Falcons Score Final 11 Points To Beat Ohio 65-57

Wednesday, January 20

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Ohio

January 20, 2010 | Men's Basketball

By: by Jason Knavel, Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Communications

Boxscore
Erik Marschall Postgame Audio
Louis Orr Postgame Audio

Bowling Green, Ohio – For the second consecutive game, the Bowling Green men's basketball team overcame a halftime deficit to win a Mid-American Conference game, defeating Ohio 65-57 Wednesday night in Anderson Arena.

The game followed an eerily similar route to its final destination as the Falcons' win over Kent State three days ago. BGSU once again jumped out to an early lead (this time 12-3), fell behind by the half (29-21), battled back in the early stages of the second half to make it close (Bowling Green opened the second half with an 11-2 run), and then closed out the contest in decisive fashion (the Falcons scored the final 11 points).

Through all of that, Joe Jakubowski, Scott Thomas, and Erik Marschall provided enough scoring punch to put Bowling Green on top. Jakubowski was particularly effective in keeping the game close in the first half, while Thomas and Marschall did much of their damage in the second.

Jakubowski scored 11 consecutive Bowling Green points at one point during the first half but the Falcons' 12-3 lead disappeared when the team went almost six minutes without scoring. Ohio's Kenneth van Kempen scored on a lay-up with 54 seconds remaining that put Ohio on top 29-19 but Jakubowski scored on a runner with three seconds remaining in the opening period to cut the halftime deficit to eight.

Thomas scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half and Marschall had 10 of his 12 points after the break. Thomas' first points of the final stanza came on a pair of free-throws that made it 29-25 Ohio and Marschall followed with a lay-up to make it 29-27. The game see-sawed back-and-forth throughout much of the remainder of the half but Armon Bassett's lay-up with 3:58 to play gave Ohio a 57-54 lead.

From that point forward, Ohio went 0-for-6 with two turnovers and the Falcons made a parade to the free-throw line. Marc Larson hit two critical charity shots with 3:32 to go that cut the deficit to one and Thomas followed with two more with 2:38 to go to put the Falcons on top 58-57. On Ohio's next possession, Larson blocked a shot by Bassett and then stole the ball from freshman point guard D.J. Cooper. Marschall was fouled and made 1-of-2 to give Bowling Green a 59-57 lead.

Following another Ohio turnover, Thomas hit a jumper with 1:06 left that gave the Falcons a two-possession lead at 61-57 and Bowling Green closed out the game with free-throws to seal it.

Jakubowski ended with a game-high 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting and 4-of-5 from long range. Thomas scored his 16 by making 9-of-10 free-throws and adding five rebounds. Marschall came up just one rebound shy of a double-double with 12 points and nine boards.

Bowling Green shot 60 percent from the field in the second half and made its only two three-point attempts. The Falcons also went 18-of-25 at the free-throw line in the final 20 minutes after not taking one attempt in the first half. The Falcons also turned around a halftime rebounding deficit by outboarding Ohio 19-10 in the second half and Bowling Green had just 11 turnovers for the contest.

Ohio falls to 9-9 overall and 0-4 in MAC play. Bowling Green improves to 9-7 and 2-2 in league play and is now just one game out of first place. The Falcons will play at Miami Saturday at 3 p.m.