BG's drought in Detroit ends

12/5/2004
BY JOHN WAGNER
BLADE SPORTS WRITER

DETROIT - The last time the Bowling Green men's basketball team won at Detroit's Calihan Hall was early in the 1956-57 season.

How long ago was that? That's one season after current coach Dan Dakich's father, Thomas, played for the Falcons.

But John Reimold made six 3-pointers on his way to a game-high 28 points, and Bowling Green used a fast second-half start to escape with a 59-53 victory over Detroit yesterday. The win snapped BG's 11-game losing streak at Calihan Hall.

"[It's been] 50 years, I believe?" said Mawel Soler, when asked the last time the Falcons had won in Detroit. "Well, I might have exaggerated a little bit. But coach said this would be a tough game."

The win was BG's third in a row after a season-opening loss, while the Titans fell to 1-4.

The Falcons led 31-29 at the half, then scored eight of the first 10 points after the break to take control. Bowling Green forced three Titan turnovers in the first two minutes, and Reimold finished an 11-4 run with a pair of long 3-pointers.

"We were able to get a stop, then get [the lead] out to eight points pretty early," coach Dakich said of the start to the second half. "Then fortunately for us, time ran out."

Dakich's time reference was to the game's final nine minutes. Bowling Green had only one field goal in that span, but it was a big one: John Floyd drove through a crowd for a layup with 3:37 to play to stop a six-point Titan run and give the Falcons a 55-46 lead.

Detroit came no closer than four points the rest of the way.

"We weren't scoring, but it was taking them time to score," Dakich said. "Any points we could put on the board would be big. They had cut it to seven, but Floyd's bucket gave us a cushion."

Reimold, a senior from Greenville, Pa., made 10 of 13 shots in the game - including 6-of-8 from behind the arc - to come within two points of his career high.

Josh Almanson was the only other Falcon to finish in double figures, scoring 10 points, while Steven Wright had eight points before fouling out with four minutes left.

"Josh and Steven have played so well the last couple of games, I'm sure Detroit geared its defense to stop those guys," Reimold said. "Coming into the year, I'm sure defenses knew I could score, so that helped [Josh and Steven] score.

"It felt good that my teammates, like Mawel, came up to me and said, `Hey, John, I'm going to screen and get you open. Josh did that, too, then Floyd and [Germain] Fitch told me they were going to find me and get me the ball."

Soler drew praise from Dakich after sparking the Falcons in the first half. The junior scored a career-high six points in the final four minutes of the period.

Soler said he didn't come into the game trying to score points.

"I just wanted to give the team some positive energy," he said. "I had a defensive mentality. I wanted to crash the boards and screen to get people open."

It all added up to the Falcons' first road win this season following a 2-10 record on the road last year, a mark which included losses in all three non-conference road games.

"Not only has BG not won on the road here, but BG has had problems winning on the road anywhere," Reimold said. "That was something we really wanted to correct."

Contact John Wagner at: jwagner@theblade.com or 419-724-6481.