Falcons’ 21 Win Season Comes to an End in the CIT

Saturday, March 21

Bowling Green, Ohio

1:00 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

21-12

Canisius

18-14

Canisius

Bowling Green

Photo by: Bianca Garza, BGSU Marketing and Communications

March 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
Video: Postgame Interview with Coach Jans
Audio: Postgame Interview with Coach Jans
Photos: Photo Gallery (Bianca Garza)
Audio - Radio Calls by Todd Walker, the Voice of the Falcons:
Denny 3pt basket in 1st half (CAN, 13-6)
Tisdale basket in 1st half (CAN, 25-14)
Denny 3pt basket in 1st half (CAN, 30-19)
Clarke 3pt basket in 2nd half (CAN, 45-36)

Bowling Green, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team fell behind by double digits early in the contest and was unable to overcome the early deficit in an 82-59 home loss to Canisius College on Saturday afternoon in the second round of the 2015 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) in Bowling Green, Ohio. The loss ends the Falcons' season at 21-12 overall.

BGSU's 21 wins this season is a nine game improvement on last year's win total of 12 victories and is the first 20-win season for the Falcons since the 2001-02 team totaled 24 victories.

"It's a tough way to end the season. For those that have been to most of the games or have followed us, it certainly was not one of our better efforts. It was borderline uninspiring, at least from where I sat," commented head coach Chris Jans. "I'm disappointed that the season ended that way. I can't put my finger on it. We've had pretty good practices leading up to this game, good energy. We got Richaun back today, which I thought would give us a boost, but for whatever reason we just couldn't get them going."

Senior Richaun Holmes, who missed the CIT first round game on Tuesday at Saint Francis (Pa.), returned to post a double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds in his final game in a Bowling Green uniform, while fellow senior Jehvon Clarke poured in a team-high 17 points, including a stretch of seven straight points in the second half. Off the bench, sophomores Zack Denny and JD Tisdale chipped in with eight points apiece.

Canisius had four players in double figures led by Josiah Heath's 23 points. Fellow starters Jeremiah Williams and Jamal Reynolds finished with 16 points apiece, while off the bench Kassius Robertson added 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting overall.

The Falcons were outscored 38-16 in points in the paint and 16-2 in fast break points for the contest, as the Golden Griffins shot 49.2 percent (31-of-63) from the field overall and 40.7 percent (11-of-27) from behind the three-point line over the 40 minutes of play.

Bowling Green came out of the opening tip flat, as the visitors in navy blue and yellow flew out to a 13-3 lead on an old-fashion three-point play by Reynolds at the 16 minute mark of the first half of play.

A three-pointer from Denny off the right wing put the Falcons down just seven at 13-6, however, BGSU could not stop the hot shooting Griffs who nailed two three-pointers and got two layups down low from Heath and Williams to take a 17-point lead at 25-8 with 10:25 to go in the opening frame.

A 6-0 run by the Orange and Brown trimmed the Canisius lead to 11 at 25-14, yet the Falcons couldn't get any closer over the next several minutes and saw a second three-pointer from Denny at the 5:52 mark put BGSU down 11 once again, this time at 30-19.

Canisius would twice extend its lead out to 17 points over the final five minutes of the first half only to see BGSU close the half out with back-to-back jumpers from Denny and David Joseph to cut the Griffs lead to 13 at 38-25 at the halftime intermission.

Four straight points from Holmes to open up the second half put the Falcons within single digits at 38-29 with still over 19 minutes to go in the game.

BGSU would battle the Griffs over the next five minutes of play and used nine straight points from the senior duo of Anthony Henderson and Clarke to get the home team in white to within seven points at 45-38 with 14:32 in regulation.

However, the Griffs answered with a 15-2 run, the lone two points by way of a two-handed slam by Holmes down low, over the next five minutes of play to storm out to a 21-point lead, the largest of the game, at 61-40 on a three-pointer from Robertson at the 9:32 mark of the second half.

The Falcons made a last chance run at the Golden Griffins to cut the visitors lead to 13 at 64-51 on a jumper in the lane from Clarke at the 7:11 mark, yet failed to put together a string of stops and baskets over the final seven minutes of the game as the Griffs pulled away for the 82-59 win.

The Falcons committed 11 turnovers which led to 14 Canisius points, while the Griffs shot 59.3 percent (16-of-27) overall for the second half, including going 7-of-14 (50 percent) from long range.

"I feel awful for the fans. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people that attended the game," added Coach Jans. "They wanted to get behind us. In the second half, we had a run where we cut it to seven, maybe, or eight, and you could feel the energy in the building pick up. We didn't give those fans much to cheer about the rest of the game."

The Falcons' first round CIT win on Tuesday night was BGSU's first national postseason tournament win since 1975.

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Notes
* The Falcons finished the season at 21-12 overall.
* The 21 wins are the most for the Falcons in a single season since 24 wins back in 2001-02.
* BGSU's 11 MAC wins in league play are the most for BGSU in a single season since 11 wins in 2008-09.
* BGSU posted its first national postseason tournament since 1975 with its first round CIT win at Saint Francis (Pa.) on March 17.
* Senior Richaun Holmes' 14 points and 11 rebounds marked his fifth double-double of the season and 13th double-double of his career.
* With his 14-point effort, Richaun Holmes finished the year with 26 double digit scoring games.
* Jehvon Clarke's 17 points marked the 18th time this season that the senior guard totaled double digit points.
* Richaun Holmes finishes his career with 1,089 career points, which places him 35th all-time on BGSU's career scoring list.
* With the 21 wins this season, head coach Chris Jans is the only coach in BGSU's 100-year history to record 20 wins or more in his first year on the sidelines at BG.