Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Western Carolina
Falcons Drop Opener To Western Carolina, 56-50
November 11, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 11, 2005
Box Score | Quotes | Notes
Blacksburg, Virginia - Western Carolina's Antonio Russell scored 21 points as the Catamounts held off a late BGSU rally to capture a 56-50 win in the season opener for both teams at the NABC Classic in Blacksburg, Virginia.
WCU led for the entire game and took a 31-18 advantage into the locker room at halftime. The Catamounts increased the lead to 49-31 with 8:13 remaining, but the Falcons responded with a 19-3 run, capped by a three-pointer by junior Martin Samarco to cut the lead to 52-50 with 1:32 remaining, but could get no closer.
BGSU, which is playing without its leading returning scorer from last year (Steven Wright, broken foot) until the end of the month, struggled early to generate offense, but was outstanding defensively holding the Catamounts to just 28.9% shooting.
Junior center Matt Lefeld, making his first start since his freshman year, had a career-high 14 points and six rebounds and his 25 minutes played also eclipsed his career-best. Freshman Erik Marschall, also displayed promise inside in his first game with the Falcons with six points and six rebounds in 29 minutes as BGSU outscored WCU, 28-12 inside.
Samarco had 12 points and four rebounds in his first appearance with the Falcons and junior John Floyd had 10 points and three rebounds. The duo combined to make all four (two apiece) of the Falcons three-point attempts in the second half as the teams are playing with the 20'6" three-point line in this pre-season tournament.
WCU outrebounded BGSU 41-34 and made 27 of 42 free throw attempts (64.3%), while the Falcons connected on just eight of 17 charity tosses (47.1%).
BGSU will take tomorrow off before playing against host Virginia Tech at 1 p.m., Saturday. The Falcons also will play Radford, an 80-50 loser to the Hokies this evening, at 1 p.m., Sunday.
