Yes, it’s only one game and there are still 13 regular season games remaining for Bowling Green men’s
basketball team.
But the Falcons cannot be happy with the way things went Tuesday evening at the Stroh Center.
Ball State came into town with an overall 4-5 record with a 2-2 start in the Mid-American Conference.
Meanwhile the home-standing Falcons were 9-2, 5-0.
However, it was all Ball State as the Cardinals steamrolled to an 88-64 victory.
“Ball State played well. They played really good defensively and did a really good job offensively,
sharing the ball,” said BG head coach Michael Huger.
“We weren’t ready to play. We just thought that we had to show up today,” Huger added. “We have to do our
work and we have to do our work early. We didn’t do a great job of communicating and they took full
advantage of it.”
The Falcons led only twice in the game as the Cardinals were 55.4% from the field and 73.7% from the
free-throw line. Bowling Green shot only 38.9% from the field and 65.4% on free throws.
The Cardinals also had a 41-26 rebounding advantage
“We missed way more shots than they did So they had way more opportunities to rebound. That’s why the
numbers are so big right now,” Huger said about the rebounding. “The shots that we missed and when we
turned the ball over they were able to capitalize and score at the other end. … That was the difference
in the numbers of rebounds for sure.”
With 2:09 remaining in the first half, the Falcons were able to pull to within two points, 36-34, on a
field goal from Justin Turner.
The basket was his ninth and 10th points of the game moving him into third place on the all-time scoring
list, passing Howard Komives’ total of 1,834 points.
Turner finished with 18 points, the only Falcon with double-figures in the game.
After the Falcons pulled to with two points on Turner’s basket, the Cardinals finished the first half on
a 7-2 run to lead 43-36 after 20 minutes.
In the first four minutes and 20 seconds to start the second half, Ball State pulled ahead 58-40
basically putting the game away with the 15-4 run.
“The biggest thing is that we have to be more much intense on the defensive end,” Huger said. “We have to
much more committed to the defensive end.”
NOTES: Next for the Falcons is Friday at Buffalo with a 7 p.m. start … The Cardinals had six players
score in double figures led by Ishmael El-Amin’s 20 points … Ball State was 31-of-56 from the field,
including 12-of-26 on 3-pointers, with 14-of-19 free throws … The Falcons were 21-of-54, 5-of-24 on
3-pointers and 17-of-26 from the free-throw line … Next up for Turner is Keith McLeod who is second in
scoring with 1,895 points.
BALL STATE 88, BGSU 64
Ball State
Hazen, 5-4—14; Gunn, 0-0—0; Walton, 6-2—14; Bumbalough, 0-3-2—11; El-Amin, 2-5-1—20; Thomas, 1-1-1—6;
Acree, 3-4—10; Hebdriks, 1-0—2; Suokas, 1-3-0—11; Bryan, 0-0—0; Huggins, 0-0—0. TOTALS: 19-12-14—88.
BGSU
Plowden, 1-4—6; Swingle, 3-2—8; J. Turner, 5-1-5—18; Fields, 0-1—1; Metheny, 0-2-2—8; Washington, 4-1—9;
Diggs, 1-1-1—6; Fulcher, 0-1-1—4 Young, 1-0—2; C. Turner, 1-0—2; Elsasser, 0-0—0; Watson, 0-0—0. TOTALS:
16-5-17—64.
