Jans, Falcons Win Season Opener at Drake, 77-58

Saturday, November 15

Des Moines, Iowa

3:05 PM

Bowling Green State University

1-0

Drake

0-1

Team	1	2	F
Bowling Green	47	30	77
Drake	31	27	58

Photo by: BGSU Strategic Communications

November 15, 2014 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: by Kevin Davis, Assistant Director for Athletic Communications

Des Moines, Iowa – Both the Chris Jans era and the 2014-15 season at Bowling Green State University got off to a bang on Saturday afternoon, as the Falcons led from start to finish in a 77-58 road win at Drake in the Knapp Center in Des Moines, Iowa.

The Falcons had 12 different players score in the game and were led by four players in double figures. Senior guard Jehvon Clarke posted a team-high 16 points on 4-of-8 shooting from behind the three-point line, while fellow senior Richaun Holmes added 12 points and five blocked shots. Juniors Spencer Parker and Jovan Austin each finished with 10 points apiece for BG.

Drake's Reed Timmer paced the Bulldogs with a team-high 16 points, while center Jacob Enevold added 10 points and five rebounds down low.

The BGSU bench outscored Drake's bench 45-13 for the contest, while the Falcons also scored 22 points off of 14 Bulldog turnovers.

The Bowling Green defense held the Bulldogs to only 29 percent shooting and a total of nine field goals (9-of-31) in the second half of play.

BGSU opened up the scoring with a 12-foot jumper from the right baseline by Holmes on the first possession and never looked back, pushing its lead out to as much as 27 in the contest.

Drake's Jordan Daniels hit a three-pointer to open up the scoring for the home standing Bulldogs and cut the BGSU lead to one at 4-3 at the 17:34 mark, yet that would be as close as the team in white would get for the remainder of the game.

BGSU's Chauncey Orr answered with a trey from the left wing less than 30 seconds later to kick off a 15-5 run for the Falcons who took an 11-point lead at the 13:05 mark of the first half on a 15-foot jumper from Austin.

Back-to-back three-pointers from the top of the key from Clarke and David Joseph over a 42 second span pushed the Falcons lead out to 14 points at 29-15 with 9:17 to go in the opening half.

Buckets from Anthony Henderson and Austin, followed by five straight points from sophomore guard Zack Denny over the next six minutes saw the Falcons take a 15-point lead at 40-25 with three minutes to play before the halftime break.

The two teams would trade baskets down the stretch of the opening half, as a three-pointer from Holmes and back-to-back baskets from Austin for BGSU sent the game to the halftime break at 47-31 in favor of BGSU.

Following an Enevold basket for the Bulldogs to start the second half, Bowling Green got two free throws from Parker, a second three-ball from Holmes and a jumper from Austin to put the Falcons up 21 points at 54-33 with 16 minutes to go in the game.

Drake cut the BG lead to 16 at 58-42 on three straight free throws from Daniels with just over 11 minutes to play in regulation, only to see the Falcons' Parker post back-to-back layups to push the lead back out to 23 at 65-42 with 10:03 to play.

A three-pointer from the left wing from junior Delvin Dickerson at the 6:18 mark and a driving layup by JD Tisdale with 5:10 on the game clock both put the Falcons up by a game-high 27 points as the Falcons flew away with the 77-58 non-conference win.

Drake held a slight 20-18 advantage over Bowling Green in points in the paint and 33-31 in rebounding.

The Falcons shot 51.8 percent (29-of-56) from the floor overall and 40.7 percent (11-of-27) from behind the three-point line. BGSU was also a perfect 8-of-8 from the free throw line.

Drake was 19-of-51 (37.3 percent) from the field and 7-of-14 (50 percent) from long distance. The Bulldogs were 13-of-20 (65 percent) from the charity stripe in the loss.

Bowling Green (1-0) will tip-off the 2014-15 home season on Wednesday, Nov. 19, versus Wright State. Tip-off is slated for 4 p.m. from the Stroh Center.

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Fullcourt Notes
* The win was the first win for Coach Chris Jans as a head coach at the NCAA Division I level.
* The win also marks the first win for Coach Chris Jans as the head coach of the Falcons.
* The win is the fourth straight season opening win for the Falcons (2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15).
* The season opening win at Drake on the road is the first true road win by BGSU to start a season since the Falcons beat James Madison on the road in 1996-97.
* BGSU improves to 73-27 all-time in season openers in the program's history.
* Coach Chris Jans is the first BGSU head coach to win his very first game as head coach since Jim Larranaga won his first game as head coach in 1986-87.