Crazy Night Yields OT Defeat for MBB

So, last night was one for the books, unless you are factoring in that the opponent was Miami and you have a life time of star-crossed, bizarre, full moon events, almost all of which resulting in heartbreak for the Falcon fans.  It's never been good--the game my senior year with the two recovered onside kicks (by us) is one of the few positive examples.

BG was down 5 with 1:15 left.  They scored the next 7 points, including Daeqwon Plowden hitting both ends of a 1-1 and BG led by 2 with :15 left.  A defensive stand wins the game but instead Miami drives right down the court and hits a layup.

Game tied again, BG has :05 left.  They have their normal play set up with Turner isolated up high.  He went to find a screen and slipped.  The ball spilled to Trey Diggs who fired up a wild 3FG that was not close.  However, Caleb Fields was in position and he quick-tapped the ball into the basket before the buzzer and it appeared BG had a thrilling win.

The refs went to the replay...which at first seemed weird because it was clearly before the buzzer.  Than it became clear that the clock actually stopped briefly at .7 seconds, before Fields tipped it.  The more I watched it, the more it was clear that if clock had kept running there was no way Fields got the tip off in time.

Then, the refs appeared to indicate the basket would count.  Much excitement and then the refs went back and looked again at the exact same thing and made the opposite conclusion and it was off to overtime.

Terry Wymer told the announcers that had the clock kept running, it would have expired before the tip, which is how it looked.  

Why was the clock stopped?  Hard to know because the shot clock was off--no need to reset to 20--and it didn't go in.  And no way to know why they changed their ruling twice.

Anyway, it doesn't matter.  It was off to OT.

Miami was up 5 with 2:30 left in OT.  Miami turned it over and Matheny converted with a basketball to cut it to 3.  Then another Miami turnover and Plowden cut the lead to 1.  Then, BG forced a shot clock violation and had a chance to re-steal the win, but Diggs missed a 3FG and that was the game.

And BG lost.  It wasn't really consequential.  The 8 in Cleveland are decided and you're going to need to win 3 there against good teams, it doesn't really matter if you end up 6th or 7th.  Yeah, if you are 6th you avoid UT and Akron, but we also lost to Kent twice.  We're going to need to hit a peak to win those three and what happens in this game and the next one (if it is played) will not be important.

Still.  That's a season sweep for the Redhawks...as the team picked to win the MAC.

When you look at this, it is surprising the game got to overtime at all.  BG was badly outshot.  It was tough to watch.  BG spent most of the night jacking up 3 FGs.  They shot 48% of the FGAs from 3FG which is the second-highest of the season.  Unfortunately, unlike the last similar game (EMU) where BG shot 48% from 3FG...the Falcons shot 25%.  That's going to be tough and then when you only make 44% of your 2FGs, you're going to have a long night.  Meanwhile, Miami shot 50% from 2FG and 40% from 3FG.  It's hard to think of a game like that going to OT.  Miami was also 16 of 18 at the line and BG was 11 of 16.  However, turnovers and offensive rebounds were enough to make this one close.

Daeqwon Plowden had quite a night.  He had 19 points, 18 rebounds and 2 assists.  Like everyone else, the shooting was rough, at 3 of 10 and 2 of 7.  Diggs also had 19, but it took him 16 shots--14 3FGs--to get there.  Turner had 16, 6 of 12 from 2FG, which is not bad, but 1-7 from 3FG.  Metheny had a rough 10.

It was disappointing.  BG has formerly been next to impossible to beat at the Stroh.  Hasn't been that was in COVID times.  Anyway, it will all be forgotten in a week.  As always, you either win it at the Q or it's all for naught.