The BG men’s basketball team started their season off with a bang in their 102-49 win against Earlham College this past Saturday.
“No matter what the competition is we need to play every game like it is our last,” Jaevon Clark said. “The main factor in the win tonight was the pressure we took from the first half to the second half.”
The Falcons started off slow but after the first media timeout they implemented a half-court trap to force the Quakers into mistakes.
“We just weren’t energized in the first few minutes of the game,” head coach Louis Orr said. “I think when we started pressing and using our three quarter court pressure I thought that energized us and allowed us to force turnovers.”
The Falcons began to assert their superiority after they turned up the pressure. They went on a 24-3 run which was highlighted by nine straight points from Falcon guard Chauncey Orr. That run pushed the Falcons out to a 30-8 lead with about seven minutes left in the first half.
During that run the defense did not allow a field goal in seven minutes but once the Quakers figured out the press they began to get some open jumpers. Quaker guard Michael Parker began to warm up and was hitting any shot he took at the end of the first half as he ended the half with 11 points shooting 3-5 from three point range.
Orr led the Falcons in points at halftime with 14 points on 5-6 shooting. Orr did not play in the second have after tweaking a previous knee injury.
He was not missed as the second half started; the Falcons started on a 13-0 run which was highlighted by two dunks by center Cameron Black. The run allowed them to pull out to a 63-30 lead with just over 16 minutes left in the game.
After a steal by Richuan Holmes, the whole backcourt opened up and allowed him to throw down a monster tomahawk dunk to give them a 67-32.
It seemed as if the pressure was turned up a notch in the second half as they had 13 of their school record 22 steals in the second half. Guards Jaevon Clark and JD Tisdale combined for 12 of those steals.
“We knew that if we continued to put pressure on them on defense that we would get the steals,” Clark said. “If you play solid defense the steals will come to you.”
In his first career collegiate start Jaevon Clark looked anything but nervous as he led the Falcons in points with 17, eight assists, six steals and one turnover.
“It was a very good learning experience from Jordan [Crawford],” Clark said. “I knew that if I wanted to take this team to another level I knew I would need to do things just as good or better to better the team.”
The depth of the Falcons was shown as they had six players with more than 12 points and Tisdale with nine.
“Our depth has the chance to be a big plus for us,” Orr said.
They will be back in action against American Athletic Conference foe South Florida Friday night at 8:30 p.m. at the Stroh Center.
