Falcons Dump Cardinals on Valentine’s Day, 79-65; Takes First-Place in the MAC

Saturday, February 14

Muncie, Ind.

4:30 PM

Bowling Green State University

17-6 (9-3MAC)

Ball State

7-16 (2-10MAC)

Bowling Green

Ball State

Photo by: Bianca Garza, BGSU Marketing and Communications

Falcons Dump Cardinals on Valentine’s Day, 79-65; Takes First-Place in the MAC

February 14, 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
Audio - Postgame Press Conference:
Coach Jans & Richaun. Holmes
Audio: Postgame Radio Interview with Coach Jans
Audio - Radio Calls from Todd Walker:
Dickerson 3pt basket (BG 5-0) | Henderson 4pt play (BG 17-13)
Henderson 3pt basket (BG 21-13) | Clarke 3pt basket (BG 36-25)
Denny 3pt basket (BG 43-29) | Henderson jumper (BG 45-29)
Gomez 3pt basket (BG 54-38) | Holmes 3pt basket (BG 61-40)
Henderson steal & slam (BG 63-40)

Muncie, Ind. – In a game that saw both teams shoot over 50 percent for the contest, the Bowling Green State University men's basketball team knocked down a season-high 12 three-pointers and committed a season-low five turnovers on its way to a wire-to-wire 79-65 road win over the Cardinals of Ball State on Saturday, Feb. 14, at Worthen Arena in Muncie, Ind.

The Falcons, who got a dunk in the opening minute from Richaun Holmes, led from start to finish for the second straight game and lead by as much as 24 points in the double digit win.

With the Falcons' win, and losses to both Akron and Toledo on the weekend, BGSU grabbed sole possession of the MAC regular season lead with a 9-3 conference record.

The win pushed BGSU's winning streak to four games overall and three straight road games, all in conference play.

"The numbers are great. We shot above 50 percent. You know every time you can shoot above 50 percent you're usually going to win," commented head coach Chris Jans. "We were a little disappointed at halftime. We thought that we were a little trigger happy with the three's. Our game plan was to try to go at them inside, especially with Kamieniecki out - that's just one more big guy that we didn't have to contend with - and we were trying to go at them and maybe get them into foul trouble and establish Richaun down there. I didn't think the three's we took were bad shots. They just didn't make quite as many as we'd have liked."

Richaun Holmes scored in double figures for the 12th straight game, as he posted a game-high 20 points, to go along with seven rebounds, four assists and three blocks. Zack Denny matched his career-high with 18 points, while Anthony Henderson added 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting.

Ball State had five players in double figures in the loss led by Francis Kiapway's team-high 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting for the game. Zavier Turner finished with 12 points, while Bo Calhoun and Franko House each tallied 11 points for the Cardinals. Calhoun also had nine rebounds, while Jeremiah Davis came off the bench to score 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting in 23 minutes of play.

BGSU shot 50.9 percent (27-of-53) for the game overall, including going 12-of-27 (44.4 percent) from behind the three-point line, while Ball State shot 53.5 percent (23-of-43) overall and 10-of-23 (50 percent) for long range for the contest.

However, the difference was the turnovers, as BGSU had just five turnovers and forced the Cardinals into 16 miscues over the 40 minutes of play.

Off the opening tip, BGSU flew out to a seven-point lead at 10-3 on a field goal in which a Ball State defender tipped the rebounded ball in to the Falcons' basket while trying to keep it away from a leaping Holmes at the 17:29 mark of the first half.

Following a 10-4 run by the Cardinals that saw Ball State get to within in one of the Falcons at 14-13 with 13:18 to play in the opening frame, BGSU answered with a seven straight points from Henderson to jump-start a 12-2 explosion by the visitors in orange to pull back out in front by 11 at 26-15 on a three-pointer from Jehvon Clarke at the 9:11 mark.

The next eight minutes would see the two teams' trade baskets back-and-forth until two straight free throws from Clarke, followed by a deep three-pointer from the senior guard as the half closed out forced the Falcons out in front by 11 at 36-25 heading into the halftime break.

Out of the halftime break, the Falcons made its first seven shot attempts to start the second half, including three baskets and eight points from Denny, to soar out to an 18-point lead at 51-33 on a driving left-handed layup from David Joseph with just over 15 minutes to go in the game.

The Falcons continued to hold on to a double digit lead for the next five minutes of play until a trey from Holmes, a steal and breakaway one-handed dunk from Henderson, and another three-pointer from the right corner by Denny capped off a 12-2 run to give the Orange and Brown its largest lead of the game at 24 points, 66-42, at the eight minute mark.

Bowling Green took a 24-point lead once again at the 4:48 mark of the second half on a jumper from Parker and looked to have the game won as Coach Jans went to the bench with a 71-47 lead.

However, Ball State refused to give up, but rather drained three three-pointers in the midst of a 15-2 surge to cut the Falcons' lead to 10 at 72-62 with just 2:26 to play on free throws from House.

Jans went back to his starters, who went 4-of-6 from the free throw line and then saw another three-pointer from Denny with less than a minute to play help seal the Falcons' 79-65 win.

BGSU outscored Ball State 24-16 in points in the paint, 16-13 in points off turnovers, 8-3 in second chance points, and 20-14 in bench points.

Bowling Green was 11-of-16 (68.8 percent) from the free throw line, while Ball State was just 9-of-14 (64.3 percent) in the contest.

Bowling Green (17-6, 9-3 MAC) will return home to host Miami on Wednesday night, Feb. 18, at 7 p.m. at the Stroh Center. The game is slated to be broadcast by BCSN (TV) and ESPN3 (Internet).

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Notes
* With the win, BGSU sits atop of the MAC regular season standings at 9-3 in conference play.
* The win pushes BGSU to 17-6 overall on the season, the most wins by a Falcons' team in a single season since posting 19 wins in 2008-09.
* The nine MAC wins is the most for the Falcons in a single season since the 2011-12 team totaled nine MAC wins.
* The current three-game road winning streak is the longest road winning streak for the Falcons since BGSU won six in a row on the road during the 2008-09 season.
* BGSU extended their current winning streak to four straight games, tying a season-high.
* The Falcons have now won six straight over Ball State.
* BGSU moved to 7-1 overall on the season against the MAC West Division.
* BGSU improves to 4-0 in the month of February.
* With their 50.9 percent shooting, BGSU moves to 5-0 on the season when shooting over 50 percent as a team for the game.
* The Falcons moved to 14-3 overall when scoring 60 points or more for the contest.
* BGSU moves to 12-1 on the season when making the same number or more free throws than their opponent for the game.
* The 12 made three-pointers versus Ball State is a team season-high for the Falcons this year.
* Richaun Holmes' 20 point effort gives him 12 straight games with double digit points.
* The 20-point game by Richaun Holmes gives him four 20-point games on the season and 12 for his career.
* Zack Denny matched his career-high with 18 points in the win.