Falcons Lose Close to Kent

 It's still 13 straight.  But it was a tight, close game.  If it all comes together, BG has a shot this year.  Last night, with Thomas severely limited and without Ruffin, BG battled Kent all the way to the end before succumbing.  Say what you like, the team is good entertainment.

The entire game was in a 13-point span.  BG's biggest lead was 4 and Kent's was 9.

The game was tied at the half.  BG came out playing really poorly, and Kent had a 9-point lead about 4 minutes in.  BG punched right back with a 17-7 run to take the lead with 10 minutes left.  With one exception, for the next 10 minutes, the lead was never outside 3 points for either team. There were 6 ties, including with 1:50 left.

BG got a stop and Mayar Wol drained a 3FG on the fast break to put BG up 3 with 1:28 left.  With 1:10 left, Gillespie finally got fouled after the shots at the rim and he made both FTs, leaving BG up 1.

BG ran clock and with :42 left and the shot clock running down, Javonte Campbell took a rare 3FG attempt and missed everything.

And this is the possession that will haunt the Falcons.  Morgan Safford got into the paint, and Glover blocked his shot with :24 left. Kent got the offensive board but lost the ball and it was sitting at the feet of Javonte Campbell.  Most of the team was racing up the floor...but he fumbled it getting up, Gillespie laid it in and in a blink of an eye you go from having the ball up 1 with :13 left to being down 1 with :13 left.

It's not over. Wol got into the paint and missed and then Gillespie was fouled to put Kent up 3.  And BG ran a play that Coach Gallagher said after the game we have run over and over again in practice, it ended up with Wol, he missed.  BG wanted a foul...doesn't seem like the basketball gods give you that call at the end of two consecutive games.

Absolute heartbreaker.  BG didn't call a timeout leading into the possession that ended with the Campbell 3FG...Gallagher said that Campbell is so good at creating stuff that it almost doesn't make sense to try to draw anything up.

He had another great game.

The final was 96-93 on 70 possessions.  It was a score-a-thon.  BG had 1.32 points per possession, an incredible amount, especially to lose with. The last time they had more offensive output and lost was 2006 to NIU. Kent had 136.4, their second-highest output of the season.

BG had their 2nd-best shooting game against D1 opponents. That's 57% on 3FG and 40% on 2FG. They took excellent care of the ball, did an oustanding job on the offensive boards...but the most important thing was the FTs.  Both teams shot well.  Kent was 17 of 21 and BG was 27-31.

Kent shot better (61% and 44%), took good care of the ball, and was good on the offensive boards, even if not as good as BG.

Campbell had another game. Played every minute for the 2nd game in a row. Had 28 points, 8 of 12 from 2FG and 0-3 from 3FG.  You can see his hesitation to shoot from 3FG, and eventually it will make things tougher for him. Add 9 assists and 2 steals, and 12-13 at the line.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Towns had 13 in 20 minutes due to foul trouble. Shackelford had 17 on 6-7 and 2 of 2 shooting. 

Wol had a rougher 12, on 0-4 and 3-7 shooting.  Glover had 8 rebounds.

Gillespie had 33 on 8 of 15, 1 of 3 and 13-14 at the line.

At 2-2, it doesn't get easier, with Akron at the Stroh Friday.