Falcons Push the Flyers to the End in 56-52 Loss at UD Arena

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Dayton, Ohio – In front of a 12,105 fans in a packed out UD Arena, the Bowling Green State University men's basketball team led for over 31 minutes of the contest before the home standing Dayton Flyers used the free throw line, where they were 15-of-19 (78.9 percent) in the second half alone, to escape the Falcons with a 56-52 home win on Tuesday night in Dayton, Ohio.

BGSU shot just six free throws for the contest, knocking down only 2-of-6 (33.3 percent) overall, while Dayton got to the free throw line 29 times where they were 21-of-29 (72 percent) for the game.

With the loss, BGSU falls to 5-2 overall on the year, while Dayton moves to 7-1 overall and 4-0 at home with the win.

"They're a winning program and they didn't want to lose. Certainly the crowd got behind them and that helped them. I'm sure their coaches and their staff were urging them on and we expected to take their best shot with the way the scored ended at the half," commented head coach Chris Jans. "I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed. I thought we should've won this game. We just didn't make the plays down the stretch. I think we had two or three free throw checks out that they got and if you want to win, and you want to win championships, those kinds of things can't happen."

The Falcons were led by Zack Denny's game-high 16 points, as the sophomore guard was 7-of-12 from the floor overall, while Richaun Holmes had nine points, 11 rebounds and three blocks before fouling out late in the contest. Six other Falcons scored between 4-6 points each, while Jovan Austin had a career-high five assists off the bench.

Dayton was led by Devon Scott's 15 points and 10 rebounds, as he was 6-of-7 from the field overall, and Jordan Sibert's 11 points, eight rebounds and two steals.

BGSU out-rebounded Dayton 39-37 for the game and hauled down 11 offensive boards which led to 15 second chance points. Ten more second chance points then Dayton.

The Falcons flew out of the opening tip led by seven quick points from Denny to take a 9-4 lead over the Flyers on a three-ball from Denny with 14:58 to go in the first half.

UD would trim the BGSU lead to just two points on two different occasions over the next three minutes of play, however, the Falcons had an answer for each Dayton run and ran out to a 10-point lead at 21-11 on a 7-2 run capped off by a two-handed slam from Holmes at the 7:49 mark of the opening half.

Back-to-back layups from forward Spencer Parker and Holmes minutes later pushed the Falcons lead to 11 points at 29-18 with 3:51 to play, as the Orange and Brown refused to relinquish the lead and eventually took a 32-24 lead into the halftime break.

The second half opened up with a quick foul called on Holmes just 16 seconds into the frame, which set the tone for the final 20 minutes of play, as Dayton outscored the Falcons 15-7 over the first six minutes of the half to tie the game up at 39-39 on a the Flyers' lone three-pointer of the game from Sibert at the 14:18 mark.

BGSU quickly silenced the UD Arena crowd with a 11-0 run over the next four minutes to pull back out in front by 11 at 50-39 on a corner three-pointer from Austin with 10:17 to go in regulation.

Having been stifled by the Falcons' defense over a 4:28 span, the Flyers used the free throw line to get back into the contest, hitting 9-of-10 foul shots over the next six minutes to knot the score back up at 52-52 with 3:36 left on the game clock.

After each team failed to score on their next three offensive possessions, UD went back to the free throw line at the 2:14 mark where Kendall Pollard hit the first of two free throw attempts to hand the Flyers their first lead of the game at 53-52.

Bowling Green would miss on its final three shot attempts over the final 2:14 of the game, while Dayton would finish out the game going 3-of-4 from the free throw line to escape with a 56-52 non-conference win over the Falcons.

The Falcons outscored UD 32-28 in points in the paint, 14-12 in bench points and edged the Flyers 8-7 in points off turnovers.

BGSU shot 37.1 percent (23-of-62) from the field overall for the game, yet was only 8-of-30 (26.7 percent) in the second half. Dayton was also shot 37 percent (17-of-46) from the floor overall as a team, while both teams struggled from long range with BGSU going 4-of-17 (23.5 percent) and Dayton shooting 1-of-15 (6.7 percent).

Bowling Green (5-2) will return home to host Cleveland State on Saturday, Dec. 13, at 4 p.m. in the Stroh Center. The game will be the inaugural Bill Frack Challenge.

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Notes
* BGSU falls to 2-2 in true road games on the year.
* The Falcons have now lost six straight to Dayton with the last meeting prior to tonight's contest coming back in the 1971-72 season.
* Bowling Green falls to 1-11 all-time versus the Flyers in Dayton and 0-3 all-time in UD Arena.
* The Falcons have scored 52 points in each of their two losses this season (at WKU and at Dayton).

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Zack Denny

Richaun Holmes

Jovan Austin

Anthony Henderson

Players Mentioned

Jovan Austin

Zack Denny

Richaun Holmes

Spencer Parker

Players Mentioned

Jovan Austin

Zack Denny

Richaun Holmes

Spencer Parker

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