The BG men’s basketball season came to a close Monday night after being defeated by the Miami RedHawks in the opening round of the Mid-American Conference tournament.
“This time of year, it’s plain and simple,” coach Louis Orr said. “You win, you keep playing; you lose, your season is over.”
Both teams started the game with a two-point basket in each of their first possessions before coming up short in their next possessions.
With more than three minutes into the game, Miami’s Jon Harris hit a three-pointer to take a 5-4 lead, but BG’s Luke Kraus answered Harris with a three of his own to take the lead again.
BG had an eight-point run going until Miami’s Quinten Rollins hit a three-point shot with 13:40 remaining.
Miami’s Josh Sewell hit a three-point shot at the 11:38 mark, which cut the BG lead to three after Chauncey Orr connected with A’uston Calhoun for a big alley-oop just seconds before.
Harris tied the score at 18 with a three-pointer with 8:35 remaining, but Jordon Crawford responded with a three-point basket of his own 53 seconds later.
Miami tied up the game at 23 with a three-point shot at 5:02 remaining in half, but the Falcons took back the lead on the following possession.
Harris hit a three-pointer with 3:39 left to tie the game at 28. Harris then hit a two-pointer to take the lead with 3:07. The RedHawks scored seven points during their run that spanned nearly two minutes.
Miami’s Quinten Rollins scored a layup to put Miami up 34-31 with 50 seconds remaining, but Crawford missed a three point shot on the next possession. The Falcons stopped RedHawks from getting a shot off before the half ended, and Calhoun attempted a half-court shot at the buzzer but it fell short.
Even though BG led by as many as six points during the first half, Miami led the Falcons 34-31 at the halfway point.
To start the second half, Miami and BG failed to score any points on each of its first five possessions, which took up the first three and a half minutes.
Reggie Johnson scored the RedHawks’ first points of the half at the 16:42 mark then quickly stole the ball back from Crawford to put Miami up by seven after four minutes into the second half.
Miami’s Will Felder hit a three-pointer at 15:08, putting the RedHawks up by 10 points. BG was scoreless for the opening six and a half minutes and five possessions of the half — a period in which Miami scored 12 points.
Kraus hit a three at the 13:31 mark to cut away at the RedHawks’ 12-point lead.
However, Miami’s Allen Roberts had different plans. He was fouled at 12:30 after making a layup but missed the extra point shot, which extended the lead to 11 points.
Calhoun was fouled on the next possession and made both of his free throw attempts, which cut the Miami lead to nine points.
Crawford and Calhoun started a seven-point run that closed the gap to four points before Miami’s called a timeout to stall the BG’s momentum.
Calhoun answered with a slam-dunk that cut the lead to two points with 7:15 left in the game.
Roberts ended the Falcons quick comeback with a layup with more than five minutes remaining, but Richaun Holmes stepped up to make a layup and a defensive rebound on the next Miami shot.
Johnson hit a long three-point shot with 2:31 remaining in the game, which pushed the RedHawks’ lead to five points, but Chauncey hit two free-throws to take the deficit back to three points. On the very next possession, Johnson hit another three pointer, which made it a two-possession game with 1:32 remaining in the game.
Chauncey was fouled again on the next BG possession but only made one of his free throws.
The Falcons would begin to foul, forcing Miami to the free-throw line, but the Redhawks continued to push the lead away from them.
The loss to Miami was the last game that four players would play for the Falcons — A’uston Calhoun, Jordon Crawford, James Erger and Luke Kraus.
“It leaves a sour taste in your mouth,” Calhoun said. “But we had the same opportunity [as last year] to do it again here, but we didn’t take advantage of that opportunity and take advantage of the moment.”
The loss against Miami marked the second year in a row in which the Falcons have lost in the opening round of the MAC tournament. Both games were at the Stroh Center and against teams both seeded No. 11.
Orr’s tournament record at BG dropped to 2-6 overall— the last MAC tournament win came in 2010-11 when the Falcons defeated Northern Illinois 74-54 in the first round and lost to Western Michigan 67-56 in the second round.
BG finished the season with a 13-19 (7-10) record in the 2012-13 campaign with the 63-52 loss to Miami.
