Josh Almanson scored 23 points to lead the men’s basketball team to a 77-73 win over Kent State and entered his name among the BG greats as he surpassed 1,000 points for his career.
“People had told me I was getting close, but you don’t think about that,” said Almanson of the milestone, which he reached on a put back with 4:32 left in the game. “John [Reimold] got it earlier and we won a game on the road. I get it later and we win a game on the road. I don’t think it means as much if you don’t win the game.”
Winning the game for BG (14-7, 8-5 in conference) was what Almanson did. After Kevin Warzynski, who scored all of his team-high 23 points in the second half, hit a three to put the Golden Flashes (16-8, 8-5) up 59-58 with 7:42 remaining. Almanson responded by making a pair of free throws to put the Falcons ahead. He scored 10 points down the stretch and the Falcons never trailed again.
“They were guarding John [Reimold] pretty tight and they weren’t leaving him,” said Almanson, who also grabbed nine rebounds. “He was setting screens and it allowed me to get a look at the basket and we were able to play out of it.”
Falcons head coach Dan Dakich was impressed with his team’s ability to not give up in a game that featured five lead changes and several key runs.
“I thought our team could’ve folded up three different times and we didn’t. I thought we played really hard. Through the entire basketball game we kept our wits about us, kept our poise and it was a good win for us,” Dakich said.
Reimold scored 19 points and Steven Wright added 15 points and a game-high seven assists.
The Falcons led by as many as 13 points in the first half, only to see that lead trimmed to eight at 35-27 at halftime. Jason Edwin scored 10 points during Kent’s 12-4 run to close the gap and finished with 16 points.
Warzynksi nearly single-handedly brought the Golden Flashes back with his huge second half performance. He hit all three of his three-point attempts and went 10 of 11 from the foul line. Scott Cutley was also key in the second half, scoring all 10 of his points after the break and connecting on 6 of 7 second half free throw attempts.
Dakich enjoyed seeing Almanson, who is from Bowling Green, get 1,000 career points and felt it was always something he would do.
“A couple of years ago I told him, ‘Would you quit worrying about scoring, you’re going to score 1,000 points in your career,’ and I am really proud that he did because he’s overcome a lot of things,” Dakich said. “He hasn’t been healthy until this year. He wasn’t healthy last year and obviously the year before, and he’s just really been such a great kid and such a great role-model to kids from Bowling Green, in Bowling Green and everywhere else.”
The Falcons return to action Wednesday as they host Ball State (12-9, 7-6), who lost at Buffalo 67-58 on Saturday. The game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
