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Scott Thomas, shown grabbing a rebound, tied a Bowling Green record with eight steals Wednesday in a 65-57 BG win over Miami. Below, Drew Magee scores two of his eight points. Bottom left, Jordon Crawford netted a career-high 25 points. Photos by Mike Smith.

It was also a rare Mid-American Conference road victory for the Falcons, who evened their MAC record at 2-2 and brought BGSU to within a game of .500 overall with an 8-9 mark.

The two MAC East losses (to Kent State and Akron) were by a total of six points. After watching a 10-point disappear in a one-point loss to Akron and scoring 60 points in the second half only to lose at Kent State in its last two games, Bowling Green found a way to close things out to preserve a victory.

“This was a must-win game and we got the job done,” said BG junior Jordan Crawford.
“This is a tough place to win and coach (Charlie) Coles does a great job,” said BG head coach Louis Orr.

It all started at the defensive end for the Falcons, especially in the second half. Using both its 2-3 zone and a man-to-man, the Falcons held Miami to 38.5 percent shooting from the field in the final 20 minutes while forcing 16 turnovers. That was after Miami shot 50 percent from the field in the first half and scored the final five points of the half to take a 28-24 lead into the locker room.

The RedHawks scored only 29 points in the second half and Bowling Green finished the game in its man-to-man defense.

“It’s been a while since we finished a game in man,” BG senior Scott Thomas said. “As a team we’re working on being able to play multiple defenses.”
“We lost our fight in the second half,” Coles said. “At the half, I thought we had won the battle because we were doing what we wanted to do. But we stopped going down low and when we did go down low, we didn’t convert.”

BG’s defensive focus was to stop Miami’s Julian Mavunga, who came into the game leading the MAC in scoring (18.5 ppg) and rebounds (9.9 per game).
Mavunga played the entire game and finished with 17 points, four rebounds, and seven assists. But he was constantly hounded by BG’s double-teams in both the zone and man, and he had to work for the points he did get. Equally important, no other Miami player scored in double figures.

“He’s a great player and he has respect from all of us,” Thomas said. “We really talked about when he gets the ball down low we have to crowd him and make him score with two and three people around him.”

“Mavunga is the toughest cover out there,” Orr said. “He plays 40 minutes and he keeps coming at you and he keeps trying to make plays. We had to make him work hard and make him as uncomfortable as possible.”

After Miami led at the half, the game stayed close and was tied at 38 with 13:37 left to play. Thomas then nailed a 3-pointer, one of only two BG made in the game, to put BG ahead to stay, 41-40, with 12:50 left.Bowling Green would go on to build a 13-point lead, 55-42, with 7:10 remaining.

Three Miami 3-pointers and four points from Mavunga enabled the RedHawks to cut BG lead to 60-55, with 1:10 remaining. Dee Brown then made four free throws in the final 42.1 seconds of the game and the Falcons held on the for the win.

“We wanted this one bad, but the better team won tonight,” Coles said.

Bowling Green made 10 steals in the game with Thomas getting eight, which tied the school record set by Trent Jackson against UNC-Wilmington in the 2000-01 season.

“I really worked on keeping my hands up and I was able to get my hands on a lot of balls,” Thomas said. “When they would dribble and not be looking, I would go and double (team) and it worked out well.”

“They weren’t gimmick steals,” Orr said.

While BG’s defense was making its point, the Falcons shot 50 percent from the field for the game with four players scoring in double figures.

Crawford, just a week removed from not scoring a point in the loss to Akron, finished with a career-high 25 points. Thomas added a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds, A’uston Calhoun contributed 13 points and six rebounds, and Brown added 10 points, going 6-of-8 from the free-throw line.

It was Crawford who made things roll for the Falcons, just a few miles from his hometown of Cincinnati.

“It’s always good playing in front of a bunch of family members and stuff,” Crawford said. “But my mind-set going into the game was that we had to get this win; that’s all I was thinking about the whole time.”

“What can you say about that kid (Crawford) … This kid is no normal kid when he plays Miami,” Coles said. “There are so many things that he does well and they won’t even let him full-court press and that’s his biggest weapon.

“The other thing about him that I like – He is ready to play right now,” Coles added. “He’ll probably go to a pickup game when he gets off the bus tonight. If the rec center is open, he’ll probably go over there. He’s not full yet.”
Coles added that he was about three days late in the recruiting battle for Crawford.

The junior had a career-high 13 assists in last Saturday’s loss at Kent State and it appeared that Miami was playing the pass rather than expecting Crawford to shoot. He had 10 points and a career-best 13 assists in the recent loss at Kent State. Against the RedHawks, Crawford was 10-of-13 from the field, 1-of-2 on threes, and 4-of-5 from the free-throw line.

“When I was penetrating … they were just leaving me. So I just took what the defense gave me,” Crawford said.