Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
12-20
Northern Illinois (First Round)
15-16
Falcons’ Season Ends on Overtime Loss at Northern Illinois
March 10, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Box Score (PDF)
Box Score (HTML)
Coach Orr and Jehvon. Clarke Post Game Audio
2013-14 Season Statistics (PDF)
2013-14 Season Statistics (HTML)
DeKalb, Ill. – The 2013-14 men's basketball season came to an end for the Bowling Green State University Falcons on Monday night, as BGSU fell in overtime 54-51 at Northern Illinois in the first round of the 2014 MAC Men's Basketball Championship Tournament at the NIU Convocation Center in DeKalb, Ill.
Despite holding the Huskies to only 54 points on 40.7 percent shooting for the game, the Falcons were plagued by 22 turnovers which led to 27 points for Northern Illinois.
Junior Richaun Holmes, who was named to the All-MAC Third Team earlier in the day, posted two blocks to become BGSU's all-time career shot blocks leader with 161 career rejections, passing Otis Polk's previous record of 159 career swats.
Holmes also recorded his eighth double-double of the year with 10 points and 14 rebounds, while Jehvon Clarke led the Falcons in scoring with 15 points and five rebounds. Senior center Cameron Black finished his BGSU career out with 10 points, nine rebounds, two steals and a block in 40 plus minutes of play.
The Huskies had two players in double digits in Jordan Threloff with 13 points and Aaric Armstead with 12, while Threloff also added nine rebounds.
In what was a tight contest throughout, the Falcons found themselves up by three at 46-43 on a three-pointer from the right wing from Holmes with 4:01 to go in regulation.
On the ensuing possession, NIU's Aaric Armstead hit a three-pointer of his own from the left wing to tie the score up for the third time of the game at 46-46, leaving just 3:45 to play on the game clock.
Neither team could hit the go-ahead basket over the next 1:45 until Aksel Bolin tipped in a missed layup for the Huskies at the 2:02 mark to put the home team back on top by two at 48-46.
Following a BGSU timeout and two empty possessions over its next two offensive series, the Falcons found themselves down three at 49-46 after a free throw from Aaric Armstead with 25 seconds to play.
As what has been accustomed to the Falcons this season, BGSU found itself in a close game in the final seconds of play.
Bowling Green took the clock down to just over six seconds when Holmes was forced to fire a contested three-pointer from the top of the key. The ball hit hard off the front rim where Black alertly tapped the rebound out to the three-point line to a waiting Clarke who calmly drained the long three to tie the game up at 49-49 with 1.5 to play.
After an NIU timeout, the Huskies tried to throw the ball the length of the court, yet it bounced and rolled out of bounds untouched to give BGSU the ball back under its own basket with 1.5 to go in the game.
BGSU's Spencer Parker threw a lob pass into the lane to Holmes, who leaped to catch the ball and take a quick shot only to see it go offline and the game go into overtime.
In overtime, a Falcon turnover led to an easy transition bucket for NIU who scored four quick points to take a 53-49 lead with 3:05 to go in the game.
Clarke would hit a runner in the lane at the 2:44 mark to cut the NIU lead to two at 53-51, yet the Falcons would not score again in the 54-51 overtime loss.
Bowling Green opened the contest up with a layup from Anthony Henderson 30 seconds in, yet struggled to take care of the ball over the next six minutes of play as NIU took advantage of the Falcons' offensive miscues to use a 10-0 run to race out to a 10-2 lead on a steal and fast break layup from Arric Armstead at the 15:30 mark.
Black would hit a jump-hook in the lane at the 13:47 mark to end the Falcons' scoring drought of over five minutes, yet turnovers continued to haunt the visitors, as NIU pushed its lead back out to eight at 17-9 on a Bolin drive with 10:56 to play in the first half.
Behind Clarke and Craig Sealey, the Falcons used its zone defense and transition baskets to claw its way back into the contest with a 9-5 spurt to trim the Huskies' lead to four at 22-18 on an old-fashion three-point play from Sealey with just over five minutes to go before the halftime break.
After a 6-0 run by the Huskies over the next few minutes, Bowling Green finished the half out on an 8-2 surge over the final 2:30 of the half to trail by just four at 30-26 at the halftime intermission.
BSGU had four players in Clarke, Parker, Holmes and Black log over 40 minutes of playing time on the night.
The Falcons held a 37-34 edge in rebounds on the night and a 12-6 advantage in second chance points, yet the Huskies outscored BGSU 32-28 in points in the paint, 27-10 in points off turnovers and 14-4 in fast break points.
Bowling Green shot 21-of-52 (40.4 percent) from the floor overall, but was just 6-of-11 (54.5 percent) from the free throw line for the game.
Northern Illinois, who had 17 steals on the night, was 22-of-54 (40.7 percent) from the field overall and just 8-of-17 (47.1 percent) from the charity stripe in the win.
The Falcons finished the season at 12-20 overall.
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