Four Falcons Score in Double Digits in Home Loss to Buffalo

Saturday, February 21

Bowling Green, Ohio

2:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

17-8, 9-5MAC

Buffalo

17-9, 8-6MAC

Buffalo

Bowling Green

Photo by: Bianca Garza, BGSU Marketing and Communications

February 21, 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 | Holmes, Richaun
Audio - Postgame Press Conference:
Jans, Chris | Holmes, Richaun
Audio: Postgame Interview with Coach Jans
Photo: Photo Gallery (Bianca Garza)
Radio Calls by Todd Walker:
Holmes power slam (UB, 17-11)
Clarke rebound & full court layup (UB, 42-30)
Dickerson 3pt basket in 2nd half (UB, 44-36)
Dickerson 3pt basket in 2nd half (UB, 44-39)
Holmes block & Clarke layup (UB, 48-43)
Clarke basket to give BG lead (BG, 49-48)

Bowling Green, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team had four Falcons score in double digits and outscored the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, in the second half, but came up just short in erasing a 14-point halftime deficit in the 68-56 MAC East loss to the Bulls on Saturday afternoon in the Stroh Center.

Despite outscoring Buffalo 30-16 in points in the paint and 23-4 in bench points, the Bulls made more free throws, 19-of-23 (82.6 percent), than the Falcons shot at 12-of-18 (66.7 percent) in the 40 minute contest.

Buffalo also outscored the Falcons 11-4 in points off turnovers, despite only coughing up the ball nine times, and out-rebounded BGSU 43-31 which included 16 offensive rebounds to the Falcons' eight.

"Certainly we didn't start the game off the way we expected to. The first half was a disaster. I couldn't believe the rebounding numbers. I thought that was the game; that they just beat us up on the backboards," commented head coach Chris Jans. "Our first shot defense was pretty good, but we just couldn't keep them off the boards. Certainly they shot the ball well. They made some timely three's in the second half where we tried to go zone late to protect Richaun (Holmes) with his four fouls and they jumped up and made two big three's to basically regain control of the game."

For the 14th straight contest, senior forward Richaun Holmes scored in double figures, as he finished with a team-high 15 points, seven rebounds, and five blocks. Off the bench, Jehvon Clarke added 12 points and a season-high eight rebounds, while Spencer Parker tallied 11 points and four rebounds in the loss. Delvin Dickerson chipped in with 10 points as the junior was 3-of-5 from behind the three-point line before fouling out in the second half.

For Buffalo, Shannon Evans led the way with a game-high 19 points, 14 of which came in the first half of play, while Jarryn Skeete posted 15 points and six rebounds. The duo combined to go 8-of-12 from behind the three-point line and 4-of-4 from the charity stripe. Forward Justin Moss finished the game with 15 points and 12 rebounds, as the junior was 11-of-12 from the free throw line and just 2-of-11 from the field in 29 minutes of play.

The Falcons, who struggled on the offensive end and on the glass for most of the first half, scored first on a runner down the lane from Zack Denny to take a 2-0 lead and then saw a three-pointer from the left wing by Denny minutes later give the home team a 5-4 lead with 15:47 to go in the first half.

With the two defenses controlling the game early, the two teams used the free throw line over the next three minutes of play to trade the lead back-and-forth until a driving layup from David Joseph put the Falcons in front by two at 9-7 at the 12:06 mark.

Just 20 seconds later, the Bulls' Evans drained the first of two straight three-pointers to start a 15-2 run by the visitors in black who stormed out to a 22-11 lead on a three-pointer from Xavier Ford with 6:43 to go in the opening frame.

Other than a two-handed flush by Holmes during that huge Buffalo run, the Falcons were ice cold from the floor offensively until a three-ball from Dickerson at the 6:12 mark put the Bulls' lead back to single digits at 22-14.

Yet the three-pointer failed to slow UB's outside shooting down, as the Bulls got three-pointers from Skeete and Evans, as well as a layup from Evans and a free throw from Moss, to take a 17-point lead at 34-17 over the Falcons with 3:09 to go before the halftime break.

BGSU's Parker hit a jumper from inside the paint seconds later to cap off seven straight points from the junior and jump-start a 5-0 surge by the Orange and Brown to get within 12 at 34-22, before Moss hit back-to-back free throws with less than a minute to play in the half to give the Bulls a 36-22 lead over the Falcons at the halftime break.

With a new sense of urgency out of the halftime break, the Falcons got a defensive stop and a two-handed slam in the paint from Holmes to open up the second half and forced the Bulls to use an early timeout.

After the two teams traded layups, and Buffalo scored four straight points to push its lead back out to 16 points at 42-26 on a free throw from Ford, the Falcons displayed their resiliency by refusing to quit and scoring seven straight points from Holmes and Clarke to get back to within single digits of Buffalo at 42-33 with 13:55 to go in the game.

A jump-hook in the lane from UB's Will Regan stopped the Falcons scoring run, yet did not slow down the BGSU momentum, as two straight treys from Dickerson over a one minute stretch put the Falcons down just five at 44-39 with 10:47 to play in regulation.

BGSU got to within five points once again at 46-41 on a dunk down low by Holmes and then again at 48-43 on a layup from Clarke which kicked-off an 8-0 spurt by the Falcons who took their first lead of the game since the opening minutes at 49-48 with 7:15 left on the game clock on a jumper from Clarke following two made free throws by the senior guard on a technical foul call on Buffalo's bench.

However, four straight free throws from the Bulls gave the visitors back the lead at 52-49 with 5:33 to go in the contest.

The Falcons would get a driving layup from Holmes seconds later to get to within one point at 52-51, but then appeared to hit a wall offensively, as Buffalo outscored the home team 16-5 over the final five minutes of play, including going 6-of-6 from the free throw line, to pull away late with the 68-56 road win.

Bowling Green connected on 20-of-50 (40 percent) from the floor overall, but was just 4-of-20 (20 percent) from long distance for the game, while UB was 20-of-56 (35.7 percent) overall and 9-of-17 (52.9 percent) from behind the three-point line.

The Falcons (17-8, 9-5 MAC) will hit the road to face off with the Ohio Bobcats on Tuesday, Feb. 24, at 7 p.m. in Athens, Ohio.

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Notes
* BGSU has now lost back-to-back games for the first time all season.
* The Falcons are now 10-4 overall on the year at home in the Stroh Center.
* Richaun Holmes scored in double digits for the 14th straight game for the Falcons.
* With his five blocks on Saturday, Holmes has registered five blocks in two straight games.
* The Falcons are now 3-4 on the season when scoring less than 60 points in the contest.
* BGSU is also 5-7 on the year when being out-rebounded by its opponent for the game.
* Buffalo's 43 rebounds for the game are the most against the Falcons by an opponent this season.
* BGSU is now 0-3 on the year when its opponent has pulled down 40 rebounds or more for the game (Ferris State, Toledo and Buffalo).