At a very young age players are taught to crash the weak side offensive boards. Unfortunately for BG, Nate Minnoy did just that.
With one second left in regulation, Central Michigan’s Minnoy sent the game into overtime with a putback layup on a missed jumper by Giordan Watson.
The Falcons weren’t able to recover, losing 81-77 last night in front of 1,061 at Anderson Arena.
“We’ve been in games, we’ve won games with stops,” said coach Louis Orr. “This is the first game we didn’t close out with a stop when we had the lead.”
After taking a 64-62 lead on a Joe Jakubowski three-point play with 24 seconds left in regulation, the Falcons forced CMU into a tough shot, but got a second-chance putback from Minnoy, which tied the score at 64 all.
“I watched tape on [Minnoy],” Orr said. “He is an excellent weakside rebounder. He was in the perfect position to get that offensive rebound.”
“We can’t have guys standing and watching when that shot goes up. We have to go after that ball.”
CMU outscored BG 17-13 in overtime – 13 of those 17 were from the free throw line.
Minnoy led the Chippewas with 18 points, including six in the extra session.
Nate Miller led BG with a game-high 20 points, but shot 8-of-19 from the floor and had six turnovers. Jakubowski had 13, while Brian Moten continued his impressive play off the bench with 17, including 11 in the first half.
Once again, the Falcons started off slowly. CMU scored the first seven points of the game and pushed their lead to 19-4 with just over 13 minutes to go. But BG fought back with an 11-0 run, concluding with a Darryl Clemens layup to get within four with just under 10 minutes left in the first half.
The Falcons continue to show a lot of fight.
“Our guys, again, showed a lot of fight,” Orr said. “We get off to these slow starts, down 15 or so. Our guys showed a lot of fight.”
BG was down 33-32 at the half.
The Falcons took their first lead of the game, 49-48, after a made free throw by Miller with just under eight minutes to go.
The lead would continue to shift back and forth over the last seven minutes.
BG took its final lead, 64-62, with 24 seconds remaining.
The Falcons play rival UT at home on Sunday with a start time of 4:05 p.m. The game will be broadcasted on ESPNU.