 CLEVELAND – Louis Orr’s favorite recipe paid off again Thursday night in the quarterfinals of the Mid-American Conference tournament. Bowling Green played good defense with its 2-3 zone, held a 37-29 rebounding edge and shot 60.5 percent from the field. It all added up to a 74-61 victory over Ohio.
The Falcons, now 19-12 overall, play Akron , a 73-63 winner over Miami , Friday night at 9:30 in the tournament semifinals.
“We know if we can get stops and guard people it will always give us a chance to win,” Orr said. “We did a very good job of defending and rebounding and not giving easy baskets in transition.
“You combine that with the ability to make some shots (and you have a chance to win) … It was a great team win."
“We just got beat by a better basketball team today,” Ohio head coach Jim Groce said.
Nate Miller matched his career-high with 22 points and added 10 rebounds for his sixth double-double in BG’s last 11 games.
“Nate Miller really got us off to a great start,” Orr said. “He played like a champion. “Nate has taken the game in his hands. That’s what great players do.”
Miller scored 11 of BG’s first 14 points in the game as the Falcons got ahead quickly.
“I got off to a great start. I made my first few shots. Any player who makes his few shots to going to be pumped up and ready to play,” Miller said. “I’ve got to give the credit to our guards. They got me the ball in position where I could score. They trusted me to give me the ball and make plays for myself and my other teammates as well.”
The Falcons led by 10 points at one point of the first half, but Ohio cut the lead to five, 32-27, on a Justin Orr 3-pointer with 1:03 left in the half.
BG’s Darryl Clements answered with a 25-foot triple as time expired in the half to give BG a 35-27 lead going into the break.
“It was a real big basket. It gave us momentum going into halftime,” Miller said. “We ended up being up eight and that gave us a little more cushion.”
The momentum carried over as the Falcons started the second half on a 10-3 run in the first five minutes and Ohio was not able to cut BG’s lead to single digits after the early second-half run.
BG was 9-of-10 from the free-throw line in the final 1:31 to seal the victory.
Brian Moten added 12 points for the Falcons, including a 7-of-8 effort from the line in the final 1:31, and Erik Marschall came off the bench to score 11 points and add four rebounds.
“Erik hit some big baskets and gave us some big minutes,” coach Orr said.
Bowling Green had one of its best shooting nights of the season, finishing at 60.5 percent, including a 13-of-20 effort in the second half (65 percent). For the game, BG was 21-of-28 (75 percent) on 2-pointers, scoring 36 points in the paint.
“I thought we showed great discipline and toughness on offense,” coach Orr said. “We were patient. I don’t know if there were any forced shots.
“All of our bigs, they were a force on the offensive end,” coach Orr continued. We played the game we wanted to on our terms.”
Meanwhile BG’s 2-3 zone was limiting Ohio to 37.1 percent shooting from the field.
“Defensively I think we did a really good job and that’s always going to be our foundation,” coach Orr said.
NOTEBOOK: Bowling Green got a big boost from its bench Thursday night in its 74-61 victory over Ohio University in the quarterfinals of the Mid-American Conference men’s basketball tournament.
Erik Marschall, Scott Thomas and Chris Knight combined for 23 points and 11 rebounds with all three playing key minutes in the game. Otis Polk and Marschall, two of BG’s inside threats, battled foul trouble the entire game.
For Knight it was his first action since suffering a sprained knee in the opening minute of BG’s game at Buffalo on Feb. 18. Knight missed the last five games as he worked with trainer Chad Young to get the knee into playing shape.
“We wanted to get him in, just to see how he would do in the first half,” BG’s head coach Louis Orr said. “I didn’t put a timetable (on playing time).”
Knight played eight minutes and had seven points and two rebounds.
“It was based on, A) how he felt and how he held up; and B) how he played and how much we needed him,” Orr said. “Those eight minutes were invaluable, especially with the foul trouble.”
Marschall finished with 11 points and four rebounds in 22 minutes before fouling out.
“When we come off the bench, the first and most important thing we try to do is play good defense,” Marschall said. “ Ohio put a lot of attention on Nate (Miller) and I think that got some other guys free inside.”
Thomas did most of his damage playing 14 minutes in the first half , scoring five points and adding four rebounds. He finished the game with 27 minutes of action and five points and five rebounds.
“We’ve got confidence in our bench, just like our starters,” Miller said. “We have confidence from top to bottom on our roster.”
GUARDS: BG’s guards played well as Joe Jakubowski contributed eight assists with only two turnovers and Darryl Clements had nine points, six rebounds, three assists and one turnover.
“Joe and Darryl I give the upmost credit to, they played like veteran guards,” Miller said.
“His penetration and his ability to get the ball in the post that helped us out a lot,” Marshall said about Jakubowski. “We were able to play inside-out.”
THREE TIMES: Thursday’s win over Ohio was the third of the season for the Falcons and the second in less than a week. BG rolled to a 75-41 victory over the Bobcats last Sunday in the final game of the regular season.
“We knew they were not going to come out and lay an egg. We knew they were going to come out and give us everything they had and we were going to give them everything we have,” Miller said about Ohio . “They probably wanted revenge for that (Sunday’s loss).
“We just knew we had to stick with our game plan and keep grinding.”
Ohio head coach Jim Groce was impressed with BG’s performance.
“After Sunday I didn’t think they could play any better and they did today,” Groce said.
NEXT; Bowling Green now plays Akron tonight in the tournament semifinals, with tipoff set for 9:30. Ball State plays Buffalo is the first semifinal, which starts at 7:30.
The Falcons split with the Zips during the regular season, losing 62-52 at home as part of a 1-3 start to the MAC campaign.
BG posted a 50-46 win at Akron on March 1, which was BG’s sixth straight MAC road victory. In that game, BG limited Akron to 20 percent shooting from the floor, including 5-of-21 (23.8 percent) on 3-pointers. Miller had 17 points and seven rebounds in the win.
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