Falcons Defeat NDC in Exhibition Play

Friday, November 6

Bowling Green, Ohio

6:00 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

Notre Dame College

OT 1

Notre Dame College

Bowling Green

Photo by: Bianca Garza, BGSU Marketing and Communications

November 06, 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)
Video: Post game press conference with Coach Huger
Video: Post game press conference with Antwon. Lillard
Audio: Post game press conference with Coach Huger
Audio: Post game press conference with Antwon. Lillard
Video: BGSU Highlights
Photos: Photo Gallery (Bianca Garza, BGSU Marketing & Communications)

Bowling Green, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team overcame nerves and a sluggish contest from start to finish to defeat the Notre Dame College Falcons 74-65 in overtime in an exhibition contest on Friday night at the Stroh Center in Bowling Green, Ohio.

The two teams combined for 38 turnovers and a total of 65 fouls. Overall, the contest saw 86 free throws with the Orange and Brown going 34-of-57 (59.6 percent) from the foul line in the win.

The BGSU Falcons trailed by as much as 13 points in the first half and by 12 at the halftime break, yet clawed back into the game in the second half with defense and the free throw line before pulling away in the overtime period for the 74-65 win.

Freshman Antwon Lillard led the Falcons with 20 points, as the Cleveland native was 6-of-9 shooting from the field and 7-of-11 from the free throw line in the win. Junior guard Zack Denny finished with a double-double of 12 points and 16 rebounds, while junior transfer Ismail Ali added 10 points off the bench for the Falcons.

The duo of Will Vorhees and Tyree Gaiter paced the visiting Falcons in yellow, as the two combined for 42 points, nine assists, seven rebounds and six steals for the game. Vorhees scored a game-high 22 points on 8-of-19 shooting, while Gaiter chipped in with 20 pints, seven assists and five steals.

BGSU played tight from the opening tip, as both teams struggled to find any type of offense in the early stages of the contest.

NDC scored first less than two minutes into the game and pulled out to a seven point lead at 7-0 on a three-pointer from Marco Colombo at the 14:51 mark of the opening half.

Just 20 seconds later, BGSU finally got on the scoreboard in the points column with a tip-in offensive rebound and a free throw from Lillard to put the home team in white down four at 7-3 with 14:31 on the first half clock.

After a Gaiter three-pointer pushed NDC's lead back out to seven at 10-3, the Falcons' responded with a layup from Ali and a free throw from Demajeo Wiggins to get to within four at 10-6 at the 10:48 mark of the first half.

The offense continued to sputter for the Falcons, as NDC scored the next nine points to take a 13 point lead at 19-6 with 5:35 left before the halftime break.

A free throw from senior guard David Joseph at the 5:17 mark ended the Falcons' scoring drought at 5:31, yet BGSU continued to shoot ice cold from the floor as the visitors closed the first half out on a 6-1 run to take a 29-17 lead into the halftime intermission.

The start of the second half proved to be much like the first, as neither team scored for the first few minutes of play until a driving layup from BGSU junior Wes Alcegaire at the 17:37 mark gave the two teams the first points of the second half.

Joseph and Denny followed with four quick points to put the Orange and Brown within six at 29-23 before the under 16 minute media timeout.

Bowling Green cut the NDC lead to six two more times over the next two minutes of play until an old fashion three-point play from Lillard trimmed the NDC lead to five at 34-29.

Two more free throws from Lillard minutes later, followed by a foul shot from NDC's Nathan Kellum put the score at 35-31 in favor of the visitors when redshirt-sophomore Garrett Mayleben drained a trey from the right corner to put the Falcons down just one at 35-34.

However, on the ensuing Notre Dame offensive possession Vorhees knocked down a three-ball from the top of the key to put the visiting Falcons back up by four at 38-34 with 11:44 to go in the contest.

Down six at 42-36, BGSU picked up a layup from down low from Lillard, got a free throw from Rasheed Worrell and then another layup from Wiggins to close the gap to one once again, this time at 42-41 with 7:17 to play.

Back-to-back free throws from Alcegaire just over a minute later kicked-started a 9-2 run by the home team, who took its first lead of the game at 49-47 on another layup from Lillard off the left block at the 4:15 mark of the second half, before extending it out to four points at 51-47 on back-to-back free throws from Denny with 3:43 to go in regulation.

After six straight points from Gaiter and NDC gave the lead back to the visitors at 53-51, the Falcons took the lead back with an and-1 from senior forward Spencer Parker at 54-53 and then doubled the lead at 55-53 on a free throw by Parker on the next offensive possession.

NDC's Gaiter would hit two free throws with 1:30 left on the game clock to knot the score back up at 55-55.

On the following BGSU possession, Ali was able to drive and get to the rim to give the lead back to the Orange and Brown at 57-55, but left too much time on the clock as Gaiter again got to the free throw line and calmly sank two more from the charity stripe to retie the game up at 57-57 with 27 seconds left to play.

BGSU was able to get a shot off out of a timeout, as Ali's jumper hit the rim three times before rolling off the edge as the final horn sounded to send the game into overtime tied at 57-57.

The Falcons led for almost all of the extra period of play, as Ali finished on a drive at the 4:45 mark of the overtime frame to start the scoring, while free throws from Lillard pushed the Falcons' lead to three at 61-58 with 4:04 to go in the game.

Refusing to go away, NDC hit back-to-back layups from Gaiter and Kelleum to take a one point lead at 62-61 at the 3:14 mark in OT.

The BGSU defense and upperclassmen took the game over down the stretch, as Denny, Parker and Ali scored the next seven points to give the Falcons a 68-65 lead with less than a minute to play.

A Lillard basket off an Ali drive and dish all but sealed the win for the home team, who closed the game out with a pair of free throws from both Denny and Ali to pick up the 74-65 overtime exhibition win.

The Falcons overcame a cold first half in which the home team was just 4-of-21 (19 percent) from the field overall as a team to shoot 42.3 percent (11-of-26) in the second half and 57.1 percent (4-of-7) during the extra period of play to pull away with the win.

Overall, BGSU shot 35.2 percent (19-of-54) from the floor as a team and held Notre Dame to just 32.4 percent (23-of-72) shooting for the contest.

The Falcons' 34 made free throws was more than the total free throw attempts that the NDC Falcons had for the game, as the visitors in yellow were just 16-of-29 (55.2 percent) from the charity stripe on the night.

A total of 12 different Falcons played in the exhibition contest with 11 of those 12 scoring at least one point in the win.

BGSU will open up its regular season slate next Saturday, Nov. 14, as the Falcons will host New Orleans at 2 p.m. in the Stroh Center. The contest will be first-year head coach and former Falcon hoops standout Michael Huger's first collegiate game as a head coach.

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