BGSU men’s basketball struggled to find their shooting form and fell 69-57 to Akron at home on Tuesday night.
The Falcons fall to 10-4 overall and 6-2 in the MAC. With Toledo’s win over Central Michigan the Falcons are once again in second place in the conference. Akron moves to 6-3 overall and 4-2 in the MAC with the win.
It was a first half filled with struggles for both teams, but a nice run at the end of the half would give the Zips the 28-21 lead going into the break.
Bowling Green shot just 26% from the field while the Zips shot 29% in a very low-scoring first half of basketball.
At the break it would be Justin Turner and Josiah Fulcher that would lead the Falcons with seven points. Fulcher wouldn’t notch a second half basket while Turner would end with 13 points, six assists and five rebounds for the night.
In the second half the Zips would come out ready to play, going on an 8-2 run to start the half and stretching their lead to 13 with a little over 17 minutes remaining in the game.
But the Falcons would answer quickly with a counter run of their own and more specifically Kaden Metheny would answer, as the freshman hit two threes to force a timeout from Akron head coach John Groce with 16:30 left in the game. Metheny would end up with 14 points on the night to help lead the Falcons.
From here the Falcons would continue to cut into the Akron lead and they would even take a two-point lead. This thanks to a nice stretch from Daeqwon Plowden who would finish with 14 points and eight rebounds to lead BGSU in both categories. His night was highlighted by an impressive alley-oop slam with Turner on the assisting end.
Not only would they cut into the lead, they would eventually take the lead back with just under 10 minutes left in the game.
That lead would last less than a minute however as from here the Zips would go on a 12-0 run started off by back-to-back threes from Bryan Trimble Jr. who led Akron with 18 on the night.
This would push Akron’s lead to 10 with 6:10 left in the game and they would never look back as reigning MAC Player of the Year Loren Cristian Jackson would start to heat up after only scoring five points in the first half. Jackson would end up with 16 points, six assists and six rebounds on the night.
“We didn’t get stops. We really needed stops down the stretch, that’s the most important thing and we just fell short. Loren Cristian Jackson is a great guard and he did exactly what he was supposed to do. He took over the game,” Plowden said after the game.
The 57 total points is the season low for a Bowling Green team that entered the game averaging 81 points per game. Their second lowest offensive outing came exactly one week earlier against Ball State.
This comes after a Friday victory in which the Falcons swept a good Buffalo program with a win on the road.
“We didn’t bring it today, we didn’t bring that same intensity that we brought to Buffalo. And it is hard when you see a team that can bring that type of energy and effort at Buffalo and then turn back around and play Ball State with no energy and effort and then do the same thing tonight against Akron. It’s frustrating and we’ve got to figure it out, we’ll figure it out and we’ll be better,” BGSU head coach Michael Huger said.
The Falcons will have to figure it out quickly however, as they have a road matchup with Miami on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
“We gotta rest, the biggest thing is rest and then prepare. It is a short turnaround, we haven’t seen them. It is down in Miami and it is always a tough place to play down there so we gotta get rest and now rehydrate and be ready to go again and hopefully we will have a better outing,” Huger said.
