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Moten had a game-high 17 points /Photo courtesy BGSU

And the Bowling Green senior was thinking about nothing but success when a 25-footer was available Sunday afternoon in Akron’s James A. Rhodes Arena.

Moten drained the long-distance 3-pointer with 1:03 remaining in the game to put the Falcons ahead, 48-46. He later sealed the game with a dunk with 11.6 seconds left as BG played solid man-to-man defense in the final minute in a 50-46 victory.

With the victory, BG’s sixth straight on the road, the Falcons remained in a first-place tie in the Mid-American Conference East at 10-4 with Buffalo, a 68-66 winner over Ohio on Sunday. BG is 17-11 overall.

“I knew I was pretty deep,” Moten, who finished with a game-high 17 points, said. “I thought it was good ... It felt good coming off.”

“It was a tough shot. Give credit to him,” said Akron’s Nate Linhart. “I had a hand in his face.”

“Brian Moten makes you pay anytime you double off of him,” Orr said. “At certain times of the game, our guys know it’s winning time. It’s time for somebody to step up and have the courage to make a play. We put the ball in our best playmaker’s hands in Nate Miller and we put our best shooter to his left (Moten) and they made the play.

“‘B- Mo’s’ been making big shots since I’ve been here,” Orr said. “He wants the ball in crucial situations. That was a big one.”

Defense was a major key for the Falcons, who held Akron to 30 percent shooting from the field (15-of-50), using their 2-3 zone until the end of the game.

“Our defense was the difference,” Orr said. “We’ve been blessed to close games out with the man-to-man. Our guys, they manned up, as they call it ... We got stops. ... We kind of had a feel on what they were going to run.”

“We had a rough game and just never really got in sync, never really got in flow. We tried, but Bowling Green out-scrapped us early,” Akron head coach Keith Dambrot said. “We lost the game in the first 10 minutes to me and then we were very poor offensively.

“I give a lot of credit to Coach Orr. They controlled tempo, shot it at the end of the clock and then the zone bothered us. I tried to run plays against the zone, but you kind of have to play a little bit, so we struggled.”

The Falcons maintained their lead in the second half until Linhart hit a layup with 3:44 to go to put the Zips up 46-45.

However, Akron would not score again and Moten’s five points made the difference on the scoreboard. The Zips were 0-of-7 from the field and made a turnover in their last eight possessions of the game.

Moten finished with a game-high 17 points and added a career-high seven rebounds. Clements added 12 points. Miller had nine points and eight rebounds, including a key defensive rebound that led to Moten’s dunk. Marshall contributed seven points and five rebounds off the bench.

NOTES: With the first of his two blocks against Akron, Otis Polk set the BG career record with 118 blocked shots. He passed Tom Hall’s (1989-92) mark of 117 ...  No Akron player was in double figures ... Akron is 18-11 overall and 9-5 in the MAC ... Akron had won eight straight against BG before Sunday’s game ... BG had eight steals in the game and scored 17 points off UA turnovers ... The Falcons also had 28 points in the paint and 10 second-chance points ... BG plays at Miami on Thursday with tipoff at 7 p.m.