Buffalo men’s basketball (14-7, 4-5) defeated Bowling Green (13-8, 4-5) 89-78 at the Stroh Center Tuesday night, ending their five-game losing streak and handing the Falcons their second straight loss.
The game started with the ball in the hands of BGSU senior guard Javontae Campbell, who had 27 points and eight assists in the hard-fought loss to Toledo on Saturday at Savage Arena.
Both teams were making excellent plays on offense, entering the very first media break at 19 points apiece. The game remained tied at the second media timeout, with neither team pulling ahead or gaining much momentum.
This changed quickly upon exiting the timeout. Buffalo continued to hit their shots, but the difference was that their defense was getting consistent stops, and the Falcons were making early, costly mistakes. The score shifted to 25-19 in favor of UB.
Buffalo could not miss from range, going 7-for-11 from three while the Falcons were 2-of-5 to start. Heading into the next media timeout, the score was 31-21. A ten-point lead for the Bulls was created by a 12-2 run and consistent shooting from UB’s senior forward Noah Batchelor and junior guard Ryan Sabol.
Not much offense was generated over the next few minutes, as both teams made simple mistakes and forced turnovers on defense. The Falcons stifled Buffalo’s three-point attempts for the moment, and UB defenders shut down everyone besides Campbell and sophomore guard Josiah Shackelford. The Bulls held their lead over Bowling Green, 35-28.
With two minutes to go in the half, Buffalo maintained a seven-point lead over the Orange and Brown, 37-30, in a half where it felt like the Falcons could not get anything going consistently on offense, and could not defend on the perimeter.
The end of the first half rolled around, UB still leading 39-32, and Bowling Green as a squad was 3-for-10 from three, with senior guard Javon Ruffingoing 0-of-2 and junior forward Mayar Wol hitting just 1-for-4 from downtown. The Falcons as a whole shot just 43% from the field in the first, compared to the Bulls 60%.
More of the same in the opening minutes of the second half. The Bulls continued to hit threes, and though Bowling Green made a pair of their own with Campbell and Ruffin, Buffalo continued to lead 51-40 with 16:30 to go in the game.
However, the Falcons put together a run following the second media timeout of the second quarter, hitting another three and scoring off turnovers. They trailed 53-49 with just over 14 minutes remaining.
But UB, as a squad, continued to cash it in from three and kept their lead at 10, leading 61-51 with 11:30 left.
The Orange and Brown guards began pressuring the perimeter against the Buffalo frontcourt, and caused some chaos for the Bulls. Enough to force a couple of bad mistakes, and then two easy layups for Shackelford on the other end. Bowling Green center Troy Glover II also stayed active on defense, getting a big block to keep the momentum on the side of the Falcons.
The momentum would continue to swing the Falcons’ way, as they took the lead with strong defense and solid ball movement on offense. But Sabol would hit another triple for the Bulls, drawing a foul and curbing the Falcons’ momentum with seven minutes left.
Sabol would convert the one coming out of the timeout, and the pattern of the game repeated itself. Bowling Green brought the game to within a score, and Buffalo responded by hitting a couple of threes and putting the game back out of reach. This pattern haunted the Falcons all game long.
With just under two minutes to go, the score was 81-71, still in favor of UB. They would hold this ten-point lead as they had for most of the contest, closing things out by a final score of 89-78 despite the BG full-court press and physical defense.
The Bulls shot 54% from behind the arc, going 14-of-26 as a team on the night. Their leader in three-pointers made was Sabol, who went 5-for-10 from deep and scored a total of 22 points. The Falcons struggled to defend Sabol and the rest of the Buffalo shooters. The 14 threes made are the most BG has allowed this season.
“I feel like we just had a lot of scouting mistakes that put us in that position,” stated Campbell, “We have to sit down, learn from it, and just start getting more gritty in guarding the three and the two.”
“They were on fire all night,” said Bowling Green head coach Todd Simon, “We’ve gotta do a better job staying disciplined in that situation.”
Speaking of recent defensive struggles, Bowling Green as a team has snagged just nine steals over the past three games, which is surprising for a team that entered this game against UB with the best steals-per-game ratio in the country at 11.3.
“Thursday [The next practice day for BG] is gonna be a bloodbath. That was the message in the locker room,” expressed Simon, “They’re gonna strap up. This is not what we’re about. And the guys that are on the bus to play defense are gonna move forward. The guys who are not, you know, they’ll still have a seat, but it’s gonna be more a different role.”
The Falcons did not use their zone defense at all in this contest, a result of the incredible shooting night the Bulls had. It sounds as if the Falcons will be utilizing the zone coverage less in the future.
“I think the zone is kind of an Achilles’ heel for us,” declared the senior forward Sam Towns, who scored nine points and pulled down six boards, “At the end of the day, we gotta sit down and guard. You can’t always look for a zone just to save you every day.”
Moving away from defense, the Falcons, not named Javontae Campbell, struggled to score consistently last night. The senior guard dropped a great game with 31 points, tallying the final 10 BGSU points, going 13-for-20 from the field, and dishing out seven assists.
“It makes it easier when the coach and my team believe in me,” said Campbell when asked about his performance, “I’m just more confident out there when my number’s called.”
Despite inconsistent play from three in the past conference season games, the Falcons have made a point of driving to the paint to score. They had 48 points in the paint yesterday, compared to just 24 for Buffalo.
“We’ve kind of changed our identity to more of an attacking style and controlling shot selection a little bit more,” asserted Simon, “As we did that and put so much focus on that, you know, we had some slippage on the offensive side. I’ve gotta put my hard hat on and fix that.”
BG will try to bounce back from this two-game losing streak against Central Michigan on Saturday, Jan. 31, in McGuirk Arena at 7 p.m. You can find all content relating to that game on bgfalconmedia.com.
