BUFFALO — Bowling Green never recovered from a cold-shooting first half as Buffalo downed the Falcons, 64-51 in a Mid-American Conference men’s basketball game Wednesday.
The Falcons scored 20 points in the first 20 minutes, going 8-of-23 from the field (34.8 percent), including 1-of-5 on 3-pointers (20 percent) with 11 turnovers.
Buffalo led 35-20 after 20 minutes.
“This time of year, everybody is playing for something. There is a sense of urgency,” said BG head coach Louis Orr. “Generally, the team that gets after it, wants it and competes with a sense of urgency is going to have an advantage. We came out on our heels in the first half and Buffalo was the aggressor.
“You have to have a blue-collar mentality when you come up here ... You have to compete at a high level,” Orr added. “We just didn’t play well enough for 40 minutes.”
BG started the second half on a 14-2 scoring run to quickly slash the UB lead to three points. Dee Brown, Otis Polk, and Erik Marschall scored in succession to get the deficit to 37-27 with 16:46 to go. Marschall followed with another layup. Polk scored inside 27 seconds later to make it 37-31 and Thomas completed a three-point play with 15:12 to go that made it 37-34.
At that point, BG had three possessions with an opportunity to get even closer but came up empty each time.
Finally, Buffalo’s John Boyer knocked down a 3-pointer and the Bulls went on a shooting spree. On the Bulls’ next three possessions, Rodney Pierce hit a 3-pointer and Sean Smiley knocked down two more triples to put Buffalo on top 49-38 with 10:29 remaining and the Falcons never got closer than five points the rest of the way.
“We started the second half in a funk, but we responded well to them making a run at us. We got away from what we were previously doing defensively, so we had to get back to doing a better job,” said UB head coach Reggie Witherspoon.
Orr said not being able to get stops on the defensive end after cutting the lead to three made a difference as Buffalo was able to regain its composure and extend its lead.
Buffalo finished the game making 10-of-25 shots from beyond with arc with Smiley (4-of-8) and Pierce (4-of-10) each making four. It was Smiley’s three in the final seconds which lifted Buffalo past BG in the first meeting between the top teams this season.
“Really that was the difference in the game, their threes,” Orr said. “We didn’t guard the three as well as we needed to.
“For the second game in a row, Sean Smiley really hurt us. Pierce is a rock for them, he’s their leader.”
Pierce finished with 18 points and six assists, and Smiley added 14 points.
The Falcons shot the ball better in the second half, making 13-of-22 from the field (59.1 percent), but missed all four of their 3-point attempts.
Scott Thomas led the Falcons with 21 points before fouling out with less than two minutes remaining. Thomas added four rebounds and four steals. Otis Polk had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds, and Polk added three blocks.
“Scott Thomas is really growing up. He’s becoming our leader,” Orr said. “Otis Polk gave us really good energy in the second half.”
NOTES: BG is 13-12 overall and 6-7 in the MAC while Buffalo improved to 15-9, 8-5 ... BG held a 27-26 rebounding edge and scored 30 points in the paint, but UB had 11 second-chance points to just two for BG ... In its last seven games, BG is only 19-of89 on 3-poitners (21.3 percent) with Thomas going 4-of-29 (13.8 percent) in that span ... The Falcons host Valparaiso Saturday in the BracketBuster at 2 p.m. |
