BGSU men’s basketball’s losing streak continued Tuesday night as they dropped their sixth game in a row against Kent State by a score of 71-67. 

Their record drops to 10-9 on the season and 6-7 in the MAC, which puts them in seventh place in the conference. The Falcons played well this game but were just outmatched by the high volume scoring of the Kent State offense.

Trey Diggs and Justin Turner led the way for the Falcons both scoring 18 points. Daeqwon Plowden also had a good night with 15 points and eight rebounds. 

The Falcons came out of the gates hot with Plowden scoring the Falcon’s first 10 points and jumping to an early 10-3 lead. Both teams went on a bit of a scoring drought, but that was short-lived as Kent State started attacking the paint and scoring. 

The Falcons then started to get sloppy with the ball and were forcing shots inside. Most of the shots they hit in the first half were threes, other than that the Falcons did not even have a free throw attempt in the first half. Despite the poor shooting the Falcons were only down 38-32 at the half. 

Both teams started out the second half trading buckets. Turner started to pick up his play by scoring the first five points of the half.  The main advantage Kent State had in this game was their free throw shooting, they went 12 of 13 from the line while the Falcons only went 6 of 8. Both teams shot similar percentages from the field and from behind the arc. Kent State shot 43% on field goals and 31% from three while BGSU shot 40% from the field and 30% from three. 

Justin Turner commented on how a few close plays can really make a difference in a close game like today.

“I’ve seen how one or two plays, especially in the last four minutes, affects the game and how small little details affect the game like that. I’m pleased with how hard we played and definitely think we are getting better.” he said.  

The game went down to the wire as BGSU was down by two with a minute to go as Kent’s Danny Pippen was able to score a layup with four seconds left on the shot clock. The Falcons had a good opportunity to cut the lead back to two but missed the layup with 20 seconds left in the game. 

BGSU head coach Micheal Huger was pleased with the effort the Falcon has today and sees it as an opportunity to build on it. 

“Hard fought game, our guys played hard and Kent played hard. They were able to play better down the stretch and they were able to knock down their free throws and we missed some key ones that could have changed the outcome of the game,” he said.

The Falcons will look to end their slump this coming Saturday against Toledo at Savage Arena.