Cold-shooting BGSU blasted by Flashes

Otis Polk had 8 points and 9 rebounds in the first half, but because of foul trouble finished with 8 points, 10 boards.

KENT, Ohio - Home or away, struggling to score the way Bowling Green State University did last night makes winning a long shot.

And the Falcons definitely weren't hitting many of those.

Winless on the road to begin with, BGSU suffered the kind of horrid shooting night few visiting teams could survive in a 72-48 loss to Kent State. The Falcons scored the fewest points and suffered their most lopsided defeat this season because they couldn't shoot straight, making 20-of-58 shots, including just

2-of-20 from 3-point range.

All of BGSU's seven losses have come away from Anderson Arena. Winning on the road could become more of a challenge mentally as the losses mount, but last night's defeat was simple.

Too many Falcons shots banged off the rim.

"Hey, if you're going to shoot 20 3s, you've got to make more than two of them," BGSU coach Louis Orr said.

The Falcons (8-7, 1-1) struggled shooting in the first half, but it was the second half when everything went haywire. The game was tied at 33 at halftime, but the Golden Flashes went on a 19-0 run beginning at the 16-minute mark to blow it open.

BGSU was 0-of-10 from beyond the arc in the second half. It didn't score a point for eight minutes and went nearly 10 minutes without a field goal.

"I really can't say what happened," said Falcons forward Chris Knight, who led his team with 15 points.

"We haven't played this bad in the second half all year long," Orr added.

Kent is the reigning Mid-American Conference champ and has last year's player of the year, Al Fisher, on its roster. With BGSU firing up shot after shot to no avail, Fisher and Co. took advantage.

Fisher, who led four Kent players in double figures with 23 points, scored 16 after the break. The Flashes (8-8, 1-1) shot 15-of-27 in the second half and clamped down once the Falcons lost inside presence Otis Polk to foul trouble.

Polk nearly had a double-double in the first half with eight points and nine rebounds. He picked up his second and third fouls less than two minutes into the second half and was never the same, finishing with those same eight points and 10 boards.

Knight was the lone Falcon to score in double figures. Darryl Clements didn't score in 21 minutes, and Joe Jakubowski and Brian Moten combined for seven points.

Scott Thomas scored a career-high nine points off the bench.

"We weren't locking them down at the tune of blowing them out," Flashes coach Gino Ford said. "They missed some good looks by some guys who are 40-percent 3-point shooters. Moten, Clements and Jakubow-

ski are all 40-percent shooters and they shot [1-for-13]. We can take a small amount of credit for that, but they just had a tough night shooting it and that's not going to happen often to them."

BGSU's next two games - against Akron Saturday night and Miami Tuesday night - are at home.

Orr said his players won't have a mental block when facing their next road test, which is Jan. 24 at Ohio University.

"To say it's a mental block, I'm not going there," Orr said. "We've just got to be tougher."

Contact Joe Vardon at:

jvardon@theblade.com

or 419-410-5055.