Falcon MBB Slumps to Defeat in Kent

Well, that was no fun at all.

I'm not jumping ship.  Certainly not a good thing but I believe this team can compete in Cleveland and win.

Not playing like this, though.

BG came out with some energy and it felt like we had a fighting chance, but Kent gradually wore that away and BG's poor defense and poor shooting combined to give Kent the lead with 13:22 left in the first half and Kent led for 33 straight minutes.  The game was never closer than 3 and never closer than 5 in the second half...and was normally in double figures for the second half. 

This was a Kent team playing without starter Anthony Roberts and key bench player CJ Williamson.  And they beat BG by 15 points.  I believe we're still in the hunt but playing like that won't get it done.

BG's defense was just ugly.  Kent scored 1.09 points per possession--same as Miami did.  There were two keys.  First, they had a good day on our boards.  Second, they shot 64% on 2FGs, the best of any BG opponent this year.  Some were put backs...but Antonio Williams ran around screens and got to the rim at will and Danny Pippen abused BG's defense in the post. Kent did not shoot the three well, but they scored well in the paint and BG had no answer.

Coach said we have to be a lot tougher in those situations.

Meanwhile, BG scored .91 points per possession, not a winning number.  They shot an EFG of 38%, their second worst of the season, after Nevada, a non-Turner game.  BG only shot 31% of its FG attempts from 3FG, so we were trying to force the ball to the rim, but BG made only 41% of its 2FGs and 20% of its 3FGs. There were too many turnovers.  BG was good on the offensive boards and made 21 of 26 at the line, or this would have been even worse.

One interesting thing you are hearing people talk about is "live ball turnovers" because they often lead to easy baskets.  In the MAC, live ball turnovers (steals) account for 8.7% of all possessions.  BG gave up 10% yesterday.

Justin Turner scored 24 points and played really well on offense.  He was 8 of 15 from the field, 8 of 10 from the line, added 5 rebounds, though there were 4 turnovers.  Plowden had 10 points but it was a rough night.  He was 3 of 10 on 2FG and 1 of 6 on 3FG.  He did add 9 rebounds.  Trey Diggs also had 10 on 2 of 6 3FG shooting.  Other than that...well Frye had 3 turnovers in 23 minutes, Laster had 2 in 4 minutes.

Anyway, far from a championship performance.  Whether this is a championship team...time will tell.