Coming into Saturday night’s game against the Falcons, Akron men’s basketball averaged 40.1 rebounds per game, the best mark in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) and the 30th best in the nation.
Although Akron sneaked out of the Stroh Center with a 71-68 victory, BGSU dominated the Zips on the glass, outrebounding UA 50-38.
“Our coaching staff has really been on us about rebounding, especially in conference play,” senior guard Derrick Butler said. “It’s a very important thing we dialed in on at practice, and I feel like we’re just building little by little to improve our team, and rebounding was definitely a high key today.”
The Falcons have not been a dominant rebounding team this season.
Coming into the contest against the reigning MAC Tournament champions, BGSU grabbed just 33.7 boards per game, the third-fewest in the conference.
“We haven’t been a great rebounding team,” Bowling Green head coach Todd Simon said. “We’re pretty small across the board. We’re playing by positionally by position outside of our five spot when Jamai or Preston are in the game; we’re very small.”
The 50 rebounds against the Zips marked a new season-high for BG, surpassing the 49 boards they grabbed against Aquinas on Dec. 23.
“[Rebounding] has to be a group rebounding emphasis, and they bought into that,” Simon said. “Hopefully, we can keep that going through league play.”
Bowling Green was especially dominant on the offensive glass.
Entering the game, BG averaged just 9.0 offensive rebounds per contest, the fourth-fewest in the MAC.
However, they secured 17 offensive rebounds in the loss. Over their past two games, the Falcons have grabbed a staggering 36 offensive boards.
Redshirt freshman forward Jamai Felt and sophomore forward Wilguens Jr. Exacte led the way on the glass for the Falcons.
Felt led all players with 10 rebounds, including six on the offensive end. After missing the past two seasons due to injury, Felt has found his groove, grabbing double-digit rebounds in back-to-back games.
“Jamai Felt is a freshman, and he’s learning and getting in better game shape by the day and getting more comfortable and starting to slow down for him, and that’s where you start to see him get better and better in those areas that we need him to excel at,” Simon said.
Felt now ranks third in the MAC with 30 offensive rebounds and sixth with 73 overall rebounds this season.
Exacte also found success on the glass, grabbing a season and career-high nine rebounds.
Exacte is in a similar boat as Felt. After missing last season at Utah due to injury, the transfer has secured 16 rebounds over the past two games.
“Wilguens, he missed all of last year, he missed the summer, he missed most of the fall, and he’s kind of finding his groove again too,” Simon said. “So, it’s good to see some of these guys that don’t have a lot of basketball under their belt starting to hit their stride.”
Bowling Green did not shoot the lights out, making just 34.8% (23-66) of their shots from the field, 32% (8-25) from deep and 66.7% (14-21) from the free throw line.
However, Simon believes their rebounding, which helped keep them in the lead for most of the game, is a good learning experience for the team.
“There’s a good lesson in that for our guys. There was a lid on that rim, we had threes going in and out, we had layups rolling off the rim and uncharacteristic from the free throw line,” Simon said. “So, when that happens, it’s a good lesson that these championships in this league are going to be with defense, rebounding, and that’s going to be a huge formula for this.”
Next, BGSU will head to Kalamazoo, Michigan, to face the Western Michigan Broncos on Tuesday, Jan. 7 at 7 p.m.