Falcons Win 24th Straight Home Opener 79-61 Over New Orleans

Saturday, November 14

Bowling Green, Ohio

2:00 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

1-0

New Orleans

0-1

New Orleans

Bowling Green

Photo by: Larry Clapper

November 14, 2015 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: by Kevin Davis, BGSU Assistant Director for Athletic Communications

Final Stats: Box Score (PDF)
Final Stats: Box Score (HTML)
Postgame Press Conference Video: Huger | Worrell
Postgame Press Conference Audio: Huger | Worrell
Video: BGSU Highlights
Photo Galleries: Gallery 1 | Gallery 2
News: The Centennial Season
Schedule: 2015-16 BGSU Men's Basketball Schedule
Tickets: Men's Basketball Season Tickets on Sale Now!

Huger Press Conference

Worrell Press Conference

Bowling Green, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team won their home opener on Saturday afternoon, defeating New Orleans 79-61 at the Stroh Center. The win, which marked the first in the Coach Michael Huger era, was the 24th consecutive home opener the Falcons have won. Redshirt-freshman Rasheed Worrell led the Falcons with 15 points and seven rebounds.

Bowling Green jumped out to a 37-27 halftime lead against the Privateers, cruising to the 18-point victory. The Falcons, who shot 45.5-percent in the game, took advantage of 23 free throws made in the contest. BGSU scored 38 points in the paint and 16 points off turnover, also taking advantage of 10 offensive rebounds and turning it into 13 second-chance points. The Falcons largest lead came at the 6:54 mark of the second half - a 24-point lead.

Three other Falcons joined Worrell in double figures. Junior guard Wes Alcegaire had 14 points in his Falcon debut, while freshman Antwon Lillard had 13 points. Junior Zack Denny joined the four in double figures with 11 points and five rebounds in 21 minutes of play.

The Privateers were led by Christavious Gill's game-high 21 points on 7-of-15 shooting, while Michael Zeno and Erik Thomas each finished with eight points apiece. Forward Kevin Hill pulled down 13 rebounds to lead UNO on the glass.

Coach Huger's squad got off to a slow start, as UNO held a 2-0 lead over the Falcons with over three minutes go in the first half. However, BGSU got a layup in the lane from Worrell at the 16:45 mark of the opening period that sparked a 14-0 run by the Falcons over the next 2:15 of play to push BGSU in front by 12 at 14-2 on back-to-back layups from Denny and Worrell.

New Orleans was able to get a driving layup from Gill to end the BGSU scoring run and score six of the next eight points of the contest to cut the Falcons' lead to eight at 16-8 when JD Tisdale swished a three-pointer from the top of the key to put the home team in white on top at 19-8 with less than 12 minutes to go in the opening half.

A 6-1 spurt by the visitors in blue put the Privateers down just six at 20-14 on a Nate Frye free throw, which would be as close as UNO would get for the contest, as BGSU was able to use layups from Spencer Parker, Lillard and Worrell to push the lead back out to double digits at 26-16.

After two free throws from UNO's Gill put the lead back to eight at 26-18, the Falcons closed the half with an 11-9 advantage over the Privateers, highlighted by a two-handed slam from Worrell with less than a minute on the clock, to take a 37-27 lead into the halftime break.

BGSU, who shot 41.9 percent on 13-of-31 shooting in the first half, shot even better in the second half going 12-of-24 for 50 percent over the final 20 minutes of play.

The Falcons opened up the second half with a steal from David Joseph and a layup from Denny less than 20 seconds into the half which set the tone for the remainder of the game.
An alley-oop dunk on a set out of bounds play from Alcegaire at the 16:55 mark gave the Falcons a 14-point lead at 46-32.

However, UNO scored four quick points to close the gap to 10 at 46-36, before three free throws from Alcegaire kick-started a 7-0 run by the Falcons who capped it off with an alley-oop dunk on a fast break from Denny to Tisdale to put the home team in front by 17 at 51-36 with just over 14 minutes to play.

Bowling Green extended its lead to 20 at 59-39 just over three minutes later on a jump hook in the lane from Garrett Mayleben and a tough layup in a crowd from Lillard with 11:18 left on the game clock.

Just under three minutes later, back-to-back free throws from Lillard and a fast break layup from Alcegaire gave the Orange and Brown a 23-point lead at 65-42.

BGSU never looked back and led by as much as 24 twice over the final seven minutes of the contest on its way to a 79-61 season opening home win.

The Falcons were 25-of-55 (45.5 percent) overall from the floor offensively and held UNO to just 35.5 percent shooting on 22-of-62 field goal attempts. BGSU also held an advantage at the charity stripe where the Falcons were 23-of-32 (71.9 percent) compared to 13-of-21 (61.9 percent) at the foul line by the Privateers.

As a team, BGSU also dished out 13 assists on its 25 made baskets.

BGSU (1-0) will return to action on Wednesday, Nov. 18, when the Falcons will host the Cincinnati Bearcats in the second annual Bill Frack Challenge. The White Out game is set for a 7 p.m. tip.

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Notes

The win was BGSU head coach Michael Huger's first career win as a head coach.
BGSU has now won 24 straight home openers with the last home opening loss coming back in 1991-92 against Findlay, 79-68.
With the win, the Falcons are now 88-13 all-time in home openers since tipping off the inaugural season in 1915-16.
The win puts BGSU at 74-27 all-time in regular season openers.
Bowling Green improved to 2-0 all-time versus the New Orleans Privateers.
With BGSU's 79 points in the victory, the Falcons are now 20-1 all-time when scoring 70 points or more in a game in the Stroh Center.
A total of five Falcons made their BGSU debuts in the Orange and Brown in Wes Alcegaire, Ismail Ali, Rasheed Worrell, Antwon Lillard and Malik Hluchoweckyj.
A total of nine different Falcons logged 14 minutes or more on the floor in the contest.
10 different Falcons scored two points or more in the game.