Bowling Green Basketball

Bowling Green had a slim chance of finishing above .500 this season, ending its season on a three game slide. The only hope was a serious run in the MAC Tournament, and unfortunately, the Falcons just didn’t have it in them this season.

Bowling Green held a 39-38 advantage going into the half, but fell to Western Michigan 75-73 in the opening round of the tournament. This loss brought Bowling Green to 14-16 on the season and 6-10 in conference play. It also ended their season.

Starting the season, there was renewed optimism with senior leadership coming from Otis Polk, Marc Larson, Erik Marschall and Matt Karaffa. It also saw the addition of Dennis Hopson to the coaching staff.

Polk, Larson, and Marschall shared minutes for a large part of the season. Scott Thomas, the team's leading scorer, was the only player to play more than 26 minutes in every game this season.

Marschall and Larson underachieved for most of the season. Larson finished the season  averaging 5.6 points and 4.2 rebounds. Marschall never could reach the totals of his sophomore year and averaged 7.9 points and 5.1 rebounds this season.

Joe Jakubowski was a bright spot for Bowling Green in his third season, averaging 8.3 points and 3.7 assists a game.  He’ll be a key member of the team next season as the team's point guard.

Scott Thomas averaged a team high 13.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game this season. Thomas, along with Jakubowski and scoring guard Dee Brown, will be the key members of the Falcons next season. Brown averaged 10.6 points per game and was the only other returning Falcon besides Thomas to do so this season.

Luke Kraus, Danny McElroy, and DaVon Haynes are all underclassmen that should see considerable action next season with the loss of the seniors. The Falcons should be more competitive next season as this young team matures.

The Falcons took one on the chin tonight as they faced off with Akron (11-4). The Zips pummeled Bowling Green 71-45 in the conference opener.

Bowling Green kept it close going into the half being down 32-28, but fell apart scoring only 17 second half points. Akron poured on 39 points after half time and pulled away for good just minutes into the second half.

The Falcons shot a horrendous 27 percent from the field and 35 percent from three-point range, along with adding 20 turnovers to their troubles.

Joe Jakubowski had a game-high 17 points, but didn’t get any help from his supporting cast. Otis Polk was the next closest scorer with eight points and seven rebounds for the struggling Falcons.

The Zips caught fire in the second half as they shot 43 percent from both the field and from behind the arc. They capitalized on the Falcons ice cold shooting and abundant turnovers to blow the game wide open in the second half.

Steve McNees had 11 point and Jimmy Conyers led the team with 16 points. Chris McKnight and Anthony Hitchens both added 10 points as they other Zips in double figures.

The Falcons needs someone to step up their scoring production to aid Jakubowski, who’s done what he could to carry a struggling team this far into the season. Otis Polk should be able to generate points off his knack for grabbing offensive rebounds, but even that has been slowed of late.

Dee Brown and Scott Thomas are other candidates who have struggled mightily when things start to go south for the Falcons. Even role players like Marc Larson and Erik Marshal are doing much to light up the stat sheet lately.

Bowling Green (7-6) desperately needs to fix its shooting woes before they square off with Buffalo (8-4) on Thursday. They face both Kent State (10-5) and Ohio (9-6) after the showdown with Buffalo. Poor shooting will guarantee that the Falcons will go 0-4 to that point in conference play.

Bowling Green found itself on the losing end of a 63-39 battle with Temple, dropping the Falcons to 5-5 on the season.  

Conference play is still a few games away, but shooting 27 percent from the field won’t help their chances for having much success, even when it starts.

The Falcons went 15-54 against Temple and 3-15 from three-point range. Both shooting percentages are lows on the season.

Bowling Green suffered through two huge runs by Temple; a 13-0 run in the first half and a 10-0 run in the second. The scoring streaks doomed any chance that Bowling Green had of making a comeback.

The offense was rushed tonight as the Falcons forced quick shots, mostly threes, trying hastily to overcome the Owls scoring runs. Dee Brown was the leading scoring for the Falcons with 10 points on a 5-11 shooting night.

Otis Polk had only four points to go with his team high 10 rebounds.

The Falcons defense in the paint was embarrassing as Temple scored in the paint almost at will the entire game.

Ryan Brooks had 19 points and lead the Owls in scoring, and was assisted by Juan Fernandez’s 11 points and Ramone Moore’s 17 points. Lavoy Allen chipped in five points but, more importantly, had the game high 13 rebounds for the Owls.

Temple shot 47 percent from the field and 43 percent from behind the arc as they cruised to their tenth win on the season. The Owls are currently ranked 21st in the AP poll, but undoubtedly will climb the ranks if they continue to play as strongly as they did tonight.

The Falcons will go back to the drawing board once again before they take on Towson (3-6) on December 30th . They will have one more non-conference game against a tough St. Louis (7-4) team January 2nd before starting MAC play with a road trip to Akron (9-3).

Dee Brown had a season high 20 points as Bowling Green (2-3) got a much-needed win over Florida International (2-7) 67-62. Scott Thomas added 10 points for the Falcons.

Bowling Green had a 39-26 lead going into the half, but got outscored 36-28 by the Golden Panthers in the second half. The lack of shooting consistency mired the Falcons and let the Golden Panthers back in the game.

Bowling Green shot 48 percent from the field, but continued its three-point shooting woes going 25 percent from behind the arc. The 14 turnovers came mostly in the second half as Bowling Green turned in another sloppy second half performance.

When the time came to step up Otis Polk answered the call with his 11 rebounds and seven points. His defensive leadership helped the Falcons jump out to a 38-24 advantage on the boards, and a 7-4 advantage with blocks.

The defense has been impressive to date for a team that is still rebuilding, but the offense has struggled in consistently finding a scorer. Each game a new player steps up as the leading scorer, but then struggles to maintain that level of play. Otis Polk and Scott Thomas have been solid up to this point, but still have disappeared in games when they were needed to score.

The guard play is the main reason for this considering the lineup changes and lack of consistent scoring from both Dee Brown and Joe Jakubowski. Dee Brown’s performance here hopefully is something he will build on and develop into that perimeter shooter the Falcons are looking for.

The Falcons will face Savannah State on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. This stretch of games will be a good opportunity for Bowling Green to get its season back on track, considering the next three games could be easy wins for the struggling team.

The Falcons were out manned and over matched against the Xavier Musketeers loosing 101-57. The faced a team that has immense talent and usually is ranked in the Top 25. The talent gap between the two schools was blatantly evident as Bowling Green struggled to get half the points Xavier did.

The Falcon big men held their own against one of the best teams they will see all season. All three starters had double figures with Scott Thomas leading the way with 13 points and six rebounds. Otis Polk had 11 points, and Marc Larson added 10 points and three rebounds.

Dee Brown was the only Falcon guard to have any success, but managed just nine points on a 3-8 shooting performance. The Falcons need more help from their bench as well, which only scored a combined 10 points.

Bowling Green shot 36 percent from the field and was 38 percent from three-point range. This below average shooting performance was doomed once combined with the abysmal performance from the charity stripe. The Falcons shot 30 percent, going 4-13 from the line. This has to be the biggest disappointment and something that needs to improve drastically.

Xavier held a shooting clinic going 64 percent from the field and 63 percent from behind the arc. They out rebounded the Falcons 43-21, 10 of which were offensive rebounds.

Jordan Crawford had the game high with 24 points and seven rebounds. He got help from Jason Love who had 12 points and 12 rebounds in his first double double of the season. Terrell Holloway added 12 points and five rebounds and was instrumental in creating havoc from behind the arc.

The Musketeer bench chipped in with 42 points, 12 coming from Brad Redford and another 10 coming from Mark Lyons. All twelve players got action for Xavier, which helped to wear down and already distraught Bowling Green club.

Bowling Green has some work to do and very little time to get it done before their next game. The Falcons go on the road once again this time to play Iowa (0-1) on Friday, November 20.