Falcon MBB Triumphs Over Robert Morris

 BG had a game yesterday in Pittsburgh against the Robert Morris Colonials.  It was pretty much as expected and probably on the positie side of that range.  BG won by 20.  RMU never led and the game was tied for a little over 2 minutes out of 40.

Nine minutes in it was pretty good for BG.  BG was up 16-5.  Over the next six minutes RMU had a 20-11 edge to cut the lead to 2 and BG led by 4 at the half.  BG scored the first 6 points of the 2nd half to lead by 10, RMU got it back to 2 at 47-45.  BG went on another 9-0 run to go up 11 and from there the issue was decided.  Over the last 9 minutes the game was inside 10 only briefly and the 20-point margin was reached just as the game ended.

BG finished 5-2 in the pre-season schedule, though that includes one confernece win.  They take a break now until December 30, when the 20-game MAC schedule begins.  The game against Defiance tomorrow was cancelled due to COVID issues with the Defiance program.

BG scored 85 points in a 68 possession game, which is 1.24 points per possession, their best offensive game of the season.  That's a pretty big offensive game.  BG topped it only once last year.  BG is currently #49 in the nation with 1.095 points per possession.

Meanwhile, BG held the Colonials to .95 points per possesions, given the Falcons well-rounded results on both side of the ball.  RMU was picked to be 4th in the Horizon...but also were playing their first D1 game of the year.

BG shot the ball really well.  That's 51% on 2FG and 53.3% on 3FG.  It was BG's best 3FG shooting since the NIU game in 2019, also a 20-point well.  BG took excellent care of the ball and did a good job on the offensive boards.  BG did not get to the line as much as normal, but they did make 75%.  

BG is #27 in the nation in FT shooting.

On the defensive side, RMU shot 51%, which is unusual for a team under 1 point per possession.  They gave points away on turnvoers and offensive rebounding and even though they got to the line a lot, they made only 61%.

Individually, it was a big day for Justin Turner who rose to #5 in the all-time BG scoring list.  He had 24 points on 8 of 17 shooting, and 1 of 1 from 3FG.  He was 7-8 at the line and added 8 rebounds and 11 assists.  That's very nearly a triple-double and the first points-assist triple double for BG in 8 years.

Plowden also doubled at 15 and 13, on 7 of 10 shooting.  Caleb Fields had 13 on 5 of 8 shooting and Trey Diggs had 13 on 5 of 10 shooting.  BG ran a nine-man rotation, with Davin Zeigler not playing at all.  

I would assume this is our last game until Kent, though who knows.  RMU is certainly not the toughest team we will play but it is a decent team that would have been in the tourney last year (albeit a 16 seed) and it was on the road and BG did what they probably should have done with the comfortable win.