Last year's sixth win came on December 30.
One thing about this team. They are fun to watch. For all the years that we watched teams for BG be unable to score baskets for eras at a time, this team has five guys who can legit score and maybe more. It is much more entertaining and less frustrating.
The thing that isn't great about this team is that they don't play defense all the time. And when they don't, they play awful defense...they just get shredded with penetration and ball movement every time. BG had a 19 point lead 4 minutes into the second half and a 3-point lead with 12:30 left. That 3 and a half minutes was characterized by the Spartans have nothing but layups and very open 3-looks from a chasing BG defense. It was just completely one-sided.
San Jose State never took the lead, but they did get it to 2 as last as inside 2 minutes. Caldwell missed a three, but Derek Koch battled on the boards and got fouled on the way back up and made both of his FTs. San Jose State had the ball then and finally missed a shot, but got the offensive board and a foul. They missed both FTs and BG had a chance to put it away. Less than a minute now, Frye missed a 3 but Wiggins got the board and was fouled and he split the pair. BG up 5, the Spartans chipped it back to 3 inside of :30, but Caldwell was fouled and made both FTs and BG was back up 5 and then Wellage stepped on the sideline on the other end and BG had the win.
Note that while BG got abused on the boards for the night, they had two key offensive rebounds in the last minute to help put the game away.
It is nice to win close games, but as Coach said after the game, it would be nice to turn a 14 point lead into a 20 point lead and not into a 1 point lead.
BG scored 1.13 points per possession, which is their sixth straight game over 1.1. The D1 average is 1.03. Last year they were over 1.1 five times for the whole year. San Jose State scored 1.05 PPP and made 43% of their 3FGs, and we had identified their lack of success in doing that so far this year.
This is the second straight win for BG when they have been outshot by their opponents (if only by a little). They made it up in two places. First, BG did much better taking care of the ball and had 9 steals. Second, BG got to the line more and when they did they were much more effective. BG shot 23 of 28 from the line while SJSU was 14-23. All that counterbalanced the rebounding, which was ridiculously in San Jose State's favor on both ends. We had noted that rebounding was a priority for their new coach.
78 of BG's 85 points came from the starters. Justin Turner had a big game, scoring 27 points on 8 of 17 and 5 of 7 3FG shooting to go with 6-6 from the line, 3 assists and 1 turnover. Wiggins also had a huge night, with a 17/12 line. He shot 6 of 12 from the field and 5 of 7 from the line. He also had 4 steals.
Derek Koch had 14 on 4 of 8 shooting. Caldwell scored a tough 11 on 3 of 9 shooting but had 5 assists over 1 turnover and Dylan Frye had a tough 9 on 2 of 10 shooting but added 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals.
Trivia. Kenpom ranks San Jose as the second tallest team in the country.
So, BG is up to 6-2. Next up is 0-7 Norfolk State. They lost to Kent by 9 last night in Virginia and last year actually led BG by 7 in the second half at the Stroh. If you get a chance, check out Coach's comments about a lack of defensive energy from last December. Kind of interesting.
By my count, Antwon Lillard should be back on the court. It will be interesting to see how he will be introduced into the mix, given the current team chemistry.
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