Fugly......

Falconfreak90 · Post by **Falconfreak90** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 10:29 pm

Falcons lose at NIU 72-61.

:shrug:

Sounded like the team took this one for granted. Miami in town Sunday, noon. FSN will carry the game.

C'MON BG! Regroup and get after it. GO FALCONS!

OptionQB · Post by **OptionQB** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 10:45 pm

No comment on the game since I didn't listen to it or read anything yet. The sad part is we lose a chance to claim first place outright on Sunday with the Miami OT loss. At this point we're still two games back (of Miami) and on the wrong side of a few tie-breakers, we still have Kent and Buffalo covered, although the Bulls are up a 1/2 game in the standings.

v. Miami
@ Western
v. Central

The finish is not slim-pickings by any means and we need to show up every night to finish the deal. There's not a team in the MAC that can afford to have "off" nights.

TG1996 · Post by **TG1996** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 10:58 pm

AP-OH--Bowling Green-N. Illinois

N. Illinois 72, Bowling Green 61

DEKALB, Ill. (AP) - Cory Sims scored a team-high 17 points to
lead Northern Illinois to a 72-to-61 victory over Bowling Green
tonight.
The Huskies led for almost the entire game. They took a 32-to-25
lead into halftime before a home crowd of two-thousand-502 at
DeKalb's Convocation Center.
Besides Sims, two other players also scored in double-digit
figures for Northern Illinois. Anthony Maestranzi had 16 points and
Mike McKinney added 15.
Bowling Green had just two players in double digits. John
Reimold had a game-high 22 points and Josh Almanson scored 14 for
the Falcons.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

OptionQB · Post by **OptionQB** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 11:01 pm

If this team makes it to the Gund and Almanson and Reimold have anything left at all I will be amazed. Win, lose or draw, those two leave it all on the court every night. I was a little shocked to see them play as much as they did on Sunday in basically a meaningless game. Their bodies have to be feeling the nearly 25 nights of 35+ minutes.

kdog27 · Post by **kdog27** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 11:02 pm

It seems like every time you start feeling confident in this team they bring you right back down to that preseason feeling,

OptionQB · Post by **OptionQB** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 11:18 pm

Welcome to the MAC that has 9 other teams that make their fans feel the same way!

orangeandbrown · Post by **orangeandbrown** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 11:22 pm

Its an amazingly even year. How many teams could you really imagine winning at the Gund.

cowboyjoe · Post by **cowboyjoe** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 11:53 pm

Not that bad of a loss...we were only favored by 1 plus they had home wins this year against Akron, Ohio, Eastern, Marshall, and Central. It is one we could have gotten if Wright (1 point) would have shown up.

DeKalb, IL – Northern Illinois’ Convocation Center is quickly becoming a graveyard for Mid-American Conference foes. The Huskies reiterated that fact on Wednesday, as they used an outstanding defensive effort and got 11-of-19 three-point shooting to earn an impressive 72-61 win over the MAC West Division leading Bowling Green Falcons.

Despite trailing 19-8 midway through the opening half, Northern Illinois regrouped in grand fashion, outscoring the Falcons 24-6 through the rest of the period to take a 32-25 lead into the break. NIU then tightened its grip defensively to push its lead to 20 (49-29) before coming away with the 11-point triumph.

“I can’t say enough about the heart this team has shown game-in and game-out,” head coach Rob Judson said. “They are a resilient group that just loves to play together. We’ve been on the road to Toledo, OH, on the road to Ypsilanti, MI, and on the road to Dayton, OH, and come back to the Convocation Center and play the top team in the MAC West. That’s a tough chore and our guys just kept fighting. I love coaching this team.”

Northern Illinois’ starting backcourt of Cory Sims (17 points), Anthony Maestranzi (16 points) and Mike McKinney (15 points) paced the Huskie offensive effort, combining for 48 of the team’s 72 points, while hitting a combined 9-of-12 shots from bonus distance. John Reimold led Bowling Green with 22 points and eight rebounds, but was one of just two BGSU players to surpass double figures. Josh Almanson scored 14 points on the night, 12 of which came in the opening half.

“They have two of the MAC’s top scorers,” Judson said. “When you look at the MAC West, there are a lot of talented seniors. Reimold and Almanson are two of them. We did a nice job on Reimold in the first half (five points) and did well on Almanson in the second (two points). They will get their points, they are good basketball players that average 18 points a night. We just had to stay positive and keep battling away.”

Trailing 19-8 at the 9:51 mark, head coach Rob Judson used a :30-second timeout to regroup his young squad. After watching the visiting Falcons hit 6-of-10 shots to open the contest to build that double-figure lead, Judson put NIU into a 3-2 zone, which ultimately turned the tide. Of course the Huskies thrived on the offensive end during the stretch as well, scoring 24 points over the final 9:31, but it was NIU’s resilient defensive that forced the MAC’s top shooting team (49.7 percent) into 2-of-10 shooting the rest of the half to flip that 11-point deficit into an eight-point lead.

James Hughes cut the margin into single digits with a pair of free throws, before a McKinney lay-in, a Sims jumper and the second of four Maestranzi treys brought NIU storming back (21-17). A three-point play by Northern Illinois’ lone senior, Johnathan Byrd, cut the deficit to 21-20 (6:29), before Byrd’s second hoop, a nifty fast-break lay-up gave the Huskies a lead they would never relinquish. Back-to-back treys by McKinney and Maestranzi quickly built NIU’s lead to seven (30-23) at the 3:02 mark and set the stage for the huge MAC West victory.

“We did a nice job of rotating our zone and recognizing what each of their (Bowling Green’s) strength’s were,” Maestranzi said of NIU’s zone. “We forced them into a few difficult shots and rebounded well from there on.”

Northern Illinois kept the defensive pressure on in the second half to extend its margin to as many as 20 (49-29) by the 12:13 mark. Although the Huskies enjoyed a 24-6 run to close the opening half, technically the run could be considered a 41-10 spurt, as they outscored BGSU 17-4 to open the second half. McKinney used a trademark ally-oop dunk to fuel the rally, which also saw the 6-foot-4 sophomore hit two more treys en route to a career high three, three-pointers. Byrd added four points as well and freshman Zach Pancratz buried a triple from the wing to cap the surge.

A senior laden team with two of the MAC’s top-three scorers (Almanson and Reimold), Bowling Green battled back to cut the margin to four (53-49) at 4:48. The Falcons had an opportunity to slice into the lead even further, but the junior Maestranzi stole the ball away from Perrick Robinson and connected on his fourth three-pointer of the evening to push the lead back to seven (56-49) at 4:22.

“We were running on fumes down the stretch, and our team showed a gutsy performance to pull it out,” Judson said.

Todd Peterson then hit a pair of free throws and Sims drained his second triple of the game to push NIU’s lead back to 11 (61-50) and send a vocal crowd of 2,502 home with a win.
With the win, NIU improved to 10-15 overall and 6-10 in MAC action, while Bowling Green fell to 16-8, 9-6 in MAC play.

golfertk14 · Post by **golfertk14** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 7:49 am

do you get the feeling that our girls are better than the guy's team? I mean they're pretty consistant...and yes the guys have won games consistantly too, but very close games.

KPAFalcon · Post by **KPAFalcon** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 7:55 am

Steve Wright has scored a total of six points in the last three games. What has happened to this guy? He looked really good in our last Toledo game. If we are going to make a run at it, he needs to produce. Two guys can't carry the whole load.

Warthog · Post by **Warthog** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 8:34 am

KPAFalcon wrote:Steve Wright has scored a total of six points in the last three games. What has happened to this guy? He looked really good in our last Toledo game. If we are going to make a run at it, he needs to produce. Two guys can't carry the whole load.

Wright has to score points driving to the the basket and making things happen. Right now he is just shooting jump shots and that is not his forte.

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 9:59 am

Warthog wrote:
KPAFalcon wrote:Steve Wright has scored a total of six points in the last three games. What has happened to this guy? He looked really good in our last Toledo game. If we are going to make a run at it, he needs to produce. Two guys can't carry the whole load.
Wright has to score points driving to the the basket and making things happen. Right now he is just shooting jump shots and that is not his forte.

According to Todd Walker in last night's postgame show Wright is now 1-16 from the floor in our last 3 games.

I'm fairly certain I could shoot that well even I if I WERE only shooting jumpers.

We must get more from our guards if we're going to go anywhere this year.

BGSU33 · Post by **BGSU33** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 10:50 am

This was a costly loss. I have a feeling we're going to be playing a game in the first round of the MAC Tournament.

GoFalcons4 · Post by **GoFalcons4** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 11:41 am

From the looks of it, next year we are going to have a tough time putting the ball in the hoop without Almanson and Reimold. We might see some low scoring games.

The Continental · Post by **The Continental** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 12:31 pm

do you get the feeling that our girls are better than the guy's team?

You mean, could the girls beat the guys? If so, you must be on crack.

Fugly......

Fugly......

game recap