BG picked up a needed win on Sunday against Drexel at the Stroh. Drexel's not the world's greatest team--in fact, they are picked to finish last in the CAA--but they did play EMU to within 4 points, etc. After a first half when BG was pitiful on defense, the Falcons locked in for the second half, got a bunch of stops and a lot of transition baskets and ended up with a 10-point win at home.
All disclaimers acknowledged, I feel like BG is finding out better the players it has access to, including Matiss Kulackovskis and the emergency of Daeqwon Plowden, who is improved over an already solid sophomore season.
So, the first half was a no-D affair. BG shot 50% and Drexel shot 57% and the Dragons led 45-43. BG came out more focused on defense, according to coach, and Drexel had a hard time finding the basket for the first few minutes. The Falcons scored the first 12 points of the half and led by 10. The worm turned and it was BG who couldn't get out of its own way and the game was tied again soon, with about 12 left.
The game was close for the next 3 minutes and still tied with 9 left. Once again, BG started to get stops and Drexel missed shots and BG went on a 12-1 to go up 11 with 4 minutes left. At this point, BG did a good job, answering pressure with odd-number mismatches to the basket.
The lead got as high as 13 and was 10 inside of 1 minute. Drexel got it to 7 but couldn't capitalize on some BG FT issues and the Falcons ended up making enough FTs to preserve that 10 point win.
BG scored 1.02 points per possession, which was way less than Drexel had been allowing. BG shot 53% on 2 FGs--which is good--but only 20% on 3FG. This led to a subpar offensive performance, matched only by a really weak .89 points per possession for the Dragons, who shot 22% overall and from 3FG in the second half, when BG was able to do enough to put the game away.
As you can see, both teams took good care of the ball. BG was significantly better on the boards, particular in the second half, and the Falcons got to the line more, though poor FT shooting by BG left Drexel plus one on FTM for the game.
The game was played at a really fast pace at 80 possessions. I don't have stats for it, but I felt very much like BG did a much better coming off a miss than they did off a made basket. Drexel played quite a bit of zone and also put some pressure on the Falcons--both things you could have observed to be successful against the Falcons on film--and BG was/is pretty stagnant in half-court sets. On the run, BG seemed much more effective. As mentioned, BG also broke pressure effectively and attacked the mis-matches that would result.
The other thing I thought was clear was that the team was much more effective with Kulackovskis in there. He only scored 1 point, but Coach said he moved the ball and that's a valuable commodity on this club. If BG can incorporate him into the rotation, they then have a pretty good 8-man lineup.
Individually, the star of the game was Justin Turner. He was just incredible. He scored 29 on 11 of 19 and 3 of 4 shooting to go with 11 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 blocked shot and 2 steals and only 2 turnovers. In addition, he guarded the Drexel point, their FR star, and he shot only 5 of 16. Wiggins double-doubled as well, with 16 points on 6 of 10 shooting and 4 of 5 FTs, and 12 rebounds. Dylan Frye ended up with 10, but he had one of those games were absolutely nothing went right. I've had 'em, you've had 'em and Dylan has had 'em. Back at it tomorrow.
BG also had meaningful contributions from Lillard with 9 points, Plowden with 8 points and 6 rebounds (and is almost averaging a double-double over the last 3 games), Laster with 6, and Kulackovskis as mentioned.
So, BG is 4-3. Next up is Hartford on Saturday. They are picked 2nd in the America East conference, which is the #23 ranked league. It's got the potential to be an interesting test. What we are interested in seeing is whether this team can develop enough quality players to compete in the MAC.
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