It came down to the absolute wire, it could’ve gone either way, but the Bowling Green men’s basketball team lost in double overtime to the Central Michigan Chippewas 77-76 at the Stroh Center.
Here’s how it went down.
Central Michigan struck first with a Derrik Butler layup getting the Chippewas off to a 2-0 start. Bowling Green replied with a layup of their own, coming from the seven-foot senior Jason Spurgin, tying the game at 2-2 in the opening seconds of the first half.
Four minutes into the first half, with Central Michigan up 10-5, Marcus Hill hit a three-pointer cutting the Chippewas lead to three points. A minute later, after a media timeout, Hill grabbed a DaJion Humphrey miss and put it in the basket for two points, tying the game 10-10.
The extended battle for the lead in the first half continued for many minutes. Eventually, a Aidan Rubio three gave the Chippewas another large lead, up 26-19 halfway through the first half.
After a Humphrey three for the Falcons with under a minute left, the Falcons exited the first half down 35-32 to the Chippewas.
The Chippewas started off the second half with a Brian Taylor jump shot adding an additional two points to their lead. Then, the Falcons went on a major scoring run, with a Hill layup, two Rashaun Agee free throws and a steal from Trey Thomas leading to a Da’Shawn Phillip three- giving the Falcons their first lead of the night.
As the battle raged on for dominance in the Mid-American Conference matchup- Spurgin hit a three pointer that regained the BG lead 43-41 with 14 minutes left to play. Then three minutes later, Spurgin did it one more- hitting another three pointer that put the Orange and Brown up 49-48.
In the final minutes of the second half, BG up 62-60, time winding down, Central Michigan’s Taylor found the bottom of the rim with a clutch layup. With BG unable to respond in the final seconds of the half, the game moved to overtime- 62-62.
With the first overtime underway, Agee got things going for the Falcons with a major slam putting the Orange and Brown up 64-62. One free throw from Hill and a layup gave the Falcons a 67-62 lead with 2:12 left to play.
Unfortunately for Bowling Green, the Chippewas came back swinging, going on a 6-1 scoring run forcing the second overtime of the contest, now tied 68-68.
The second overtime was a battle of wills and might between two extremely exhausted teams. With 11 seconds remaining on the clock, Paul McMillian IV hit a clutch layup putting Central Michigan up 77-76, with the Falcons unable to score in the final seconds- the Chippewas escaped with the victory.
Hill scored 22 points on 8/20 shooting for the Falcons. Agee scored 20 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for yet another double-double for his season.
Bowling Green shot 32.9% from the field compared to Central Michigan’s extremely impressive 50.8% shooting performance.
Postgame, head coach Todd Simon commented on his team’s performance.
“We hung in there, gave ourselves a chance to win despite not playing very well,” Simon said. “We weren’t making shots, not making shots around the rim, luckily we took care of the ball which gave us an opportunity, but just all around just an unacceptable performance defensively.”
Bowling Green’s record falls to 15-7 overall on the season and 6-4 in the MAC. Bowling Green will have an opportunity to rebound from their overtime loss, as they take on Buffalo at the Stroh Center on Feb. 6 at 7 p.m.
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