BG MBB Gets Winning Performance

 BG got their first win against D1 opposition yesterday, pulling off a nice victory on a neutral floor against Milwaukee.  Milwaukee is a good team--not great--but MAC-level opposition.  Given that BG had already lost two games to sub-MAC quality teams, it was worrisome, but the Falcons put the right effort together and got the win by 14.  They were underdogs doing in.

BG led most of the way.  They were up as much as 8 in the first half before Milwaukee brought it back to a tie in the last couple minutes and BG led by 1 at the half.  

Patrick Baldwin hit a 3FG to start the second half and then BG went on a 9-minute, 19-2 run that essentially won the game.  Clearly, runs like that are built on stops and when you can hold a team without any points for over 7 minutes, you have a pretty good shot at winning the game.  To be sure, BG also did a nice job closing it out--the Panthers never got closer than 9 points heading home.

BG had a big offensive game at 1.22 points per possession.  The overall pace was 67 possessions, which is slow for a BG game.  That kind of offensive output would usually be among BG's top 5 games in a season.  They built it the way we are used to seeing them build it...with good but not great shooting, but creating extra possessions with low turnovers and good offensive rebounding.  They also made 15 of 19 FTs.

BG shot 35% of their FGs from 3FG, which is actually below the national average.  BG did make 39% of them, but only made 48% from 2FG, which is a little below the average.  Remember as well that Milwaukee had defended the shot very well this year.

Meanwhile, they held Milwaukee to 1.01 points per possession.  While hardly a stifling defensive performance, it is good enough to win most nights.  Coming in, the Panthers had been very 2FG-focused, but they shot 54% of their FGAs from 3FG and made 34% which is OK, but tough for that many shots. They turned the ball over more than BG and had just an average night on the offensive boards.  They were 11 of 15 at the line.

Individually, BG was led by Daeqwon Plowden, who responded to a challenge from Coach Huger to be the toughest guy on the floor with a career-high-tying 26 points.  He made 5 of 7 from 3FG and 2 of 5 from 3FG, 7-9 at the line, 2 blocked shots, 7 rebounds and 2 blocked shots.

Myron Gordon had a rough 11, shooting 2 of 8.  Joe Reece had 10 points on 4 of 8 shooting and 8 rebounds in 23 minutes. Fulcher had 6 points in 13 minutes and made all 3 of his shots.  The team clearly benefitted from having Matheny back.  It doesn't necessarily show on his stats line but the offense seems to run much better with him at the helm.

One last thing...Patrick Baldwin Jr played only 17 minutes.  He turned his ankle at one point and didn't play much after that.  He had 9 rebounds while he was in there, but was 3 of 11 shooting.

Next up this afternoon is Southern Utah.  More on that in a minute or two.