Tiffin (11/5)

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The BGSU men's basketball team officially kicks off their season tonight at the Stroh Center when they host Tiffin at 7:00pm.

Last year, we defeated Tiffin in our season opener, 91-52. I'm hoping for a complete effort tonight - moving without the ball offensively, communicating defensively, and playing with high energy. It sounds like Caleb Fields may be back tonight, so he would bring a lot to that effort.

It's Luau Night. Pack the Stroh!

I'll be providing live in-game updates here, and I look forward to the discussion. Go Falcons!

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Davin Zeigler is in the starting lineup once again, so it appears Fields may not play again tonight, likely just as a precaution in a game we should win without him. I'm sure he'll be back on Friday for LSU.

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Starters:
Davin Zeigler, Tayler Mattos, Daeqwon Plowden, Dylan Frye, Justin Turner.

Same as the Findlay game. I suppose we'll see how this goes.

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We've gone back to the well with the new "BGSU" white uniforms.

Mattos opens the game fairly active, but missing some shots. He's grabbed a board or two, and he splits a pair of free throws to make it 1-0 BG.

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Dylan Frye hits his first three of the game. After a stop, Turner hits a long 2.

Nice 6-0 run to begin the game for the Falcons.

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Mattos cans a little hook from the post to make it 8-0.

After a Tiffin layup and a ball goes out of bounds, Mike Laster is the first Falcon off the bench, coming in for Zeigler.

Frye to the line for 2. He misses the first... and makes the 2nd. If there's one area of his game he could really work on, it's his free throws. With as good of a shooter as he is, he needs to be automatic from the stripe.

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Turner continues his hot shooting from outside with a corner three.

At the under-16 timeout, it's 12-5 Falcons.

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Tiffin hits a 3 and then decides to press. If they plan to do that all game, we'll need to take care of the basketball tonight.

Marlon Sierra and Trey Diggs check in now for Frye and Mattos, 14:40 left in the first half.

After a nice-looking Plowden three, it's BG 15, Tiffin 8.

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Plowden hits another 3 from up top. Man... he's a freak athlete. If he can shoot at an efficient clip, that's such a huge deal for this team.

Diggs hits a three, too.

Marlon Sierra grabbed a rebound and brought the ball all the way up the court. Cool/humorous (all in good fun, Marlon!) to see that he's got some ball-handling skills. Love when big guys get in on that action!

Plowden steps to the line and hits 2 free throws, and he's replaced by Matiss Kulackovskis, who gets a layup on his first shot attempt.

Under 12, BG leads 25-10. I love the team effort I've seen so far.

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Lineup reset: Sierra, Matiss, Diggs, Frye, Laster

Looks like a moderately good student crowd tonight? They aren't standing and cheering or anything, but they're in the building. That's step 1.

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Sierra commits a foul, and Mattos checks in for him. Turner also comes in for Laster.

Nice scoop layup from Frye.

After a few mediocre defensive possessions, Mattos gets an offensive board and a putback layup off the backboard. Then on the other end, he gets a block in transition. He's looked a lot better tonight. You can kinda tell he's raw, but I think experience will do a lot for his confidence and the level of his play overall.

Turner finds Frye for a layup underneath, and we get a Tiffin timeout. 8:14 left in the first half, BG leads 31-21.

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Mattos makes a nice find on a pass to Frye underneath and the layup falls.

Frye finds Plowden with a highlight pass, but he doesn't quite finish the alley-oop. Boy, this team could be electric this year if they convert plays like that.

Diggs buries a three. I really like what he seems to bring to the team this year.

Under 4, BG leads 42-27.

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Nice little turnaround move from Matiss. At the other end, the defense forces a shot clock violation. I like the effort there.

With 2 minutes left in the half, Zeigler comes in to replace Laster. I could be wrong, but it doesn't feel like he has played all that much, even though he started.

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A Mike Laster layup beats the buzzer and takes us to the break. I loved that aggressive timeout by Huger with 4 seconds left, trying to get his team a chance to get more points with just a few ticks remaining in the half. Nice situational experience for this team.

At the half, BG leads 52-31

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Halftime stats:

Mattos has 5 points and 9 boards. he also has a block.
Plowden has 10 points and 5 boards.
Frye also has 10 points and 5 boards.
Turner is struggling by his standards, with 9 points on 3/8 shooting from the field.
Diggs has a key 6 points off the bench.