Cleveland, Ohio – The Bowling Green Falcons held Cleveland State to just 47 points on 27.1 percent shooting and had a trio of players score in double figures to grind out a tough 62-47 non-conference road win over the Vikings on Wednesday afternoon at the Wolstein Center.
The Falcons were 22-of-50 (44 percent) shooting from the field overall, including . . .
Defensively, BGSU not only held CSU to only 27.1 percent shooting overall, but the Vikings were also just 3-of-20 (15 percent) from long range. The Falcons also held CSU's leading scorer Rob Edwards scoreless for the game, as the freshman was 0-of-8 from the field in 21 minutes of play.
Zack Denny led the Falcons with 13 points and 10 rebounds, his third double-double of the season. Spencer Parker, who played only three minutes in the first half due to foul trouble, tallied 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting in only 14 minutes of play for the game. Freshman Demajeo Wiggins posted a career-high 10 points and a career-high seven rebounds off the bench for the Falcons.
Cleveland State's Andre Yates led the Vikings with 11 points on 3-of-13 shooting, while off the bench Daniel Levitt and Myles Hamilton finished with eight and seven points apiece, respectively.
BGSU fell behind early 5-0 on a three-pointer and a runner in the lane from Yates of CSU in the opening two minutes of play, only to see a trey from the top of the key from Parker at the 17:42 mark put the Falcons on the scoreboard, down 5-3.
The three-ball from Parker was the start of an 11-0 run by the visitors in orange, as the defense clamped down on the Vikings to force CSU to miss its next 12 shot attempts. Baskets from Wes Alcegaire, Antwon Lillard and Denny helped push the BGSU lead to six at 11-5 with 13:41 to go in the opening half.
After back-to-back baskets in the lane from CSU's Demonte Flannigan ended the Vikings' scoring drought, the Falcons picked up two straight foul shots from Rasheed Worrell and a 15-foot jumper from Alcegaire to keep the lead at six, 15-9, with just over nine minutes to go before the halftime break.
CSU answered with a run of its own, outscoring BGSU 10-2 over the next four minutes of play to retake the lead at 19-17 on a three-pointer from Levitt at the 5:20 mark of the first half.
With just two free throws from Wiggins over a the same four minute stretch, the Falcons and Vikings traded baskets, three field goals apiece, for the next four minutes of play until a jumper from Denny and an alley-oop from Ismail Ali to a high-flying Worrell capped off the half to put the Falcons on top at 27-25 heading into the halftime intermission.
Worrell opened the second half with a jump-hook in the lane to push the Falcons' lead to four at 29-25, only to see fouls and free throws by CSU keep the Vikings in the game at 31-30 with 16:59 to go in the contest.
After back-to-back free throws from Parker, a jumper from Vinny Zollo and two free throws from Yates gave the home team a one-point lead at 34-33 over the Orange and Brown at the 13:28 mark of the second half.
A driving layup from BGSU's Ali a minute later sparked a 14-2 surge by the Falcons over the next seven minutes of game action to give the visitors a double digits lead at 47-36 on a layup down low on the block from Wiggins.
The Vikings cut the lead back down to nine on two more free throws from Yates at the 4:47 mark before a three-pointer from Parker off the left wing pushed the BGSU lead back out to 12 at 50-38 with just over 4:20 to go in regulation.
Bowling Green held Cleveland State to just 2-of-10 shooting down the stretch and closed the game out with another layup by Wiggins, a free throw from Parker and two straight free throws from both Ali and David Joseph to extend the BGSU lead to as much as 17 at 59-42.
A shot-clock buzzer beating three-pointer from Denny with 20 seconds to play capped off the 62-47 road win for the Falcons.
BGSU outscored CSU 32-20 in points in the paint and 14-9 in second chance points despite giving up 19 offensive rebounds to the Vikings.
Following the holidays the Falcons (8-4) will return home to host Oakland City (Ind.) on Saturday, Jan. 2, at 4 p.m. to wrap up their non-conference slate for the 2015-16 season. BGSU will tip off MAC play on Jan. 6 at home versus Miami (Ohio).
Notes
- With the win, the Falcons improve to 8-4 overall on the season.
- BGSU has eight wins before the month of January for the first time since 2006-07.
- The Falcons have posted eight non-conference wins (not counting postseason play) for the second straight year.
- BGSU finished the month of December at 4-2 overall.
- The win at Cleveland State was the first victory for BGSU against the Vikings on their home floor since 1974.
- BGSU has now won four out of five meetings over the Vikings and two straight.
- The 47 points allowed is a season-low for the Falcons this season.
- CSU's 27 percent shooting was the lowest field goal percentage the Falcons have held a team to on the year.
- The win is the first for the Falcons when shooting under 45.5 percent for the contest. BGSU shot 44 percent overall on Wednesday.
- The Falcons out-rebounded CSU 39-37. BGSU is now 8-0 on the season when out-rebounding its opponents for the game.
- Zack Denny picked up his third double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
- Demajeo Wiggins posted a career-high in both points and rebounds in the win with 10 points and seven rebounds.
- Nine different players logged over 10 minutes of playing time in the win.