Heading into Bowling Green State Unversity’s mens basketball game aganst Buffalo at the Stroh Center Tuesday, the Falcons were averaging 76.8 points per game as a team.

That is not enough for first-year coach Todd Simon, so he’s doing something about it.

The Falcons picked up the pace, including racing down the floor every opportunity they had, even after the Bulls scored, and it paid dividends, outscoring the Bulls 17-9 in fast break points, in an 87-73 BGSU win.

“We were averaging 80 points in the league and that is not acceptable to me,” said Simon. “We need to be 85 to 87 to 100 on a night-in and night-out basis in terms of the number of possessions we are creating.

“It’s a tax in the way we play to get that many trips — that is how we need to play. Our guys are tired, fatigued and all of those things, but it’s even better when you play at this pace knowing that maybe we’re not at full strength, so I was proud of them for embracing that for 40 minutes.”

The Falcons, who got their 10th victory inside the Stroh Center, improve to 16-7 overall and 6-4 in the MAC, while Buffalo falls to 2-20 and 1-9.

BGSU junior guard Marcus Hlll reached 20 points for the eighth straight game, which is tied with two others as the longest active streak in the nation. Hill went above and beyond 20, scoring 27.

“It feels good, but I think the accomplishment goes to my team because without them I can’t do anything,” Hill said.

Hill stuck to his bread and butter, which is beating his defender to the hoop, but a lot of Hill’s baskets came on a string of eight to 10 feet jump shots in the paint, which is a new wrinkle.

“Coach started to see a play we ran one time, it worked, so coach sees it and he is going to keep running it and running it and they’ve got to respect our shooters, so it was wide open,” Hill said.

Hill, who was 11-for-16 from the field, has also moved into becoming the MAC’s leading scorer, plus the junior college transfer had six rebounds and four assists.

BGSU 6-foot-8 senior forward Rashaun Agee continued to be a wrecking machine in the paint, scoring 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting, grabbing 10 rebounds for a double-double, plus dishing out two assists.

Agee put on a dunking clinic as the Falcons outscored the Bulls 56-34 in the paint, plus he had four offensive rebounds and currently leads the MAC in that category. BGSU held a 36-31 edge off the glass.

Jason Spurgin, the 7-0 native Australian who came with Simon from his previous coaching stint at Southern Utah, was 6-for-11 from the field, including hitting two three-point shots, while scoring 14 ponts wth six rebounds and two steals.

Senior guard Trey Thomas, a Vanderbilt transfer, was the Falcons’ fourth player to reach double figures, scoring 11 points with five rebounds, six assists and two steals.

Freshman guard EJay Greer had five points and three assists, but was personally responsible for a 7-0 run during a 25-second span which helped the Falcons open the game wide open.

First, the game was tied at 26 with 1:46 remaining in the first half when the Falcons closed on an 8-0 run, capped off by a Hill drive and score at the buzzer to put BGSU up 34-26 at intermission.

Over eight minutes into the second half, Agee scored in the paint on a dish from Hill, and Agee was fouled. His three-point play gave the Falcons their first double digit lead, 54-44, with 11:17 remaining in the game. Then Greer did his thing.

Greer sent a quick pass from the perimeter into the paint to Spurgin, whose dunk pushed the lead to 12.

Six seconds later, Greer scored off a steal by Hill, and 19 seconds after that Greer nailed a baseline three-point shot from the corner, giving the Falcons a 61-44 lead they maintained for the remainder of the game.

Simon said it was a nice bounceback win after the Falcons fell in double overtime to Central Michigan, 77-76, at the Stroh Center Saturday. He said he wanted to make sure the Falcons care of business earlier to prevent a nailbiter down the stretch that could go either way.

“Coming off a heartbreaker we wanted to shore up a few things and I thought we responded very well,” said Simon.

“We played much faster, we shared the ball obviously with 19 assists, we attacked the paint, we didin’t settle for shots the defense wanted to give us. We wanted to dictate the terms of what shots we were going to get.”

BGSU scored 53 second half points, hitting on 70% (19-for-27) of their field goals, and for the game they shot 54% (33-for-61) from the floor, including 4-for-15 (27%) from downtown and 17-for-19 (90%) from the free throw line.

Also scoring for BGSU was senior guard DaJion Humphrey, contributing six points, two assists and a team-high three steals. Sophomore guard P.J. Edwards had four points and two assists and sophomore guard Anthony McComb III added two points.

Buffalo freshman guard Ryan Sabol led the Bulls by hitting 7-of-10 shots from the arc, accounting for all 21 of his points.

Sophomore guard Shawn Fulcher was 9-for-15 from the floor, had 19 points and five assists, fifth-year senior guard Sy Chatman had 11 points and five rebounds, and senior forward Isaiah Adams had 10 points, six assists, and three steals.

Buffalo 6-9 senior fowrard Jonnivius Smith, who was whistled for two technical fouls, had six points, nine rebounds, and six assists.

Smith was not ejected because his second technical, for slamming the backboard after one of his dunks, was a minor Class B technical. His first technical, a Class A major, came after complaining to officials from the bench.

Freshman guard Bryson Wilson scored four points, sophomore forward Zaakir Williamson scored two points, and freshman guard Lloyd McVeigh grabbed five rebounds for the Bulls.

Buffalo shot 45% (29-for-65) from the field, including 10-for-30 (33%) from downtown, and made 5-of-10 from the charity stripe.