BGSU men’s basketball (8-14, 3-7) took down the Northern Illinois Huskies (5-17, 1-9) in a Tuesday night matchup at the Stroh Center
This win breaks a current losing streak of five straight Mid-American Conference games for the Orange and Brown.
“Just getting back in the win column, and just building on this is something that we can do. It’s just a blessing,” DaJion Humphrey said. “I feel like we built for it. You can’t have any success without adversity. If just have to keep your head down and keep working.”
Here is how the game went:
The scoring was opened with a Marcus Johnson mid-range bank shot.
It would be Johnson and Humphrey to combine for the first 13 points for the Falcons as they jumped out to a 13 to six run.
The Huskies would not be denied as they were able to claw their way back into the game with four points with 50 seconds remaining behind Nasir Muhammad and Ethan Butler who both scored six points, to make the score 35-31
The Orange and Brown would have the last shot of the game after a Johnson offensive rebound that led to a buzzer-beating Humphreys three-pointer.
Bowling Green would end the first half 38-31.
The Second half of basketball would see both teams exchange buckets early.
NIU would put up a fight and get the BGSU lead cut down to one point behind a strong 11 points from Quaran McPherson to make the score 55-54.
After NIU pulled to within one point Johnson and Humphrey would combine for a quick six points to stretch the lead back to four points.
Down the stretch, Bowling Green would shoot 10 of their 26 free throws within the last 1:26 of basketball as they iced the game to win 84-77.
The second half of basketball would be where Derrick Butler would make his mark scoring all 15 of his points.
“Just to be able to have more bodies, has given us a chance to sit more guys and get breathers.” Head Coach Todd Simon said. “I thought that was impactful to how we shot it and our defensive energy as a team.”
The bench was firing on all cylinders against NIU as they were able to outscore the Huskies bench 20 to six and go large stretches where they could hang with Norther Illinois to give the starters a well-deserved break.
The Falcons are back in action on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 2 pm to take on Coastal Carolina. Join Falcon Media Sports Network’s own Artie Abrego and Foster Roesti on the call on Falcon Radio.
