2016 MAC Men’s Basketball Recap: Bowling Green Falcons @ South Dakota

The story of this young season for the Falcons is to hang around in the first half, and go into halftime down a little. Lose focus, end up down a lot early in the second. Then show great heart, battle back, and fall at the end. Tonight was no different.

The Coyotes took their biggest lead, 42-29, with 18:02 left in the second half. The Falcons clawed their way back into the game, and after a couple of three pointers by Rodrick Caldwell, tied it up at the 10:11 mark. Bowling Green took the lead shortly thereafter. They would pull ahead by a possession or two, and then look confused or flat, and USD would battle back.

The game was tied 71-71, with 1:05 left, when Coyotes freshman Triston Simpson drove aggressively to the basket on two consecutive possessions, drew the foul, and calmly knocked down the free throws. After a free throw by Ismail Ali, and a subsequent foul, Carlton Hurst was at the line to seal the win for USD. He proceeded to brick both free throws.

BGSU rushed down the court and tried to put up a quick layup, when out of nowhere Hurst redeemed himself by swatting the ball off the glass and into his teammate’s hands. Trey Burch-Manning then hit both free throws, icing the game for the Coyotes.

In my last recap of the Falcons, I predicted a long season. After watching them a little more closely, I am not as convinced as I was that they are going to be bad. The team showed a lot of heart. It was two consecutive road games. The team does look confused and flat at times, but that can be expected this early in the season with a young team. Playing at home can help with that.

It’s still going to live and die by the outside shot. The solution is simple, get hot and win, go cold and lose. Life as a guard. Playing at home can help that, too.

As a small team, they need to work on their rebounding. They tend to get down in the rebounding department early. As they close the gap, they battle back on the scoreboard, too. I think more focus on the boards for the entire game is going to be a focal point of practice for the next couple of weeks.

Rasheed Worrell came off the bench to lead the Falcons in scoring with 14. He also grabbed 5 boards. Wes Alcegaire added 12 points and Ismail Ali threw in 11 points and 6 assists. Demajeo Wiggins grabbed 12 boards, including 5 on the offensive end.

The Coyotes had 4 guys score in double digits, and another 2 players get 9 each. Burch-Manning had 11 boards, and Tyler Fleck added 6 blocks.

As a team, the Falcons went 26-72, while the Coyotes went 24-57. Bowling Green edged them 43-41 on the boards.