Bowling Green State University
MIAMI (OH)
Falcons Battle Back to Beat Miami, 55-52
January 23, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 23, 2008
Coach Orr & Miller postgame audio |
Final Stats
BGSU-Miami Boxscore in PDF Format 
BGSU's Cumulative Statistics in PDF Format
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team battled back from an 11-point first-half deficit to post a 55-52 win over Miami University Wednesday (Jan. 23). The Mid-American Conference game was held at venerable Anderson Arena.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 8-9 overall and 3-2 in MAC play, and BGSU has matched the MAC victory total for all of last season. The RedHawks drop to 7-10 and 1-4, respectively.
Juniors Nate Miller and Darryl Clements had 15 points apiece for the Falcons, while redshirt freshman Chris Knight scored 11 points and tied for game honors with nine rebounds.
For the visitors, Tim Pollitz had 15 points and nine rebounds, playing all 40 minutes.
Miller had a game-high four assists, with two of those helpers coming late in each half.
Miller also started the game's scoring, with a jumper in the first 30 seconds of the contest. But, the RedHawks then scored the next 12 points. Kenny Hayes split a pair of free throws, missing the second. But, Tim Pollitz grabbed the rebound and laid it in, giving MU a 3-2 lead.
Alex Moosmann drained a three-point field goal, and Hayes drove the left baseline for a dunk that gave the visitors an 8-2 lead and prompted a BGSU timeout. But, the timeout did not slow the 'Hawks.
Tyler Dierkers hit a layup off a Pollitz pass, and Pollitz took a pass from his brother, Eric, and converted another layup for a 12-2 Miami lead with four minutes elapsed.
After scoring 12 points in the first 3:57, however, the RedHawks would score only nine more in the remaining 16:03 before the intermission.
The Falcons looked to battle back, as junior Brian Moten made a steal and fed Clements for a transition layup. But, Miami came right back, as a Moosmann tri-lighter put the visitors ahead by a 15-4 count.
Freshman Cameron Madlock hit a long two-point jumper at the 12:29 mark, but Dierkers rebounded his own miss and scored, and the MU lead was back to double digits, at 17-6, with 11:16 left before halftime. But, the Falcons then began to come back.
Sophomore Otis Polk was fouled and hit both of his free throws -- BGSU was 5-for-5 from the line in the first half -- and Miller hit a three-pointer to cut the Falcons' deficit to 17-11.
Neither team scored for nearly three minutes, before two Tim Pollitz free throws put the visitors ahead by eight points. But, the Falcons proceeded to go on a 13-0 run.
Knight rebounded a miss and hit a short jumper at the 6:38 mark, and Moten fed Clements for a left-side three-pointer. The Falcons tied the game on Knight's three-point play at 4:53.
Another Clements trey, at the 3:17 mark, gave the Brown and Orange the lead, and the junior then stole the ball from Eric Pollitz, was fouled, and hit both tosses for a 24-19 Falcon lead.
Tim Pollitz hit a reverse layup to snap a string of seven-straight Miami misses. That hoop, at the 2:22 mark, snapped streaks of 4:47 without a point and 8:54 without a field goal for the visitors.
But, the first of Miller's late-in-the-half helpers gave BG a five-point lead at the intermission. BG rebounded a Miami miss with 36 seconds left in the half, and the Falcons held the ball for nearly the entire duration of the shot clock. With time winding down, Miller worked his way into the low block and flipped a pass to sophomore Marc Larson. Larson's 10-foot jumper found nothing but net with 1.7 seconds left in the half.
The Falcons ended the half on a 20-4 run.
Early in the second half, Miller found a trailing Clements for a three-pointer and a 29-23 lead, but the RedHawks responded quickly and efficiently, scoring the next seven points. Dierkers converted a layup, and a Tim Pollitz layup was followed by a Moosmann triple. The 'Hawks led, 30-29, and BG used a timeout.
Out of that timeout, Falcon freshman Joe Jakubowski dribbled around the arc and fired a straightaway three-point try that barely moved the net. The Brown and Orange had the lead for good.
A Clements steal led to a Knight layup in transition, and Knight's blocked shot gave the ball back to the hosts. The redshirt freshman completed the sequence by grabbing a teammate's miss and converting the putback try. BG's lead was 36-30, and the Falcons' 7-0 run prompted Miami to take time.
The RedHawks would respond once again, as an Adam Fletcher tip-in and a Tim Pollitz jumper off glass cut BG's lead to two points, 36-34, at 11:48. Clements stopped that run, and began a BG run, with a jumper.
A Miller stop-and-go move led to a layup in traffic, and the junior then got a steal and found Larson for an 'and-one' layup. Larson hit the resulting free throw after a media timeout, giving BG a 43-34 lead with 7:31 to go.
Again, the RedHawks rallied. Carl Richburg hit a pair of three-pointers around a Larson free throw, and Miami was within 44-40 with just under six minutes left. Miller, however, was about to take over.
The Springfield, Ohio, native scored the Falcons' next eight points, beginning with a big-time triple. With the shot clock winding down, Miller rose for a three-point try. Finding a defender's hand in his face, Miller adjusted his shot in midair, adding some arc to the shot, and when the shot nestled into the bottom of the net, BG had a 47-40 lead.
Tim Pollitz answered with a layup, but after being fouled, missed the three-point opportunity, and Moten grabbed the rebound after a lengthy scramble. The ensuing fastbreak resulted in a Miller jumper at 4:31.
Hayes took Richburg's inbounds pass and drilled a three-pointer from in front of his team's bench, but Miller answered with a trey of his own.
The RedHawks chipped away at BG's lead, with a Tim Pollitz free throw at the 3:34 mark, and a Nick Winbush layup 40 seconds later. Larson split a pair of tosses, but a Hayes runner in the lane got Miami within 53-50 with 1:42 left.
BG's next possession resulted in a blocked shot, and Hayes was fouled with 54.4 seconds left. He hit both free throws to cut the Falcons' lead to a single point. Again, however, Miller had a key assist.
The Falcons used virtually all of the shot clock on the next possession, and Miller dished the ball to Knight for a left-side jumper. Knight's shot gave the Falcons a 55-52 lead with 23.3 seconds left, and Miami got the ball over midcourt and quickly called timeout.
Out of the huddle, though, Hayes drove to the baseline and fired the ball directly to Knight. MU quickly fouled Knight with 11.9 seconds left. He missed his one-and-one free-throw try, and Dierkers grabbed the rebound as the 'Hawks took another timeout.
With a foul to give, Clements fouled Hayes near midcourt with 6.3 seconds left. After MU inbounded the ball, Hayes fired a potential game-tying shot, but the three-point try was no good, and Knight grabbed the rebound as the horn sounded.
The Falcons shot 52.4% from the field in the second half en route to 45.5% for the game. MU shot 39.2% on the night.
Moosmann and Hayes joined Pollitz in double digits for the visitors, with Moosmann scoring 11 points and Hayes 10. Dierkers and Richburg had six points apiece.
Larson scored seven points for the Falcons, while Jakubowski had three points and three assists. Moten also had three assists in the game.
The Brown and Orange went 7-for-15 from three-point range on the night. BGSU's total of seven made treys was the highest since the Illinois State game (eight three-pointers made; Dec. 16).
The Falcons now play six consecutive games against MAC West Division foes, beginning with Sunday's (Jan. 27) contest vs. Northern Illinois University. That game begins at 2:00 p.m. at Anderson.
NOTES
* With the win over Miami, the Falcons have matched the Mid-American Conference victory total for all of last season ... this year's team is 3-2 in MAC play to date (3-13 last year).
* The Falcons -- picked to finish sixth in the six-team East Division in the preseason coaches poll -- are tied for third, just a game out of first ... Akron and Kent State each are 4-1 in MAC play through the first round-robin, while the Falcons and Ohio have 3-2 league records ... Miami is 1-4 and Buffalo 0-5.
* BGSU has won two consecutive games in the Miami series, and the Falcons have captured 10 of the last 11 home games vs. the RedHawks.
* The Falcons are 5-3 in home games, including a perfect 3-0 in MAC games at Anderson.
* The RedHawks, after scoring 12 points in the opening 3:57 of the game, were held to only nine more points in the remaining 16:03 of the first half.
* Juniors Nate Miller and Darryl Clements had very similar stat lines in the game ... both players scored 15 points and had three rebounds, and each player went 3-for-5 from three-point range ... Miller and Clements each had two steals to tie for team honors.
* Miller's total of three 3-pointers made is a career high ... he had made two triples on two occasions, the most recent being the Kent State game (Jan. 12, 2008).
* Miami began the game by making its first five field-goal attempts, while holding the Falcons to a 1-for-7 performance during that same span ... MU was 6-of-7 to start the game, but went just 2-for-17 over the remainder of the first half ... the RedHawks were just 1-for-13 over the final 11-plus minutes of the period.
* After getting off to that 1-for-7 start from the field, BGSU ended the first half with a higher field-goal percentage than the RedHawks ... the Falcons shot 39.1% from the floor in the opening half, going 9-for-23, to Miami's 33.3% (8-of-24).
* Clements tied his career best with five field goals made.
* Freshman Cameron Madlock played a career-high 12 minutes vs. Miami ... he picked up the first steal of his collegiate career.
* Junior Brian Moten had a season-high three assists vs. the RedHawks ... that total was just one off his career best (four vs. Morehead State; Feb. 17, 2007).
* The Falcons committed just eight turnovers, the second-lowest total of the year ... BG had only six turnovers in another win against another Southwest Ohio team, Cincinnati (Nov. 11, 2007) ... for their part, the RedHawks had only seven turnovers, tying a season low for a BG opponent (Akron and Morehead State).
* In three of the Falcons' five MAC games, the opponent (Ohio, Akron and Miami) has made only six free throws ... in league play, BGSU has made more free throws (65) than the opponents have attempted (60).
* With a total of 136 points this year to date, Clements has topped the point total for his first two seasons combined (129) ... the junior had 42 points two years ago and 87 points last winter.
* Redshirt freshman Chris Knight has 19 blocked shots this season to date, second on the team behind sophomore Otis Polk (21) ... Knight has a team-leading 10 blocks in the Falcons' five MAC games.
