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In last night's loss to Northern Illinois, James Thompson was throwing a perfect game through halftime, en route to tying an NCAA record for making 26 straight field goals.
Dating back to their final game of the 2015 calendar year against the Detroit Titans, Thompson's second missed field goal took place late in the first half, finishing 4-for-6 with 10 points. He'd make all three of his shots in the second half, a perfect 9-for-9 against the defending Atlantic Sun Conference champions North Florida Ospreys in the regular season finale (18 points), then 8-for-8 on the road against Central Michigan (19 points).
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Entering the Northern Illinois game, Thompson had one of the top field goal percentages in the nation shooting at a .705 clip. Though he caught himself in serious foul trouble in the second half against the Huskies, head coach Rob Murphy kept the freshman in the game in large part because of his offensive presence.
He had 37 minutes on the floor, perfect through the first half, but misfired his first field goal in 13 days at the 12:35 mark when the Eagles were down by four. It was his seventh shot attempt of the night.
Still ran away with a good stat line, going 8-for-9 with 23 points, despite having four fouls against him in the road loss.
The last time we saw 26 field goals made in a row was by a former Bowling Green Falcon, Torian Oglesby. A bench player as a senior during the 2011-12 campaign, the forward's NCAA record was set during a 7-game stretch, highlighted with a 10-for-10 performance at UTSA and 4-for-4 at Michigan State.
Thompson is now third in the nation with a .718 field goal percentage. Have we mentioned that this is the best offensive center in the Rob Murphy era?