Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU Holds On To Defeat Ball State, 70-69
February 16, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 16, 2005
Recap | Final Stats | Quotes
The Falcons hold a one-half game lead in the MAC West Standings at 9-5 as Western Michigan trails with a 9-6 record. Toledo is 8-6 and Ball State is 7-7.
The Falcons will host Arkansas-Little Rock at 1 p.m., Saturday, in the ESPN Bracket Buster. The game can be seen on ESPN Full Court.
The Falcons also snapped a three-game losing streak against the Cardinals.
For the second straight game, BGSU's defense held with a lead in the final minute of less than three-points. The Falcons are 19-3 in the last four years, and 5-0 this season, when they have had to play defense with a one or two-point lead at the end of the game.
Senior John Reimold matched his season-high with 28 points (at Detroit). He is now 23rd on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,229 points as a Falcon.
Senior Josh Almanson had his second-straight 20+ point effort and made a career-high four three-point field goals. He has now scored 1,023 points. He also had seven rebounds and two blocked shots.
BGSU's bench outscored the Cardinals 16-15. Sophomore Austin Montgomery tied is season-best with five points and freshman Perrick "Moon" Robinson had six points, two assists and three steals.
The Game
Senior John Reimold blocked a Terrance Chapman shot with nine seconds left and junior Steven Wright grabbed the rebound out of bounds and threw it off Chapman to key a 70-69 BGSU win over Ball State.
On the ensuing inbounds pass, Reimold would go the length of the court and was fouled intentionally by Peyton Stovall with five seconds left. Reimold would sink both free throws and then one of two charity tosses with four seconds left as BGSU retained possession to give BGSU a 70-66 lead. BSU's Julien Mills would sink a 30-footer as time expired to make the final score 70-69.
The Falcons took a 33-27 lead into halftime, thanks in large part to six points off the bench from freshman Perrick Robinson and five from sophomore Austin Montgomery.
BGSU led 47-37 with 14:55 left and saw the Cardinals score the next five points. Senior Josh Almanson, who finished with 20 points, buried his fourth three-pointer of the game and an offensive rebound basket and free throw by senior Cory Eyink with 12:16 left returned the lead to double figures at 53-42. Reimold would complete the 8-0 run and the Falcons led 55-42.
Ball State cut the lead to 59-55 with 7:03 left but a three-pointer by Reimold with 5:24 left as the shot clock expired and a layup by sophomore John Floyd with 2:53 to go on a pass by Reimold proved to be key as BGSU led 66-61.
With the Falcons leading 67-63, the Cardinals Dennis Trammel hit a three-pointer to make it 67-66 with 1:07 left. After a Cardinal stop on defense, Ball State missed two field goal attempts in the final 33 seconds and two free throws with 11 seconds remaining to set up the last second heroics by Wright and Reimold.
