Falcons Fly Past Cougars in 58-35 Home Win

Saturday, January 3

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

8-3

Chicago State

4-13

Chicago State

Bowling Green

Photo by: Bianca Garza, BGSU Marketing and Communications

January 03, 2015 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: by Kevin Davis, Assistant Director for Athletic Communications

Final Stats: Box Score (PDF) | Box Score (HTML)
Video: Highlights
Video - Postgame Press Conference: Jans, Chris | Henderson, Anthony
Audio - Postame Press Conference: Jans, Chris | Henderson, Anthony
Video: Postgame Interview with Todd Walker and Coach Jans
Audio: Postgame Interview with Todd Walker and Coach Jans
Radio Calls by Todd Walker: Audio 1 | Audio 2 | Audio 3 |
Audio 4 | Audio 5
Photos: Photo Gallery (Bianca Garza, BGSU Marketing & Communications)

Bowling Green, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team used a strong first half, which including eight three-pointers as a team, to fly past the Cougars of Chicago State 58-35 at the Stroh Center in their final non-conference game of the season.

The Falcons' 11 made three-pointers tied their season-high set in the season opening win at Drake.

The 35 points scored by Chicago State is the lowest points total allowed by the Falcons in a game since Denison scored just 34 points against BGSU back in 1981-82, while the 35 points marks the fewest points scored by a BGSU opponent in the history of the Stroh Center.

BGSU improves to 8-3 overall on the season and 5-1 at home with the win, while Chicago State falls to 4-13 overall with the loss.

"It was great to see us get out of the gates as well as we did. As a staff, we felt like we've been shooting the ball better in practice. At South Florida we shot the ball better. That first half was really, really good offensively. I thought we just did a good job of sharing the ball. We had 10 assists on 13 baskets in the first half and that was pleasing," commented head coach Chris Jans. "And we talked a lot about not being happy with our last two defensive efforts, especially about to head into MAC play. We needed to get back to what this program was going to be about – defend, rebound and play hard. I thought we did a better job defending all night long. That was the one thing that stayed consistent over the 40 minutes was the defense."

Redshirt-senior guard Anthony Henderson led the three-point onslaught with four three-pointers and a season-high 14 points, while Jehvon Clarke added 11 points on 3-of-6 shooting from the field off the bench for the Falcons.

Senior forward Richaun Holmes, who had nine points, five rebounds and four blocks, grabbed his 500th career rebound midway through the second half in the win.

The Cougars were led by Toledo native Anthony Glover and his 10 points, while off the bench Rahjan Muhammad added seven points, five rebounds and two steals in the loss.

After Chicago State's Glover scored on a driving layup less than a minute into the contest to put the Cougars on top early at 2-0, both teams' struggled to find points over the next several minutes until a three-pointer from the wing from Henderson at the 16:59 mark put BGSU in front by one at 3-2.

The Falcons would not relinquish the lead for the remainder of the game, as a layup from Holmes kick started a 17-3 run for the home team, highlighted by three-balls from Zack Denny and Clarke, to push the lead out to 15 at 20-5 with 8:29 to play in the first half.

Bowling Green had an answer for every Chicago State basket over the next three minutes of play until back-to-back three-pointers from Henderson, an offensive rebound and put back from Spencer Parker, another long range three from Jovan Austin, and two straight free throws from Parker pushed the Orange and Brown's lead out to 27 at 39-12 on the 14-0 run with 48 seconds to go in the opening period.

The Cougars' Muhammad would hit a layup in the lane just before the end of the half to put the score at 39-14 heading into the halftime break.

The Falcons, who connected on 8-of-15 (53.3 percent) from long range in the first half, struggled on the offensive end in the second half, shooting only 6-of-25 (24 percent) over the final 20 minutes of play. However, the BGSU defense continued to put pressure on the Cougars, who after making only six field goals in the first half, made only 10 in the second half and could never get back into the game.

The Falcons got three points apiece from both Henderson and Holmes to start the second half and put the score at 45-18 with 15:38 to go in the game, yet failed to make another field goal over the next three and a half minutes until a three-pointer from Clarke went through the net at the 11:21 mark of the second half.

Despite the scoring lull, the Falcons' defense held CSU to just five points of its own during that span to hold on to a 51-23 lead at the 11:21 mark.

Junior Delvin Dickerson soon followed with a tough old-fashion three-point play minutes later to push the Falcons' lead to a game-high 31 points at 54-23 with just over 10 minutes remaining in the game.

The Cougars would get no closer than 23 points, as Coach Jans emptied his bench late in the 58-35 home win.

BGSU finished the game shooting 19-of-49 (38.8 percent) overall and 11-of-32 (34.4 percent) from behind the three-point line, while Chicago State was 16-of-53 (30.2 percent) from the floor and just 2-of-13 (15.4 percent) from downtown.

The Falcons also held an advantage at the free throw line, as BGSU was 9-of-14 (64.3 percent) and the Cougars were just 1-of-4 (25 percent) from the charity stripe.

Bowling Green tallied 14 assists on 19 baskets and outscored the Cougars 17-8 in points off turnovers and 7-4 in fast break points.

The Falcons (8-3) will open up Mid-American Conference play on Wednesday, Jan. 7, at Kent State at 7 p.m.

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Notes
* The Falcons finished the non-conference season at 8-3 overall.
* BGSU improved to 5-1 at home in the Stroh Center with the win.
* Bowling Green improved to 2-0 all-time over Chicago State with the win.
* The win gives the Falcons back-to-back wins for the first time since opening the year with four straight wins.
* The 35 points allowed by BGSU was the lowest points total allowed by a Falcons' team in a single game since BGSU held Denison to only 34 points in 1981-82.
* The Falcons' 11 made three-pointers matches a season-high which was set in the season opener at Drake.
* Bowling Green improves to 7-0 on the season when making more free throws than their opponent.
* With his five rebounds in the win, Richaun Holmes has now pulled down 500 career rebounds at BGSU.
* With his six points in the win, Spencer Parker now gives the Falcons four current players with over 500 career points – Richaun Holmes, Jehvon Clarke, Anthony Henderson and Spencer Parker.
* The 35 points scored by Chicago State is the fewest points scored by a BGSU opponent in the Stroh Center, five points less than the previous low of 40 points by Northern Illinois back on Feb. 4, 2012.
* BGSU's 32 three-point field goal attempts ties the score record for the most three-point field goals attempted in a game. The Falcons also fired 32 three-pointers against West Virginia on Mar. 12, 1997.
*The Falcons' 32 three-point field goal attempts is a new BGSU record in the Stroh Center, surpassing the previous record of 26 BGSU attempts against Morehead State on Feb. 18, 2012.