Falcons Fight Back From 14-Point Deficit To Secure Win, Spot In MAC Tournament

Saturday, February 28

Bowling Green, Ohio

2 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

17-13,8-9MAC

UMass

15-15,6-11MAC

Massachusetts

Bowling Green

Photo by: Scott W. Grau

Falcons Fight Back From 14-Point Deficit To Secure Win, Spot In MAC Tournament

February 28, 2026 | Men's Basketball

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BGSU Punches Ticket To Third-Straight MAC Tournament, Continuing Streak Under Simon

By: by Kyle Edmond, BGSU Athletics

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team clinched their spot in the MAC Tournament with an 81-62 victory over the UMass Minutemen on Saturday (Feb. 28) at the Stroh Center. The Falcons fell behind in the first half by as many as 14, but battled back, including an 18-point swing in the second half. During the second half, BGSU registered a 20-2 run that spanned nearly five minutes of action to reach the final tally. With the win, Bowling Green secured their spot in Cleveland for the conference tournament while advancing to 17-13 on the year and 8-9 within the MAC. BGSU will wrap up the regular season at Eastern Michigan on March 6 with the MAC Tournament beginning on March 12.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Falcons won the opening tip and started the scoring with a three from Javon Ruffin. Troy Glover II added a dunk, but UMass answered each time to take a 7-5 lead into the first media timeout.
UMass stretched their lead with a three, but a Josiah Shackelford triple answered before an Aiden Goins layup tied it up at 10-10. The Minutemen answered again, but a Javontae Campbell and-one tied it up, 12-12, at the under-12 media timeout. After the break, Campbell made the free three for a 13-12 advantage.
Sam Towns added two more at the line, but a 5-0 run for UMass followed to push them back in front, 17-15, at the under-8 media timeout. The run for UMass reached 17-0 for a 29-15 score.
Glover ended the run with two free throws with Campbell later adding a second-chance layup for a 29-19 score at the final media timeout of the first half. Mahki Leach added two at the line for the Falcons before a 6-0 run by Ruffin, consisting of a three and an and-one, bringing the score to 37-28 at the halftime whistle.
The Falcons opened the second half with baskets from Goins and Campbell to cut into the lead, 39-32, at the first media timeout.
From there, the Falcons worked to knot it up at 41-41. A three from Justin Thomas started the burst followed by a fastbreak layup from Thomas for a UMass timeout. Shackelford added a layup and two at the line for the tie. The tie moved to 44-44 with a Campbell free throw and layup, but another Campbell layup made it a 46-44 BGSU lead at the under-12 media timeout.
UMass tallied four points to move in front, but a Campbell layup tied it before an and-one from Troy Glover II for a 51-48 BGSU advantage. UMass pushed ahead, 52-51, but a three-point barrage followed for Bowling Green. Thomas hit two, split by a Shackelford triple for a 60-52 lead to force a timeout from the UMass bench, doubling as the under-8 media.
The run continued with an and-one for Thomas in transition before a tip-in from Campbell. The three-point barrage returned with two from Shackelford, making it a 20-2 BGSU stretch, leading to a 71-56 BGSU lead at the final media timeout in regulation.
A second-chance bucket from Glover and a layup from Campbell extended the BGSU advantage before the next UMass basket. Campbell tallied the next three Bowling Green points before Leach finished it off with two at the line for the 81-62 final score.

STAT LEADERS

Javontae Campbell: 20 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals
Josiah Shackelford: 16 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal
Justin Thomas: 15 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists
Troy Glover II: 9 points, 4 rebounds, 1 block
Sam Towns: 4 points, 15 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals, 1 block

FALCON STAT FACTS

With the win, the Falcons clinched a spot in the MAC Tournament. Coach Simon has now made at least the quarterfinals of his conference tournament each year he has been a head coach, dating back to his time as the interim head coach at UNLV in 2015-16.
The win for Bowling Green marks the 51st of Coach Simon's tenure with the Falcons. He now has the most wins of any head coach in their first three seasons during BGSU's MAC Era, surpassing Dan Dakich's 50. Harold Anderson's first three seasons came before BGSU joined the MAC.
Javontae Campbell led the BGSU scoring with 20 points, his 13th 20-point game this season. The mark moved Campbell's Bowling Green scoring total to 1,037, pushing him up to 47th on the all-time scoring list, passing Jim Connally (1968-71) and Stanley Weber (1946-50), both with 1,036.
Campbell added a pair of steals in the game, bringing his season total to 93. He's already snapped the program's single-season record and is now closing in on the MAC's. The 93 put him in a tie for third in MAC history with Ohio's DJ Cooper's 2009-10 season, trailing the record by 10.
Campbell registered four assists for the Falcons as well, giving him 152 this season, breaking into the program's top 10 for single-season assists. His 152 places him 10th currently, surpassing John Floyd's 150 in 2004-05 for the top 10 list.
Sam Towns paced the team in both rebounds (15) and assists (7). Towns' rebound total is the second-most by a Falcon this season, trailing only his own mark of 18 from Nov. 26 against VMU. His 13 defensive rebounds set a new career-high.
As for Towns' assists, it marks a new career-high for him and the first time this season he's led the team in the stat. Towns snapped a 16-game streak for Campbell leading the team in assists and is the first player other than Campbell to lead in assists against a MAC opponent.
Troy Glover II swatted away one of BGSU's two blocks in the game, giving him 44 this season. Glover is now tied for 10th in program history for single-season blocks, matching Ed Colbert's 1990-91 total.
Josiah Shackelford put together a strong effort off the bench for BGSU. Playing over 21 minutes, Shackelford recorded 16 points, second on the team, including four three-pointers. Shackelford added a pair of rebounds, giving him 111 this season to match his career-high.
Playing 31 minutes, Justin Thomas was a perfect 5-for-5 from the field, including going 3-for-3 from three-point range, matching his career-high for threes made in a game. Thomas added five rebounds and two assists as well.
After trailing at halftime, the comeback win marks the first time this season the Falcons have overcome a halftime deficit. The 14-point deficit also marks the largest comeback for BGSU this season, doubling the previous high which was set at seven from the first meeting against UMass.
With the win, BGSU has now tallied 10 home wins this season, marking double-digit wins at home in two of the last three seasons.

QUOTE FROM COACH SIMON
"Really proud of these guys. I mean, what a performance in the second half on senior night, guys really stepped up. First half, we were just a little bit out of sorts, maybe oversharing, passing up some shots, not finishing quite at the rim like we needed to, which always put us on the defensive in transition. Then in the second half, we had some great leadership at halftime. Guys stepped up and made the adjustments. The staff had a great couple suggestions and adjustments and the guys executed and that's to their credit. But really, we locked down on the defensive end. We sat there and pressured and did a great job. When we get stops and rebounds, that lets us get out in transition, then we're a pretty fun ball club to watch when we can do that."

UP NEXT
The Falcons will conclude the regular season next Friday (March 6) on the road at Eastern Michigan with a 6:30 p.m. tip in Ypsilanti before transitioning to the MAC Tournament, beginning on March 12.

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