Justin Turner passed Anthony Stacey for the all-time scoring record on Wednesday night, but BGSU men’s basketball still fell to now 3-11 Western Michigan 76-70.
The loss puts Bowling Green at 10-8 overall on the season and 6-6 inside the MAC. Western Michigan is now also 2-7 in the MAC.
Turner passed Tracey on a left corner three at the 13:53 mark in the game, cementing his legacy as the greatest scorer that BGSU men’s basketball has ever seen.
“Every time I hang out with coach Stacey that’ll be the time I reflect with it and tell him that I’m finally one-up on him in something. Playing for him in my first four years here, all the trash talking he did to me, so now maybe I got something to give back to him in the future,” Turner said after the game.
It was the same old story to start the first half for the Falcons in the game though as the Broncos were scorching hot from the field and specifically from beyond the arc.
Daeqwon Plowden got get things started with a driving layup to put the Falcons up 2-0. That was the only lead the Falcons would hold in the entire game.
B Artis White hit a three on the next possession and the Broncos didn’t look back. White led the Broncos with 16 points on the night on 3 of 6 shooting from beyond the arc.
As a team Broncos shot 46% from three for the night. Coming into the game the Broncos shot just 31% from beyond the arc, good for 272nd in the country. .
“That was the difference in the game. They were able to make the shots and they made their free throws down the stretch. They hit 12 threes which is unheard of for those guys to make that many threes but hats off to them. They did a really good job,” BGSU head coach Michael Huger said.
The lead for the Broncos continued to grow for the entire first half as they were able find open shooters, and more importantly knock down the shots.
Going into the second half, the Falcons were down 40-29 and the Broncos who average 62 points per game were on pace to score 80 after one half of play.
Both teams started off the second half slow as the first bucket wouldn’t come until the 18:19 mark via a Justin Turner layup.
The Falcons started to flirt with a comeback after this however, knocking the lead down to eight with just over 16 minutes left. But back-to-back threes by Western would put the Broncos back up 13.
The Falcons continued to fight back though as a Turner layup, followed by a Caleb Fields three and a Kaden Metheny layup pushed the lead all the way back down to six.
The half proved to be something of a roller coaster though, as the Broncos went on a 7-0 run of their own to push it all the way back to 13.
With under four minutes left and still down 10, the Falcons found some life still left in them, cutting the lead down to two thanks to a few Turner threes. Down two with under a minute left, the Falcons put Western Michigan at the line and the Broncos made their shots to eventually sink the Falcons.
“I liked our fight tonight. We just got to do it in the first half and not have to wait until the second half in order to fight. Gotta do a better job rebounding too that has cost a lot of games,” Huger said.
The Falcons were outrebounded 42-32 on the night by the Broncos.
The loss marks five-straight losses for the Falcons now, something that is clearly frustrating to the coaches and the players. But even more frustrating for the Falcons has been their ability to dig holes for themselves in the first half.
“It is definitely frustrating when you fall behind and you’re always playing from behind. It is always difficult. You just got to continue to fight and continue to play hard and hopefully good things will happen,” Huger said.
Next up for the Falcons will be a home contest with Ohio on Saturday. Tip is set for 5 p.m.
