Falcons win exhibition game

With Bowling Green's Matt Lefeld on the Anderson Arena floor, Capital's Steve Kyser, a Southview grad, goes after the basketball. Kyser scored 10 points to share high-scoring honors for the Crusaders in the exhibition game last night.

BOWLING GREEN - Capital had banked in a few 3-pointers and Bowling Green State University wasn't responding on

offense.

Once Ryne Hamblet came in, the game started swinging the other way.

Hamblet, a junior-college transfer for the Falcons, applied defensive pressure, found his teammates inside and featured a hot hand in BGSU's 95-74 exhibition win over Capital last night at Anderson Arena.

Hamblet finished with 22 points, 10 assists, five rebounds and five steals.

He wasn't the only sharpshooter for the Falcons, who shot 65 percent from the floor, 66 percent on 3-pointers. Martin Samarco led BGSU with 32 points on 12-of-14 shooting.

"I thought Ryne Hamblet changed the game," BGSU coach Dan Dakich said.

"He and Ryan Sims, they were active, they made shots and they were aggressive. They gave us something that we weren't getting."

The Falcons were down by as many as 11 in the first half to the Division III team, helped by

Capital's free throws (8 of 10) and 3-pointers (5 of 11) in the opening period.

The Falcons came back to win easily, but Dakich found the flaws he wanted to before BGSU opens its season Saturday at home against Denison.

"We played this game for a reason, because Capital's an experienced group who played well at the end of the season," Dakich said. "I thought this was the perfect team to expose our weaknesses, which are, in order, when we get tired we guard nobody; number two, we have a really hard time keeping the basketball in front of us, and number three, getting on the defensive glass."

The Falcons were outrebounded 34-25, with big men Otis Polk, Matt Lefeld and Erik Marschall combining for five rebounds. Lefeld missed most of the second half with foul trouble and fouled out with two minutes left.

Samarco, Lefeld, Polk, Darryl Clements and Brian Moten started the game for the Falcons. Clements played 39 minutes and Samarco 36. Clements, a sophomore from Detroit, had eight points and eight assists.

Hamblet and Sims were the newcomers who played the most minutes.

"The first few minutes were kind of tough, we slacked at the defensive end," Hamblet said. "We came out after that first four minutes and turned the defense up. I was nervous when I first came in, but after I got the flow of the game going, got a couple passes and defensive stops, I was out there feeling good."

Capital's lineup included several local players, including Steve Kyser from Southview, Ben Gunn from Wauseon, Jake Fanning from Danbury, and Quintin Mitchell from Libbey. Kyser and Fanning each scored 10 points and Mitchell had eight. Gunn led the Crusaders with five rebounds.

Sophomore Dusan Radivojevic and freshman Lionel Sullivan did not dress for the game. Radivojevic has a bone bruise on his knee and is questionable for Saturday's opener. Sullivan didn't suit up because "there are certain things that he needs to do to dress," Dakich said. "I'm not going to go into those, but I made my mind up after last year there are certain things everyone's going to do, and once he does those he'll start playing."

Contact Maureen Fulton at:

mfulton@theblade.com

or 419-724-6160.