Wright basket at the right time sparks Bowling Green
1/27/2005MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Bowling Green coach Dan Dakich admitted he thought Steven Wright's 3-pointer from the right corner wasn't going into the basket.
"I actually turned away, thinking it was a miss," Dakich said.
Even Wright, who took the trey from the right corner with his team trailing by a single point and only 2:10 still on the clock, wasn't very confident.
"I thought it was coming out," Wright admitted. "But it went in, it counts and we get the 'W.' "
Exactly. Wright's trey bounced high off the rim, hung a few feet over the basket, then finally fell in to give the Falcons the lead for good in a 77-73 win over Central Michigan last night.
Bowling Green's fourth win in its last five games at Rose Arena, combined with Western Michigan's loss at Miami, lifted the Falcons into a first-place tie with the Broncos in the MAC's West Division at 6-2.
BG now is 12-4 overall. Central Michigan fell to 7-10 and 2-7.
Senior John Reimold led the Falcons with 19 points, while fellow senior Josh Almanson added 16. Wright had 15 and John Floyd added 12 for Bowling Green.
Steve Harris led CMU with 16. Eddie Spencer and Kevin Nelson added 15 and 14, respectively.
In the opening seven minutes it looked as if the Falcons were battling a hangover from the Toledo victory last Saturday as the Chippewas jumped out to a 15-4 lead. But Bowling Green clawed its way back into the contest with a 13-2 run that had the game tied at 17 with 6:24 to play.
And that seemed to set the tone for the contest, as Central Michigan would build a lead before the Falcons would battle back. BG was able to tie the score six times in the second half alone, but the Chippewas always regained the lead until Wright hit a 3-pointer with 8:03 left in the second half that gave the Falcons a 63-60 lead.
"It just seemed as if we never could get there," Dakich said. "We'd get a tie, they'd go on a six-point run. We'd get a tie, they'd go on a run. That's usually where you lose a game.
"But it came down to who was going to get a stop, and who was going to get a break. And we got both."
The break came on Wright's late trey. The stops came courtesy of Perrick "Moon" Robinson, a 5-9 freshman, who disrupted the Chippewa offense.
After Wright's 3-pointer gave BG a 72-70 lead, Robinson joined Mawel Soler in a double-team on Central Michigan's Sefton Barrett. Robinson tied up Barrett, and the jump-ball call gave the Falcons' possession.
On the Chippewas' next possession, Robinson stole the ball and fed Reimold for a layup that, combined with fine Falcon free-throw shooting, sewed up the win.
NOTES: Germain Fitch dressed last night but did not play. He injured his knee in the aftermath of Saturday's win.
Contact John Wagner at:
jwagner@theblade.com
or 419-724-6481.