Hot shooting lifts Falcons to easy win

Bowling Green State University forward Torian Oglesby (32) dunks the ball against Morehead State Saturday, at the Stroh Center in Bowling Green, Ohio. THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH Enlarge | Photo Reprints

BOWLING GREEN -- The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team struggled with turnovers in its contest Saturday against Morehead State, committing 17.

The Falcons struggled on defense, allowing Morehead State to shoot 47.9 percent from the field, and the rebounding battle went narrowly in BG's favor by a slim 26-25 margin.

PHOTO GALLERY: Men's basketball: BGSU vs. Morehead State

And none of that mattered because Bowling Green rode red-hot shooting from the 3-point arc to a 73-60 win at the Stroh Center.

The Falcons connected on 14 3-pointers, the most in a game since hitting 16 at West Virginia in 1997. Scott Thomas nearly tied the school record with eight 3-pointers on his way to a career-high 28 points.

"Making shots can be like penicillin to the sick," BG coach Louis Orr said. "It can add a spark, add adrenaline.

"I don't know of any player that doesn't feed off his team making shots. I thought making 3's was a big boost for us -- we needed it."

Thomas was 8-for-15 on 3-pointers, while Dee Brown made 3-of-5 on the way to 19 points. Jordon Crawford went 3-for-4 on 3's and nearly finished with a double-double, posting nine points and 12 assists as BG improved to 14-12.

"It was great to see us shoot the ball the way we did," Orr said. "This is one of those games where making shots, and our seniors stepping up like they have over the last two weeks, made up for some other shortcomings on the defensive end and with rebounding."

Ty Proffitt scored 18 points, and Drew Kelly had 12 for Morehead State (15-14).

The Eagles used a zone to force the Falcons outside the paint, and BG took its first six shots from beyond the arc. Thomas made three in a row in the first four minutes to bring the Falcons back from an early deficit.

"Definitely Scott got us going with those three straight 3's," Brown said. "It got the rest of the team fired up. And then everyone else started knocking down wide-open shots.

"The coaches told us to keep shooting, so we did."

By the 9:22 mark of the first half, Thomas had connected on six 3's, carrying the Falcons to a 28-20 lead that expanded to 43-29 at the end of the half.

"They were really focused on our 'bigs,' and Jordon Crawford did a great job of getting into the lane and finding the open guy," Thomas said. "It wasn't the game plan [to shoot a lot of 3-pointers]; it was just what happened during the game."

BG made 10-of-16 3's in the first half, as Thomas was 6-for-10, while Crawford and Brown each added a pair.

The Eagles made one second-half run at Bowling Green, cutting the Falcons' lead to nine points with 15:05 left before Thomas made a layup that sparked a 12-0 run that gave BG a cushion in the final minutes.

Thomas' eight 3-pointers left him one short of the school record set by Jay Larranaga against Akron on Feb. 8, 1997. BG's 14 3's left them three shy of the school record set against Siena on Dec. 4, 1989.

While Orr was happy with his team's fifth win in six games, he was far from satisfied. One of his biggest complaints was with his team's 17 turnovers.

"It wasn't their press that bothered us -- I thought we were careless with the ball," he said. "We didn't own the paint, so we weren't able to play inside-out as much as we would have liked.

"It could have been a different game if we hadn't shot as well as we did. We needed the offense, because we weren't as strong as we should be."

But the Falcons were strong enough thanks to their shooting, and the win should give them a boost of confidence when they return to MAC action this week.

"This was a game to build our team chemistry," Brown said. "It's something we can take into the next game at Akron on Wednesday."

NOTES: Among those at the game was Joe Dumars, president of basketball operations for the Pistons. He is Brown's foster father. ... With the win in this BracketBuster contest, BG now is 6-4 in such games. … The 28 points for Thomas was one shy of A'uston Calhoun's 29 against Buffalo, which is the Stroh Center record for a men's contest. … Crawford's 12 assists was one short of his career high. … Coincidentally, BG's best 3-point shooting night this season was an 8-for-13 (61.5 percent) effort against Austin Peay, a member of the Ohio Valley Conference along with Morehead State.

Contact John Wagner at: jwagner@theblade.com, 419-724-6481 or on Twitter @jwagnerblade.