During a season in which he almost certainly will break the Bowling Green record for career 3-pointers, Dylan Frye had been, ironically, in one of the worst shooting slumps of his career.
Frye entered Saturday's game shooting just 30 percent from the 3-point line and 66 percent from the free-throw line, decidedly uncharacteristic numbers for him.
Saturday, however, the Falcons' best players answered the bell — especially the senior from Miami, who scored a team-high 22 points in the Falcons' 85-79 victory against Toledo at Savage Arena.
Undeterred by the recent woes, Frye vowed to keep playing the same style that has made him one of BGSU’s best shooters.
“It gets tough at times, just sitting at home thinking about how I've been shooting,” Frye said. “But when I get in the game, I'm going to keep shooting open shots.”
And Saturday, they started falling again. After missing his first three, Frye immediately made a backcut to the basket, leading to an easy layup after the Falcons grabbed the long rebound, the start of seven Frye points in the span of three BG possessions.
Frye finished 3-for-6 behind the arc. He recorded six assists compared to one turnover, and he matched a season high by attempting 10 free throws, seven of which he made.
Falcons coach Michael Huger said he didn’t meddle with his best shooter, and instead believed the Falcons’ lone scholarship senior would pull out of the slump eventually.
“He's a senior, he understands what's going on, [and] he knows how to play,” Huger said. “If I start messing with his head and all that other stuff — I just stay away. He knows, and today was a day.”
The Falcons' victory was their sixth straight and first at UT since 2011, and BG's star players led the charge.
Justin Turner scored 20 points, Daeqwon Plowden had a double-double of 12 points and 13 rebounds, and the Falcons had their best 3-point shooting night — 11-for-21 — of the season.
Turner, who missed five weeks earlier this season, had his own struggles shooting upon the return from injury. Against Toledo, he shot 7-for-15 from the field, and his back-breaking 3-pointer late in the game put Bowling Green ahead by nine with 1:32 to go.
Turner put a finger to his lips to quiet the Savage Arena crowd, a key shot for a Falcons team that was making fewer than one-third of its 3-point attempts before Saturday.
“Me and Dylan, we haven't a great shooting game yet in the MAC, but I tell him all the time to play through it. It starts with us,” Turner said. “I don't care if you go 0-for-whatever, we're going to keep attacking [and] keep trying to make plays because we're the head of this team.”
Frye said slumps are part of being a shooter, and he remained confident his would not last.
“If you look around college basketball or even the NBA, people go in slumps all the time,” Frye said. “James Harden right now is in a huge slump, and I guarantee he gets out of it in no time.
“I mean, I'm three [3-pointers] away from breaking the record,” Frye added. “If I get in my head about shooting bad now, something is wrong with me.”
The victory put BG at 6-1 in the Mid-American Conference, tied for first place.
And even when the shots weren’t falling, Huger said he never wavered about his two best players in big games.
“He can go 0-for-whatever,” Huger said of Frye. “If the game is on the line, one of those two will be taking the shot.”
First Published January 26, 2020, 3:27 a.m.
