BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team earned an 88-66 victory over Fairmont State University on Friday (Nov. 15) morning at the Stroh Center. The contest was the program's School Day Game. Approximately 2,000 students from area schools were in attendance, making up a crowd of 3,312.
 
The Falcons move to 3-1 on the campaign with the victory. Bowling Green is now 2-0 inside the Stroh Center in 2019-20. Fairmont State entered the contest with a 2-0 record, but being that the Fighting Falcons are a Division II school, today's game served as an exhibition for FSU.
 
A total of 14 Falcons saw action during the ballgame, and 11 entered the scoring column. Redshirt-junior guard Justin Turner led all scorers with 16 points. Junior forward Trey Diggs (11), sophomore guard Caleb Fields (10) and senior guard Dylan Frye (10) also scored in double figures for the Orange and Brown.

 

DEKALB, Ill. – Four players scored in double figures and seven grabbed at least five rebounds as the Northern Illinois University men's basketball team topped Coppin State, 81-69, on Friday night (Nov. 15) at the NIU Convocation Center. 

Senior Eugene German (Gary, Ind./21st Century Charter) scored a game-high 23 points, junior Nathan Scott (Naperville, Ill./Olney Central College) had a career-best 18, sophomore Darius Beane (Carbondale, Ill./Southern Illinois) added 12 points and senior Lacey James (Grand Rapids, Mich./Rider) chipped in 11 as the Huskies never trailed against the Eagle. 

"It's always fun when I can say Huskies win," said NIU head coach Mark Montgomery. "I thought we got a lot of good basketball out of everyone that played (tonight). We have four guys in double figures, our defense was stingy, holding (Coppin State) under 40 percent shooting, under 30 percent from three-point shooting. They are a dangerous team, they came in very confident from their win at Loyola, but I know out guys were locked in.

"I don't know that we played 40 minutes, but it was darn close, and we needed every single one of those minutes to win the game."

NIU (1-2) jumped out to an 11-5 lead in the opening four minutes as James scored four points and Scott had five-straight to give the Huskies the early advantage. 

Scott grabbed a game-high eight rebounds to go along with his 18 points in the contest, freshman Tyler Cochran (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook) also grabbed eight boards. 

A basket by Beane pushed the NIU lead to 16-7 before Coppin State answered with the next eight to cut the Huskie advantage to just one, 16-15, with a little over 11 minutes to play in the opening half. 

Coppin State (1-3) tied the game at 18 before the Huskies used a 10-2 burst to move back in front by eight. Scott scored the first four of the run, German added a pair and Beane scored the final four as the Huskies led, 28-20, with 5:47 left before the intermission. 

The Huskies led by five before closing the half with a 6-3 spurt, with all six coming from the free-throw line, to take a 37-29 lead into halftime. 

Scott had a team-high 11 points at the intermission, German and Beane each had eight points at the break. 

Coppin State used an 8-1 run to open the second half to cut the Huskie lead to just a pair, 39-37, less than two minutes into the second stanza. 

NIU responded with a 9-1 burst as the Huskie lead ballooned back to double-digits. German canned a triple and Beane converted a pair at the line to close the run as the Huskies led, 48-38, with 14:11 to go. 

The Eagles came right back to close within a half-dozen until Scott scored seven-straight, one from the free-throw line before back-to-back triples, as NIU pushed its lead to 58-45 with a little over nine minutes remaining.

Coppin State closed the gap to 10 with 3:18 left before three points from James and a pair of free throws by German pushed the Huskie advantage to 73-58, putting the game away. 

German finished with seven rebounds and three assists to go along with his 23 points, Beane grabbed six rebounds and registered three steals. 

Dejuan Clayton had a team-best 17 points to pace Coppin State, Andrew Robinson added 16 points and Kamar McKnight had 15 points. 

NIU will have a quick turnaround as the Huskies are back in action Saturday afternoon, November 16, as they welcome Rockford University to the NIU Convocation Center. Tipoff against the Regents is set for 3 p.m. 

 

AKRON, Ohio – Behind a suffocating defense and big nights from seniors Tyler Cheese (Albany, Ga.) and Xeyrius Williams (Springfield, Ohio), the Akron Zips downed visiting North Carolina Central 57-47 Friday night at James A. Rhodes Arena.
 
Cheese led all scorers with 20 points and also had nine rebounds and three assists, while Williams chipped in 19 points, including four 3-pointers, and a team-high-tying nine rebounds in the win.
 
Junior Loren Cristian Jackson (Chicago, Ill.) was the third Akron player in double figures, tallying 10 points on the night.
 
The win was Akron's second in as many home games this season and the Zips (2-1) were able to mute the Eagles' offense for long stretches to battle their way to a hard-fought win. A 6:58 stretch of the first half saw the Zips hold the visitors scoreless while tallying 16 points of their own to expand a 5-4 lead into a 21-4 margin that remained in double digits throughout the half.
 
Cheese fueled the Akron attack with 11 points before intermission and got plenty of support from Williams, who headed to the locker room at the break most of the way to a double-double with seven points and seven rebounds.
 
Both were part of a defensive effort that saw the Eagles (1-2) knock down just 18.5 percent (5-of-27) field goal attempts in the opening stanza, including 1-of-8 from beyond the arc. Pressure from the Zips in the half court also yielded 12 NCCU turnovers by the break, with Williams also contributing two blocked shots to further stymie the Eagles.
 
Although NCCU battled back early in the second half, cutting the Akron lead as low as two points on multiple occasions early in the frame, but each time the Zips were able to respond. During a stretch midway through the period, Williams twice turned back NCCU with a 3-pointer from the wing and a driving, two-handed dunk that brought the home crowd to its feet.
 
Akron steadily rebuilt its lead at the foul line in the closing minutes of the game, with senior Deng Riak (Melbourne, Australia), Jackson and Cheese all contributing from the charity stripe as the Zips locked in on defense and held the Eagles scoreless for 8:34 as they kicked off a three-game homestand in victorious fashion.
 
The 47 points allowed were the fewest for the Zips this season and despite a difficult night from the field (25.5-percent shooting), they were able to scrap and battle their way to a win as nine different players saw court time.
 
Redshirt junior guard Ty Graves was the only NCCU player to reach double figures with 10 points and senior Jibri Blount added nine points in the defeat. Blount also had a team-high eight rebounds.
 
Akron continues its homestand at James A. Rhodes Arena on Monday, Nov. 18 against South Carolina Upstate. The game is slated for a 7 p.m. tip-off on ESPN+. The final game of the three-game run is against Youngstown State on Thursday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. on ESPN+. All three games are part of the Global Sports Shootout.

 

OXFORD, Miss. – The Western Michigan men's basketball team dropped its first contest of the season on Friday night falling to the University of Mississippi, 85-58 inside The Pavilion at Ole Miss.

The Broncos were led offensively by redshirt junior Brandon Johnson, who matched his career high with 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field. Johnson was also 2-of-4 from long distance while collecting four rebounds. In the past three games, Johnson is averaging 20.6 points per game.

Ranking second on the team was junior Michael Flowers with 14 points in 33 minutes of action. The reigning Mid-American Conference West Division Player of the Week was 4-of-15 from the field with one three-pointer, four rebounds and three assists. The Southfield, Mich., native was 5-of-6 from the free-throw line.

As a duo, Flowers and Johnson combined to score 35 of WMU's 58 points against the Rebels, accounting for 60.3 percent of the offense. From the field the two juniors combined to go 12-for-27 (.445).

Redshirt sophomore Jason Whitens led the Broncos on the glass with seven rebounds to go along with four points, two assists and one steal. Off the bench, junior Kawanise Wilkins posted six points and three rebounds in 21 minutes of action.

As a team the Brown & Gold shot 33.9 percent from the field and was just 5-of-32 from behind the three-point line. Heading into the game, WMU ranked first in the NCAA in free-throws made and attempted and went 13-of-17 from the charity stripe against Ole Miss.

WMU dropped its first game of the season and now has an overall record of 3-1, its best start since 2014. The Broncos return to action at home on Tuesday, Nov 19 at 7:00 p.m. against Alma College.

It was a great start to the game for WMU, racing out to a 7-2 lead and forcing Ole Miss to call a timeout after a pair of made free-throws. WMU extended its lead to 12-5 at the 14-minute mark after a three from Flowers, his only three-pointer of the night.

With under 10 minutes to play the Broncos held a three-point lead as WMU went 2-of-10 from the field during a three-minute stretch.  A little past the midway point of the first half, the Rebels earned their first lead of the game after embarking on a 20-2 run to hold a 28-18 advantage with four minutes to play.

The Broncos responded with a run of their own, going on a 6-0 run, with five points coming from Johnson, to cut its deficit down to four. To end the half, Flowers connected on a fadeaway jumper to close the Bronco deficit to four once again before Ole Miss made two-of-three free-throws to end the first half and take a 40-32 lead into the locker room.

To begin the second half, freshman B. Artis White connected on his lone three-pointer of the night cut the Ole Miss lead down to 40-35 before the Rebels embarked on an 8-0 run to extend their lead to double digits.

In the second half Ole Miss shot a staggering 54.5 percent from the field and forced WMU to commit 13 turnovers, scoring 19 points off of Bronco turnovers. The Broncos shot just 36 percent from the field and 12.5 percent from long distance in the second half as the Rebels outscored WMU 45-26 during the final 20 minutes of play to secure the victory.