BALL STATE 90, TOLEDO 83
KENT STATE 80, WESTERN MICHIGAN 72
BUFFALO 75, OHIO 72
AKRON 76, NORTHERN ILLINOIS 51
CENTRAL MICHIGAN 68, MIAMI 56
YPSILANTI, Mich. - Bowling Green (7-7, 1-0 MAC) paired stingy defense with transition offense to create a double-digit lead at halftime and rolled the momentum into a 91-65 win over Eastern Michigan. (3-11, 0-1 MAC) Tuesday at the Convocation Center.
With the win, the Falcons have now scored 90+ in three consecutive games for the first time since the 1989-90 season. BGSU has now won seven straight against Eastern Michigan, tying the program record for consecutive wins against the Eagles, and have won five straight in Ypsilanti.
Individually, the Falcons were paced by Leon Ayers III with 24 points, marking his third consecutive 20-point game for the Orange and Brown. Chandler Turner added his second double-double of the season while Rashaun Agee recorded a career-high five blocks in addition to 14 points. Samari Curtis and Kaden Metheny each scored double digits points with 11 each while adding seven and six assists, respectively, to their stat lines.
Emoni Bates led EMU with 15 points. Tyson Acuff (14 points) was the only other Eagle in double figures.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Falcons opened the game by scoring the first six points of the game, including a triple by Kaden Metheny on Bowling Green's first possession.
BGSU expanded the lead and took a 36-27 advantage into the final media timeout of the first half.
The Falcons were able to maintain the advantage through the end of the first half, going into the halftime break up 45-34.
Early in the second half, Eastern Michigan put together a 7-0 run to cut the BGSU lead to single digits at 50-42, but the Falcons quickly responded.
The Falcons were able to get out in transition with Samari Curtis going coast-to-coast for a layup to jump start an 8-0 BGSU run that increased the Bowling Green lead to 63-45 and forced a timeout from the EMU bench.
Bowling Green worked to sustain the lead, taking an 82-61 lead into the final media timeout of the game.
A late 7-0 run for the Falcons sealed the 91-65 victory to move the Falcons to 1-0 in conference play.
TOLEDO, Ohio – Ball State extended its winning streak to six games after a 90-83 road victory against Toledo on Tuesday. Jarron Coleman and Demarius Jacobs both finished the game with over 20 points.
The Cardinals improved to 10-4 overall and 1-0 in the Mid-American Conference, while the Rockets fell to 9-5 overall and 0-1 in the conference. Head Coach Michael Lewis picked up his first MAC win.
Coleman recorded a game-high 26 points and added two assists. Jacobs produced a career-high 25 points. He added two assists and two rebounds. Jaylin Sellers produced his second double-double of the season behind a 15-point effort and a game-high 10 rebounds. Mickey Pearson Jr. chipped in with nine rebounds. Basheer Jihad brought down a career-high eight rebounds along with his eight points.
After Toledo scored the game's opening points, Ball State responded with a 21-9 run that ended with 12 minutes left in the half. The Cardinals opened the game shooting 75.0 percent from 3-point range and 69.2 percent from the field.
The Rockets answered with a 9-3 run to cut the Cardinal lead to 24-18 with 8:53 left in the first stanza. Ball State responded by outscoring Toledo 13-8 over the next 3:29 to extend the BSU lead to 37-26.
Toledo ended the half on an 11-3 run, but Ball State took a 40-37 lead into the break.
The Cardinals started the second half strong and went on a 9-0 run to extend the lead to 49-37 with 17:04 left in the game. Toledo came back and pulled within six, 59-53, with 11:03 on the clock, but Ball State stayed strong.
BSU was resilient and went on a 14-7 run and claimed a 73-60 lead with 7:53 left in regulation. The 13-point lead was the largest of the night. During the run, the Cardinals were perfect in all scoring categories; 5-for-5 form the field, 2-for-2 from 3-point range, and 2-for-2 from the free-throw line.
The Rockets came back with an 8-2 run and cut the deficit to 75-68. Toledo followed that run with an 8-3 run and pulled within two, 78-76.
The Cardinals were clutch from the free-throw line in the remaining 2:08. Ball State ended the game on a 12-7 run, where the team was a combined 10-for-10 from the charity stripe. Ball State won the MAC opener 90-83. After Toledo took a 2-0 lead early in the game, Ball State never surrendered the lead the remainder of the contest.
As a squad, the Cardinals finished the game shooting 85.0 percent from the free-throw line, 50.0 percent from 3-point range, and 52.5 percent from the field. Ball State was stout on the glass, as the Cardinals outrebounded the Rockets 41-21. BSU held a 12-3 advantage on the offensive glass. Ball State outscored and shutout Toledo in second-chance points, 14-0.
RayJ Dennis led the Rockets with 21 points and a game-high six assists to go along with his team-high two steals. Dante Maddox Jr. posted a team-high nine rebounds as he added 16 points. JT Shumate ended the game with 15 points. Ra'Heim Moss finished with 11 points.
KENT, Ohio -- After leading by as many as 17 points, Kent State had to fight off a fierce Bronco rally before registering an 80-72 victory Tuesday at the MAC Center.
Trailing 72-55 with under six minutes remaining, the Broncos (4-10, 0-1 MAC) reeled off 15 in a row, with a Lamar Norman Jr. layup capping the rally at the 2:19 mark. Kent State (11-3, 1-0 MAC) responded with the next six points, including a four-point play on its next possession, and hit its free throws down the stretch to hold off the WMU rally.
Jalen Sulinger led the Flashes with 18 points in 22 minutes of action. VonCameron Davis (16) and Giovanni Santiago (15) also reached double figures.
Markeese Hastings posted a double-double (14 points, 11 rebounds) for the Broncos, his third of the season and seventh of his collegiate career. Tray Maddox Jr. paced Western Michigan in scoring with 18 points, and added five rebounds as well as a team-high five assists. Also in double-figures for WMU were Norman and Tafari Simms, who netted 12 points apiece.
Kent State tallied seven of the first nine points of the evening, but the Broncos answered with the next five to even the contest at 7-7 in the opening four-plus minutes of the game. The Golden Flashes countered with five straight to begin a 13-4 run which put the hosts up, 20-11, at the 9:35 mark of the half.
WMU responded with seven in a row, five of which came from Norman, to draw back to within two, 20-18, with 7:17 remaining in the opening period. KSU countered with seven straight of its own as part of a 15-3 surge which extended the hosts' lead into double-digits for the first time, 35-21, at the 2:28 mark. Kent State took a 38-26 edge into the halftime locker room.
Titus Wright tallied Western Michigan's first seven points out of the break to help trim the deficit back to single-digits, 42-33, with 17:31 to play. A Simms basket then got the Broncos to within seven, 46-39, with just over five minutes gone in the second half. Kent State briefly pushed the margin back into double-figures, but Maddox netted five in a row to bring WMU to within six, 50-44, at the 11:38 mark.
Western Michigan got to within five, 56-51, when JaVaughn Hannah buried a three-pointer in transition. Kent State answered with an old-fashioned three-point play on the ensuing possession to spark a 16-4 stretch which gave the Golden Flashes a 72-55 cushion with just over six minutes to play.
Kent State hit 40.4 percent (23-of-57) of their field goal attempts for the evening and went 23-of-25 (92.0 percent) at the foul line. The Broncos shot 51.0 percent (26-of-51) from the floor and connected on 82.4 percent (14-of-17) at the charity stripe.
BUFFALO, N.Y. – Buffalo (7-7, 1-0 MAC) opened the 2023 MAC season with a dramatic 75-72 victory over Ohio (8-6, 0-1 MAC) on Tuesday evening.
In the win, LaQuill Hardnett recorded his third double-double of the season. He scored 15 points and grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds. Curtis Jones led the Bulls in scoring with his fifth 20-point performance of the season.
Both teams struggled from the floor as the Bobcats shot 24-of-64 (37.5%) to Buffalo's 27-of-73 (37.0%). The Bulls are now 7-1 when they finish with more assists than turnovers. Foster led the way with five assists, as Hardnett and Jones finished with three each. The team finished with 15 on the night. Ohio failed to distribute the ball as they had just five assists.
To start the game, Buffalo found itself down 12-4 early, but then went on a 7-0 run to make it a 12-11 ball game. The Bulls then had a 19-3 run to take a 38-25 lead with just under two minutes to play in the first half. Right before the half, Miles Brown of Ohio banked in a near half-court shot to cut Buffalo's lead to 39-32.
The Bobcats carried that momentum into the second half as they continued their 15-0 run to take a 42-39 lead with under 17-minutes left in regulation. The Bulls regained the lead after a Hardnett layup, making it 43-42. That would be enough as Buffalo never lost the lead the rest of the night. Despite missing 10 free throws in the second half, four of which came in the final two minutes, the Bulls hung on to win. Miles Brown had a chance to tie the game with four-seconds left, but his shot hit off the rim with no second shot attempted.
Isaiah Adams (14) and Armoni Foster (12) also finished in double figures. As a team, Buffalo finished with 52 rebounds, Jones snatching nine and Kidtrell Blocker grabbing six.
Brown led Ohio with 24 points. Jaylin Hunter also reached double figures with 10 poits, while Dwight Wilson tallied eight pints and grabbed 10 rebounds.
AKRON, Ohio – New year, new chapter of the season and first Mid-American Conference win of the campaign as the Akron Zips defeated Northern Illinois 76-51 on Tuesday at James A. Rhodes Arena.
Behind the seventh double-double this season from junior forward Enrique Freeman, who scored a season-high 27 points and tied his season best with 15 rebounds, the Zips rode a dominant defensive performance for the first MAC win.
Freeman and junior guard Greg Tribble directed the Akron defense that hassled the Huskies (4-10, 0-1 MAC) into 35-percent shooting and forced 19 turnovers, which the Zips (9-5, 1-0 MAC) converted into 24 points on offense. Tribble, helping carry the scoring load with leading scorer Xavier Castañeda out with an injury, proved to be efficient with a season-high 16 points on just six shot attempts.
The game turned early in the second half as Akron found its shooting stroke and kept pressuring the visitors defensively, stifling a struggling Northern Illinois attack.
Following the back-and-forth first half, the Zips stunned the visitors with a 16-5 run punctuated by a fastbreak 3-pointer from freshman guard Tavari Johnson to stretch its lead to 13 (44-31). The blue and gold were never threatened the rest of the way, leading by as many as 25 en route to their eighth win in as many home games this season.
The contest quickly shaped up as a defensive battle, with the two sides combining for 38.4-percent shooting in the opening half. Akron kept itself in the game at the foul line, offsetting a slow shooting start with eight points from the stripe before intermission.
Tribble's hustle and defensive energy helped turn the tide late in the half, as the junior guard drained two free throws, then delivered a steal and a subsequent layup on the other end before a corner 3-pointer by sophomore guard Kobe Mitchell ( and a dunk by Freeman capped an 11-0 run that staked the Zips to a 28-21 lead.
Sophomore guard Zarique Nutter topped Northern Illinois with 11 points and the Huskies also got 10 from junior guard Keshawn Williams in defeat.
By MIKE SMITH
MOUNT PLEASANT, MI -- Visiting Miami led nearly 80 percent of the game, but RedHawks shooting went cold late and Central Michigan came from behind to defeat MU 68-56 Tuesday at McGuirk Arena.
Neither team shot all that well in their Mid-American Conference opener. Miami (6-8, 0-1 MAC) finished at 33.9 percent from the floor and 19.2 percent on treys. CMU (6-8. 1-0 MAC) connected on 35.7 percent overall and 16.7 percent outside the arc.
Both teams made 20 field goals and . . . CONTINUE