While Scott Thomas’ night wasn’t quite one for the record books, it was still one of the most impressive performances of his career.
Thomas scored a career-high 28 points – making a career-high eight three-pointers – to help lead the BG men’s basketball team to a 73-60 win against Morehead State on Saturday afternoon.
Thomas scored BG’s first nine points – all coming on three pointers – and made 6-of-10 three-pointers in the first half. For the game, he made 8-of-15 shots from three-point distance, both numbers falling one short of tying a school record.
“It seems like once you make a couple, the hoop starts getting a little bigger,” Thomas said. “So I was able to get a good rhythm and the guys found me. Our guards were able to find open shooters.”
The sharpshooting didn’t just stop with Thomas. The Falcons shot 57.1 percent as a team from the field, and shot 53.8 percent from three-point distance.
Jordon Crawford made 3-of-4 three-points shots and added 12 assists, while Dee Brown was 3-for-5 shooting threes and had 19 points.
“We started knocking down shots as they were circling us in their zone, so our coaches told us to just keep shooting,” Brown said. “I was surprised [that they stayed in the zone], but that’s what they’ve done all year.”
Thomas noted that the Eagles focused on shutting down the team’s bigs inside, which led to the increased number of outside shots early. Because of this, BG only had eight points in the paint in the first half.
The Falcons made a more concentrated effort to get the ball inside in the second half, scoring 16 points in the paint.
BG also did a superb job of sharing the ball. The Falcons had 21 assists on 28 made shots, led by 12 helpers from Crawford.
“We did a good job of swinging the ball and making the extra pass,” said BG coach Louis Orr. “We did a good job of reversing the ball and getting wide open shots.”
However, things didn’t start smoothly for BG. The Falcons turned the ball over on their first three possessions of the game, and saw themselves trailing 9-3 just three and a half minutes into the game.
This caused Orr to call a timeout, and Thomas knocked down two three-pointers in the next minute to tie the game. From there, the Falcons seemingly could not miss.
“Making shots can be like Penicillin to the sick, it can add a spark,” Orr said. “I don’t know any player, or any team that doesn’t feed off of making shots. So for us, the way we shot the ball helped us.”
The Falcons will delve back into Mid-American Conference play Wednesday, taking on East Division-leading Akron on the road. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
