‘The Force’ was not with the Bowling Green men’s basketball team on Tuesday night, falling 91-84 to Kent State on Star Wars Night at the Stroh Center.
“[Kent State] did a great job of getting most of that team back from last year and you see their continuity stands out,” Bowling Green head coach Todd Simon said postgame. “Their chemistry is fantastic, and they’re well connected on both ends of the floor.”
Bowling Green won the opening tip – senior guard Trey Thomas took it up the floor for the orange and brown, though the possession came up empty – both Javontae Campbell and Jamai Felt missed shots down low, allowing for the Golden Flashes to take an early lead.
VonCameron Davis pulled up from the free throw line and sunk a tough fadeaway jumper to open up the scoring.
BG and Kent battled back and forth, trading one-point leads for the first three minutes of the game.
At the 17:16 minute mark of the first half, Davis drew a foul on Felt and nailed both of his free throws to give the Flashes a four-point advantage, 9-5.
After a missed three from Kent State’s Cian Medley, Bowling Green’s Marcus Johnson caught his defender sleeping on a pump fake, stepping into a line-drive three to give BG an 11-9 lead heading into the first media timeout, which turned out to be their largest and last lead of the night.
Out of the break, the Flashes’ Marquis Barnett put himself into a spin cycle, twirling and pirouetting his way to two points, breaking a scoreless drought for the Flashes that lasted over two minutes.
Bowling Green began a scoreless drought of their own, unable to find the bottom of the basket until Thomas hit two free throws to end the drought after three minutes with 12:59 left to play in the first half.
The free throws were the Falcons’ last points until Campbell hit a layup with 8:37 in the half. After a Kent miss, he tacked on another free throw to pull the Falcons within eight, 24-16.
After Golden Flashes’ forward Delrocco Gillespie short-armed a dunk straight into the rim with a loud thud, a timeout with 7:35 remaining in the half allowed Bowling Green to compose themselves after multiple long dry spells.
Out of the pause, Johnson sunk a hook shot with his left hand to pull BG within six. After a Gillespie answer and back-to-back turnovers for Bowling Green, Kent State was back in the driver’s seat, pulling ahead to a 12-point lead over the next four minutes of gameplay, forcing Bowling Green to burn a timeout with 3:24 to go in the half.
Bowling Green was only able to pull within 10 at most over the final few minutes, heading into the halftime break down 13 after a tough fadeaway triple from Kent State’s Jalen Sullinger, 41-28.
In the first half, Bowling Green shot just 8-for-30 (26.7%) from the field.
“We missed seven layups in the first half, when you do those things against good teams, bad things are going to happen,” Simon said. “A couple of blown coverages right at the end of the half that turned that thing to double digits.”
Coming out of halftime, Bowling Green had to make adjustments – and they did.
After 47 scoreless seconds in the half, Thomas found Felt cutting to the basket on an inbound pass – Felt took flight and flushed it home for the first points of the second half. Bowling Green kept the pressure high, forcing a contested miss by Kent State, followed by a signature Marcus Johnson line-drive trifecta to bring the deficit back down to single digits, 41-33.
The momentum felt like it was finally swinging the way of the home team until Johnson missed a three-left iron and DaJion Humphrey failed to draw a charge in the paint, allowing Gillespie to break BG’s opening 5-0 run.
Bowling Green then turned the rock over, allowing Kent State to convert on an acrobatic up-and-under layup from Jalen Sullinger, who was the Golden Flashes’ hero of the second half.
On the other end, Campbell answered with a lay-in of his own, drawing contact in the process and converting on the and-one attempt to bring the Falcons within nine.
After more back-and-forth, Bowling Green had opened the first nearly four minutes on a 12-6 run to pull them back to a 47-40 difference.
Minutes later, with the score 51-40 in favor of Kent State, Trey Thomas missed a good-looking three. Bowling Green was able to grab their own miss and get it back out to Thomas, who connected on his second try.
This set off a chain of events that got Bowling Green back within five, fully swinging the pendulum over in the Falcons’ corner and pulling the crowd back into the contest.
On Kent State’s ensuing possession, Medley was hit with a flagrant one foul. Thomas, who was dealing with lower-body injuries throughout most of the game and was only able to contribute 17 minutes and seven points, missed both of the free throws that would’ve pulled BG within six.
Sophomore Wilguens Jr. Exacte, who played big minutes off the bench, drilled a clutch three through contact to bring BG back within five with just under 13 minutes remaining.
However, Bowling Green was never able to fully pull themselves out of the hole they dug themselves in the first half, despite shooting 53.3% from the field in the second.
A couple of untimely whistles followed by choruses of boos and even a, “You guys are horrible!,” directed at the referees allowed Kent State to steal the momentum back.
Campbell tried his best to pull BG out of the rut with just one hand, scoring 19 points in the final 20 minutes. He finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds, his second consecutive 20-point performance and his second double-double of the season.
“Javontae did a great job stepping up at the one-guard position,” said Simon. “He does a great job and he studies. He hasn’t practiced since Jan. 6…we suit him up for games and we walk through day of. It’s a hard way to live, but he’s that important to us.”
The Golden Flashes just continued making tough shot after tough shot, with Sullinger activating his takeover in the second half. He finished the contest with 32 points (8-13 FG, 15-15 FT).
Bowling Green was only ever able to pull it back within four points with just over three minutes to go in the game, but a series of take fouls and good shot selection allowed Kent State to balloon their lead back out to seven.
“We’ve had a number of games where we just can’t get over that hump,” Simon continued. “We get these things to a one-possession game and we have yet to put together a full 40 minutes. That’s something that we’ve got to continue to address.”
When the final buzzer sounded, Kent State came out on top, handing BG a crucial home loss as we encroach upon tournament time.
The Falcons were out-muscled down low, getting outscored in the paint by a margin of 50-26, yet out-rebounded Kent State 36-32.
With the loss, Bowling Green falls to 10-16 overall and 4-9 in conference.
Up next on the docket: The Battle of I-75 at Savage Arena.
Tip-off from Toledo is slated for 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 21.
You can join Tyler Kavalecz and Artie Abrego on the call starting at 5:45 p.m. for pregame on Falcon Radio.
