The Falcon men’s basketball team pulled off their first Mid-American Conference victory of the season on Saturday afternoon, defeating the Eastern Michigan Eagles 75-71 in overtime.
“We were able to rebound against their size and length, that was the biggest key for us,” Falcons head coach Michael Huger said. “We were able to make shots, that’s it, their zone is very long and athletic and they were all over the place, so it’s like they were playing with six guys.”
The teams played even throughout the first half, as Eastern Michigan held a slim 30-29 advantage going into halftime. However, it took a strong effort from the Falcons in the second part of the half to make it a close game after Eastern Michigan was up 24-13 at one point.
“We actually went small out of necessity, we had our big guys get into foul trouble early,” Huger said. “We had to go small at that point and that’s when we started to hit shots with our four guards in, we were able to hit a lot of shots and that’s what created the success for us against those guys.”
The second half was close as well, with the Falcons coming back from another deficit early in the half to outscore Eastern Michigan, sending the game into overtime after being tied 66-66 at the end of regulation.
In overtime, the Falcons started off with a bang as senior guard Matt Fox hit a three point shot to regain the lead. However, Eastern Michigan came back with a layup to make it a 69-68 game. But, the Falcons would get on a roll of their own with a layup from junior guard Antwon Lillard as well as a pair of successful free throws from freshman guard Justin Turner. The team would hold the lead for the remainder of the overtime period as they took the 75-71 win.
Lillard had a strong game overall, leading the team with 20 total points on the strength of eight field goals and four free throws.
“He was special today,” Huger said. “When he’s engaged and locked in, he is very good and he was locked in and engaged today for the 45 minutes that we played. He was into it with his teammates, he played hard, he gave me everything that he had today and I would like to get that going forward for the rest of the season.”
The team will next play on Tuesday night at home against the Northern Illinois Huskies.
