BOWLING GREEN — Rashaun Agee showed on Tuesday night just how significant his presence is on the basketball court instead of the bench.
The Bowling Green State University senior posted career highs of 15 rebounds and six assists, while scoring 12 points, in a season-high 34 minutes in the Falcons’ 83-78 Mid-American Conference victory over Ohio at the Stroh Center. Agee’s career night came just four days after playing only 15 minutes and being saddled with foul trouble in BGSU’s 83-67 loss at Akron.
“He’s such a special talent, and we’re so much better when he’s on the floor,” BGSU coach Todd Simon said. “If we do it over again, we’d probably let him go a little bit longer and do some things differently.
“We’ve changed some strategies here to make sure that he’s not going to get in foul trouble, and he did a good job passing on a few things and saying hey, I’m going to save this for later. But he’s an absolute special player right now. He’s a point forward, he’s worked on his game. His ball handling, his decision making are outstanding.”
Agee has taken his game to another level in his second season at BGSU. The 6-foot-8 forward’s court vision and ability to handle the ball have been added assets to his athletic skillset.
Agee has always been an aggressive player with high energy, but at times, maybe a little too aggressive. He picked up two fouls in a five-second span while guarding Akron star Enrique Freeman in the opening three minutes against the Zips, then had to sit with four fouls with 10 minutes left as Akron went on a game-changing run to get the win.
Toning down his aggressiveness in certain situations paid off Tuesday.
“Coach keyed on in the first half, just not trying to block shots, not trying to steal passes; just being honest with your defense,” Agee said. “Not going for gambles and respecting the game, and in the second half come out a little stronger and be more aggressive.”
Agee had a game-best plus-12 rating, as well, against the Bobcats while drawing a game-high eight fouls against him. He showed off his passing ability in the first half with nice dishes to Marcus Hill and Jason Spurgin on backdoor cuts for easy scores, as well as finding DaJion Humphrey for a 3-pointer.
“I love finding my teammates,” Agee said. “It just shows that my teammates can move while I’ve got the ball and it shows that as a team, no matter who has it, we’re all cutting and looking to get open.
“We’re not just a one-man team; it shows that everybody can score it and everybody can move without the ball.”
Adapting to how referees officiate the game is also critical for the Falcons. Tuesday’s game was physical without many fouls (33) compared to Friday’s matchup at Akron that had 43.
“I like a physical game. It’s better for it to be a physical game than for it to be touch fouls and calling a foul here and there because it allows us to get going,” Agee said. “We’re the type of team that, like we don’t call fouls in practice. We might get some where coach screams because we’re fouling too much. But we don’t really call fouls.”
Added Simon: “It’s the game, and we’ve got to be able to adjust game to game. We talk about it, and we talk with the officials and say ‘OK, you’re giving me one there, we’ll take one here,’ and I’ve got no problem with it. As long as everyone’s kind of in the same page on what it is, that’s great. Good teams don’t worry about that, good teams play with how the game is and have an IQ to understand what the game is. That’s something that we’re continuing to get better at.”
Agee earned his fifth double-double of the season, as well, and all have been in the past seven games. He had 12 points and six rebounds against Akron, and tallied 11 points and nine rebounds in a win against Siena Heights.
For the season, Agee’s 8.6 rebounds per game ranks third in the MAC. His 50 offensive rebounds, which included a season-high eight against Ohio, rank third in the league, as well.
First Published January 10, 2024, 4:32 a.m.
