Thursday, December 04, 2014

Falcons Streak Ends at 4

The Falcons, honestly, should stop going to Bowling Green, KY, which has turned into a bizarro world city of horror for the Falcons.  The men's basketball team went down by 10 last night for their first loss of the season...and even though that's 18 points closer than the football team got--and WKU's basketball team only scored 13 more points than their football counterparts--it was still a defeat.

BG has won its last 2 games while being out shot and the streak ran out on that.  BG shot 35% and 29%, which makes it really tough to win.  If you aren't going to shoot well, you have to at least take care of the ball, and BG had 17 turnovers on top of it.  WKU didn't shoot great--44% and 19%, and had 19 turnovers, so they weren't great, but it was enough difference to win.  In total, it was a poor night both ways, BG had .76 points per possession and WKU had .86--both totals that are difficult to win with, but someone has to win.

In fact, while the deficit was at the end, with 1:29 left BG was only down 2 (but not with the ball), so it was a tight contest until the very end.

The other big difference was at the free throw line.  BG only had 2 more fouls, but the fouls they did have were putting WKU on the line.  WKU tried 23 FTs and BG tried 13, and the Toppers had a +7 advantage on made FTs.

Individually, BG had 3 players in double figures.  Parker had 14--on 4 of 14 shooting, but all four from beyond the arc (4 of 8).  Anthony Henderson had a nice night with 11 points on 4 of 6 shooting and hitting both his 3s, and Jehvon Clarke 10 points on 5 of 12 shooting.  Richaun Holmes had one of those nights.  He battled foul trouble and played 21 minutes.  He had 4 points on 1 of 4 shooting, though he did lead the team with 9 boards. Henderson also had 5 rebounds and Joseph had 4 assists to lead the team in that category.

While a defeat, this game was far from a setback.  WKU is a good team and the game was on the road and BG was in it the whole, despite not shooting well and not getting production out of its best player. These are all good signs.  Next up is Alabama A&M, when our boys have a chance to get healthy.

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