KALAMAZOO — The follow-up gauntlet endured by Bowling Green State University men’s basketball following a second-half collapse and loss to Toledo on Jan. 15 still leaves more questions than answers.

When the chips fall, will the Falcons be all in?

That is the grand question that arose one week ago, and heading into a week with three winnable matchups despite nearly one-third of the roster sidelined offered the Falcons an opportunity to eke back into the Mid-American Conference’s top 8 after falling to 11th of 12.

BGSU’s 82-75 win over a Western Michigan team that is winless in the conference did just that. Entering Sunday, the Falcons are 3-5 in league play, are sitting in eighth place, and are percentage points behind 2-3 Northern Illinois for seventh.

Consider the short-term goal accomplished, but there is still work to be done.

BGSU earned two road victories, at Northern Illinois and at WMU, but sustained what was described as an “embarrassing” loss to Akron inside the Stroh Center on Thursday. A 2-1 record and a win against the team just ahead in the standings given the circumstances is an acceptable feat, but BGSU isn’t exactly worried about the conference standings in a grand scheme quite yet.

“We just try to take it one game at a time,” forward Daeqwon Plowden said. “We do know that we have been in a slump having losing games, so we just try to take it one game at a time, and focus on one game.”

Falcons coach Michael Huger has kept the same perspective.

“That’s all we talk about,” Huger said after Saturday’s win. “We never talk about the league. We never talk about the standings. I don’t even look where we are, so I have no clue about any of that stuff. It’s just one game at a time, and that’s all we’re focused on. Up next is Eastern Michigan, and that’s all I care about right now is Eastern. The standings will take care of itself.”

Bowling Green was without starting point guard Kaden Metheny all week, and reserve Cam Young wore a walking boot on his right foot on Thursday and Saturday. Metheny’s timetable for a return to the lineup is still undetermined, but the Falcons showcased their depth potential with solid guard play from Brenton Mills, Samari Curtis, and reserve Myron Gordon against the Broncos.

Curtis and Gordon each posted identical lines of 10 points and four assists, and Mills made 3 of 4 field goal attempts for six points. Gordon made 3 of 5 from the field, including both of his 3-point attempts, and was plus-12 in 17 minutes.

The trio combined to match up defensively with Western Michigan guards Lamar Norman, Jr., and B. Artis White. Norman led the Broncos with 20 points, but he made just 9 of 24 attempts from the field, and White scored seven points on 2 of 9 shooting. The Broncos’ starting guards were also limited to a combined 2-for-15 from 3-point range.

BGSU was lit up by Akron’s Bryan Trimble, Jr., for 33 points on Thursday in a stark contrast of play.

“We competed on the defensive end,” Huger said. “We executed the game plan on how we wanted to guard Norman and [White], and we did it the way we said to do it. I think against Akron, we had another plan on how we wanted to guard Trimble and those dudes, and we didn’t do it the way we were supposed to do it.”

BGSU was also much improved in distributing the ball on Saturday. After recording four team assists to 11 turnovers against the Zips, the Falcons played far less hero ball and accumulated 12 assists to 13 turnovers as a team. Bowling Green tightened the screws quickly by distributing four assists as a team in the first 10 minutes of Saturday’s game.

Credit goes to Huger and his staff for making adjustments with one day of preparation and no practice time with games tipping off within 48 hours of each other between Thursday and Saturday.

Now, whether BGSU can continue that defensive effort on a consistent basis is another thought.

Forward Joe Reece returned to the starting five Saturday, after missing the team’s games against Toledo and Northern Illinois and coming off the bench against Akron. Reece made 4 of 8 attempts for nine points, and he blocked two shots in 21 minutes.

“I thought he did a good job,” Huger said. “He made a couple of errors, but that’s expected. I thought he played hard. Got to get him back to rebounding at a high level like he was, so that’s the biggest thing now is to get him back in shape.”

Consistency is going to be a major motif for the Falcons down the stretch. After how the Toledo game transpired, the Falcons responded with a solid victory at Northern Illinois. Then came another low with the Akron loss.

But the Falcons showed more resolve on Saturday than they could have imagined mustering against the Zips. The Broncos built a 64-57 lead with 10 minutes to play in the second half, but Bowling Green outscored the Broncos 25-11, out-rebounded them 16-13 — including a 12-5 rebounding margin in the final 3:15 — and forced two key turnovers which led to game-icing free throws at the end from that point.

“It was good, but we got to be better,” Plowden said. “We gave that team a chance to take the game away at the end, and we get those rebounds and knock down some free throws. The lead could possibly even be even higher than that. But we’ve just got to be better. We’ve got to pay a little bit more attention to detail.”

Plowden spearheaded the team’s effort in closing Saturday’s game, but that’s something Huger is looking for over a span of more than just 10 minutes and from more than just one player.

“That’s the thing that we’re capable of doing,” Huger said. “We just have to do it on a consistent basis. That’s my frustration. We don’t do it on a consistent basis, and I’m trying to get us to be consistent in our effort and our energy that we put forth on the defensive end.”

First Published January 23, 2022, 3:30 p.m.