Falcon MBB Beat North Carolina Central

So, BG got the job done last night against North Carolina Central.  There was a dicey period in the second half, but BG won by 15 after NCCS had lost by 20 and 21 to Clemson and Cincinnati, so in the end I think the result worked out as we would have hoped.

BG led by 14 at halftime and had the lead as high as 18 in the early second half.  I don't really start to worry until it gets below 10, which it did with 12 minutes left.  The Eagles kept chipping away, getting the lead to 7 at one point.  Between 8 minutes and 5 minutes, Zacarry Douglas nailed 3 3FGs and with 5:17 left the lead was down to 4.

Coach Huger took a timeout and BG came out and finished the deal, going on a 7-0 to lead by 11 with just inside 2 minutes left to play.  In all, BG had a 15-4 run to close the game after that timeout.

Looking inside the numbers, it was a slow paced game at 64 possessions.  Last year, BG only played  2 games with fewer possessions.  So what this means is that any stat you see is more impressive than on a fast-paced game.  BG ended up with 1.18 points per possession, which is their best this year would have been the 5th best last year.  That's as it should be, but doing what should be is not a bad thing.

They got there with good shooting.  BG shot 58% on 2FGs and 35% on 3FGs.  Last year, the D1 averages were 50% and 35% respectively.  BG combined that with a strong game in terms of taking care of the ball.  The Falcons did not rebound very well, but were only called for 11 fouls to NCCS with 19.  BG was 11-17 from the line (not very good)  but NCCS was 2 of 7.

Meanwhile, NCCS shot better than BG would like, with 45.2% on 2FGs and 38.5% on 3FGs and 26 of 57 FGAs from beyond the arc.  However, they turned the ball over more than they should in a 64-possession game and didn't get any help at the free throw line, and that was what resulted in the .94 points per possession, which was about what VCU had.

For BG, Wiggins continued to lead the way.  He had 22 points and 13 rebounds in a slow-paced game, which is pretty good.  He shot 10 out of 11 from the field and had only 2 turnovers.  He only got to the line for 5 FTs.  He only made 2, but has been around 80% for the year, which puts pressure on teams in terms of whether to foul him or attempt to defend him.

Justin Turner scored 20 with 8 of 15 shooting and 3 of 5 from 3FG.  The biggest surprise was Jeffrey Uju who scored 13 points on 5 of 9 shooting and made a trey to go with 4 boards.  We'll wait for a larger sample size to be sure, but I think that Uju appears to be a much-improved player.

Dylan Frye struggled to shoot but had 8 assists over 1 turnover.  Michael Laster added 4 assists in 15 minutes.  Lillard struggled to shoot but had 6 rebounds.

Anyway, BG is now 2-2.  Next up is Hampton from Calihan Hall in Detroit.