BG MBB Beats EMU, Continue to Advance up Standings

BG won again last night in a game that they needed badly.  It went about as well as it could have and BG got a win when they were rarely tested.

The game was tied at 2 and 4, and then BG led for the remaining 36:44.  The game was tightly contested for about 5 minutes after BG took the lead and then the Falcons inched the lead out to 10.  It kind of kicked around between 6 and 9 until there were about 5 minutes left in the half.  BG took at 10 point lead and then held a double digit lead for the last 25 minutes of the game.  BG got the lead up to 14 with 3 minutes left and then ended up leading by 15 at the half.  Notably, the BG lead came despite playing without Plowden and Curtis, both of whom were in Michael-Huger-Two-Foul-Jail.  Note also that EMU had Monty Scott back but played without top scorer Noah Farrakhan for the game.

BG held a commanding lead for most of the half.  EMU did chip it down to 11 at one point, but BG switched into their secret 3-2 zone and that seemed to take the Eagles off their game and the lead got as high as 20 in the late minutes of the contest.

Both teams like to play fairly upbeat.  It was--the game ended at 72 possessions, which is a pretty good pace.  It probably would have been more, except BG started to slow down in the last 3 minutes ago.  From the preview, the key question was which would win out...BG's porous defense or EMU's limp attack.  The answer is...BG's porous defense won the day.  They held EMU to .99 points per possession--their best in MAC play--and scored 1.19 points per possession, which is pretty good.

The actual numbers are interesting.You don't often win a game by 14 when you are outshot by 4%, which is what happened here. BG had an enormous lead  in offensive rebounds and free throws, and that tipped the balance. EMU had only 4 offensive boards and the Falcons made 26 of 32 FTs and EMU was only 15 of 19.

BG shot 54% from 2FG and 18% on 3FG.  EMU shot 56% on 2FG and 20% on 3FG.  Neither team tried very many 3FGs.

BG had three players pick up the slack from Plowden and Curtis.  Myron Gordon has 21, on 5 of 7 from 2FG and 2 of 4 from 3FG, 7 of 9 at the line, and 3 assists over 0 turnovers.  Joe Reece had 20 points in 20 minutes.  He was 6 of 11 on 2FG and made his only 3.   Plus 5-6 at the line and 6 rebounds.  Kulackovskis had 16, on 5 of 6 from 2FG and 0-2 from 3FG.  He made 6 of 7 FTs and had 4 rebounds in 20 minutes. Plowden had 12 in 22 minutes, at 5 of 11 and 0-2, plus 5 rebounds.l  Chandler Turnver finished with 7 rebounds and Curtis had 3 assists in 11 minutes.

BG is now 4-5 in the MAC, 6th place and somewhat solidified in their effort to make it to Cleveland.  It would be nice to finish top 6, but there is a long way to go.  The Kent game is really important.  It's at home and the Flashes are only 5-4 and have lost to CMU and NIU, both at the MACC.