AKRON — Bowling Green’s men crawled back into the game after trailing by seven points at halftime against
Akron Saturday night.
However, the Falcons could not finish the comeback as the Zips made two big 3-pointers in the final two
minutes of play on the way to a 63-58 win.
“We made the game hard for ourselves to a certain degree (with) too many turnovers,” BG head coach Louis
Orr said. “We made some breakdowns defensively and we really didn’t find a rhythm (on) offense.
“But we fought back from a seven-point deficit to go yo by four (48-44) and then we had some untimely
turnovers, some empty possessions and they hit two big threes.”
Akron’s Darryl Roberts and Steve McNees each knocked down a triple in the final two minutes of the game
and the Zips held the Falcons scoreless for over five and half minutes down the stretch, turning a 48-44
deficit into a 51-44 advantage on the way to the win.
Akron led by as many as 10 in the first half and took a 34-27 lead into the break by shooting 46 percent
from the floor and forcing 12 BG turnovers.
The Falcons answered to start the second half by holding the Zips scoreless for more than four minutes as
part of an 11-3 run to start the half. The Falcons made a slight change to its 2-3 matchup zone to play
a 1-2-2, dropping back to the 2-3 and the move frustrated the Zips at the start of the second half.
Bowling Green also displayed more patience on offense to start the half.
After Akron’s Darryl Roberts broke the slump with a 3-pointer, BG’s Scott Thomas knocked down a three to
make it 37-36 Akron with 12:20 to play. Jordon Crawford then had a steal on Akron’s next possession and
dished to Thomas for a fast-break dunk to give the Falcons their first lead of the game.
Brett McKnight briefly put Akron back on top with a 10-foot jumper but Thomas scored again on a layup to
give the Falcons a 40-39 lead. Torian Oglesby and Crawford hooked up for an alley-oop dunk to make it
42-39.
Akron tied the score at 42 before a Dee Brown layup made it 46-44 Bowling Green. Crawford’s jumper with
6:02 gave the Falcons their largest lead of the game (48-44) but it was at that point when Akron scored
11 straight points to put the game away.
Akron got two baskets from Zeke Marshall – a jump hook from the right block and a slam off a feed from
McNees – to tie the game at 48 with just under five minutes to play.
After the two teams were both scoreless for almost three minutes, Roberts buried a three from the right
corner to put the Zips back in front to stay with just under two minutes to play.
The Akron defense then forced the Falcons into their 20th turnover of the game and McNees nailed a three
from the top of the key to make it 54-48 with just under a minute remaining.
Akron made 9-of-10 free throws in the final minute to keep the game out of reach.
“We have to be more efficient. We can’t turn the ball over as much as we did,” Orr said. “Twenty
turnovers … that just makes the game hard for you.”
Roberts led all scorers with 17 points, while McNees added 10 for Akron (11-8, 2-3 MAC).
Thomas had another strong all-around game for the Falcons (8-11, 3-2), finishing with 14 points, six
rebounds, four assists and two steals. Crawford came off the bench to score a team-high 16 points and
added seven assists, four rebounds and four steals, but he had six of BG’s 20 turnovers. Luke Kraus was
the team’s only other double-figure scorer with 12 points on 3-of-4 three-pointers, grabbing five
rebounds.
NOTES: The Falcons did have a 32-28 rebounding edge … Akron scored 21 points off BG’s 20 turnovers …
BG starts its swing through the MAC West Tuesday at arch-rival Toledo with tipoff at 7:30 p.m. The game
will be televised on SportsTime Ohio … Saturday’s win was the 150th for seventh-year Akron head coach
Keith Dambrot. It was also Dambrot’s 170th win as a MAC coach, tying him for ninth on the all-time MAC
wins list.
AKRON 63, BOWLING GREEN 58
BOWLING GREEN (8-11)
Kraus 3-5 3-3 12, Thomas 6-14 0-0 14, Jakubowski 0-2 0-0 0, Calhoun 1-2 2-2 4, Oglesby 2-4 1-3 5,
Crawford 7-12 0-0 16, Brown 1-5 0-0 2, Sealey 0-0 0-0 0, McElroy 1-2 0-0 2, Black 1-4 1-2 3. Totals
22-50 7-10 58.
AKRON (11-8)
McNees 3-8 2-3 10, McClanahan 3-8 0-0 8, Abreu 0-2 0-1 0, Cvetinovic 4-7 1-1 9, Marshall 2-4 3-7 7,
Roberts 4-5 6-6 17, Diggs 1-4 2-2 4, McKnight 3-9 0-0 6, Bardo 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 21-48 14-20 63.
Halftime—Akron 34-27. 3-Point Goals—Bowling Green 7-19 (Kraus 3-4, Crawford 2-5, Thomas 2-7, Calhoun 0-1,
Brown 0-2), Akron 7-21 (Roberts 3-4, McClanahan 2-5, McNees 2-5, Abreu 0-1, Diggs 0-2, McKnight 0-4).
Fouled Out—Kraus. Rebounds—Bowling Green 32 (Thomas 6), Akron 28 (McKnight 5). Assists—Bowling Green 15
(Crawford 7), Akron 17 (McClanahan 4). Total Fouls—Bowling Green 21, Akron 10. A—3,616.