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BG shakes off turnovers to down Huskies |
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Written by Jack Carle - Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune
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After watching a first-half lead get washed away by a series of careless turnovers, Bowling Green’s men were a completely different team in the second half against Northern Illinois Wednesday night in Anderson Arena.
Trailing 38-27 at the break, Bowling Green played a strong first four minutes in the second half to get back into the game. Then, the Falcons closed things out in the late going to post a 73-69 victory.
BG is 12-11 overall and 5-6 in the Mid-American Conference. NIU is 8-15, 4-7, having lost seven straight.
“Sometimes, the passion is there, but you have also got to play with your brain. You have to put them both together,” BG head coach Louis Orr said. “When you do bring the passion and the energy, you have to play smart ... We made some adjustments, but our guys played with their head and their heart in the second half.”
The Falcons held a 25-19 lead with 4:20 remaining in the first half. The Huskies then closed the half on a 19-2 run. On its last eight possessions of the first half, BG was 1-of-4 from the field with four turnovers. For the first 20 minutes, the Falcons had 14 turnovers and the Huskies scored 13 points off those turnovers.
“(We) were just careless with the ball,” Orr said.
Bowling Green had a 15-6 run to start the second half, sparked by Scott Thomas and Otis Polk. Thomas scored eight of BG’s 15 points to start the half and also had two rebounds, an assist and a steal in the first four minutes. Polk added two baskets, two rebounds and a blocked shot in the same time span.
“As bad as we ended the first half ... we played as well to start the first five minutes of the second half and cut the lead down,” Orr said.
“We talked about taking care of the ball and not to panic. The first-half score is overrated, just come out in the second half and bring energy and take care of the ball,” said Thomas, who scored 17 second-half points.
After the Falcons closed the gap to start the second half, there were four ties and nine lead changes in the final 11:02. Still, the biggest margin either way from 11:02 remaining to 26.1 seconds left was just two points.
Erik Marschall had only one basket in the game but that hoop, with 1:24 left, was called the “biggest basket of the game,” by Orr. Marschall got a nice pass from Joe Jakubowski (seven second-half assists) and then went strong to the hoop for a dunk to put BG up 66-65.
The Falcons then salted the game away going 7-of-10 from the free-throw line in the final 43.8 seconds. BG’s Dee Brown made two free throws with 1.8 seconds left to close out the scoring.
“We practiced a lot, especially after the Western game (a 65-64 loss to Western Michigan last Saturday), of executing the crucial (plays) ... finishing the game,” Thomas said. “At the end of the game, when Northern pressed, we worked on the press a lot, a whole lot of different ways to get the ball in and be strong with the ball. It came through.”
After a first half of four assists and 14 turnovers, BG had seven assists and five turnovers in the second half. BG was also to turn NIU over 10 times and the Huskies shot 36.7 percent from the field in the second half after shooting 51.7 percent for the first 20 minutes.
“This game was lost in the second half with our turnovers,” said NIU head coach Ricardo Patton. “We went into the locker room at halftime with only five turnovers, and we finished with 15. On the flipside of that, Bowling Green had 14 turnovers at halftime, and ended the game with 19. That’s the story of the game as I see it; Bowling Green finished the game and we let it slip away.”
NIU’s Xavier Silas came into the game averaging 19.5 ppg, but was held to 10 points on 3-of-13 shooting. Jake Anderson, NIU’s second-leading scorer at 11.3 ppg, was held to six points on 3-of-11 shooting.
“We defended in the second half and did a good job of guarding Silas and Anderson. That was huge,” Orr said. “Defensively, we turned it up when we needed to.”
Thomas finished with 26 points, Brown added 14, Polk had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds and Marschall contributed 10 rebounds.
“Any time you get a double-double from anybody that’s huge,” Thomas said about Polk. “We look to him as our leader.”
NOTES: BG hosts Miami Sunday at 2 p.m. ... NIU held a 48-12 edge in points off the bench as Sean Kowal scored 18 and Michael Patton added 17, but only three in the second half ... Brown had four of BG’s nine steals ... Thomas’ career-high is 27 points against Kent State earlier this season ... BG’s Darion Goins did not dress for the game because of illness.
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