UT Gets Rivalry Win at Stroh (MBB)

Sadness accrues.

The premier basketball rivalry in the MAC had its latest iteration last night....and, well, it didn't go our way.  It was a great atmosphere on a very cold night...great crowd, even with hockey at the same time...UT was better than us, but the game didn't get out of reach and the Falcons kept chipping away.  In the end, to bridge a deficit you need stops and UT was really good at getting easy baskets at just the right time.

In the end, the Rockets led for 35 minutes. There were 4 lead changes and 6 ties in the first half.  The last of those ties came with 2 minutes left...but UT closed on a 5-0 run to lead by 5 at the half.  (I don't have any data on this, but we tend to give up runs like that at the end of either half).

As Coach mentioned in his presser, we usually come out and execute well at the start of the second half.  That did not happen this time. We had 3 turnovers in the first four minutes, and UT was sinking everything and at 16 left, they were up 12.  They held us at arm's length until the 9 minute mark, when BG got it to 5.

Crowd rallies.  People are pumped.  Need a stop...Lewis bangs home a 3FG.

BG actually had the ball down 6 with 7 left, but missed a shot in the paint and UT hit a shot to make it 8 again. With 6:32 left BG got it back to 6, but UT hit a 3FG to make it 9.

It only got to 6 one more time and UT pushed back with a dunk. They led by 10 with 3:11 left and the game was not in doubt again.

They performed at high efficiency in key possessions.  As Simon said, "they made us pay."

I kind of thought BG would want to push the pace to keep out of the half-court as much as possible. The game went at 70 possessions,which achieves that goal. UT ended up with 1.19 points per possession, which is tough for BG to beat with our offense.  We have not won at that level yet this year.  To wit, BG's offense was 1 point a possession, which is well below national average and a tough number to win with.

As you can see, BG got badly outshot.  The 2FG was 53%, which is not awful, but they only made 27% from 3FG and that made up 39% of their overall attempts.  Meanwhile, UT came in shooting very few 3FGs and not doing it well (and BG came in #2 defending the 3FG. Everything went the other way...UT took 40% 3FG and made 50%, their best in MAC play.  Coach said BG had to choose and they tried to take the drive away, and UT "made us pay."

BG won the turnover battle but it was nominal.  We were beaten pretty bad on the boards. We got to the line more against UT than any MAC team has and ended up +3 at the line, making 74%.  UT made 82%,

Marcus Johnson was just fantastic.  Coach Kowalcyk was effusive in his praise of Johnson after the game.  Johnson scored 28 points on 7 of 11 and 3 of 9 shooting, plus 5-5 at the line and 4 rebounds. Thomas had 13 on 2 of 4 and 2 of 7 shooting. Three assists, 4 turnovers. Felt double-doubled, with 10 points on 3 of 3 from the field, and 12 rebounds. He blocked 3 shots.

BG played 7 guys.  Coach said Squire was sick.  Khayat is still out.  And Green did not play, no explanation was given. 

So, things get tough.  BG is 2-5 and in a rough part of the schedule.  @KS and @CMU next week.  To get to 9-9, BG has to go 7-4 from here on it.  It's tough to see, but you never know.  We are still playing hard and competing.  The halfcourt offense can be tough to watch.