BG Not Good Enough, Loses to Ball State

Another disappointing loss for BG, who played probably 17 minutes of good basketball on their way to a 9-point loss to Ball State at the Stroh.  BG falls to 4-5 in MAC play.  Just for reference, last year they were 4-5 and lost 9 of 11 coming home to finish out of the tourney.  In other years, BG has played poorly coming down the stretch as well.  It will be interesting to see how they do from here on out...they have Kent twice, @UT, and @BS, but the other 5 are reasonably contestable.  (There are only 18 MAC games this year).  And, you know, if you are trying to get to 9-9, you need to find 5 wins in those 9 games.

BG came out completely flat.  They were down 9-2 before Huger called time. About five minutes into the half they had a 21-6 lead. It kind of slowly grew until they went up 20 with 2 minutes to play.  BG scored the last 6 to get it down to 14.  BG shot 35% and 20% for the half.

BG came out ready to play, going on a 4-minute 11-1 run to get the lead to 4. Two minutes later the Cards had it back to 12. An 11-2 BG run got it back to 3 with 10 left and then BG tied the game with about 7 to play. For a couple minutes, it was a tight game and BG was down 1 with five minutes left. 

From there, Ball State closed out on a 10-2 run to win by 9.  BG had nothing...they played a shorter rotation than normal, but closing strength isn't generally something we excel at. 

BG got some stops but was 1-8 from the field, 0-1 at the line (on a front end), and a turnover.  The only basket came at 1:09 with BG down 6.  BG also committed some bizarre, unpressured fouls away from the basket.

BG also never led.

BG struggled to score at .9 points per possession. It was their second-worst offensive game of the year, tied with Air Force. BG tried 81% of its FGs from 2FG and made only 42%.  The shot chart indicates that BG missed 10 attempts from the no-charge circle, which is astounding. They shot 3FGs reasonably well at 36%, but ended up shooting only 45%.  The Falcons are 0-6 when shooting under 45% this year.

The Falcons took better care of the ball, but got no help on the offensive boards.  BG struggled to get to the line, making 10-14.  If BS made their FTs, the game would not have been close. They were 16-29, but still +6.

BS did not have a great offensive game, at 1.03 points per possession. They shot the ball well, shooting 57% and 39%.  They did have turnover issues, were not great on the offensive boards, and then did get all those FTs.  One thing is that you can hold a team's shooting down by fouling them when they have earned an open shot.  It's still an indication of playing poorly.

Ayers III had 14 for BG. He shot 4 of 8 and 1 of 3 and had 3 assists and 3 turnovers. Turner had 13 on 6 of 11 and 0-2 and 6 rebounds.  Agee had 11 on 5 of 12 shooting and 8 rebounds in 20 minutes.

As mentioned, BG played a closer rotation.  Mills, Metheny, Ayers and Turner all played about 35 minutes. Curtis DNP and Elsasser got only 7 minutes.

So on it goes.  A rising NIU team comes in Saturday.