BOWLING GREEN — If you closed your eyes and just listened Friday, you could have been convinced Anderson Arena's magic was transferable.
The structural integrity of the Stroh Center underwent a challenge like never before.
For good reason.
A sold-out crowd of 5,000 people watched Bowling Green persevere against No. 18 Buffalo, making its move in the second half, then warding off the Bulls' late push for a 92-88 victory for the program's biggest victory in more than a decade.
Dylan Frye scored 25 points, and Justin Turner added 22 in Bowling Green's first win against a ranked team since 2008.
“At one point, it was like, oh my goodness, this is just like Anderson — I love it,” said Falcons coach Michael Huger, a former BGSU player. “You look down and you see everybody jumping up and you can’t hear yourself think, and it’s like, ‘Aw, this is it. I’m in heaven right now.’
“This was awesome. It was so much fun.”
Bowling Green (15-6, 7-1 Mid-American Conference) is now alone in first place in the MAC. The Falcons are a perfect 11-0 at home this season, and this was unlike any of them.
More than 2,200 students were in the crowd, which reached a fever pitch as Turner clinched the game from the free-throw line with 1.7 seconds to play.
“You grow up wanting to play in this atmosphere,” Frye said. “This is everyone’s dream, playing in games like this night-in, night-out.”
The defending MAC champion Bulls (19-3, 7-2) almost ran away with the game in the first half. During the early stages of the game, Buffalo established a pace the Falcons struggled to maintain.
The Bulls started the game by making four of their first five attempts from 3-point range, and seemingly had a response every time the Falcons energized the crowd.
Bowling Green shot fairly well in the first half — a respectable 15-for-32 — but two things conspired against the Falcons.
One was turnovers, as Bowling Green committed an uncharacteristic 11 miscues. The other was simple enough: the Bulls played like the class of the MAC, consistently finding a way to stretch the BG defense just enough to create a quality shot. The Bulls shot 17-for-32 from the floor in the opening 20 minutes and led 47-39 at halftime.
The Falcons badly needed a response to start the second half, and they created it instantly with a 7-0 run.
“We talked about that at halftime: Let’s win the first four minutes,” Huger said. “That was our goal coming out, we wanted to cut into the lead right away.”
Mike Laster, who scored a critical nine points in the second half, hit a jumper that put Bowling Green ahead 61-60 with more than 12 minutes to play, and the Falcons never trailed again.
Bowling Green led by as many as 11 with 5:23 to go before the Bulls made their charge.
Dontay Caruthers, who scored a game-high 28 points, brought the Bulls to within two with 14 seconds to go, after which BG’s Antwon Lillard made one of two free thows.
But CJ Massinburg, who scored 26 for UB, missed a potential tying 3 on the other end as BG preserved its biggest win and sent students spilling onto the court.
“It was great for our guys to be able to play in an atmosphere like that,” Huger said.
Bowling Green still has more than half the MAC schedule to play, yet this became the most notable game in the short history of the Stroh Center.
“The energy is the stadium was crazy, and they brought life to us,” Frye said. “We just played off that energy. … That was beautiful. Today was beautiful.”
First Published February 2, 2019, 3:29 a.m.
