Campbell’s Record-Setting Performance Carries Falcons To Thrilling Overtime Victory

Saturday, January 3

Amherst, Mass.

2 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

11-4,2-1MAC

101

100

UMass

9-6,0-3MAC

OT 1

Bowling Green

101

Massachusetts

100

Campbell’s Record-Setting Performance Carries Falcons To Thrilling Overtime Victory

January 03, 2026 | Men's Basketball

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Campbell Sets Record For Most Road Points By A Falcon With 47, Most Overall Since 1964

By: by Kyle Edmond, BGSU Athletics

AMHERST, Mass. - The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team took the UMass Minutemen to overtime behind a spectacular game from Javontae Campbell Saturday (Jan. 3). Trailing by three with 10 seconds left in regulation, Campbell drew a three-point foul, making all three attempts at the line despite UMass' efforts to ice him with a timeout. After forcing overtime, Campbell and the Falcons rallied to a thrilling 101-100 overtime win over UMass behind Campbell's 47 points, tied for the fifth-most in program history, the most since 1964 and the most ever by a Falcon in a road game. The win moves Bowling Green to 11-4 on the season while being 2-1 to begin MAC play.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Javontae Campbell started the scoring in the game with a layup followed by a UMass three. Javon Ruffin made one at the line for an early 3-3 tie. The Minutemen sank a pair of threes with a Campbell layup separating the baskets for a 9-5 score. A jumper from Wol kept the back-and-forth going, but UMass answered in similar fashion. Ruffin hit the first three for the Falcons followed by a UMass layup for a 13-10 Minutemen lead at the first media timeout.
Out of the timeout, Josiah Shackelford went to the line, making one. Campbell worked for an old-fashioned three-point play the next time down, putting the Falcons in front, 14-13, at the under-12 media timeout.
UMass started the scoring out of the break, but a Shackelford jumper matched. Makhi Leach added a layup, increasing the BGSU lead, but back-to-back UMass buckets swung the score back to the Minutemen. Sam Towns responded with a layup, reclaiming the lead for the Falcons, 20-19, with the lead continuing to change hands going into the under-8 media break.
Towns jumpstarted the scoring after the pause with a second-chance layup. UMass matched with two at the line, but Aiden Goins tallied two at the stripe as well. A layup for Campbell stretched the BGSU lead to five, but UMass answered with a 6-0 run to push ahead 27-26 at the final media timeout of the first half.
The run reached 8-0 for UMass after the timeout with a Campbell layup ending the burst. The Minutemen made two at the line with Campbell matching one for a 31-29 score. Campbell added a layup with just under two minutes left in the half to tie it up, 31-31. Campbell broke the tie with two at the line to grant the Falcons the lead, but a three for UMass pushed them back in front. A Campbell free throw tied it up once again, 34-34, giving him BGSU's final 10 points of the half with the score holding to the midway point.
Campbell started the second half scoring with a layup, but UMass responded with a bucket to keep it tied. Campbell kept it going with back-to-back layups, stretching his scoring run to 16 points for the Falcons and the BGSU lead to 40-36.
The Minutemen hit a three before a Wol jumper, ending the Campbell scoring run for BGSU. Two more from Campbell, this time at the line, followed one UMass free throw for a 44-40 score. A back-and-forth followed with a Wol alley-oop dunk off a Campbell pass separating five UMass points for a 46-45 score at the first media timeout of the second half.
The Minutemen tied it up at 46-46. Campbell worked for a layup, but a UMass three answered. Wol matched with a triple of his own, putting the score at 51-49 BGSU. The Wol three sparked an 8-0 BGSU run with Shackelford converting an and-one before a Wol dunk, forcing a timeout from UMass with a 56-49 BGSU advantage. After the timeout, UMass hit a pair of threes with a Towns basket between to narrow the gap to 58-55 at the under-12 media timeout.
Each team added a free throw after the pause with Shackelford knocking down Bowling Green's. Campbell later sank two more free throws for the Falcons. Towns hit one as well before a 7-0 UMass run to push ahead, 63-62, at the under-8 media timeout.
The run for the Minutemen reached 12-0 with a 68-62 score. Shackelford went up-and-under for a layup to end the run, but UMass answered with a layup of their own. The teams went to the line, extending the score to 72-67 at the under-4 media timeout with BGSU's three all coming from Campbell.
UMass made one free throw after the break before two from Wol. UMass worked for a jumper to keep the back-and-forth going, but a three from Wol closed the gap to a possession, 75-72. The Minutemen tallied a basket with a timeout, up 77-72 with just over a minute remaining. UMass added a bucket after the break, but a three from Ruffin cut the score to 79-75 with a BGSU timeout. The Minutemen hit two at the line, but a three from Campbell cut the score down to 81-78 with another BGSU timeout.
UMass made one free throw, but an and-one for Campbell trimmed the deficit to one, 82-81. UMass made a pair at the line, but Campbell drew a goaltending call to stay within one. UMass went back to the line for two followed by BGSU's full timeout with the score at 86-83. Campbell drew a three-point foul, making the first two before a UMass timeout. After the break, Campbell made another to tie it up at 86-86, forcing overtime.
Ruffin started the overtime scoring with a triple to quickly put the Falcons in front. Two at the line from Campbell extended the lead before UMass and Wol traded threes for a 94-89 score.
Each team added a layup with Towns making Bowling Green's. UMass made two at the line to pull back within a possession, 96-93, before a three tied it up at 96-96. Wol broke the tie with a tip-in to put the Falcons back on top. Campbell followed with two at the line for a 100-96 advantage. The Minutemen drove for a layup before fouling the Falcons. Shackelford made one before a UMass jumper to pull within one, 101-100.

STAT LEADERS

Javontae Campbell: 47 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds
Mayar Wol: 21 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals
Javon Ruffin: 10 points, 2 assists, 1 rebounds, 1 steal
Josiah Shackelford: 10 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist
Sam Towns: 9 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals

FALCON STAT FACTS

Playing all 45 minutes, a new career-high, Javontae Campbell tallied 47 points for the Falcons, also a new career-high and the first 40-point game by a Falcon since Martin Samarco had 43 against Buffalo on Jan. 7, 2007. Campbell's points are tied for fifth all-time in program history and a new record among road games. His performance is the only in the top 10 to occur since 1966 and are the most since 1964.
Campbell also went 20-for-27 at the free throw line, tying the program record for free throw attempts in a game, set by Keith McLeod against Ole Miss on Nov. 15, 2001. He was two shy of the free throws made record, currently set at 22 by Ron Lewis against Ball State on March 10, 2003.
Campbell added a team-high eight assists in the game as well as six rebounds. He's now led the Falcons in assists in six of the last eight games.
Mayar Wol made his first start of the season, resulting in the third unique starting lineup for the Falcons this season. He finished with 21 points, tying his season-high for his second 20-point game of the season, becoming the fourth Falcon with multiple 20-point games this season. He also matched his season-high for rebounds (6) and assists (2).
Sam Towns filled the stat sheet for the Falcons with nine points, eight rebounds, a career-high six assists and three steals. His rebound and steals totals both led the team. He's now led the Falcons in rebounds in four of the last five games.
With the Falcons scoring 101 points in the game, BGSU now has four 100-point games this season, second in program history behind only the 1963-64 campaign that had five.
With a 34-34 halftime score, the game marked the first time this season BGSU went to halftime with a tied score and the fifth during the Simon Era.
The win is the first overtime win for Bowling Green in two years, almost to the day, with the last coming on Jan. 2, 2024 against Eastern Michigan with a 92-90 final.
The win for the Falcons is the first in program history against UMass, giving Bowling Green wins against 274 unique opponents in program history.
Bowling Green is now 2-0 on the road against MAC opponents for the first time since the 2020-21 season. BGSU also has two wins through the team's first three MAC games for the third time in the last four seasons.

QUOTE FROM COACH SIMON
"[Javontae Campbell] is just a special player. You could see it early on, right from the get-go that he was dialed in today. No matter what we called for him, he seemed to find a path to the basket and he did a heck of a job. He made great decisions, still had eight assists. I mean he had 47 [points] and eight assists, so just an incredible performance."

UP NEXT
The Falcons will continue their road trip on Tuesday (Jan. 6), heading to Kent State for a 7 p.m. tip against the Golden Flashes. From there, Bowling Green will return home to host Akron on Jan. 9 for a nationally televised game in the Stroh Center, scheduled for an 8 p.m. start.

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