Bowling Green Downed In Defensive Dispute Against Kent State

Tuesday, February 8

Kent, Ohio

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Kent State

Photo by: Stephen Linsky, BGSU Athletics

February 08, 2022 | Men's Basketball

Box Score BGSU-Kent State Stats Support Our Student-Athletes

By: by Kyle Edmond, BGSU Athletics

KENT, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University men's basketball program traveled to Kent State on Tuesday night (Feb. 8) to face the Golden Flashes. Four different Falcons reached double-digits in the contest, but it wasn't enough to overcome a 76-68 final in favor of the Flashes. Daeqwon Plowden led the way for the Falcons with 16 points and eight rebounds, both team-highs. Matiss Kulackovskis (14), Samari Curtis (12) and Trey Diggs (11) all reached double-digits as well. The loss moves BGSU to 12-12 on the season while being 5-8 in MAC play. The Orange and Brown will stay on the road for their next game, facing Miami (OH) this Saturday (Feb. 12).

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Falcons won the opening tip and immediately took command with a three-pointer by Samari Curtis. However, defense soon took over for both sides, seeing the score at just 3-2 BGSU at the first media timeout.
Out of the media timeout, the Golden Flashes found the basket, scoring the next five points for a 7-0 run total. The run came to a close after a Trey Diggs triple for Bowling Green, cutting the lead down to 7-6 Kent State.
Bowling Green and Kent State traded buckets before a 6-0 stretch in favor of the Flashes pushed the Kent State lead to 19-12. The Falcons responded with a 5-0 run to trim the lead back down to 19-17.
Kent State worked to slowly rebuild their lead, growing to as many as nine in the first half. Bowling Green ended the first half with an 8-0 run to go into the half down just one, 29-28.
The Falcons started the second half with four straight points, all coming from Matiss Kulackovskis, to take a 32-29 lead. Kulackovskis would go on to tally the first six points of the second half for Bowling Green.
Diggs and Curtis combined for an 8-0 run for the Falcons, pushing BGSU to a 44-41 lead and forcing a timeout from the Kent State bench.
The Golden Flashes were able to respond and reclaim a 55-51 lead before a timeout, this time from the Bowling Green bench.
Kent State continued to piece together their lead, reaching 10 with just over six minutes remaining, 65-55. The Golden Flashes were able to hold the lead from then on, winning 76-68.

STAT LEADERS

Daeqwon Plowden: 16 points, 8 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 assist
Matiss Kulackovskis: 14 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block
Samari Curtis: 12 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists
Trey Diggs: 11 points, 5 rebounds
Myron Gordon: 8 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds, 1 steal

FALCON STAT FACTS

Daeqwon Plowden logged a team-high 16 points on the night. That pushes Plowden up to 11th on the all-time list, being one point ahead of David Jenkins and one point behind Len Matela. Plowden's tally is now up to 1,526 points in the Orange and Brown.
Plowden also moved up the all-time rebounding list. Leading the Falcons with eight rebounds on the night, Plowden now has 892 career rebounds, passing Len Matela for fourth all-time. Only Damajeo Wiggins, Cornelius Cash and Nate Thurmond have more career rebounds as a Falcon, all over the 1,000 mark.
Samari Curtis scored the first basket of the night, being a shot from behind the arc. Curtis ended the night with 12 points, bringing his season total to 184, setting a new single season-high for his collegiate career. His high was previously set at 172 from last season with Evansville.

TODD WALKER RADIO CALLS
Curtis Opens With A Three
Plowden And-One
Kulackovskis Slam
Curtis Finds Kulackovskis
Plowden Put Back Dunk
Gordon Triple Ties It

COACH'S QUOTE
"At halftime we had 13 turnovers, that's 13 opportunities we didn't get to shoot the ball. A lot of them were just careless turnovers and that's the thing that's so frustrating. We do a great job of taking care of the ball and then all of a sudden we come up with turnovers after turnovers. We only had three turnovers in the second half, which was good, but we couldn't get the stops that we needed in the critical situations. They went on big runs and were able to hit threes and knock down shots and we couldn't answer the run. That was the difference today. We couldn't answer the run. I'm pleased with the defense, pleased with how hard we played on the defensive end. We competed, but the shots just didn't fall for us tonight."

Full postgame interview with Todd Walker

UP NEXT
The Orange and Brown will stay on the road for their next contest, traveling to Oxford, Ohio on Saturday (Feb. 12) to face the Miami RedHawks. The game is currently set a 3:30 p.m. tip-off at Millett Hall.

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