Bowling Green coach Michael Huger heard the questions.
When are you going to win at Toledo? When are you going to turn around the rivalry at Savage Arena?
Huger, in his fifth year coaching at his alma mater, was finally able to answer those questions as he and his Falcons picked up an 85-79 win over rival Toledo on Saturday night.
It was the first win for Bowling Green at Toledo since 2011, snapping a six-game losing skid at Savage Arena.
“I don't even think about that,” Huger said. “I just try to win wherever we play the game. You get the calls and the texts, and everywhere you go everyone is saying beat Toledo.
“You get tired of hearing that a little bit. It's great because you know what it's about and you understand it. When you go out and you perform like this and you are able to get one finally you can stop hearing the other stuff.
“Finally, we can stop hearing that.”
Dylan Frye led the way for the Falcons (15-5, 6-1 MAC) with 22 points, and Justin Turner scored 20 as Bowling Green extended its win streak to six games. Daeqwon Plowden added 12 points and 13 rebounds and Caleb Fields chipped in with 11 points.
Toledo (11-9, 3-4 MAC) got 27 points from Marreon Jackson and 23 points from Luke Knapke as the Rockets’ two-game winning streak was snapped.
“I'm obviously disappointed by the loss, but I'm certainly not disappointed by any of the effort or even the play,” Toledo coach Tod Kowalczyk said.
“I thought that was a high-level college basketball game between two good teams. It was two good teams that played well. Give them credit, I thought they made some really tough, key shots during winning time.”
After a back-and-forth first half, Bowling Green opened up a 66-56 lead with 6:21 left after Daeqwon Plowden made a 3-pointer. Toledo cut the lead to five points at 70-65 with 3:29 left after Marreon Jackson made a layup.
Matiss Kulackovskis then nailed a 3-pointer to make it 73-65, and Toledo's Keshaun Saunders made a layup with 2:42 remaining to cut the lead to 73-67.
After a scoreless possession for each team, Turner hit perhaps the biggest shot of the game, a 3-pointer that stretched the lead to nine points with 1:32 left.
“I just wanted to silence the crowd and then I actually knew we had some game left still,” Turner said. “The next thing that processed in my mind was we have to get that next rebound and focus on our free throws.”
Toledo cut the lead to 81-78 with 14 seconds left after a Marreon Jackson 3-pointer. After Caleb Fields made two free throws, Jackson was fouled shooting a 3.
He made 1-of-3 from the line, and Frye closed out the game with two makes at the line.
“It's always tough to lose any way, period,” Marreon Jackson said. “To do it in front of that kind of crowd with all the fans who came out to support us, to come up short, it hurts. It came down to them, they hit some tough shots. Turner and Frye made some big shots, and then they hit free throws down the stretch.”
Bowling Green led by as many as six points in a first half that featured two ties and eight lead changes. Turner made a jumper with 15:57 left in the half to give Bowling Green a 12-6 lead. Toledo answered with a quick 8-0 run as the Falcons didn't score for more than four minutes of game time.
Bowling Green opened up another six-point lead when Frye made two free throws to give the Falcons a 30-24 lead with 3:45 left in the opening half.
Willie Jackson then hit a jumper and Marreon Jackson hit a 3-pointer to cut the BG lead to 30-29 with 2:16 left.
Toledo took a 33-32 lead when Saunders made a driving left-handed layup with 50 seconds left.
Bowling Green answered with the final five points of the half, all from little-used reserve Davin Zeigler who made a layup and then sank a 3-pointer as time expired. That gave the Falcons a 37-33 lead at halftime.
Toledo tied the game early in the second half, but never led the rest of the way as the Falcons made the key plays down the stretch.
“It was a very good game, and I thought both teams played really well,” Huger said. “Marreon Jackson is a beast. He's little but he's a beast and he played really well against us. Our guys were able to step up to the challenge with Dylan Frye and Justin Turner. We had a lot of guys step up. It's a huge win for us. It feels good to win this game, because everywhere you go in BG, that's all you hear. To finally be able to win one [at Savage Arena] feels really good.”
First Published January 26, 2020, 2:37 a.m.
