BG beats Siena Heights

The Falcons MBB team has one thing for sure...they can go LONG stretches of time where it seems absolutely impossible to put the ball into the basket.

Southern Indiana.  The first 30 minutes against Hampton.  And the first 30 minutes at the Stroh against Siena Heights.  Right now, this is shaping up as the team's biggest hole.  At the same time, they have yet to play at full strength...but it will be difficult to beat MAC teams with droughts we saw in the last couple games.

Certainly, we are never sorry to win, which BG did 79-58.  Further, BG played with Humphrey, Towns, Philip, Smith and Felt on the bench.  So, shorthanded to be sure.  Even so, Siena Heights led the game for 17:39...BG for 17:36.  BG trailed at halftime.

At halftime, BG was 6 of 18 from 2FG and 3 of 10 from 3FG.  They rallied in the second half to shoot 56% and 40% from 3FG.

At least four MAC teams have had trouble this week.  I think everyone is looking forward to a break and it can make it difficult to get started.

So BG ends pre-MAC play at 9-3 with a 7-game winning streak, the nation's 8th longest active streak.

It is the best BG has been on Christmas Day since 2004-05.  That was the Reimold/Almondson team that coughed up a division title last in the season.  The last competitive Dakich team here.

So, here's the thing.  As everyone noted when the schedule came out, BG felt that given the turnover in players that it was better to play a relatively easy schedule.  This is what they did.  Out of 362 D1 teams, BG has played the 346th ranked schedule, and that only counts the D1 games and doesn't include the 2 non-D1 wins.

The good news is that BG did at least win those games.  Their losses are to Oakland (149), Bellarmine (260) and WKU (155).  Their best win is Lipscomb (153).  Just for reference, Oakland, WKU and Lipscomb are ranked about where OU and UT are.

There's a  long break now.  BG plays next on 1/2.  Hopefully, BG is getting healthy as the games are getting tougher.  BG's kenpom would put them 5th in the MAC right now...and with a projected 10-8 record a good shot to get back to Cleveland, a first step in getting this thing going.