BOWLING GREEN — The first conference game of the season was a sobering 40 minutes for a Bowling Green team with high hopes.
The Falcons, picked to win the Mid-American Conference before the season, lost handily at home to Kent State on Friday, falling 79-61 at the Stroh Center.
What happened: Bowling Green (9-5, 0-1) held its own during the first half, but Kent State (11-3, 1-0) turned the game into a blowout by outscoring the Falcons 42-27 in the second half.
The Falcons had a number of things work against them in the first half. BG shot only 2-for-11 from behind the arc, did not record a steal, and leading scorer Justin Turner scored only two points — yet the Falcons trailed by a manageable three points at halftime.
The Flashes made 10 of their first 17 field goals and led by as many as nine points, but the Falcons stayed within calling distance thanks to its bench play.
Marlon Sierra and Matiss Kulackovskis scored 9 and 6 points in the first half, respectively, more than double their combined averages, and the Falcons’ bench outscored Kent State’s bench 17-3 during the first 20 minutes.
After Dylan Frye’s made 3-pointer and Kulackovskis’ layup on BG’s final two possessions of the first half, the Falcons trailed 37-34 at the intermission.
But the game slipped away from Bowling Green during the early stages of the second half, as the Falcons went ice cold from the floor. The Falcons shot just 2-for-14 in the first nine-plus minutes of the second half, during which time the Flashes outscored them 22-5 and ran their lead to a whopping 20 points.
BG never led in the game.
By the time the Falcons’ offense created much of anything, it was far too late, and BG never came up with an answer for Kent State guard Antonio Williams, who finished with 22 points.
Kent State shot 30-for-60 from the field as a team, and made 8 of 17 attempts from behind the 3-point line.
“Straight-line drives kill you every time, and they were able to get in the paint. Williams was getting in the paint at will; we weren’t able to stop him,” Falcons coach Michael Huger said. “When that happens, it’s tough because now they’re scoring at a high clip every single time and we’re not getting stops to be able to get out in transition.”
The Falcons finished a woeful 3-for-23 from 3-point range, by far their worst mark of the 2019-20 season.
Game MVP: Williams clearly was the best player on the floor Friday, scoring 22 points on 9-for-17 and adding five assists and seven rebounds, all game highs.
He said it: “I just think we never got a flow. Nobody was really knocking down shots, we weren’t getting stops. The five on the court, we never got a rhythm — there was a lot of subbing. We just couldn’t find a flow in the game.” - Frye, who tied for the team lead with 14 points.
Make a note of it: The defeat was Bowling Green’s first of the season at home, and just its third in the past 23 games dating back to last season. … Turner, who returned from a hamstring injury earlier this week. scored only four against Kent State. It was his lowest-scoring output at Bowling Green, and 15 points under his season average. Turner played just more than 24 minutes and still is on a miutes restriction. … The Falcons finished the game with only seven assists.
Looking ahead: Bowling Green stays home for its second MAC game, a 7 p.m. Tuesday tip-off against Miami. Despite finishing 14-7 against MAC opposition last season, Bowling Green dropped both games to the RedHawks. Miami was the only MAC team BG played more than once and failed to beat.
First Published January 4, 2020, 4:13 a.m.
