Western Michigan Shoots 37 Free Throws In 89-79 Win Over Bowling Green

Tuesday, February 14

Kalamazoo, MI

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

5-811-15 < MAC>

Western Michigan

6-710-15 < MAC>

Bowling Green

WMU

Western Michigan Shoots 37 Free Throws In 89-79 Win Over Bowling Green

February 14, 2017 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: by James Nahikian, BGSU Athletic Communications

Game Highlights: BGSU at WMU
Final Statistics: PDF | HTML

KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team lost on Tuesday (Feb. 14) evening to Western Michigan University, 89-79, at University Arena. The Falcons had three players foul out, and were called for a season-high 30 fouls, which is tied for second-most in a Mid-American Conference game this season.

"It was extremely difficult to get into any sort of rhythm with all of the stoppages in the game," said head coach Michael Huger. "We gave ourselves a chance at the end of the game, but we didn't play our best, either. They beat us badly on the boards, and we had more turnovers than assists. There's nothing we can do now except get completely locked in for our game against Ohio on Saturday."

Bowling Green drops to 11-15, and 5-8 in conference play with the loss. Western Michigan has now won three-straight games to improve to 10-15 (6-7 MAC).

Western Michigan made more free throws than Bowling Green attempted, and scored more than a third of its points at the charity stripe, as the Broncos went an unworldly 31-for-37 at the free throw line.

There was just one more made field goal in the game than combined fouls. Both team's made 27 field goals, but a total of 53 foul calls helped the Broncos make 14 more free throws than the Falcons. Bowling Green went 17-for-25 at the line.

Western Michigan's leader scorer, Thomas Wilder, scored 38 points and went 15-for-15 at the charity stripe. The Broncos had just one player with four fouls. WMU's Tucker Haymond played well, as well, and finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

Freshman Rodrick Caldwell led the Falcons in scoring with 15 points before fouling out after 24 minutes played. Caldwell hit three triples, had three assists, one turnover and two rebounds. Senior Wes Alcegaire also fouled out, but gave the Falcons 17 strong minutes. He went 4-for-8 from the field, and finished the game with 11 points and two assists.

Senior Ismail Ali went 3-for-4 from the field, and had eight points, one assist and one rebound before fouling out after 15 minutes of action. Freshman Dylan Frye went 5-for-10 from the floor, and posted 13 points, four assists, one rebound and one steal.

Senior Zack Denny is just six points shy of 1,000 for his career after a 13-point night. Denny went 4-for-6 on field goal attempts. He also went 1-for-2 from deep and 4-for-4 from the line. Denny, who will become the 44th player in program history to score 1,000-career points, chipped in with three steals and two assists. Denny needs six steals to move into 10th place all-time on the program's career steals list.

Sophomore Demajeo Wiggins totaled seven points and seven rebounds in the ballgame. Redshirt-sophomore Rasheed Worrell had a strong game, as he registered seven points and six rebounds on 3-of-5 shooting.

The Falcons shot 46.6 percent (27-of-58) for the game, and 34.8 percent (8-of-23) from three-point range. The Broncos went 27-of-52 (51.9 percent) from the field, and 4-of-13 (30.8 percent) from downtown.

Bowling Green will conclude the week by traveling to Athens to take on Ohio University on Saturday (Feb. 18). The game is scheduled to tip-off at 2 p.m. The Falcons will then return to the Stroh Center to face the University of Akron on Feb. 21.