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CMU holds down MAC West lead by defeating Falcons |
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Written by Jack Carle - Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune
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BOWLING GREEN, OH - For Erik Marschall, it was pretty simple to explain why Central Michigan downed Bowling Green, 64-52, in Mid-American Conference men’s basketball action Saturday night.
“We didn’t defend,” said Marschall, a fifth-year senior for the Falcons. “We were giving up shots. I don’t know if we didn’t pay enough attention to the scouting report. It’s not like we don’t go over it.
“It was just a lack of attention to detail,” he added. “They wanted the game more than we did and it showed in the outcome tonight ... They were playing more physical. They were getting loose balls.”
Falcons’ head coach Louis Orr was disappointed with the effort of his team.
“I don’t know if it’s as much as them wanting it more or us not bringing it, that was a major issue,” Orr said. “We didn’t have the fire and that’s disappointing. Our defensive intensity and demeanor was not what it needed to be.”
Trailing 16-13 after Marschall’s layup with 9:28 to play in the first half, Central Michigan went on a 15-1 run to take an 11-point lead, 28-17, with 2:51 left in the half. Jordan Bitzer started the run with a jumper and capped it with a 3-pointer.
The Falcons scored the final two baskets of the half to close to within 28-21 at the break.
“We have got to stop getting off to slow starts and getting ourselves in holes,” Orr said.
Bowling Green seemed to lose some of its energy when Otis Polk had to go to the training room with just over seven minutes remaining in the first half. Polk had seven points, including a thunderous dunk, and five rebounds in just nine minutes of action in the half. He returned to play nine more minutes in the second half, but managed only one rebound and did not attempt a shot from the field.
“Not having Otis hurts, but I thought it was much bigger than that,” Orr said.
The Chippewas started the second half on a 10-2 run, to push their lead into double digits. Bowling Green was within nine, 40-31, with 12:12 remaining in the game after a layup from Scott Thomas. CMU then put together a 13-2 spurt to push the lead to 20, 55-35, with 6:26 left.
The Falcons picked up their intensity with some three-quarter court pressure and out-scored the Chippewas, 17-9 over the final six minutes of action. BG cut CMU’s lead to 10 points twice in the late going, but could get no closer.
“We’re not going to give up. We have more fight in us than that,” Marschall said. “I think the way we played the second half after we got down 15 to 20, ... we need to play like that the whole time.”
“We scrapped at the end. We were fighting for our lives,” Orr said. “We have to have that energy from the start.
“The last five or six minutes we played like we should have played for the whole 40 (minutes),” Orr added. “It shouldn’t take us being down 15-20 to play with that kind of intensity and that kind of competitiveness.”
It was a frustrating result after BG had posted a 64-61 win at Eastern Michigan on Wednesday and had won three of its last four heading into the matchup with Central.
“Any time you lose at home by double figures, that hurts. We talk about defending the home court. We have lost two at home now in the MAC and that’s unacceptable,” Marschall said.
NOTES: BG is 10-9 overall and 3-4 in the MAC while Central is 10-9, 5-2 ... Thomas led the Falcons with 13 points, Marschall recorded his first double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds, and Joe Jakubowski, from Rossford, scored 12 points ... Jalin Thomas had 16 points and 10 rebounds for CMU ... BG held a 38-22 edge in points in the paint ... CMU’s bench held a 21-6 scoring edge ... The crowd of 2,222 was the largest for a men’s game in Anderson Arena this season ... The Falcons host Toledo Monday with tipoff at 7... Central Michigan begins a three-game homestand with Buffalo Thursday (7 p.m.). Kent State (Saturday, 7 p.m.) and Akron (Feb. 9, 7 p.m.) follow.
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