“Disappointing performance,” head coach Todd Simon said. “Obviously, we prepared better than this, and to only score 62 points on 35% shooting at home is not acceptable for us.”
These words, uttered by Falcons head coach Todd Simon after Bowling Green’s 68-62 loss to Eastern Michigan on Saturday, BG shot 35% from the field against a team that had lost six straight games.
Bowling Green shot 20/58 from the field and 5-22 from three, senior guard Trey Thomas, who scored 22 vs Buffalo just a couple days earlier, despite scoring 16 points- went 0-8 from three.
This is not the first time since entering MAC play the Falcons have shot less than 40% at home, a few weeks ago, in their first MAC game of the season in the 71-68 loss to Akron, BG shot 34.8% from the field.
After starting the season high in shooting percentages in the conference, Bowling Green has dropped to eighth in the conference in shooting, averaging 44.5% from the field, they have also dropped to 5th in the conference in three-point shooting (34.1%) after previously being in the top three for multiple weeks.
The slow starts in the first halves of games have been the biggest struggles for the Orange and Brown, against EMU, BG only scored 26 points in the first half.
“We have to find our routine. Everybody got to find their routine going into the game,” senior forward Marcus Johnson said. “I don’t know what it is, but guys need to just to start finding their own routine, what makes them go in that first half.
Bowling Green ended up finishing the day with 62 points, still falling well short of expectations against a team that they were expected to beat.
With a 7-10 record on the season, the Falcons have struggled to gain momentum since MAC play has begun, going 2-3 in the past five games.
The issue of momentum has been a constant for Bowling Green all season, the Falcons have only recorded back-to-back victories once this season and continually follow up victories against their opponents with a loss their next time out.
With 14 games remaining in the season, Bowling Green still has plenty of time left to turn things around, but the shooting must improve to do so.
