Bowling Green State University
NORTHERN ILLINOIS
Falcons Steal a Win from Huskies, 63-59
January 27, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 27, 2008
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team scored the game's last seven points, holding visiting Northern Illinois University scoreless for over four minutes to earn a 63-59 win Sunday afternoon (Jan. 27). The Mid-American Conference game was held at Anderson Arena.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 9-9 overall and 4-2 in MAC play. The Huskies are now 5-13 and 2-4, respectively.
Junior Nate Miller led four BG double-digit scorers with a 17-point afternoon, while freshman Joe Jakubowski scored 14 points, the highest total of his brief collegiate career.
Redshirt freshman Chris Knight had 12 points and a team-high total of nine rebounds, while junior Brian Moten scored 10 points off the bench for the Falcons.
Darion Anderson led the Huskies with a double-double, posting game-best totals of 18 points and 10 rebounds.
The Falcons never trailed during the game's first 32 minutes, but NIU never let the margin reach double digits. With 7:55 on the clock, the Huskies took the lead for the first time all day, on a Michael Patton jumper.
The lead would change four more times over the next three-and-a-half minutes, culminating with Anderson's layup that gave the Huskies a 59-56 lead with 4:21 left. That hoop would be the last points NIU would score.
Miller drove the baseline and hit a reverse layup to cut the Falcons' deficit to a point with 3:52 left. Then, it seemed the home team might waste their remaining chances to regain the lead.
Sophomore Marc Larson blocked a shot on Northern's next possession, but the Falcons turned the ball right back over to the Huskies. Each of NIU's next three possessions ended with turnovers, but BG missed jumpers after each of the first two.
Then, Jakubowski picked the pocket of Jarvis Nichols near midcourt, and the Falcon freshman sailed in ahead of the pack for a layup that gave BG the lead for good with 1:15 left.
On the ensuing possession, Nichols missed a jumper, but the ball went out of bounds with NIU retaining possession. Anderson's jumper was no good, and in the battle for the rebound, Knight came up with the ball at the bottom of the pile and BG called timeout with 44.5 seconds on the clock.
The Falcons called another timeout with 19.4 seconds left, and the Huskies committed a foul as BG prepared to inbound after that timeout. Jakubowski went to the line and made his first free throw, giving the Falcons a 61-59 advantage.
His second FT try would not go down, and NIU's Sean Smith grabbed the rebound. The Falcons, having committed only one foul in the entire second half to that point, had multiple fouls to give. BG committed three fouls in a seven-second span, with the last coming with seven seconds remaining.
After that foul, NIU inbounded the ball near midcourt, and it was Miller's turn for a steal and breakaway. The junior forced Patton to turn it over, grabbed the ball and went in all alone for a game-clinching dunk with just 1.4 seconds left, providing the final margin of victory.
The Falcons, who had that 7-0 run to end the game, also had scored seven-straight points to begin the day. Jakubowski fueled that run, hitting a three-pointer to open the game's scoring, then feeding Knight down low for a layup. When Miller was fouled and hit both resulting free throws, the home team had a seven-point lead at the 17:43 mark.
The Huskies rallied back to within 7-5 on a Smith jumper and a Shaun Logan three-pointer, but Miller's straightaway three, off a Larson pass, gave the Falcons a 10-5 lead and prompted NIU to take a timeout.
After that timeout, an Egan Grafel jumper was followed by an Anderson tri-lighter, and the game was tied at 10-all. Moten answered quickly, however, taking a Miller pass and hitting a wide-open three-point try from the left corner.
Jakubowski hit a trey of his own at the 13:30 mark, and the BG lead was 16-10. Then, sophomore Otis Polk got his hand on a Northern pass, slapping the ball away, and the steal resulted in a Moten layup in transition. The Falcons had an eight-point lead, the biggest of the game, at 18-10.
Again, though, the Huskies would battle back, as Nichols hit a three-pointer. Moten answered, taking another pass from Miller and hitting another left-corner trey at the 11:37 mark for a 21-13 lead.
The Huskies got a three from Anderson -- the game's only points in a four-minute span -- and when Smith hit a jumper at 7:38, the BG lead was cut to 21-18.
Jakubowski's driving layup broke the Falcons' scoreless spell, and Knight's nice look inside resulted in a Larson layup and a 25-18 BG lead with five minutes left in the half. The Huskies, though, proceeded to go on a 9-2 run, tying the game on a Nichols jumper with 1:59 left before halftime.
Miller, however, scored the last four points of the half. The junior grabbed an offensive rebound, drew a foul and hit a pair of charity tosses with 27.4 seconds left in the period. Then, after BG forced an NIU turnover, Miller hit a layup in the final seconds of the half. BGSU took a 31-27 lead into the intermission.
In the second half, the Falcons opened up a six-point lead when Jakubowski took a Miller pass and hit his third triple of the game at the 17:52 mark. Then, the freshman found Knight for a jumper, and BG had a 40-32 lead.
As they did all game, the Huskies responded, scoring the next five points to cut BG's lead to three. BG's lead was still three points several minutes later, after Grafel's layup narrowed the gap to 42-39. Knight got a rebound and made a putback, but another Northern triple cut the BG advantage to just a bucket.
Junior Darryl Clements hit a three-ball of his own at the 12-minute mark, and Larson's defensive rebound in traffic gave the ball back to BG. Miller's spinning layup, also in traffic, put the Brown and Orange ahead by a 49-42 count.
Northern scored the next six points, though, with Najul Ervin's layup cutting the lead to 49-48 at 9:15. Knight's reverse layup stopped the bleeding momentarily, but Ervin hit another layup, and Patton's jumper gave NIU its first lead at 52-51 and set the stage for the final eight minutes of nail-biting action.
During that stretch, Knight hit a layup, but Grafel answered for a 54-53 Northern lead. Polk split a pair of free throws to tie the game with 6:37 left, and Knight blocked an NIU three-point try and got the rebound to boot. On the resulting possession, the Falcons missed their initial shot, but Moten's tip-in gave BG the lead, 56-54, at the six-minute mark.
Anderson scored the game's next five points, with a three-ball at the 5:52 juncture, and a layup at 4:21. That was Northern's last basket, as the Falcons proceeded to go on the game-ending 7-0 run.
Grafel had 11 points to join Anderson in double digits for the visitors, while three teammates -- Logan, Nichols and Smith -- had eight points apiece. For the Falcons, Clements had seven points.
The home team shot 41.4 percent from the field, including a 44.8% success rate in the second half. BG's defense held the Huskies to a field-goal pct. of 38.5% on the afternoon.
Both teams made seven long-distance shots, with Anderson connecting on four for the visitors and Jakubowski three for the home team.
Miller, in addition to leading the Falcons in scoring, also paced the hosts in assists, with five. Jakubowski had four assists, while Larson had a career-high three helpers to go along with three blocks.
Polk also blocked three shots as the Falcons had seven as a team.
The Falcons now hit the road for the next two games, beginning with a Wednesday (Jan. 30) contest at Ball State University. That game begins at 7:00 p.m. at Worthen Arena in Muncie, Ind.
TEAM NOTES
* With Sunday's win over Northern Illinois, the Falcons have topped the team's Mid-American Conference victory total for all of last season ... BGSU is 4-2 in MAC play, after finishing with a league record of 3-13 last winter.
* BGSU -- picked to finish sixth in the six-team East Division in the MAC's preseason coaches poll -- is tied for second in the division ... the Falcons' 4-2 record ties the team with Akron and Ohio, a game behind league-leading Kent State (5-1).
* The Falcons are now a perfect 4-0 in MAC home games, and BGSU has won five-straight games vs. league foes at venerable Anderson Arena, dating to last season.
* BGSU's four home MAC wins is one more than the Falcons had during all of last season ... the Brown and Orange went 3-5 in conference home contests in 2006-07.
* The Falcons have reached the .500 mark for the first time since Dec. 6.
* BGSU's win over Northern Illinois snaps the Huskies' three-game series winning streak ... NIU leads the all-time series by a narrow 25-24 margin ... the Falcons are now 17-9 in home games vs. Northern.
* BG is 8-1 after leading at halftime.
* The Falcons allowed NIU just two free-throw attempts on Sunday, setting season lows in both FTM and FTA (Northern was 2-for-2) ... through six MAC games, the Falcons have made more free throws than the opponents have attempted ... BG is 73-for-120 from the stripe in those six games, while the opposition is 42-for-62.
PLAYER NOTES
* Nate Miller led the Falcons in scoring, with 17 points in Sunday's game ... Miller has hit double digits in a team-high 14 of BGSU's 18 games this year.
* Miller also had a game-high total of five assists.
* Redshirt freshman Chris Knight pulled down a team-leading total of nine rebounds ... Knight has led or tied for the team rebounding lead in 10 games this season to date.
* Knight had a game-high three steals, also setting a career best ... Knight had had two steals in six prior games this year.
* Freshman Joe Jakubowski had a career-high 14 points in Sunday's win ... Jakubowski's previous career best was 13 points, in the Jan. 17 victory over Buffalo.
* Jakubowski tied his career best with three three-point field goals made ... the Rossford, Ohio, native also hit a trio of treys in the Furman (Nov. 27) and Northern Colorado (Dec. 6) games.
* Sophomore Marc Larson had a career-high three assists in the NIU game ... Larson entered Sunday's contest with a career total of five helpers in 42 games.
* Larson and classmate Otis Polk each blocked three shots vs. the Huskies, just one shy of their respective career-high totals ... Polk now has a team-leading total of 24 blocks this season, while Larson has 21 ... Knight picked up his 20th blocked shot of the year on Sunday.
* Junior Brian Moten had 10 points to hit double digits in scoring for the sixth time this season, and the fifth time in seven games ... Moten is second on the Falcons in scoring in MAC games, averaging 10.0 ppg through six conference contests.
* Moten had a career-high five rebounds vs. Northern.
