MBB Loses at home to Tribe

Rough couple of nights in the Falcon Nation.  The Falcon MBB team by far their worst game so far--and hopefully for quite a while--in losing to the W&M Tribe at the Stroh in a game that was mostly not close.

The game was close for the first 8 minutes, with WM leading 14-13.  They scored the next 13 points, leading 27-13 heading into the 8 timeout.  They lead by as many as 17 in the first half and by 15 at the break.  In total, the lead was double digits for 18 straight minutes.

Then, BG started a comeback ala Davidson. The Falcons went on an 8-2 to get the lead to 5 with 10:28 left. The game was frozen into the 8 timeout as BG missed chances to cut the lead further.  Coming out of the timeout, the Tribe went on a 10-2 as BG continued to struggle to score and with the lead at 16 with 4.  BG had one more rally, getting the lead as close as 6 before losing by 9.

From 10:28 to 2:20, BG had 8 points. They went about 7 minutes without a FG.

It was not our night for sure. WM plays full-court pressure and BG handled that well...only to turn the ball over 18 times in the half-court offense.  Coach said the Tribe was packing it in on defense, which teams often do to us, and BG took risks in trying to dribble or pass against it.  Add that to 3-19 from 3FG, with 2 of those coming in the last couple of minutes, and you have a losing effort.

That's the worst 3FG shooting for BG since a game in Mt. Pleasant in February of Simon's first year.  The 23% turnover rate has only happened 4 times in the Simon tenure.  

We knew they would shoot a lot of 3FGS, and they did...54% of their total shots. And we knew they wouldn't be especially effective...and they weren't, making only 30%.  The problem was that they made 65% on their 2FGs, including a stupifying number of open back cuts, and it was enough for them to get the win.  They also turned the ball over 18 times.

Oh, and there were a ridiculous number of fouls.  The two teams shot 51 FTs.

Campbell led BG with 17 points. It was rough, though.  He was 5 of 12 on 2FGs and 0-1 from 3FG. Add 7 of 9 at the line, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 turnovers, and 3 steals, he helps in a lot of ways. Shackleford had 11 on 3 of 6 and 0 of 4 and 5 rebounds. Sam Towns had 10 on 4 of 7 and 0 of 2 and 8 rebounds. Thomas played 1 most of the night, as Campbell played more off the ball.  He had 10 on 3 of 5 and 0-3 with 4-4 at the line.  Mayar Wol was +2 in ten minutes.

BG falls to 2-2 in D1 play.  They head now to Ft. Myers to play Bucknell and VMI, both very winnable games.