BOWLING GREEN — It hasn’t taken long for the Bowling Green State University’s men’s basketball team to learn how to win under first-year Falcons’ coach Todd Simon.
Tuesday’s game against Hampton was another critical step that BGSU took in continuing its early-season success.
The Falcons flushed away a disastrous first half by responding with a nearly flawless final 20 minutes in their 75-65 win over the Pirates at the Stroh Center. BGSU scored 54 points on 62.1 percent shooting in the second half after connecting on just 21.4 percent of its shots in the first.
The enormous shift helped the Falcons earn their sixth straight victory, their longest since winning eight in a row in the 2019-20 season. BGSU’s 8-3 record is the best in its first 11 games since going 9-2 in the 2020-21 campaign.
“It’s our togetherness,” said BGSU senior forward Rashaun Agee, who surpassed 1,000 points for his college career on Tuesday. “We grow together every day, even the days you guys don’t see, behind the cameras. When we’re in there grinding in practice is what makes us the team we are today and what made us come back.
“We believe in each other, and that’s down the line, one through 15. Even in the coaching staff, they believe in every single player on that court.”
The Falcons have found numerous ways to win during their recent stretch. Four of their wins have been by double digits, while the other two were by a combined six points.
Overcoming what happened in the first half against Hampton made the victory even more impressive for BGSU.
The Falcons scored just five points in the final eight minutes to fall behind 31-21 at the break. BGSU had 11 turnovers — its season average — in the first 20 minutes, as well.
Once the shots started to fall in the second half after Hampton built a 14-point lead — its biggest of the game — with 18:34 left, BGSU’s confidence carried through the rest of the game.
“I feel like we have a group of guys that are just going to fight,” BGSU senior guard Trey Thomas said. “We knew that we were down and we were messing up a lot in the first half just with things that we knew that we could control, turning the ball over and stuff like that. So we knew that if we just fight and stay together as a group, not go away from each other, we’ll be fine in the end.”
Added Simon: “I thought our response coming out of the locker room was a good development for us. We had a lot of guys step up, a lot of guys whose conditioning was great in being able to play guys that long of stretch at that level of intensity and push. Scoring 54 in the second half in a game that was a little bit of a physical battle was a big deal, so I was pretty happy with that.”
A common theme during BGSU’s winning streak has been its defense, and the Falcons’ performance on that end was key down the stretch.
Hampton shot just 34.1 percent (14 of 41) from the floor in the second half after making 50 percent (14 of 29) of its shots in the first. BGSU’s defense intensified throughout the second half, especially late in the game after the Falcons took the lead for good on Agee’s 3-point play off a DaJion Humphrey pass with 4:48 left.
“We always harp on, we’re going to go on the defensive end, and we’re going to get this stop, and then it’s going to flow into our offensive end because we love the pace of the game and we love to push the ball,” Agee said.
For the season, BGSU ranks at or near the top of the Mid-American Conference in several defensive categories. The Falcons are first in field goal percentage defense (40.1 percent), total rebounds (39.5), and defensive rebounds (29.3), as well as second in scoring defense (65.7 points per game).
“To hold Division I teams, playing our style, to 40 percent shooting, 65 points a game is about what we’re giving up, it’s difficult to do,” Simon said. “Sometimes you see great defensive teams and they walk it up and they really sacrifice offense for their defense, and that’s just not how we play.
“We’re trying to play up tempo and get stops, and that exerts a lot of energy. So what we’re doing right now, I’m very happy with. We still want to get better and better, but we’re winning games on the defensive end of the floor. I think as we get healthy, you’ll see the offense capitalize on that.”
STATS TO KNOW
Thomas scored a career-high 25 points and made 6 of 11 shots from 3-point range to lead BGSU. Agee had 21 points and 12 rebounds for his third straight double-double, while Marcus Hill (12 of 14 points in second half) and Jason Spurgin (10 points) also eclipsed double figures.
Only eight BGSU players entered the game. The five starters — Agee, Spurgin, Hill, Thomas, and Humphrey — each played at least 29 minutes.
UP NEXT
BGSU will host NAIA opponent Siena Heights at 2 p.m. Friday at the Stroh Center before beginning MAC play at home against Eastern Michigan on Jan. 2.
First Published December 19, 2023, 8:43 p.m.
