BG guts out sweep of Chips
For much of the night at the Stroh on Tuesday, it looked like BG was going to suffer a hangover from the UT loss and make it 2 straight just when it had the opportunity to put some distance between itself and the teams trying to get into the BYE discussion.
It was a tailor-made. After two games of a rocking crowd, BG was back to having 1,500 in the stands for the game. It was just a let-down prone night.
It certainly started that way. BG played terrible defense and offense for the first half. CMU bolted out to a 15-4 lead and then led 23-8 just 8 minutes into the game. BG finally got some stops for a couple minutes and then got the lead down to 6 with 9 left. The lead kind of bobbed along between 6 and 9 and really stayed in that range for the rest of the half. With 1:34 left BG was down 6 and had a chance to get a stop and cut the lead down, but CMU scored twice more and led by 10 at the half.
CMU shot 49% and 50% in the first half. They had 6 offensive boards. BG shot OK--46% and 44%--but had 1 offensive rebound. BG trailed 42-32.
The second half didn't get better right away. Five minutes in, the Chips still led by 9, 49-40. At that point, CMU was in the early part of a six-minute scoreless streak. With 9:48 left, Justin Turner put BG up 1. CMU broke their scoreless streak with a 3FG on the next possession and popped the lead back up two a two-possession lead. They were up 7 with 6 minutes left.
It was just looking bleak. That's 34 minutes into the game.
BG battled back, went on a 8-0 to take a 1-point lead with 4:21 left. CMU took the lead right back, but this time the script was different. We're inside the last media timeout now, and BG got up 3. Larry Austin missed the front end of a 1-1 with 2:18 left and Frye came down and made a huge 2FG to put BG up 5 with 2 minutes left.
So, in about four minutes, it went from a game where you figure you are going to lose to it being a game you should win.
With 1;15 to play, BG was up 3 with the ball. Dylan Frye missed a 3 and CMU cleared the board, but Justin Turner came out of nowhere to steal it back. After a long review over whether CMU had possession--which they did--BG finally got the ball back in and Wiggins was fouled. He hit them both to put BG up 5 with 1:04.
BG got Austin to miss on that end, and then Dylan Frye was fouled. Now with :47 left, Frye split the pair and Roundtree came home and hit an and-one to cut the lead to 3 with :42. I didn't understand what Davis was doing here, because I would think you'd play for the stop with :42 left, but they fouled on the in-bounds and Wiggins split a pair.
Austin came down. It is smart to foul Austin, because he isn't a great FT shooter. And, when fouled, he split the pair to cut the lead to 3 again with :25 left. Still pressure on BG, but Frye was fouled, made them both, BG got a stop on the other end and Wiggins was fouled, and then he made them both and BG had managed to gut out a tough win...one where they trailed for more of the game and by as much as 15.
BG scored 1.1 points per possession, which is a winning number. In fact, BG has not lost when scoring that much this year. Meanwhile, they held CMU--when it was over--to 1 point per possession, which is above average and a winning number as well.
The stats were much different for the second half. CMU shot 30% and 23% and 9 turnovers, while BG shot 44% and 36%, 86% from the line and 5 rebounds. BG outscored the Chips 47-30 in the second half.
For the game, BG outshot CMU by a significant margin, led in turnovers, was out-rebounded significantly and doubled CMU up on FTs (almost) 23-12.
BG shot 49% from 2FG and 40% from 3FG for the game.
BG shot 82% from the line, a key factor in the win.
Dylan Frye is scoring really well of late. He had a run of like 4 3FGs in the first half, keeping BG in the game as they were struggling to score. He had 23 of 7 of 16 and 4 of 10, plus 5 of 6 at the line, 6 rebounds but 5 turnovers. Justin Turner scored 20, on 6 of 12 shooting and 7 of 8 at the line. He also had 6 rebounds.
Demajeo Wiggins had one of those games. He sat most of the first half after an intense discussion with Coach Huger. He shot 3 of 6 from the field and has 11 of 12 from the line to go with 11 rebounds. That was in 26 minutes. He played tougher in the second half, in my opinion.
Only three other Falcons scored--Laster with 8, Plowden with 6 and Lillard with 5.
So, the beat goes on. BG is 9-2. BG is in first place. That's also a 3-game lead over Akron, the #5 team, which is who BG needs to beat to get one of the 4 byes, which are more or less equal in the MAC setup. There are 7 games left. Even if BG goes 4-3 and gets one of those wins over Akron, they finish in the top four. Of course, they're in the running to win it all. A win in DeKalb Saturday would go a long way to closing the door.
It certainly started that way. BG played terrible defense and offense for the first half. CMU bolted out to a 15-4 lead and then led 23-8 just 8 minutes into the game. BG finally got some stops for a couple minutes and then got the lead down to 6 with 9 left. The lead kind of bobbed along between 6 and 9 and really stayed in that range for the rest of the half. With 1:34 left BG was down 6 and had a chance to get a stop and cut the lead down, but CMU scored twice more and led by 10 at the half.
CMU shot 49% and 50% in the first half. They had 6 offensive boards. BG shot OK--46% and 44%--but had 1 offensive rebound. BG trailed 42-32.
The second half didn't get better right away. Five minutes in, the Chips still led by 9, 49-40. At that point, CMU was in the early part of a six-minute scoreless streak. With 9:48 left, Justin Turner put BG up 1. CMU broke their scoreless streak with a 3FG on the next possession and popped the lead back up two a two-possession lead. They were up 7 with 6 minutes left.
It was just looking bleak. That's 34 minutes into the game.
BG battled back, went on a 8-0 to take a 1-point lead with 4:21 left. CMU took the lead right back, but this time the script was different. We're inside the last media timeout now, and BG got up 3. Larry Austin missed the front end of a 1-1 with 2:18 left and Frye came down and made a huge 2FG to put BG up 5 with 2 minutes left.
So, in about four minutes, it went from a game where you figure you are going to lose to it being a game you should win.
With 1;15 to play, BG was up 3 with the ball. Dylan Frye missed a 3 and CMU cleared the board, but Justin Turner came out of nowhere to steal it back. After a long review over whether CMU had possession--which they did--BG finally got the ball back in and Wiggins was fouled. He hit them both to put BG up 5 with 1:04.
BG got Austin to miss on that end, and then Dylan Frye was fouled. Now with :47 left, Frye split the pair and Roundtree came home and hit an and-one to cut the lead to 3 with :42. I didn't understand what Davis was doing here, because I would think you'd play for the stop with :42 left, but they fouled on the in-bounds and Wiggins split a pair.
Austin came down. It is smart to foul Austin, because he isn't a great FT shooter. And, when fouled, he split the pair to cut the lead to 3 again with :25 left. Still pressure on BG, but Frye was fouled, made them both, BG got a stop on the other end and Wiggins was fouled, and then he made them both and BG had managed to gut out a tough win...one where they trailed for more of the game and by as much as 15.
BG scored 1.1 points per possession, which is a winning number. In fact, BG has not lost when scoring that much this year. Meanwhile, they held CMU--when it was over--to 1 point per possession, which is above average and a winning number as well.
The stats were much different for the second half. CMU shot 30% and 23% and 9 turnovers, while BG shot 44% and 36%, 86% from the line and 5 rebounds. BG outscored the Chips 47-30 in the second half.
For the game, BG outshot CMU by a significant margin, led in turnovers, was out-rebounded significantly and doubled CMU up on FTs (almost) 23-12.
BG shot 49% from 2FG and 40% from 3FG for the game.
BG shot 82% from the line, a key factor in the win.
Dylan Frye is scoring really well of late. He had a run of like 4 3FGs in the first half, keeping BG in the game as they were struggling to score. He had 23 of 7 of 16 and 4 of 10, plus 5 of 6 at the line, 6 rebounds but 5 turnovers. Justin Turner scored 20, on 6 of 12 shooting and 7 of 8 at the line. He also had 6 rebounds.
Demajeo Wiggins had one of those games. He sat most of the first half after an intense discussion with Coach Huger. He shot 3 of 6 from the field and has 11 of 12 from the line to go with 11 rebounds. That was in 26 minutes. He played tougher in the second half, in my opinion.
Only three other Falcons scored--Laster with 8, Plowden with 6 and Lillard with 5.
So, the beat goes on. BG is 9-2. BG is in first place. That's also a 3-game lead over Akron, the #5 team, which is who BG needs to beat to get one of the 4 byes, which are more or less equal in the MAC setup. There are 7 games left. Even if BG goes 4-3 and gets one of those wins over Akron, they finish in the top four. Of course, they're in the running to win it all. A win in DeKalb Saturday would go a long way to closing the door.
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