Bowling Green battles back, falls short at Central Michigan
1/10/2013MT. PLEASANT, Mich. – The Bowling Green State University men’s basketball team came back from a 23-point deficit before suffering a 73-67 loss to Central Michigan Wednesday.
Jordon Crawford finished with a career-high 29 points, all but four coming in the second half, as the Falcons lost their Mid-American Conference opener.
Start’s Anthony Henderson had a career-high 13 points in his first start for BG (5-9).
Kyle Randall scored a career-best 31 points to lead Central Michigan (8-6).
The Chippewas dominated the first half, breaking an 8-8 tie with 13 consecutive points to lead 21-8 with 10:20 to play.
Central Michigan made six 3-pointers in the first half and led by as many as 19 points before settling for a 37-20 halftime advantage.
CMU opened the second half with three more 3s and led 49-26 with 17:38 left. From that point the Falcons went on a 26-4 run — which featured 12 points from Crawford — to cut BG’s deficit to 53-52 with 8:46 to play.
The Falcons forged a 60-60 tie with 3:25 left, but CMU’s Olivier Mbaigoto hit a pair of free throws to break the tie with 2:54 left, then dunked a missed shot with 58 seconds to play to give CMU the lead for good.
NOTE: Craig Sealey was not in uniform because of concussion-like symptoms. Sealey, who was injured in practice Tuesday, is not expected to miss extended time, but his status for Saturday’s contest is uncertain.