Home Finale=Sweet Victory

The Falcons saved a good performance for their last Stroh Center game of the year, capping off a fantastic home season with a gritty win over a Kent State team that played really hard and was highly motivated to get a win.

It was a very satisfying way to send them off.

BG clinched its first bye through the first round in 10 years.  That's amazing.  BG now has won 20 games for just the second time since Dakich Part II.  That's worth mentioning.  REGARDLESS OF HOW BG WAS PICKED THIS YEAR, this has been among our better seasons in recent memory.  If we had been picked to finish third in the MAC, this would be a great year. 

The fact that it came unexpectedly just makes it better.

So proud of this team.  There was a decent crowd last night and the team rallied impressively from a rough couple games.  The "urgency" was there for sure.  Coach Huger, who made an effort to look relaxed before the game, was noticeably tense during the game.

The first half was competitive for the first nine minutes.  BG was up 16-15.  Over the next 6 minutes, BG outscored Kent 13-0, leading by 14 with about 5 minutes left in the half.  Inside of 2 minutes, the lead was still 12, but Kent scored the last 5 points to get the lead inside 10 heading into the locker room.  BG did not score for the last 3:26.

BG bolted the lead back up to 11 early in the half, but Kent held the line and then gradually chipped away at the lead until they tied the game with 11 minutes left.  They took the lead by 1 with 9:29 left.  When BG took the lead back with 8:30 left, they lead the rest of the way, but it was a real battle for those last 8 minutes, much of which took place in a one-possession game.  But, it's worth noting that BG was holding the lead and in control of the action for that period of time.

A key point in the game came with about 4 minutes left.  BG was up 1 with the ball.  Walker was whistled for a foul on Turner and Senderhoff, who had been melting down regularly on the KSU bench, was called for a T.  BG made 3 of 4 FTs and it was then a 4-point game.

Moving forward, BG was up 3 with 2 minutes left.

BG got a missed stop and cleared the board, which is important, because Kent abused BG on the offensive glass for the game.  Kent fouled Wiggins, and with 1:57 left, he missed both FTs.  On the other end, Walker missed a 3FG, but Whittington converted the rebound to cut the lead to 1 with 1:36 left.

Big possession for BG.  A basket is needed.  BG runs the clock to 1:18 and Plowden converted a "layup" that was pure will and strength, launching the ball from about a foot below the rim and getting it in.

BG up 3 again.

Kent comes down.  BG covering well and Kent is having a hard time finding a shot.  Avery missed a 3FG but Walker corralled the rebound and your eyes are JUST closed as he rises up but he misses and Laster rebounds and Lillard is fouled with :41 left.  Lillard was about to score and Walker just freight-trained him to get the foul.

Lillard split the pair, but it's still huge because now it's two possessions.  Here, BG took an interesting strategy, which was to foul Walker rather than letting him shoot.  Very interesting.  You figure he might get to the basket for 2 and he might hit a 3 and then it's a big momentum play and instead you make him stand at the line and it's still 1-1 and he might make a couple FTs (and he's decent at the line) but it takes all the fun out of it.

So Walker misses the front end and they get nothing, Wiggins clears the board and Turner is fouled with :28 left.  He splits the pair, but BG's up 5 now.  Walker is fouled again, makes them both and cuts the lead to 3 with :23 left.  Wiggins takes the inbound and is fouled.  He splits the pair to go back up 4 with :22 left.

Walker came down and missed a 3FG, got the board and missed another one, and then Wiggins had the board after some volleying and he was fouled with :10 left and then you're reserving your hotel room in Cleveland.  He made one more and BG led by 5 and 77-72 was the final.

Yes, BG needs to shore up that late FT shooting, but they had the lead and defended well and gutted the win out. Walker missed 4 3FGs in the last 2 minutes.

So here's how it rolled out.  We all knew BG had to play better defense.  And they did.  They didn't play great defense, but against a good offensive team BG held them to 1.07 points per possession, better than both of the last two games.  Kent just got a ton of easy layups during the second half and they finish well.  They shot 53% from 2FG but only 24% from 3FG.  So, with sub-par shooting how did Kent end up with 1.07 per possession?  Not turnovers, those were nothing special.  They did completely dominate the offensive boards.  I identified this in the preview as a big issue and Kent just killed BG on the boards. 

This was BG's worst game at the boards since Ball State in January of 2017.

So BG defense was good enough, but the offense was straight-out good.  Kent is not a good defensive team and BG responded accordingly.  There was a clear strategy to get to the basket.  BG shot only 5 3FGs in the first half.  They shot only 17 for the game, their lowest in MAC play.  BG shot 66% from 2FG, their best of the year.  Their 3FG was 36%, which is not great but not awful.  But shot selection and effective finishing at the rim gave BG their third-best shooting game in MAC play.

BG had a poor game with turnovers, was about average on its offensive boards, and got to the line a lot but shot only 63% on those.  Better FT shooting and the end of this game is not nearly as stressful.  Meanwhile, Kent hardly got to the line at all.

Individually, you gotta talk about Jaylin Walker.  The young man has some moves and makes incredible shots.  He scored 26 points.  But he used a ton of possessions to get there.  He took 28 shots, I about fell off my chair at BW3 when I saw the number.  That's a ton of possessions used up.  He was 5 of 12 and 4 of 16.  Remember, BG only tried 17 3FGs.  Now, Kent's offensive rebounding meant those misses were being converted, but he could be a liability if that isn't happening. 

In a 67-possession game, would you rather have Walker scoring 26 on 28 shots or Turner scoring 18 on 9 shots?

Anyway, Turner did lead BG, shooting 6 of 9 and 3 of 4, with 4 turnovers.  Antwon Lillard scored 14 on 5 of 7 and 2 of 4 shooting.  Wiggins had 13 of 4 of 6 shooting and 5 of 10 at the line.  He added 8 rebounds.  BG did get better bench play, particularly from Laster, Plowden and Sierra.  (BG started their seniors, so Plowden came off the bench.)  Dylan Frye played 15 minutes and had a rough night.  We've all been there.

So, BG prepares to head to Akron on Tuesday.  This win was good, but there are clearly still things to clean up in order to win 3 times in 3 days. I'll look at the MAC standings story once today's games are complete.