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Akron holds of feisty Falcons |
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Written by Jack Carle - Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune
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BOWLING GREEN - The Bowling Green Falcons scrapped and clawed Saturday afternoon in Anderson Arena. Unfortunately for the hosts, Akron made the key baskets down the stretch to hold on for a 74-68 victory.
“When you play against the Akrons and the Kents ... you have to compete at the highest level,” BG head coach Louis Orr said. “We did some pretty good things. But when I look at stats, they scored 18 second-chance points. They got 15 offensive rebounds and they scored 18 points off our turnovers. We look at who wins the 50-50 balls ... basically the hustle and toughness plays. Sometimes, they don’t show up on stats. We get a negative grade on those.
“You’ve got to win those hustle plays. You’ve got to defend and rebound,” Orr added. “We have to learn to keep competing through adversity ... You’re disappointed, but you get encouraged because you did do quite a few good things.”
Bowling Green got to within four points four different times in the final 2:31 of the game, but could never get any closer.
The final time came with 41 seconds left on Otis Polk’s layup. Chris McKnight made two free throws with 30 seconds remaining to push Akron’s lead to 71-66. After the Falcons missed two 3-point attempts, around a turnover on a steal by Scott Thomas, McKnight made two more free throws with 12 seconds left. BG’s Dee Brown hit a basket just before the buzzer to account for the final margin.
“We had a battle on our hands. Bowling Green competed really hard, beat us up physically. We had a hard time keeping them off the free-throw line,” Akron head coach Keith Dambrot said. “We had them on the ropes a few times and they did a great job of hanging around. Then, I have to give our guys credit. We made plays when it mattered.
“Six years of winning has carried over to our guys and you can tell they have belief when it matters. It’s nothing you can do as a coach. It’s just that they don’t want to be the team that doesn’t win.”
During BG’s comeback, the Falcons split a pair of free throws five different times and the Zips responded with baskets three times. BG was only 11-of-17 from the line in the second half (64.7 percent) and 22-of-31 (71 percent) for the game.
“We didn’t shoot from the free-throw line in the second half very well. That’s not good enough especially when they’re getting baskets and we’re getting one point and they’re getting two or three,” said BG fifth-year senior Erik Marschall.
In the first half after the Falcons built an early 12-7 lead, Akron went on a 15-2 run to take a 22-14 lead. The Falcons cut the deficit to three on a pair of Joe Jakubowski free-throws but Akron scored the next eight points and led 40-27 at the break.
For Marschall, the game was lost in the first half when Akron got 12 offensive rebounds and scored 17 second-chance points.
“We didn’t defend and we didn’t rebound,” Marschall said. “They had 12 offensive rebounds in the first half. That killed us. They got around 12 more shots (32-20 in the first half and 57-45 for the game) than we did. That’s the ball game.”
Polk finished with a game-high 17 points while Thomas added 16 points, and game highs in rebounds (eight) and steals (five). Brown added 12 points and Marschall had 10.
“We couldn’t move the guy. He’s so strong,” Dambrot said about Polk. “He kept getting the ball so far down in we couldn’t do anything with him.”
It was the final home game for seniors Marschall, Polk, Marc Larson and Matt Karaffa.
“Guys were trying to get our seniors out with a ‘W’ and that’s what teams do, you fight for the seniors. Guys did that. We just came up short, ” Marschall said.
“I tip my hat to our seniors. They’ve been with me for three years. They helped us win a MAC championship,” Orr said.
NOTES: Akron is 22-8 overall and 12-3 in the MAC while BG falls to 14-14, 6-9 ... BG finished with 40 points in the paint ... The Falcons close out the regular season Thursday at Ohio ... Bowling Green will be either the No. 9 or the No. 10 seed for the MAC tournament and will be on the road for a first-round game on this Sunday at either Western Michigan, Ball State, Miami, Eastern Michigan or Central Michigan. |
