Falcons Steal Road Win at Miami, 62-57

Saturday, February 28

Oxford, Ohio

3:30 PM

Bowling Green State University

11-519-8; MAC

Miami

7-912-17; MAC

Bowling Green

Miami

Photo by: Craig Bell, BGSU Marketing and Communications

February 28, 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 with Coach Jans & Zack. Denny
Audio: Postgame Press Conference with Coach Jans & Zack. Denny
Audio: Postgame Radio Interview with Coach Jans
Audio - Radio Calls With Todd Walker:
Gomez layup late in 1st half (BG, 27-25)
Henderson slam in 1st half (BG, 31-25)
Denny 3pt basket in 2nd half (MU, 46-38)
Parker and-1 basket in 2nd half (MU, 46-41)
Denny 3pt basket - 2nd one of game (BG, 50-49)
Denny hits third 3pt basket (BG, 53-51)
Clarke hits long jumper late in 2nd half (BG, 55-51)

Oxford, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team overcame an 11-point second half deficit and outscored the Miami RedHawks 31-16 over the final 10:10 of the contest to steal a 62-57 road win over MU at Millett Hall on Saturday afternoon in Oxford, Ohio.

The Falcons, who have now won five straight road games, improved to 19-8 overall and 11-5 in MAC play with the win. Miami, who saw its four-game winning streak snapped, falls to 12-17 overall and 7-9 in league play with the home loss.

"It was a whale of a college basketball game. The first half kind of went back-and-forth. We felt pretty good at halftime. It was kind of a cookie-cutter half, nobody had a big run or at least that I can remember," commented head coach Chris Jans. "The second half certainly didn't get off to a good start for us. The thing that carried us though was our defense. We were struggling offensively … but I thought at times previous to this game that we would also lose our motivation on defense during those runs, but we didn't this afternoon. They kept guarding. They kept rebounding. I thought we executed down the stretch and made some big free throws."

Sophomore guard Zack Denny led the Falcons with 17 points, including going 3-of-6 from behind the three-point line, and five rebounds, while Richaun Holmes extended his double digit scoring streak to 16 straight games with 15 points and eight rebounds. Junior Spencer Parker had nine points, three rebounds and two assists, while Jehvon Clarke and Josh Gomez each added six points apiece in the victory.

Miami was led by guard Eric Washington and his 16 points, six assists and two steals, while off the bench Willie Moore totaled 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting for the contest.

In what was a sloppy game for several stretches at a time, the first half saw eight ties and six lead changes over the first 20 minutes of play.

BGSU opened the game up with a dunk from the right block from Holmes, yet saw Miami take a 7-4 lead on a three-pointer from Will Sullivan at the 16:21 mark of the opening half.

The two teams traded baskets and the lead over the next several minutes of play until a 7-0 run by the visitors in orange pushed the Orange and Brown out to a five-point lead at 15-10 on five straight points from Holmes with 9:54 to play in the first half.

Two more lead changes and five more ties later, the Falcons got a layup from Gomez, two free throws from Holmes and a dunk from Anthony Henderson to close the half out on a 6-2 spurt and give the visitors a 31-27 lead into the halftime break.

However, the Falcons struggled out of the locker room to start the second half, missing their first six shots and turning the ball over five times, while Miami ran off 14 straight points to take a 10-point lead at 41-31 with 10:56 to go in the game.

Just 46 seconds later, after a BGSU timeout, the Falcons ended their scoring drought at 9:50 with a jumper from the baseline from Clarke only to see five straight points from Washington push the home team's lead out to a game-high 11 points at 46-36 with 8:08 to play.

Following another 30-second timeout from Coach Jans, the Falcons got their first three-pointer of the game from the top of the key from Denny which seemed to lift the lid off the basket for the visitors in orange.

Parker followed Denny's three-ball with five straight points, including an old-fashion three-point play, while a Holmes' dunk, another strong layup from Parker and a second trey from Denny capped off a 15-3 run by the Falcons to give the visitors the lead at 50-49 with 3:51 left on the game clock.

After Miami took the lead back on a layup down low by Chris Bryant at 51-50, the Falcons got a huge answer on a third three-pointer from Denny less than 20 seconds later to give the visitors the lead back, this time for good, at 53-51 with 2:04 in regulation.

A tough contested jumper from Clarke and a free throw from Denny pushed the Falcons lead out to five, 56-51, yet Miami refused to quit, getting two free throws from Moore to trim the BGSU lead back to three at 56-53 with 30 seconds to play.

Free throws from Parker, Denny and Henderson over the final 30 seconds helped to seal the come from behind win over the RedHawks, 62-57.

Miami outscored BGSU 32-22 in points in the paint, yet the Falcons held a decisive 25-18 advantage in bench points and edged the RedHawks 15-12 in points off turnovers and 9-7 in second chance points.

The Falcons were 20-of-48 (41.7 percent) from the floor overall, yet once again struggled from behind the three-point line knocking down only 3-of-17 (17.6 percent) of its attempts for the game.

However, the Falcons were clutch at the free throw line, making 19-of-23 (82.6 percent) of their attempts, including free throws late to seal the win.

Bowling Green (19-8, 11-5 MAC) will return home to host Kent State on Tuesday night, March 3, at 7 p.m. ET at the Stroh Center. The game will be Senior Night for the Falcons so get to the Stroh Center early as seniors Richaun Holmes, Jehvon Clarke, Anthony Henderson and Damarkeo Lyshe will all be recognized prior to the game starting at approximately 6:45 p.m. ET.

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Notes
*The win gives the Falcons 19 on the season overall, the most wins for a BGSU team since 19 wins in 2008-09.
* BGSU improved to 11-5 in MAC play, the most wins in a single MAC season since 11 wins back in 2008-09.
* With the win, the Falcons have now won five straight road games.
* The Falcons improved to 9-4 overall and 6-2 in league play on the road this season.
* Richaun Holmes scored 15 points to give him 16 straight games with double digit points.
* BGSU improved to 14-1 on the season when making the same number or more free throws than their opponents for the contest.
* BGSU moved to 16-3 on the season when scoring 60 points or more in the game.
* The Falcons are now 12-1 on the season when holding their opponent to less than 60 points.