Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
OHIO
Falcons Stop Ohio Three Times In Final Moments For 52-51 win
January 24, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 24, 2009
Coach Orr Postgame Press Conference Audio
Knight/Moten Postgame Press Conference Audio
ATHENS, Ohio (AP) -If someone could have corralled all the monkeys the Bowling Green men's basketball team tossed off its collective back Saturday, that person could have started a zoo to rival any in the country. The Falcons snapped a three-game conference losing streak, won on the road for the first time this year, and picked up a victory in Ohio University's Convocation Center for the first time since 2003 by making three stops in the final moments of a 52-51 win Saturday.
Along with all those monkeys, BGSU outscored an opponent in the second half for the first time in five conference games. And it all came on the defensive end as the Falcons held off three Ohio attempts to win the game in the final 15 seconds.
Bowling Green's Darryl Clements knocked down a three-pointer and a jumper in the final 2:09 to turn a 49-47 deficit into a 52-51 lead with 20 seconds left. But after Clements had a fast-break lay-up blocked with 17 seconds left, Ohio pushed the ball the other way.
Justin Orr, who happens to be Bowling Green head coach Louis Orr's nephew, missed a 10-foot jumper in transition with 10 seconds left. Jerome Tillman, the Mid-American Conference's leading scorer and second leading rebounder, tracked down the loose ball and Ohio called a timeout with four seconds left to set up a shot for the game-winner.
Coming out of the timeout, Ohio lobbed the ball inside to Tillman, but Knight swatted his five-footer out of bounds with 1.7 seconds left. Again Ohio tried to lob the ball into Tillman, but Knight swatted the pass away. The loose ball went right to Orr, whose desperate shot just inside the three-point line with time running out never reached the basket.
Bowling Green held Ohio to just 26.5 percent shooting for the game and the Bobcats made only 6-of-21 three-pointers. Tillman ended with 20 points and seven rebounds, but he made just three field-goals, making 12-of-13 free-throws in a march to the charity stripe.
Ohio attempted 17 more free-throws than Bowling Green as the Falcons had a handful of players in foul trouble almost before the game began. Otis Polk and Knight both had two fouls less than three minutes into the contest and Marc Larson had three fouls after just 7:20 had elapsed. All of that put Ohio into the double bonus less than eight minutes into the game.
Despite the foul trouble, Bowling Green led for most of the first half but a Tillman three-pointer with 20 seconds left knotted the game at 25-25 at the break.
With the game tied at 38-38 with nine minutes remaining, Brian Moten made his 99th career three-pointer, moving him into the top 10 in BGSU history. Nate Miller followed with a 35-foot three-pointer as the shot clock was winding down that gave the Falcons a 44-38 lead and looked like it could deflate Ohio.
But the Bobcats came right back with nine straight points, taking a 47-44 lead on Orr's three-pointer with 4:56 to go. Joe Jakubowski knocked down a three-pointer with 3:19 to go that tied the score at 47-47 and Tillman made a pair of free-throws 29 seconds later to give Ohio the lead again. Clements then scored five of the next seven points, giving BGSU the lead heading into the dramatic final moments.
Miller led Bowling Green with 15 points, adding six rebounds and two steals. Clements had just seven points on the afternoon, but also had eight rebounds and five assists. Moten finished with 11 points and Polk had a game-high nine rebounds in just 20 minutes as he was saddled with foul trouble throughout.
The loss was Ohio's first home loss of the year in a game that will likely serve as the Bobcats' best attendance of the year. With the University celebrating Dads' Weekend, attendance was listed as 10,988, almost 4,000 more than any other Ohio home game this year, but the Bobcats lost at home for just the second time in the last 23 contests.
Ohio falls to 10-8 on the year and 3-2 in MAC play. Bowling Green moves back to .500 at 9-9 and is now 2-3 in the MAC. The Falcons will host Ball State Saturday at 7 p.m. in their first game against a MAC West opponent this year.
