BGSU men’s basketball (9-15, 3-8) lost to the Ohio Bobcats (13-11, 7-4) on a Tuesday night matchup in the Stroh Center 86-81.
For the Falcons dropping this game puts them in a tough position as the end of Mid-American Conference play looms near.
“When you play a good offensive team, you can’t try to answer them basket for basket, you can’t take hero shots, we just have to keep doing what we do,” head coach Todd Simon said. “We had pretty good stretches on the offensive end of doing that for the most part, but it wasn’t enough.”
This loss also snapped a two-game home win streak that the Falcons had put together.
Here is how the game went:
Javontae Campbell gets two steals and helps the Falcons jump out to a quick 10-2-point run.
The Bobcats would answer that run with a run of their own as Shereef Mitchell would hit two quick back-to-back threes.
Both teams would shore up their defense and make it hard for each other to score and make it a defensive game.
Derrick Butler would again produce the spark off the bench for the Orange and Brown as he went on a quick five-point run for BG.
“It doesn’t matter if I come off the bench or start, I’m gonna have the same mindset to win games,” Butler said.
With time running out in the first half, the Falcons would have one last chance to take the lead going into Halftime, and a buzzer-beating three from Marcus Johnson would do just that. The Falcons would lead going into halftime 34-32.
Starting the second half the Falcons pounced on the Bobcats as they went on a 12-5 run behind some sweet scoring from DaJion Humphrey.
Ohio would tighten the defensive screws after that run and make a 12-4 run of their own as AJ Brown and AJ Clayton both contributed four points.
The Bobcats would tear off a defensive-led seven-point run, milking off over a minute of clock while holding the Flacons to zero points.
Although the Falcons would fight to close the gap it would be too late as they would be forced to foul and send the Bobcats to the line to keep the clock from ticking down. Ohio would go a perfect 9-9 from the free throw line in the final minute of play to ice the game.
“We have to take pride in our defense more, teams are trying to go on one with us and just trying to get to the line on us. We need to just take more pride in that and just be tougher,” Johnson said.
The Ohio Bobcats would leave the Stroh Center victorious with a final score of 86-81.
The Falcons are back in action on Saturday, Feb. 15. As they travel to Alumni Arena to take on the Buffalo Bulls. Falcon Media Sports Network’s Artie Abrego will have a recap of the game.
