away.

Caldwell had his second big game at the event.  He scored 20 on 5 of 9 shooting and 9 of 10 from the line, to go with 5 assists over 2 turnovers.  Wiggins had 14 on 4 of 7 shooting to go with 7 rebounds, Frye added 14 6/14 and 2/4 shooting, plus 5 rebounds.  Nelly Cummings added 10 on highly efficient 4/6 and 2/3 shooting.  Koch had 6 rebounds.

It was BG's slowest tempo of the year at 68 possessions.  Nonetheless, BG had 1.15 points per possession, just slightly ahead of what they did the night before.  Campbell had 1.06, which represents a slightly below average defensive night for the Falcons, based on the D1 average. 

BG was actually outshot in this game.  However, they evened things out in two places.  First, they were dominant on the boards on both ends, creating and preventing extra possessions at the same time.  And, BG made 18 out of its 20 FTs, for a +4 advantage at the free throw line.  Those two factors made up for a slight difference in shooting.

BG goes for the sweep on Sunday at 1 against Abilene Christian, who beat Campbell but lost to USC-Upstate.