After losing three of their last four games, the men’s basketball team (13-7, 7-5 in conference) has missed several chances to leap ahead of the pack in the Mid-American Conference West Division.
They currently stand in a three-way tie for second place in the division with Ball State and Toledo, trailing leader Western Michigan (8-5) by a half game.
The stretch run for the regular season championship continues as the Falcons visit Kent State (16-7, 8-4) tomorrow, the first of three road games remaining on the schedule. BG will also host three games to complete the regular season.
It will be a tough task facing the Golden Flashes, who find themselves in nearly the same position as BG as they are second in the MAC East, two games behind division leader Miami (10-4). Kent State has been hot of late, winning six of their last seven games to make their push in the East.
The Golden Flashes have not treated visitors kindly this season, going a perfect 9-0 in Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center.
BG has played solid on the road (5-5), but have dropped their last two contests in opposing gyms, a 72-69 loss at Ohio and 58-50 at archrival Toledo on Wednesday, which was the Falcons’ sixth straight loss at UT.
The game will be the third in five days for BG, who looked sluggish against the Rockets as they had their lowest scoring output of the season. Leading scorers Josh Almanson (17.2 points per game) and John Reimold (17 ppg) combined for just 18 points.
Steven Wright had his biggest game as a Falcon scoring a career-high 23 points, which came as no surprise to Falcons head coach Dan Dakich.
“He’s been working at (his game). When you work at it, good things happen. I think that he will obviously continue to progress and get better as his career goes on,” Dakich said.
KSU poses a stiff challenge due to their emphasis on team play. No one player does the majority of work for them on either side of the ball.
Seven players average six or more points a game, with Jason Edwin (12.3 ppg), Kevin Warzynski (12.1) and DeAndre Haynes (10.4) leading the way.
Haynes runs the balanced attack and leads the MAC with 6.3 assists per game.
The game begins at 2 p.m. and will air on Fox Sports Ohio.
