Holmes and Falcons Dominate Second Half in 79-69 Win Over North Dakota

Wednesday, December 11

Bowling Green, Ohio

7 PM

Bowling Green State University

4-5

North Dakota

2-6

North Dakota

Bowling Green

Photo by: Bianca Garza, BGSU Marketing and Communications

Holmes and Falcons Dominate Second Half in 79-69 Win Over North Dakota

December 11, 2013 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: by Kevin Davis, Assistant Director for Athletic Communications

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Bowling Green, Ohio – Junior forward Richaun Holmes recorded his first career double-double and tallied a career-high seven blocked shots to help propel the Bowling Green State University Falcons to a 79-69 win over North Dakota on Wednesday night in the Stroh Center.

The win pushes the Falcons to 4-5 on the year and 3-1 at home in the Stroh, while North Dakota falls to 2-6 overall with the loss.

Holmes posted his first career double-double with 21 points, a career-high 14 rebounds, a career-high seven blocked shots and a career-high four assists. His seven blocks ties the school record for the most blocks in a single game and is the most by a BGSU player in a single game since Scott Vandermeer totaled seven versus Ohio back on Feb. 7, 2005.

Over the last three games, Holmes has recorded 17 total blocks (5, 5, and 7) and has scored 20 points or more in back-to-back contests.

Fellow forward Spencer Parker totaled 19 points and hauled in a career-high eight rebounds, while senior big-man Cameron Black added 13 points, on 6-of-6 shooting, seven rebounds and four blocks of his own. Freshman JD Tisdale led the Falcons with a career-high five assists, while he also registered a team-high three steals.

As a team, BGSU recorded 13 rejections on the night with four different players registering a block.

North Dakota had three players in double figures led by Troy Huff's 19 points, as he was 7-of-15 from the field overall. Forward Jaron Nash totaled 17 points and nine rebounds, while off the bench Josh Schuler had 14 points, knocking down 4-of-7 three-point attempts.

The game started out as a sluggish shootout, as the two teams went back-and-forth in the early stages of the contest, trading both baskets and turnovers to put the score at 12-12 at the 11:59 mark of the first half on a free throw from BGSU's Jehvon Clarke.

The rest of the first half, which saw both teams shoot well from the floor overall, as BGSU shot 55 percent (11-of-20) and North Dakota at 44 percent (11-of-25), had two ties and five lead changes as neither team could pull away.

BGSU took a five point lead at 30-25 on a layup from Anthony Henderson with 1:12 to go in the half, only to see North Dakota's Nash slam home an open dunk less than 30 seconds later to put the score at 30-27 heading into the halftime break.

The Falcons came out to start the second half with an increased sense of urgency, as the home team used an early 6-0 run out of the break to push its lead nine at 36-27 and force a North Dakota timeout.

The early second half surge set the tone for the remainder of the game, as the Falcons refused to relinquish the lead and dominated the paint on both ends of the floor outscoring North Dakota 30-22 in points in the paint and outrebounding UND 26-15 over the final 20 minutes of play.

After a 9-2 run by the visitors in green cut the Falcons' lead to two at 38-36 with 14:50 to go in the game, the home team exploded with a 13-2 outburst to take its largest lead of the game at 51-38 on a baseline two-hand slam by Black with 9:47 on the game clock.

The next several minutes saw the Falcons hold on to the lead with free throws from both Parker and Holmes, as well as an alley-oop two-handed dunk in transition from Holmes, to put the home team on top by 11 at 62-51 with under five minutes to go in regulation.

North Dakota used the three-ball and the free throw line to remain in the contest, cutting the lead to as low as five on two occasions, however, the Falcons were clutch at the charity stripe, knocking down 9-of-12 free throws in the final 2:38 of the contest to help seal the 79-69 home win.

BGSU improves to 14-0 in the Stroh Center when scoring 70 points or more, as the Falcons shot 55.1 percent (27-of-49) from the floor and 74.2 percent (23-of-31) at the free throw line overall.

The Falcons outscored North Dakota 44-32 in points in the paint, 30 of which came in the second half, and 15-7 in second chance points for the contest.

With the 13 team blocks, the Falcons have registered eight rejections or more in each of its last three contests, while both Black and Holmes continue to climb up the BGSU record book in career blocks. Black moved up to fourth-place all-time in BGSU history with 110 career swats, while Holmes jumped to within four of Kevin Netter and sixth-place overall with 101 career blocks.

Bowling Green (4-5) will hit the road this Sunday afternoon, Dec. 15, to take on the Eagles of Morehead State in Morehead, Ky. for a 2 p.m. tip-off.

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Postgame Press Conference against North Dakota (12/11/13)