Everything so far this season had fallen perfectly into place for the No. 25 Falcons. In what was supposed to be a rebuilding year, the team reeled off 25 straight wins and made the national rankings in both polls. Records had fallen. Wins had come in all sorts of different ways. Losses were sparse. But if the old saying goes ‘all good things must come to an end,’ then they must. Last night was the end for BG as they lost their first game since last November’s 45-40 to Miami, ending a school-record 25-game winning streak. The loss wasn’t necessarily unexpected as the team had been playing sloppy basketball for the past several weeks, nearly losing to Kent State last weekend and to Buffalo the Wednesday before. Having a young squad, coach Curt Miller said he didn’t feel his team knew their play was starting to dwindle. ‘We’ve seen this, as a coaching staff, brewing for three weeks,’ Miller said. ‘I’m the only one that had a sense of urgency that we’re not playing very well. If we weren’t going to keep learning through wins, hopefully this loss will shake things up.’ And there’s a good chance that it might. Miller additionally said his team isn’t necessarily a good practice team, but he now has something he can use to motivate the team to push themselves. He will also be relying on his team captains to teach the younger players that all is not lost and they need to keep working hard. Knowing his team had a chance to do something special made this loss disappointing for Miller, but he wouldn’t say this loss was necessarily good for the team. ‘There’s no good losses,’ Miller said. ‘They had a chance to do something very, very special.’ And while Miller may not say it, this loss may have been what the doctor ordered for the Falcons. The young BG squad, which has just one senior, had gone to overtime in three of their last eight games, and was beginning to feel the pressure of the national spotlight and came into a tough road environment. All that pressure probably got to the team, but now that it’s gone, Miller said his team should be able to focus better. ‘All the pressure’s off of us now,’ Miller said. ‘We have to win the [Mid-American Conference] Tournament.’ If the Falcons don’t win the MAC Tournament, there is virtually no chance of them getting an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, and they will have to settle for the WNIT for the second straight year despite winning the regular season championship. To get there, BG needs to go through Ohio on Saturday and regain their momentum, something Miller thinks his team is capable of doing. ‘We can get back to the drawing board,’ Miller said. ‘The thing that’s good is that OU’s been talking about us for over a month in how badly they wanted to play us.’ ‘It will be very similar to a MAC Tournament game,’ he added. ‘That’s what I like. The setting will be very intense.’ So while the streak’s over, the Falcons still have a lot to fight for.