The BG men’s basketball team took it to the Northern Illinois Huskies and won 57-41 in DeKalb, Ill. Wednesday night.
The Falcons were effective against the Huskies from the beginning of the game. The Falcons led the entire game, with a high mark of a 27-point lead in the second half.
Senior Jordon Crawford did not start for BG’s second-straight game after starting 45-straight before a game against Ball State this past Saturday. Crawford scored just two points on 1-13 shooting.
Senior A’uston Calhoun led the team with 15 points and sophomore Richaun Holmes was second in scoring with 11 points on the night.
Holmes also blocked three NIU shots, making his single-season total 56 blocked shots. He is only three blocks away from tying the University’s single-season record and four from being the first Falcon to record 60 blocked shots in a season.
The Falcons (9-13, 4-5) will be travelling to Athens, Ohio to take on the Ohio University Bobcats (16-6, 7-1). Ohio’s only Mid-American Conference loss came to the conference-leading Akron Zips this past weekend.
Ohio’s experience has been their strength this year, having retained most of their players from their Sweet 16 run this past March. In that tournament, they defeated No. 4 seed Michigan and No. 12 seed South Florida before losing to No. 1 seed North Carolina.
Ohio’s key player is senior D.J. Cooper, who is fourth in the nation in assists per game with 7.9. Another player who will challenge the Falcons is senior Reggie Keely, who is sixth in the nation in field goal percentage, making 65.5 percent of his shots.
The Bobcats started off the season winning six-straight games against Portland, UNC-Wilmington, Wofford, Hampton, Richmond and St. Bonaventure.
The Bobcats then went 2-5 during December with wins against Oakland and Maryland-Eastern Shore while losing to Robert Morris, Memphis, Winthrop, Massachusetts and Oklahoma.
After losing at Oklahoma on Dec. 29, the Bobcats started 2013 on a seven-game win streak which included wins against Marshall, Buffalo, at Western Michigan, Northern Illinois, Toledo, at Miami and at Kent State.
On Jan. 30, in the midst of the team’s longest unbeaten streak of the season, Ohio’s home game against Eastern Michigan was postponed due to a campus closure earlier in the day. Ohio then lost their next game at Akron.
Since then, they defeated Ball State Wednesday in Muncie, Ind. and will tip-off against the Falcons at 2 p.m. at the Convocation Center in Athens, Ohio.
