Falcons Corral Broncos in 65-49 Home Win on Tuesday Night

Tuesday, February 10

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

16-6, 8-3MAC

Western Michigan

14-10, 5-6MAC

Western Michigan

Bowling Green

Photo by: Bianca Garza, BGSU Marketing and Communications

February 10, 2015 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: by Kevin Davis, Assistant Director for Athletic Communications

Final Statistics: Box Score (PDF) | Box Score (HTML)
Video: Game Highlights
Video - Postgame Press Conference:
Jans, Chris | Parker & Henderson
Audio - Postgame Press Conference:
Jans, Chris | Parker & Henderson
Video: Postgame Radio Interview with Coach Jans
Audio: Postgame Radio Interview with Coach Jans
Photos: Photo Gallery (Bianca Garza)
Radio Calls by Todd Walker:
Dickerson 3pt basket (5-0)
Denny rebound & basket (10-6)
Joseph steal & score (23-16)
Henderson steal & slam (31-18)
Parker 3pt basket in 1st half (34-19)
Henderson 3pt basket in 2nd half (37-26)
Henderson 3pt basket off breakaway (41-26)
Holmes alley opp slam in 2nd half (43-28)
Parker 3pt basket in 2nd half (59-39)
Parker hits 5th 3pt basket in game (62-39)

Bowling Green, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team held Western Michigan to its lowest point total of the season and led from start to finish in a 65-49 home MAC win at the Stroh Center on Tuesday night in Bowling Green, Ohio.

The Falcons, who led by as much as 24 points in the win, held WMU to just 34 percent shooting (17-of-50) overall and only 20 percent (4-of-20) from behind the three-point line in the 10th home win of the season.

BGSU was just one shy of their season-high in steals with 10 and also forced the Broncos into 17 turnovers which led to 27 points for the Orange and Brown.

With the win BGSU improves to 16-6 overall and 8-3 in MAC play. The loss drops the Broncos to 14-10 overall and 5-6 in league play.

"I was told it was a wire-to-wire victory and after the last three games went all the way down to the last possession or very close to it, it was nice to have a game like that. I thought we started off pretty well, had a pretty good first half. Obviously we didn't start the second half very well. We were disappointed," commented head coach Chris Jans. "We talked about – we've been with double digit leads the last three games at some point in the second half, this one we were starting the second half with one and we needed to get better and mature as a team to expand that lead and so to speak put them away. We didn't start off the second half very well. We made some subs. I was not happy with them and Anthony Henderson stepped up made some shots and got us back going. Then we were able to reestablish ourselves in the second half and then basically close them out."

Junior Spencer Parker poured in a season-high 19 points to lead the Falcons in scoring, as the forward was 7-of-10 from the field overall and 5-of-5 from behind the three-point arc for the game. Redshirt-senior guard Anthony Henderson added 15 points, five rebounds and three steals, while senior forward Richaun Holmes recorded 12 points, six rebounds and four blocks in the win.

With his 12 points for the game, Holmes has now scored in double digits in 11 straight contests.

The Broncos, who were without Austin Richie due to injury, were led by Thomas Wilder's 16 points, while David Brown finished with nine points on 3-of-12 shooting.

Making only his second start in a BGSU uniform, junior Delvin Dickerson opened up the contest with five straight points to put the Falcons up 5-0 less than two minutes into the contest.

The WMU duo of Wilder and Brown got the visitors in black back into the game with nine points over the next five minutes of play to cut the BGSU lead down to one at 10-9 on a free throw from Brown.

BGSU answered with another quick 5-0 spurt on a jumper from Zack Denny and a three-ball from Parker to increase its lead to six at 15-9, yet saw the Broncos respond with a jumper and three-pointer of its own to again put the Falcons lead to just one at 15-14 with 10:41 to go in the first half.

After the two teams traded baskets to put the score at 17-16 in favor of BGSU, the Falcons held the Broncos scoreless for the next five minutes of the game and used a 10-0 run to push its lead to double digits at 27-16 on back-to-back free throws from Jehvon Clarke.

A layup on the right block from Connar Tava at the 2:43 mark ended the Broncos' scoring drought, yet did not slow down the Falcons' offense, as Parker hit a driving layup which was followed by a steal and a breakaway tomahawk slam by Henderson to put the home team up 13 at 31-18 with 1:35 to go before the break.

The Falcons would use a three-pointer from the right wing from Parker late in the half to offset a trey from WMU's Brown as the half closed out to take a 34-22 halftime lead over the visiting Broncos.

Western Michigan opened up the second half of play with two quick baskets, which not only clipped the BGSU lead to eight at 34-26, but did not make Coach Jans happy as he abruptly called a timeout with 18:56 left on the game clock.

The Orange and Brown got the message, as the Falcons used a free throw from Clarke and back-to-back three-pointers from Henderson to storm out on a 7-0 run out of the timeout and take a 15-point lead at 41-26 with just under 17 minutes to play in regulation.

The visiting Broncos were able to get to within 13 points of the Falcons at 41-28 and then at 43-30, yet that was as close as they would get for the remainder of the game as Holmes, Parker and Henderson combined to score the next 11 points for BGSU who ran out to an 18-point lead at 52-34 with 8:58 to play.

Following a 5-0 run from WMU to again put the Falcons lead at 13, Bowling Green got back-to-back layups from Parker and Holmes, and then two straight treys from Parker to soar out to a 23-point lead at 62-39 with 4:42 on the game clock.

With the game already decided, the Broncos connected on six free throws and two layups over the final four minutes of the game to cut into the BGSU lead and put the final score at 65-49.

WMU outscored the Falcons 24-22 in points in the paint and 9-6 in second chance points, however, BGSU held a 27-15 advantage in points off turnovers, 16-6 edge in fast break points and 25-12 lead in bench points.

Overall the Falcons shot 43.9 percent (25-of-57) from the field and 43.5 percent (10-of-23) from long range. BGSU was just 5-of-8 (62.5 percent) at the free throw line in the win.

Bowling Green (16-6, 8-3 MAC) will take its three-game winning streak on the road this Saturday, Feb. 14, as the Falcons will take on Ball State at 4:30 p.m. in Muncie, Indiana. BGSU defeated Ball State 58-46 at home in the Stroh Center back on Jan. 17.

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Notes
* The Falcons improve to 16-6 overall on the year with the win. The 16 wins are the most in a single season by a BGSU team since the 2011-12 team went 16-16.
* Bowling Green improved to 10-2 overall on the year at home in the Stroh Center with the win.
* The win pushes the Falcons current winning streak to three straight games.
* BGSU extended its winning streak to four straight games over Western Michigan with the win.
* The Falcons are now 6-1 on the season against the MAC West Division.
* The Falcons are now 11-1 on the season when holding its opponent to less than 40 percent shooting for the game. WMU shot 34.0 percent for the game.
* Bowling Green is now 12-3 on the year when scoring 60 points or more in the game.
* BGSU held WMU to its lowest scoring output of the season at 49 points for the contest.
* BGSU has now held five different teams to under 50 points for the game on the season (Alabama A&M, Chicago State, Ball State, Northern Illinois, and Western Michigan).
* Richaun Holmes has now scored in double figures in 11 straight games.
* Spencer Parker scored a season-high 19 points in the win.