BG News Sports Blog

For his performance against the Michigan Wolverines on Thursday night, BG goaltender Nick Eno has been named the Papa John's BGSU male athlete of the week. In the game, he stopped 28 or 30 shots, including all 22 he faced while the teams were at even strength. For the year, Eno carries a 3.13 goals-against average and an .899 save percent. Against CCHA foes, his GAA is 2.98 and his save percent is .902.

BG needs Eno to continue to play at a high level if they want to win games down the stretch, as they face their most difficult stretch of the year, beginning tomorrow night at Michigan. After that, number 1 Miami and then Notre Dame come to town for weekend series', and then they close the regular season with a home-and-home series against Michigan State.

Stopping Western Michigan's David Kool was going to be key for the BG men's basketball team to walk out of Kalamazoo with a win.

Kool, the Mid-American Conference's leading scoring, was held to just six points in the first half, but had 17 in the second half, including a lay-up with 4.2 seconds remaining to give the Broncos a 65-64 win against the Falcons earlier today.

BG led 56-45 with 8:34 to play to take their largest lead of the game, but the Broncos scored 14 points in a span of 2:33 to take a 61-58 lead.

After the Falcons regained the lead 64-61, Kool drove the length of the court to cut the Bronco deficit to one with 12 seconds remaining.

All BG had to do was inbound the ball and hold on it long enough to get fouled, but Kool stripped the ball out of Joe Jakubowski's hands after the inbound pass and scored on a lay-up to take a 65-64 lead. BG's last second inbound pass, which had to go the length of the court, was stolen by the WMU defense which gave them the win.

Scott Thomas and Otis Polk each had 14 points for the Falcons, while Dee Brown added 13. Erik Marschall posted 10 points and Jordon Crawford came off the bench to score nine points and record a career-high six assists.

BG's loss drops them to 11-11 overall and 4-6 in the MAC. The Falcons return home to begin a two-game home stand, beginning Wednesday against Northern Illinois. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.

Lauren Prochaska scored 23 of her 26 points in the second half and Tamika Nurse added 15 as the BG women's basketball team beat Ball State 80-76 in Muncie, Ind.

Prochaska connected on 8-of-11 shots from the floor for the game, six coming from behind the arc.

BG shot just 38 percent in the first half and trailed 35-30, as Ball State dominated the paint - outscoring the Falcons 20-10.

Down 46-36 early in the second half, BG scored 18 straight points to take a 54-46 lead, a lead they would never relinquish. The Cardinals ended the second half the same way they started the game, but Nurse went to the free-throw line four times in the last 1:24 of the game to seal the win.

While Prochaska and Nurse had 26 and 15 respectively, the Falcons got a big lift from Tara Breske, who finished with a double-double (13 points and 12 rebounds).

The win improves BG to 19-5 overall and 9-1 in the Mid-American Conference. Today's win at Ball State gives the Falcons a 8-5 record on the road this season.  BG will continue its two-game road trip Wednesday when they travel to Central Michigan for a 7 p.m. tip-off.

It was over when: The final buzzer sounded, as BG was in it all game, despite only getting 12 shots.

Turning point: A 5-minute major penalty handed to Tommy Dee for checking from behind mid-way through the first period. On that power play, the Wolverines scored twice, which was enough for the win.

Number of the game: 315. Tomorrow morning the Wolverines will depart for Madison, Wisconsin for their Saturday battle with the Badgers at Camp Randal Stadium, which is a 315 mile travel from Bowling Green.

Three Stars:

1st star: Nick Eno. The junior goaltender stopped 28 of 30 shots for the Falcons, incuding many acrobatic saves. He was the only reason BG was able to stay in it.

2nd star: Chris Brown. The Michigan forward scored the game winner mid-way through the first period for the Wolverines.

3rd star: Steve Kampfer. The Michigan defenseman assisted on both Wolverine goals.

Notes: Freshman defenseman Ian Ruel was a late scratch due to illness. Ryan Peltoma took his spot on defense... Dee was given a game misconduct for his hit in the first... Michigan goalie Bryan Hogan started his 34th consecutive game... Tomas Petruska's goal tied him with Jordan Samuels-Thomas for the team lead in points with 21.

BG football coach Dave Clawson received Letters of Intent from 25 players today, who he introduce at a 4 p.m. press conference.

 

Given last weekend's bye, coach Dennis Williams was given the luxary of allowing the team to get some much deserved rest for Thursday's matchup with Michigan.

"We wanted the guys to stay away from the rink as much as possible, give them a chance to focus on their academics and such," Williams said. "I don't think any of our practices went over 50 minutes last week; they were very detailed, short and sweet."

This week, the team is back in the swing of things was they prepare for an unusual Thurday game.

Today the team spent about an hour working on special teams. There was a clear up-tempo pace to it, and the players were treating it like a game, as there was a good deal of checking going on.

"We were forcing our guys to keep their feet moving, keep up the tempo, because you know, ten days is a lot of time between games," Williams said after practice.

The Falcons concluded practice with an eliminator shootout game, where each shooter goes, and if they don't score they get back in line until they do. It was something that Williams and assistant coaches Scott Stirling and Doug Slipacoff also participated in. Ironically enough, those three were the last ones to score, although not for lack of effort.

 

Postgame audio from both Toledo and BG press conferences following the Falcons' 58-47 win against the Rockets.