Havoc > Falcon MBB

Woof.  Long night in Richmond.  VCU is notoriously tough at home and notoriously difficult to prepare for and BG felt the business end of that with a 72-61 defeat.  That score does not capture the game, however.  VCU led by 14 at halftime and 20 a couple minutes into the second half.  It was as high as 25 and was still 20 with 4 minutes left and BG got some garbage time to get the margin to 11, but it was a thorough beat down. 

BG turned the ball over way too often to win.  There were 27 turnovers--that's 36% of your possessions thrown away.  That's what Havoc is supposed to do.  Coach complained after the game that most of the turnovers were after breaking the press, but VCU traps you in your end and BG was not able to keep the ball moving or capitalize on the pressure with open baskets.  By the time BG was settled on offense, there were often 10 seconds left on the clock.  VCU presented something BG simply didn't handle.

That percentage of turnovers is the most since 2013 against Wright State.  On top of the turnovers, BG made only 36% of its 2FGs, which was comparable to only 2 games last season.  BG had .81 points per possession, which is not a winnable number. Surprisingly enough, VCU didn't have a great offensive game.  They had only .95 per possession and shot 45% on 2s and 27% on 3s.  If they had had a better offensive game, it would have been way worse.

One other thing that BG did that hurt them--in addition to turning the ball over--was commit fouls.  At halftime, BG had five players with 2 or 3 fouls.  Eventually, the fouls evened out, but BG was in foul trouble early and BG just never got into a rhythm or settled the situation down.

I guess if you are of a mind to, you could think that BG played OK defense, especially given the number of turnovers on the offensive side.  On the numbers, the BG defense was good enough to win, but time will tell if that was poor shooting or replicable quality defense.

Demajeo Wiggins led BG with 18 points and 13 rebounds.  He shot 4 of 7 from the field and 10 of 11 from the line.  He did make 6 turnovers.  Frye had 12 on 4 of 7 from 3, but had 1 assist and 4 turnovers.  Justin Turner had a rough 10 with 4 of 11 and 0 of 3 shooting, but added 6 rebounds and 4 assists and only 1 turnover.

The BG bench went much deeper, but it was a struggle.  Laster was 1 of 5 shooting with 7 rebounds and 6 turnovers in 17 minutes.  Fields and Sierra were each also 1 of 5 shooting.

Anyway, it was a forgettable night.  Things should look easier Thursday with North Carolina Central at the Stroh.