The Bowling Green men’s basketball team’s (2-2) shooting struggle continued as they dropped their second consecutive game, falling to Bellarmine (1-3) 85-67 at the Stroh Center on Friday night.  

“Credit to them, they’re a really good team. Tonight was their night; the ball was falling for them, and it wasn’t for us,” senior guard DaJion Humphrey said. “Just got to get back to the drawing board and figure it out from there. We got a long season ahead, so we’ll be fine.”  

FIRST HALF  

The Falcons scored the game’s first points; however, Bellarmine made their first three shot attempts from beyond the arc, jumping out to an early 11-4 lead five minutes into the contest.   

BG was held scoreless for just under four minutes before a layup by senior center Jason Spurgin. However, the Knights would score five points in the next 41 seconds, pushing their lead to 17-6 with just over 13 minutes left in the first half.   

BG answered with a 5-0 run of their own, holding Bellarmine scoreless for over five minutes and cutting the deficit down to six points with seven and a half minutes remaining.   

“We had a lot of energy; we were trusting each other, and we were following our defensive plan,” sophomore guard Anthony McComb III said. “I feel like we kind of got away from it during the second half, but during that time, we were trusting each other and following our plan.”  

The teams would go back and forth for the remainder of the half, with Bellarmine leading 29-21 at halftime.   

Bellarmine shot 43.5% (10-23) from the field and 60% (6-10) from three-point range in the first 20 minutes.    

Meanwhile, Bowling Green shot just 31% (9-29) from the field and 8.3% (1-12) from beyond the arc in the first half.  

SECOND HALF  

Both teams came out of halftime aggressive, with Bellarmine pushing their lead to 40-30 five minutes into the half.  

Bellarmine would catch fire again, going on a 10-run to push their lead to 50-32 with just under 13 minutes remaining. However, BG would hit back-to-back three-pointers in 30 seconds, cutting the deficit to 52-38.  

The Knights went on another 5-0 run, culminating in a three-point play off a BG turnover, extending their lead to 57-38 midway through the second half.  

The Orange and Brown refused to give up, though, going on a 5-0 run of their own, trailing 62-47 with eight minutes left to play.  

Three straight three-pointers by the Falcons cut Bellarmine’s lead to just 11 points, trailing 68-57 with five and a half minutes remaining.    

The Knights, who seemingly could not miss in the second half, hit back-to-back three-pointers to extend their lead to 76-59 with just over three minutes left in the contest.  

While the Falcons fought until the end, it was not enough, as BU found the bottom of the net on eight of their last nine shots of the game. Bellarmine shot 72% (18-25) from the field and 71.4% (5-7) from three-point range during the contest, leaving the Stroh Center with an 18-point victory.  

REVIEW OF THE GAME  

The story of the game was simple: Bellarmine shot lights out, and Bowling Green did not.  

The Knights shot 58.3% (28-48) from the field and 64.7% (11-17) from three-point range. Meanwhile, BG shot just 37.7% (23-61) from the field and 28.1% (9-32) from beyond the arc.  

“Bellarmine was physical. They shrunk the floor, and we didn’t make them pay for that. When you don’t, you’re not going to put enough points on the board,” head coach Todd Simon said.   

Although BG has struggled shooting recently, especially from three-point range, they are not losing faith in each other.  

“I don’t feel anything needs to change. We all put the work in, just trust the work,” Humphrey said. “They’ll fall. I’m not losing faith in none of my guys, and they’re not losing faith in me, so we just have to keep going.”  

McComb led the Falcons in scoring, tallying a career-high 15 points on 5-10 shooting from the field and 2-6 from beyond the arc. Freshman guard EJay Greer also had his best game of the season, scoring a career-high eight points in 18 minutes of action. 

“Anthony’s worked his tail off. Him and EJay Greer, I thought did a really good job, as a freshman and sophomore out there with no experience between the two of them,” Simon said. “It’s essentially their first action of an extended period of time. So, they’ll keep growing from that and getting better.”  

Humphrey, Agee and Spurgin were the other double-digit scorers for BG, tallying 12, 11 and 10 points, respectively.  

Junior guard Marcus Hill, who led the Falcons in scoring in the first two games of the season, got into foul trouble early, ultimately fouling out of the game.  

“That really hurt us. Even when you’re playing with foul trouble, it changes his aggressiveness. That’s part of the deal; he’s an aggressive player, right, wrong or indifferent,” head coach Todd Simon said. “If he’s not allowed to be a downhill guy, aggressive and all that sort of stuff, it hurts him in games like that. That was the case today.”   

NEXT UP  

The Falcons will head to Place Bell Arena in Montreal, Canada, to take part in the Northern Classic. The Orange and Brown will start the three games in three days by facing off against Western Kentucky on Nov. 24 before battling Lipscomb and Canisius on Nov. 25 and 26, respectively.