 BOWLING GREEN 74, NORTHERN ILLINOIS 54 The Falcons, now 14-18 overall, play in the tournament quarterfinals Thursday against No. 2 seed Western Michigan. Tipoff is at noon in Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena.
TIGHT FIRST HALF
“The first half kind of wore me out,” BG head coach Louis Orr said.
Northern Illinois shot 50 percent from the field in the first half and trailed 34-32 only because BG’s Dee Brown hit a 3-pointer from the left corner with about two seconds remaining in the half.
“(In) the second half, the defensive end is away from your bench. So you feel like you can’t help them as much,” Orr said. “We always say to our guys that you have to police yourself ... You have to work things out.
“And that’s the rewarding thing to see a defense step up in the second half. That feels good,’ Orr continued. “We (were) a team that was really struggling to guard ... It was really good to see our guys take ownership of the game on the defensive end. I would like to build on this defensive effort come Thursday.”
In the second half, the Huskies scored only 22 points and were 8-of-25 from the field, including 1-of-6 on threes. NIU was playing without leading scorer Xavier Silas, who was averaging 22.3 ppg.
NO SCHEME ADJUSTMENTS NEEDED
Orr said the team didn’t make any adjustments at halftime, it was just a will from inside each player to play better defense.
“That was the main thing we discussed when we came in at halftime, was that we had to play defense,” said BG’s A’uston Calhoun. “We just had to play hard, give multiple efforts and try to string together three stops in a row. I think we did a good job of doing that.
“Our offense was there from the beginning. Our defense just had to catch up with it, and from there we just ran away with the game a little bit.”
It didn’t hurt that Calhoun scored 25 points, 17 in the first half, while Scott Thomas chipped in with 12 and Dee Brown added 10.
MOMENTUM BOOST
Brown’s 3-pointer gave the Falcons some much-needed momentum.
“It was huge. It was a big momentum-changer,” Calhoun said. “The other team was making a comeback. They were giving us trouble. They started slowing our offense down. To hit that right before we went into the half, that gave us a lot of confidence.”
Sparked by the defense, the Falcons’ offense also played well in the second half as BG was 17-of-30 from the field. BG finished the game 31-of-60 from the floor.
Bowling Green pushed its lead into double-figures seven minutes into the second half and never looked back.
Calhoun’s effort was one point off his career-high as the 10-foot turn-around jumper was working for him.
“Fortunately it fell more than it usually has throughout the course of the season,” Calhoun said. “My teammates found me in the right position, and I was able to knock it in this game.
“We were noticing different opportunities in different spots, so we could get our post players and our wing guys open,” Calhoun added. “Scott was able to find us right away from the jump with easy quick passes down there to get us open baskets. We just continued that throughout the course of the game ... Our offense was just rolling tonight.”
FINAL ANDERSON ARENA BASKET
Walk-on Wiley Roberts, a 5-feet-7 junior, got in the final two minutes of the game and hit a 3-pointer with 29 seconds left. It was the final basket by a Falcon in Anderson Arena. Roberts had played in only four games previously this season. The last time was against Michigan State on Dec. 4. The 3-pointer was his only basket this season.
“It was big to leave Anderson Arena with a win and allow Wiley to score,” Calhoun said.
NOTES: NIU finishes 9-21 ... The Falcons had assists on 20 of their 31 field goals, with Thomas notching a career-high nine assists and senior Joe Jakubowski recording four in seven minutes of play ... Thomas also had five of BG’s 10 steals ... Calhoun had nine of BG’s 30 rebounds ... BG’s Mike Dabney appeared to hurt his back in the first half and he did not play in the second half ... NIU’s Cameron Madlock, Orr’s first recruit at Bowling Green, played 10 minutes for the Huskies and scored two points and had a block and a steal .
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