Falcons Fall on the Road at UB on Saturday Afternoon

Saturday, February 20

Buffalo, N.Y.

12:00 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

13-14, 4-10MAC

Buffalo

15-12, 8-6MAC

Bowling Green

Buffalo

Photo by: Larry Clapper

February 20, 2016 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: by Kevin Davis, BGSU Assistant Director for Athletic Communications

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Final Stats: Box Score (HTML)
Video: BGSU Highlights
Audio: Postgame Press Conference: Huger
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         1st half - Alcegaire with a two-handed slam
                        Wiggins offensive rebound
                        Denny bucket & and-1
                        Denny three-pointer in the 1st half
                        Fox trey from the wing
                        Parker scoop layup
      2nd half - Alcegaire three-pointer from Denny
                       Parker step through basket and foul
                   Parker three-ball from the top of the key
                       Parker drive and finish
                       Alcegaire drive and dunk
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Schedule: 2015-16 BGSU Men's Basketball Schedule

Buffalo, N.Y. – The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team shot 54.4 percent from the field overall and led for over 23 minutes in the contest, yet were outscored 25-8 from the free throw line over the 40 minute contest and 27-7 over the final 8:45 of the game to fall on the road at the University at Buffalo, 88-74, on Saturday afternoon inside UB Alumni Arena in Buffalo, N.Y.

The Falcons took a 67-61 lead on a jumper from Zack Denny at the 8:45 mark of the second half, yet went ice cold from the floor offensively going the next 5:22 without a point and scoring a total of just seven points for the remainder of the game in the loss.

BGSU was 31-of-57 (54.4 percent) shooting overall from the field for the game, but was just 4-of-14 (28.6 percent) from behind the three-point line and only 8-of-15 (53.3 percent) from the foul line.

Buffalo was 29-of-59 (49.2 percent) from the field and was 5-of-17 (29.4 percent) from behind the three-point line.

However, the difference was at the charity stripe where the Bulls were 25-of-33 (75.8 percent) overall, totaling 17 points more from the foul line than the Falcons did in the contest.

Spencer Parker led the Falcons with a team-high 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field overall in 36 minutes of play. It was Parker's seventh 20-plus point game of the season. Denny added 15 points, nine rebounds and three assists, while fellow sharp shooter Wes Alcegaire registered 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting overall. David Joseph finished with eight points, all of which came in the first half, to go along with a team-high four assists.

Buffalo had four players in double figures led by Blake Hamilton's game-high 24 points. Hamilton was 9-of-15 overall from the field and 4-of-5 from the free throw line in 32 minutes of play. Lamonte Bearden came off the bench to score 16 points and pass out six assists, while starters CJ Massinburg and Willie Conner finished with 15 and 14 points apiece, respectively, for the Bulls in the win.

The Falcons were also haunted by turnovers, as BGSU coughed up the ball a total of 18 times which led to 28 Buffalo points for the game. UB, who out-rebounded BGSU 34-30, also outscored the Falcons 14-9 in second chance points, 48-40 in points in the paint and 27-13 in bench points on the day.

The Falcons bucked their trend of starting slow the last few weeks, as BGSU picked up two straight steals on the defensive end and got back-to-back buckets from Denny and Parker to take a 4-0 lead at the 18:30 mark of the opening half of play.

After UB tied the game up at 4-4, BGSU retook the lead on an inbounds alley-oop play to Alcegaire who flushed it home to put the visitors in brown back in front by two at 6-4 with just over 17 minutes to go in the first half.

With neither team able to find the bottom of the net over the next two minutes of play, the Bulls got a tip-in basket from Ikenna Smart, a layup in the paint by Massinburg and a layup off an offensive rebound by Nick Perkins over a one minute stretch to give the home team a four point lead at 10-6 with 14:20 left before the halftime break.

A BGSU jumper from Parker halted the UB run, yet the Bulls got five straight points from Bearden and pushed their lead out to eight at 16-8 on a free throw from Conner at the 12:52 mark of the first half.

Two straight layups down low from Demajeo Wiggins put the Falcons down just four at 16-12, yet the Bulls were able to answer back with two free throws from Conner to put the home team back in front by six at 18-12.

The next two minutes would see BGSU trim the UB lead to three at 20-17, at 22-19 and again at 24-21, before a jumper from Joseph at the 8:44 mark put the Falcons within one at 24-23.

Following a UB three-ball from Jarryn Skeete at the 8:10 mark, BGSU picked up a layup down low from Rasheed Worrell, a fast break basket from Parker, an old-fashion three-point play from Denny and then a long trey from Denny to cap off a 10-0 surge by the Falcons to propel the visitors back into the lead at 33-27 with 6:19 to go in the opening period.

The Falcons were able to extend the lead out to eight at 37-29 on four quick points from Joseph and Worrell, only to see the Bulls continue to get to the free throw line where they would score three of their next five points to close the gap to four at 37-33 with 2:51 before the halftime intermission.

A three-ball from Matt Fox and a late layup from Parker extended the Falcons' lead to seven on each occasion, yet a three-pointer from Hamilton with 33 seconds left on the game clock sent the contest into the halftime break with BGSU on top by four at 42-38.

Buffalo got on the scoreboard first in the second half just over two minutes into the period on a jumper in the paint from Hamilton, as the two teams traded baskets over the next minute of play with the Falcons' Alcegaire scoring all five of BGSU points to keep the visitors in front by five at 47-42 with 16:38 to go in regulation.

Following an old-fashion three-point play from Buffalo to cut the BGSU lead to two at 47-45, BGSU's Alcegaire answered again with a nice blow by layup down the lane at the 14:39 mark to push the Falcons' lead back to four at 49-45.

The Bulls would get to within one of the Falcons at 49-48, 57-56 and 59-58 over the next three minute stretch, yet the Orange and Brown had an answer every time and eventually pulled back out on top by six at 67-61 on a jumper from Denny at the 8:45 mark of the second half.

That's when the game changed drastically, as Buffalo scored the next four points by way of back-to-back layups from Conner and Rodell Wigginton, while the Falcons went 0-of-1 from the field and turned the ball over two times with the second eventually leading to a double technical foul with 7:11 to go in the game.

The home team would continue to get to the charity stripe and would use two free throws from Conner and a fast break layup by Hamilton off another BGSU turnover to give the Bulls the lead at 69-67 with 6:03 left on the game clock.

The momentum had clearly shifted to the Bulls, as UB continued to add to its scoring run and outscored the Falcons 16-0 over the next 5:22 to pull ahead by 10 at 77-76.

An Alcegaire dunk at the 3:23 mark ended the Falcons' scoring drought and put the visitors down eight at 77-69, however, it proved to be too little too late, as UB answered with a layup from Hamilton and four straight points from Bearden to give the home team its largest lead of the game at 83-69 with just under two minutes to play.

BGSU got a layup from Ismail Ali and three free throws from Parker over the final 1:43 of the contest, but were not able to get any closer than 11 points for the remainder of the game as UB went 3-of-4 from the free throw line and got a fast break layup from Hamilton as time ticked away to give the Bulls the 88-74 conference home win.

The Falcons (13-14, 4-10 MAC) will return home to host the Ohio Bobcats on Tuesday, Feb. 23, at 7 p.m. inside the Stroh Center. BGSU defeated Ohio 91-75 back on Jan. 12 in Athens, Ohio.

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Notes

The Falcons, who shot 54.4 percent overall for the game, have now shot 50 percent or better four different times on the season.
BGSU's 54.4 percent field goal percentage on the day is the Falcons' third best field goal percentage in a single game this season (55.7 vs. Urbana; 55.2 at SEMO).
The Falcons' 18 turnovers versus Buffalo on Saturday was a season high.
With the loss, the Falcons are now 0-6 thus far in the month of February.
BGSU has now dropped four straight games to the Buffalo Bulls.
BGSU's 12 assists gives the Falcons four straight games with double digit assists.
With his 21 points, senior Spencer Parker has scored 20 points or more in a game seven different times this season.
Parker has now scored a total of 1,068 points which ranks 37th all-time in BGSU men's basketball history.
With his 15 points, Zack Denny has now scored in double figures 17 times on the season.
With his 13 points, Wes Alcegaire has totaled double digit points 12 times on the year.