The BG men’s basketball team has a shot to redeem itself Wednesday as it hosts Mid-American Conference East Division rival Kent State.
The Falcons have lost their past two games by three points at Miami and Buffalo.
The Kent State Golden Flashes are the Falcons’ next opponent and will be visiting the Stroh Center Wednesday.
Kent State, which has a record of 11-7 (2-2), has had its ups and downs this season. The team started the season off with an overtime win against Drexel, who was predicted to be a bracket buster in the 2012 NCAA tournament.
However, they dropped two of the next three games with a loss against Temple and an 88-83 overtime loss against Valparaiso.
The Flashes won their next three games against Bethune-Cookman, Nebraska and an overtime win at Youngstown State.
Kent dropped its next three games against Princeton, at Bucknell and Xavier. After finals week, the Flashes won four straight games against Saint Francis (PA), Arkansas State, Fairmont State (WV) and Cleveland State.
Kent is 2-2 in MAC play with their wins coming at Ball State and Buffalo and losses from Akron and Toledo at home.
The Golden Flashes are ranked No. 114 in points per game and No. 178 in rebounds per game nationally — they average 70.3 points per game and 35.1 rebounds per game. BG is ranked No. 298 with an average of 61.5 points per game and No. 229 with an average of 33.9 rebounds per game, according to espn.com.
The key to stopping Kent State on Wednesday will be stopping senior forward Chris Evans, averages 17.2 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.9 steals in each game.
The Falcons have not been able finish their past two games, in which they only lost by three points in each. They were able to beat Eastern Michigan on a three-point basket by senior Jordan Crawford, but Crawford came up short on shots against Miami and Buffalo.
“You want to be able to get a shot,” head coach Louis Orr said. “For the most part, we’ve done that … Some [of the shots] have been ‘Plan A,’ some have been ‘Plan B,’ but most of the time its ended up in Jordan’s hands … That’s been pretty much how we’ve had things go.”
Sophomore transfer Richaun Holmes will look to continue his blocking campaign against the Flashes after his season count has let up the past three games. Holmes only blocked three shots against Miami and Buffalo combined, but in the first two MAC games against Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan, he totaled eight blocks.
Holmes is projected to finish the season with 84 blocked shots, which will amount to 25 more than the current 39-year-old single-season school record held by Cornelius Cash, who blocked 59 shots during the 1973-74 season.
BG’s game against Kent will be a strong test before their clash at Toledo on Saturday. Though Toledo is 6-9 (2-2), the Flashes will prepare BG to play well against the Rockets because they beat Kent 70-58 earlier this month.
Tip-off against the Golden Flashes of Kent State will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday and the Falcons’ upcoming game at Toledo will start at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
