Falcons' Winning Streak Snapped with a 70-65 Home Loss to Miami

Saturday, January 25

Bowling Green, Ohio

6 PM

Bowling Green State University

3-39-10; MAC

Miami (Ohio)

4-28-9; MAC

Miami

Bowling Green

Photo by: Bianca Garza, BGSU Marketing and Communications

January 25, 2014 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: by Kevin Davis, Assistant Director for Athletic Communications

NCAA 6thFan Contest
Box Score (PDF)
Box Score (HTML)
Coach Orr Postgame Audio
Jehvon Clarke Postgame Audio
Video Highlights

Bowling Green, Ohio – Despite a career-high 22 points from junior guard Jehvon Clarke, the Bowling Green State University men's basketball team had its winning streak snapped with a 70-65 home loss to the Miami RedHawks on Saturday night in the Stroh Center.

The loss, which snapped the Falcons' winning streak at three games, drops BGSU to 9-10 overall and 3-3 in the MAC. With the win the RedHawks improved to 8-9 overall and 4-2 in the league.

Bowling Green hit 10 three-pointers, matching its season-high, for the second time this season; however, the Falcons struggled at the free throw line where the home team was only 9-of-17 (52.9 percent).

Miami, who connected on 22-of-26 (84.6 percent) shots from the charity stripe, also held an 18-5 advantage in points off turnovers as the Falcons coughed up the ball 14 times in the game.

The Falcons, who had 16 assists in the contest, were led by Clarke's career-high 22 points and six assists, as the junior hit a career-high four three-pointers in 38 minutes of play. Behind Clarke's 22 points, fellow starting guard Anthony Henderson had 15 points before fouling out, while Richaun Holmes was held to nine points, the first time in the last 13 games that he didn't reach double digits in scoring.

Senior center Cameron Black hauled in a game-high nine rebounds and dished out four assists, while Spencer Parker had eight rebounds, matching his career-high.

The RedHawks had four players in double digits headlined by Willie Moore and Will Sullivan each tallying a team-high 16 points, while Will Felder and Quinten Rollins chipped in with 12 and 10 points apiece, respectively. Sullivan drained four of Miami's six three-pointers for the game.

Bowling Green saw a tight game and a slight lead disappear early, as the RedHawks finished the opening half out on a 19-5 run to take a double digit lead en route to the win.

The Falcons flew out to a quick 7-2 lead on jumpers from Parker and Clarke, as well as a three-pointer from Henderson, to start the conference affair, yet watched as back-to-back layups from Felder and Joshua Oswald over a minute stretch cut the home team's lead to one at 7-6 with 16:04 to go in the opening half.

Following a dunk from Holmes, which capped off a second 7-2 run from the Falcons and put BGSU in front by eight at 14-6 at the 12:54 mark, the offense came to a halt as the RedHawks soared back into the contest with a 9-3 surge to knot the score up at 17-17 on a three-pointer from Sullivan with 7:20 to play before the halftime break.

Bowling Green answered with four straight points from JD Tisdale and a bucket from Black at the 5:33 mark to push the home team up by six at 23-17.

The Falcons then went ice cold from the floor offensively, as Miami finished the half out on a 19-5 run over the final five minutes of play to take an eight point lead at 36-28 into the halftime intermission.

The home team would cut the Miami lead to five on three different occasions over the first eight minutes of the second half, yet saw the RedHawks answer with a field goal of its own each time until another three-pointer from Henderson at the 12:36 mark put the score at 47-42.

Clarke followed with a driving layup in the paint minutes later, while a free throw from Parker put the Falcons down just two at 47-45 with 9:30 to go in the game.

Again Miami had an answer, as Sullivan hit another three-pointer to kick-off a 10-0 run over the next four minutes by the visitors who pulled out to a 57-47 lead with just over five minutes in regulation.

Bowling Green refused to quit, as the Falcons would again cut the lead to five at 57-52 on a Clarke three-pointer, once more at 61-56 on an offensive rebound and put back from Parker, and a third time at 67-62 on another trey ball from Clarke, only to continue to fight an uphill battle as the RedHawks went 6-of-6 from the free throw line during that span.

With the score at 67-62, BGSU followed a made free throw by Miami's Sullivan with another long distance three from Damarkeo Lyshe to put the Falcons down just three at 68-65 with just over six seconds on the game clock.

However, time would run out on BGSU, as Felder closed the game out with two straight free throws in the closing seconds to give the RedHawks the 70-65 MAC win.

The 70 points are the most that the Falcons have given up in each of its last 10 games.

BGSU was 23-of-55 (41.8 percent) from the floor overall and 10-of-23 (43.5 percent) from downtown, while Miami was 21-of-45 (46.7 percent) and 6-of-16 (37.5 percent) from behind the three-point line.

The entire BGSU men's basketball staff wore lapel pins with a purple ribbon – the color for pancreatic cancer awareness – and the words "4 Pete's Sake" in support of Coach Dan Peters, the University of Akron's Director of Men's Basketball Operations, and his battle against pancreatic cancer, as well as sneakers as part of the Coaches vs. Cancer Suits and Sneakers Awareness Weekend as a way to unite to fight cancer and raise both funds and awareness for the American Cancer Society.

Bowling Green (9-10, 3-3 MAC) will hit the road for a midweek rematch versus Eastern Michigan on Wednesday, Jan. 29, at 7 p.m. in Ypsilanti, Mich. The Eagles held of the Falcons for a 56-51 win at the Stroh Center in the two teams' MAC opener back on Jan. 8.

###