Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Rally and Top Miami, 57-56
February 27, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 27, 2005
The Falcons remained tied with Western Michigan at 10-6 for the lead in the race for the MAC West crown. Theh Falcons and Broncos will meet Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Kalamazoo.
BGSU was the only team in the West Division to defeat Miami this season.
The Falcons led for just 21 seconds total in the game.
Against Miami, BGSU has won eight straight games against the RedHawks in Anderson Arena. The last three matchups in "The House That Roars" have all been decided on the last posession. The Falcons have won three straight games at home against the Redhawks by a combined seven points.
The Falcons have won eight of the last 10 meetings overall since 2000.
This marked the third time this season that BGSU has rallied from a double-digit deficit (BGSU trailed 31-18 with 3:11 left in the first half) to win this season. The Falcons also trailed by 17 at home against Toledo and by 11 on the road at Central Michigan.
This is the third win for BGSU by one point at home this season (Toledo, Ball State and Miami).
BGSU improved to 7-2 this season in games decided by six points or less.
The Falcons also improved to 24-2 since the 2000-01 season when holding an opponent to 59 points or less. BGSU also is now 34-3 when shooting 50% or better from th field in that same time frame. The Falcons shot 50% from the floor (22/44) against the RedHawks.
This was the sixth time this season that BGSU played defense in the final minute with a lead of three points or less and the Falcons have won all six of those games (Marshall, Toledo, CMU, Kent State and Ball State). Since the 2001-02 season, BGSU is 20-3 when facing a similar situation in close games.
The Falcons had a season-low seven turnovers.
In the second half, BGSU held Miami to 27.3% shooting. The RedHawks were just one of eight from two-point range and were 5/14 from long distance in the final 20 minutes.
The Game
Senior Josh Almanson nailed a 12-foot jumper with six seconds remaining as BGSU (17-8, 10-6) rallied for a 57-56 victory over MAC leader Miami (17-8, 11-5) at Anderson Arena. The start of the game was delayed 72 minutes after a Mawel Soler dunk in warmups shattered the backboard in the south end zone about 45 minutes prior to tip-off.
Because of the delay, the game was pulled off television because stations across the MAC TV Network could not show the game in its entirety due to other programming.
The RedHawks, who had not lost back-to-back games all season, were coming off a 55-49 overtime loss on Wednesday night at Akron. The visitors, looking for their first win under Charlie Coles in Bowling Green, hit 57.6% of its shots in building a 31-18 led with 3:11 left in the half.
Two steals by junior Steven Wright in the final 1:10 converted into BGSU points and allowed the Falcons to go into the locker room trailing by just eight at 35-27.
BGSU continued to battle back, but each time the Falcons would get close, Miami would use a three-pointer to hold off the Falcons in the first 13 minutes of the second half as Miami led 52-46 with 7:31 left in the game.
A three-pointer by Wright and a fast break layup by Almanson cut the lead to 52-51 with 4:07 left. After a steal and dunk by Miami's Chet Mason gave the RedHawks a 54-51 lead, BGSU would tie the game at 54-all on a jumper by Almanson and a free throw by Eyink with 1:46 left.
Freshman Scott Vandermeer would give the Falcons a brief lead at 55-54 with 1:15 remaining, but Mason would put Miami back on top with two charity tosses of his own with a minute left.
Senior John Remiold would miss a jumper from the free throw line with 36 seconds left, but Miami's Danny Horace missed the front end of a one-on-one to give BGSU the ball back.
After a timeout with 14 seconds left, senior Cory Eyink found Almanson on the left baseline, thanks to a great screen from Reimold, and the hometown product nailed the jumper.
Miami did not call timeout and the RedHawks Tim Schenke could not control a pass from Williams Hatcher with .7 seconds left and was called for traveling.
Player Notes
Reimold had 12 points and six rebounds and leads the MAC in scoring entering the final week at 18.0 points per game. He is 19th on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,292 points.
Almanson had 16 points and two blocked shots and is tied for second in the league in scoring at 17.7 points per game. With two blocked shots, he now has 101 career blocked shots.
After scoring just six points in his last three games, Wright had 14 points.
Sophomore John Floyd had 10 assists and six points in 37 minutes. It is the third time this season, that he has had 10 assists or more in a game.
For the second straight week, Eyink had key assists in the closing minute and finished with three dishes in 14 minutes.
The MAC Race
The following is based solely if the season were to have ended today. Tiebreakers can change significantly based on the final two games this week.
MAC Tournament Seeds
1. Miami (11-5) 2. Western Michigan (10-6) (earns #2 seed because it is 1-0 against BGSU) 3. Akron (10-6) (4-2 against remaining 10-6 teams) 4. BGSU (10-6) (3-2 against remaining 10-6 teams) 5. Kent St (10-6) (3-3 against remaining 10-6 teams, 1-0 against Miami) 6. Ohio (10-6) (3-3 against remaining 10-6 teams, 1-1 against Miami) 7. Buffalo (10-6) (1-4 against remaining 10-6 teams) 8. Toledo (9-7) 9. Ball State (8-8) 10. Northern Illinois (7-10) 11. Eastern Michigan (5-11) 12. Central Michigan (3-14) 13. Marshall (2-14)