Five games in a row the final result of the men’s basketball team came down to one shot and, for the fourth time, the Falcons were not able to leave the arena with the win.
The Falcons were down two points to the Miami University Redhawks when Jehvon Clarke missed a three-point shot from the top of the key. Miami went down to make one of two free throws.
Following that free throw, Clarke missed a half-court shot and the Falcons would lose the game 55-52 to drop their record to 11-16 and 5-9 in the Mid-American Conference.
“We gave ourselves a chance but we didn’t get the basket,” head coach Louis Orr said.
Junior Richaun Holmes recorded his 75 block of the season breaking his previous school season record of 73 blocks.
Spencer Parker led the Falcons with 18 points in the game, while no other players scored in double digits. Cameron Black finished the game with nine points and 10 rebounds in the game.
“I thought Spencer was aggressive,” Orr said. “He was able to attack and get some baskets and Cam was able to make some plays in the low post. It was mainly the turnovers.”
The Falcons have proven to be a second-half team all year, and once again they looked like the better team in the second half as they outscored the Redhawks by seven points. After committing 10 turnovers in the first half they took care of the ball better in the second half by only turning it over three times in the final 20 minutes.
“We cut our turnovers down in the second half which was a plus,” Orr said. “We tried to play off some movement, we ended up taking a tough shot.”
Along with only turning the ball over three times in the second half, defensively they held the Redhawks to only three field goals throughout the second half.
“I thought our defense in the second half was better,” Orr said. “They scored a lot of their points at the free throw line.”
The Falcons are only a 62 percent from the free throw line as a team; they shot 36 percent from the free throw line in this game and only got to the line 11 times.
They will host Kent State University on Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. in a rematch of a game that Kent won on a game winner in the M.A.C. Center on Feb. 12.
The Falcons are currently listed as the 10 seed for the MAC Tournament and last in the MAC East Division. The MAC Tournament is set to begin on March 10 at the higher seed’s home court.
