“All good things must come to an end.”
This old saying rang true last night when Bowling Green men’s basketball’s eight-game winning streak came to an end in an 83-67 loss to the Akron Zips.
The Falcons started red hot with Da’Shawn Phillip hitting a three-point shot less than 30 seconds into the contest. A Rashaun Agee layup put the Falcons up 5-0 just a minute thirty into the game.
Heading into halftime, the Falcons led by five at a score of 41-36.
At the half, Marcus Hill led the way with 13 points. Trey Thomas added a perfect shooting performance at halftime, scoring 12 on 5-5 shooting and going 2-2 from the free throw line.
More impressively, the Bowling Green defense held Akron star forward Enrique Freeman to just 5 points on 2-6 shooting.
Unfortunately for BGSU, the second-half Falcons fell apart.
BGSU struggled to hit shots to increase their lead over Akron as the Zips scratched and crawled their way through the half as they started to gain momentum.
The Zips finally took their first lead of the game with a major Freeman two-handed slam, putting them up 52-51 with nine minutes left in the second half.
Things only got worse for BG, as Akron went on a 10-point run that gave them a double-digit lead with seven minutes remaining in the half.
BG never regained the lead.
The Falcons lost for the first time in over a month, snapping their eight-game winning streak and putting their Mid-American Conference record at 1-1.
Compared to 41 in the first half, BG only scored 26 points in the second half. The Falcons shot 6-23 from the three-point line in the contest.
Hill led the Falcons in scoring with 19 points. Akron’s Freeman recovered from his rough start in the first half, scoring 24 points and grabbing 11 rebounds, recording another double-double for his season.
The Falcons record falls to 10-4 on the season, and they will look to rebound as they take on the Ohio Bobcats at the Stroh Center on Tuesday, Jan. 9, at 6 p.m.
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