All systems were go when the Falcons stepped onto the court Saturday at Savage Arena, but the Toledo Rockets had a different plan.
Toledo took off against the Falcons in the second half and won 75-62.
Despite losing, BG had three players reach double digits in points. Seniors A’uston Calhoun, Jordon Crawford and Luke Kraus had 13, 20 and 12 points respectively.
Kraus had his best game of the season with 12 points, which consisted of three three-point shots that tied his career best.
“I’ve been struggling,” Kraus said. “But I didn’t stop working. I kept working … and practice … and you know, you can’t give up on yourself.”
Toledo had four players who reached double-digits in points including Dominique Buckley (20 points), Rian Pearson (14 points), Julius Brown (14 points) and Nathan Boothe (10 points).
In the first half, the score was mostly back and forth. However, with 7:22 left to go in the half, Buckley was fouled by Crawford, which gave the Rockets the opportunity to tie at 16, and the Falcons did not lead again for the rest of the game.
BG struggled offensively in the first half due to Calhoun and sophomore Chauncey Orr’s two fouls, each early in the half. Calhoun was on the court for ten minutes and Orr was on for eight.
The Falcons went into halftime down 28-22 and would not come closer than six points again.
Even though BG scored 40 points, Toledo dominated the second half, and it came at the help of fouls by the Falcons.
BG started the game off very physically, as the Falcons committed 10 fouls in the first half but recorded 13 in the second.
Thanks to the BG fouls, Toledo took advantage of the 27 free-throw attempts the Falcons gave them, and made 26.
“They are a team that if you put them on the free-throw line, they make their free-throws,” Head Coach Louis Orr said. “And the reality of it is, if you look at the boxscore, the difference, point wise, comes from the free throw line.”
On the other hand, Toledo showed great discipline by only giving up 14 fouls. The Rockets prevented the Falcons from taking a free-throw for most of the game, with the first BG free-throw made with only 11 minutes.
Sophomore Richaun Holmes had a good defensive night by recording three blocks against the Rockets. With 53 total blocks this season, Holmes moved up to second on the all-time single-season blocks list and is only six shy of tying Cornelius Cash’s record and seven shy of becoming the first BG player to record 60 blocked shots in a single season.
With the loss against Toledo, the Falcons drop to 7-12 (2-4) and the Rockets move to 7-10 (3-3) on the season.
The Falcons will be hosting the Mid-American Conference East Division leaders Akron Wednesday and MAC West foe Ball State Saturday.
