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Inside game vaults Falcons past Miami |
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Written by Jack Carle - Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune
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BOWLING GREEN - Things are really going right for you when your 6-foot-9, 275-pound post player is out running the floor and finishing fast break opportunities with dunks. That was the case Sunday afternoon in Anderson Arena as Bowling Green’s Otis Polk was rolling to start the second half against Miami.
The Falcons trailed by six points at the half, but started the second half on a 14-0 run to get back into the game. Bowling Green then played well down the stretch, making 8-of-10 free throws in the final 30.3 seconds, to secure a 67-64 victory.
“I hadn’t seen Otis in that position too many times when he’s finishing the fast break,” BG head coach Louis Orr said. “He liked it. He had a smile on his face.”
“Otis was running the floor really well. Those two dunks, that gets the crowd going and gets us going,” said BG’s Erik Marschall. “It’s fun watching Otis do the things he does.
“When he’s hungry on the offensive end, he runs the floor pretty well,” Marschall continued. “When he sees an opportunity, he’s a guy who can get up and down.”
Polk’s efforts were just part of Bowling Green’s strong play from its inside senior trio.
Marschall (17 points, seven rebounds), Polk (12 points, eight rebounds) and Marc Larson (nine points, three rebounds) combined for 38 points and 18 rebounds. BG finished with 40 points in the paint and 13 second-chance points. Sophomore Scott Thomas chipped in with 10 rebounds and six assists.
“You hope with seniors that they have a sense of urgency and our big guys are all seniors, so this is their time. They played big and we needed them to play big. Every opportunity that comes, they have to make the most of it,” Orr said. “Erik came up really big. He was clever around the basket.”
It was just the opposite for the RedHawks.
“Our big guys didn’t do a very good job. They didn’t guard very well,” said veteran Miami head coach Charlie Coles. “We weren’t very good on the inside.”
Miami started the game with a 7-0 run and was up 33-27 at the half as BG never led in the first 20 minutes.
Polk’s five points and two blocks sparked BG’s run to start the second half. Miami missed six shots and had a turnover before Antonio Ballard hit a 3-pointer with 15:04 left in the game.
“The start to the second half had to go on our defensive end,” Marschall said. ”When we get stops on defense that give us confidence on the offensive end.”
The RedHawks did not go away and led by four, 51-47, after a close-range hoop from Adam Fletcher with 7:52 left in the game.
BG’s Dee Brown nailed a big 3-pointer with 7:37 remaining and then after a Miami turnover, Marschall worked the baseline for a layup with 6:11 to play and the Falcons never trailed again.
Coles said during a timeout he told his team not to give Brown anything “and what did we do, we gave him a three and they cut it to one. If we get a stop with a four-point lead after we fought back, I kind of think we’re in pretty good shape ... But they got a three. They got almost all back in one possession after our timeout.”
Still Miami did not go away. A 3-pointer by Kenny Hayes (17 points, four assists) with 1:04 left cut BG’s lead to 59-56.
Marschall split a pair of free throws with 30.3 seconds left to push BG’s lead back to four. Hayes was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 22.1 seconds remaining and made two free throws to make it 60-58.
Marschall countered with two free throws with 21.1 seconds left, but Hayes answered with another triple to make it 62-61.
BG’s Joe Jakubowski hit two free throws with 15.9 seconds left, but Miami’s Nick
Winbush was fouled after grabbing a rebound of a Hayes miss and he made both free throws with 5.2 seconds left, again cutting BG’s lead to one, 64-63.
Brown nailed two free throws with 4.5 seconds left to put the Falcons up 66-63. Bowling Green then fouled Hayes as he was bringing the ball up the floor. With 1.9 seconds left Hayes made the first free throw and then intentionally missed the second.
Larson grabbed the rebound and was fouled. He split the pair of a free throws and the game ended as Hayes’ 3-point attempt at the buzzer was off line.
“That’s huge. That’s a big part of basketball. You’re working your butt off for 40 minutes and most times the last few seconds of the game are the most important,” Marschall said.
NOTES: BG is now 13-11 overall and 6-6 in the MAC ... Miami falls to 11-14, 8-4 in the MAC, missing an opportunity to move into a tie for first in the MAC East ... In his first five games of this month, Polk has scored 52 points, grabbed 34 rebounds and blocked 10 shots, going 21-of-34 from the field (61.8 percent) and 10-of-14 from the free-throw line (71.4 percent) ... The Falcons play at Buffalo Wednesday with tipoff at 7 p.m. Miami returns home to face MAC East co-leader Akron, which humbled MU 69-49 in their first meeting.
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