Falcons Roll Chippewas Saturday To Remain Perfect In League Play

Saturday, January 9

Mount Pleasant, MI

4:30 PM EST

Bowling Green State University

9-2,5-0MAC

Central Michigan

5-6,1-3MAC

Bowling Green

Central Mich.

January 09, 2021 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: by BGSU Strategic Communications

Box Score
Game Highlights: Bowling Green at Central Michigan

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team rolled to a 93-65 victory over Central Michigan University on Saturday (Jan. 9) afternoon. The league contest was played inside of CMU's McGuirk Arena. BGSU, now on a season-high winning streak of five games, moves to 8-2 in 2020-21 with the victory. Bowling Green is 5-0 in MAC play for just the third time in program history.

Bowling Green led wire-to-wire and held CMU to 30.0 percent (18-of-60) shooting for the contest. BGSU, which led by as many as 30 points in the second half, extended a 15-point halftime lead and had a total of 11 players enter the scoring column.

Fifth-year senior guard Justin Turner led the Falcons with a game-high 24 points. Turner also had eight assists and zero turnovers. Freshman guard Kaden Metheny scored 14 points, while junior guard Caleb Fields and senior forward Trey Diggs registered 13 points apiece.

The Falcons completed the home-and-home sweep of the Chippewas, as BGSU earned a 90-69 win inside the Stroh Center on Tuesday (Jan. 5). On this day, BGSU shot 43.8 percent (35-of-80) as a team and posted its largest margin of victory at McGuirk Arena (28 points) ever.

COACH HUGER QUOTE
"I am incredibly proud of our effort tonight. Central Michigan is a team that can play a lot of different ways, and our guys did a great job of adjusting throughout the contest. Before the game I challenged the guys to have a great follow-up effort from Tuesday's match, and they certainly answered that challenge. Tonight's game saw contributions from every player that stepped on the floor. Our chemistry and togetherness showed tonight."

TODD WALKER RADIO CALLS
• Metheny For Three! (6-4, BGSU)
• Plowden Triple (11-4, BGSU)
• Turner Triple (25-14, BGSU)
• Turner Floater (27-19, BGSU)
• And-1 For Juice (37-24, BGSU)
• Turner Nice Finish (51-34, BGSU)
• Washington Put-Back Score (53-34, BGSU)
• Turner For Three (58-38, BGSU)
• F I 3 L D S (61-40, BGSU)
• Metheny Triple! (64-42, BGSU)
• And-1 Diggs (66-42, BGSU)
• #DowntownDiggs (71-44, BGSU)

TEAM NOTES
• For just the third time in program history, Bowling Green is off to a 5-0 start in Mid-American Conference play. Two of those seasons – 2018-19 and 2020-21 – have taken place during the Michael Huger Era. The other 5-0 start came under coach Harold Anderson in 1961-62.
• Bowling Green is 9-2, marking its best-ever start through 11 games in the Michael Huger Era.
• With the win, Bowling Green moves over .500 at 48-47 in Mid-American Conference games under head coach Michael Huger.
• The Orange and Brown moved to 97-77 in the Michael Huger Era with the win.
• Bowling Green and Toledo are tied atop the Mid-American Conference standings with identical 5-0 records.
• BGSU is 29-12 in conference play over its last 41 league games dating back to 2019.
• With the win, Bowling Green increased its advantage in its all-time series with Central Michigan to 44-39. BGSU has won four of the last five meetings with CMU dating back to 2019. The Falcons are 5-6 versus CMU under head coach Michael Huger.
• The Falcons have won five-straight road games for the first time since winning five-straight road MAC games in February of 2015. BGSU is 5-1 on the road in 2020-21 with its only loss coming at Michigan to open the season. The Wolverines are still undefeated and currently ranked No. 10 in the Associated Press Top-25.
• Bowling Green has scored 90-plus points in consecutive games against Mid-American Conference opponents for the first time since March of 1997. Jim Larranaga's Falcons scored 99 points versus CMU (March 1, 1997) before totaling 94 points against Toledo (March 4, 1997) – both BG wins.
• Bowling Green's defense tied a season best by limiting CMU to just 18 field goal makes. Central Michigan's field goal percentage of 30.0 (18-of-60) marked a season best for the BGSU defense. CMU's field goal percentage is the lowest of a BGSU opponent in a MAC game since Akron shot 29.6 percent (21-of-71) in a Bowling Green home win last season on Feb. 25, 2020.
• For the second-straight game, BGSU racked up a season high for assists. Bowling Green dished out a season-high 20 assists, marking the most assists in a game for the program since recording 20 assists in a road win at Northern Illinois on Feb. 16, 2019. In 2020-21, the Falcons have notched at least 12 assists in 10-of-11 games.
• The Falcons committed a season-low five turnovers. It's the first time BGSU has committed five or fewer turnovers since turning the ball over five times in a win over Oakland at the Stroh Center on Dec. 7, 2019. In 2020-21, BGSU has committed 10 or fewer turnovers a total of seven times.
• BGSU totaled a season-high 51 rebounds – the most in a single game for the program since registering 52 rebounds in a road win at Buffalo on Jan. 31, 2020.
• BGSU outscored CMU in the second half by a margin of 49-36. On the season, Bowling Green has scored 516 second-half points while limiting its opponent to 382 second-half points. In 8-of-11 games in 2020-21, the Falcons have scored at least 11 more points than their opposition over the final 20 minutes of regulation.
--- By 21 versus South Carolina State (56-35)
--- By 21 points at Northern Illinois (45-24)
--- By 18 points versus Purdue Northwest (48-30)
--- By 18 points at Ohio (51-33)
--- By 16 points at Robert Morris (44-28)
--- By 15 points versus Wright State (46-31)
--- By 13 points at Central Michigan (49-36)
--- By 11 points versus Central Michigan (44-33)
• Bowling Green completely dominated the specialty statistics on the afternoon: Points off turnovers (18-3), paint points (42-22), second-chance points (20-12), fast-break points (11-4), bench points (33-22).
• Bowling Green is 29-17 in the month of January in the Michael Huger Era. BG is 32-24 when playing on a Saturday under Huger.
• There was only one lead chance in the game. CMU took a 4-0 lead, but BGSU countered with an 11-0 run and led the lest of the way. The Falcons led for 37:18 of the game's 40 minutes.
• Bowling Green's 28-point victory marks the program's largest margin of victory inside of CMU's McGuirk Arena. The Falcons are 3-6 in Mount Pleasant since the Chippewas renovated McGuirk Arena.

PLAYER NOTES
• Fifth-year senior guard Justin Turner led all scorers with 24 points. The native of Detroit has scored 1,825 points in 105 games in the Orange and Brown. Turner is 114 points away from becoming Bowling Green's all-time leading scorer. Turner has scored in double figures a total of 91 times in his collegiate career. Turner needs 10 points to move past Howard Komives (1961-64 | 1,834 points) and into third place on BGSU's all-time scoring list.
• With his eight assists and zero turnovers, Turner surpassed a couple of great Falcon guards in Dylan Frye (2016-20 | 306 assists) and Keith McLeod (1998-02 | 306 assists) on BGSU's all-time assists list. Turner ranks 10th all-time with 309 assists. He's 10 assists shy of moving past Scott Thomas (2008-12 | 318 assists) for ninth all-time.
• For the seventh time in his young career, freshman guard Kaden Metheny scored in double figures. Metheny, who has scored 10-plus points in 4-of-5 MAC games in his career, scored 11 of his 14 points in the contest in the first half. Metheny tied his career high with four triples, going 4-for-7 from downtown.
• Junior guard Caleb Fields stuffed the stat sheet with 13 points, six rebounds, four assists, one block and one steal. Seven of Fields' 19 double-figure scoring games have come in 2020-21. The junior, who tied his season high in rebounding on the afternoon, has drilled three triples in back-to-back games.
• Senior forward Trey Diggs added 13 points for the Falcons, marking the 20th double-digit scoring game of his Bowling Green career.
• Junior center Jacob Washington tied his career high with eight points while blocking a career-high two shots. Washington, who also had three rebounds, set career highs with four makes on six attempts from the field.
• Senior forward Daeqwon Plowden continues to close in on 1,000 career points. The Philadelphia native is just 89 points shy of the plateau following his seven-point outing. Plowden also added two assists and a game-high 14 rebounds. The senior fell just two rebounds shy of tying his career high, which he set earlier this season against South Carolina State on Nov. 28, 2020. Plowden can earn a spot in BGSU's record book and move into 15th place all-time in rebounding at Bowling Green with 19 more rebounds. He's recorded a total of 619 rebounds in his BGSU career. For Plowden, his 14-rebound effort marked the 19th time in his collegiate career with 10-plus rebounds.
• Sophomore forward Chandler Turner scored four points and pulled down a career-high six rebounds. Freshman forward Cam Young had a similar stat line, finishing with four points and a career-high seven rebounds.
• Freshman wing Josiah Fulcher (3 points) and redshirt-sophomore center Dylan Swingle (2 points) each grabbed three rebounds for the Orange and Brown.
• Freshman walk-on Jackson Watson hit a free throw in the second half for his first collegiate points. Watson also posted his first-career rebound and first-career assist in the contest.

TOP HALF OF MAC STANDINGS (As of end of day: Jan. 9, 2020)
1. Bowling Green (5-0)
Toledo (5-0)
3. Akron (2-1)
Buffalo (2-1)
5. Ball State (2-2)
Miami (1-1)

NEXT GAME
Jan. 12 | vs. Ball State | 7 p.m. | Stroh Center | ESPN3 or ESPN+

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
Twitter: @BGSUMHoops
Instagram: @BGSUMHoops
Website: BGSUFalcons.com