Bowling Green Falcons guard DaJion Humphrey (3) goes in for a layup during the second half of a game against Western Michigan on Saturday at the Stroh Center. Bowling Green defeated Western Michigan 84-79. (Scott W. Grau|BGSU Athletics)
The Bowling Green State University men’s basketball team picked up their seventh-straight home win on Saturday, topping the Western Michigan Broncos by a score of 84-79.
The win marks the 12th in the last 13 games for BGSU while moving them to 5-1 in the MAC, tied for second in the conference standings.
After falling behind 16-3 early, the Falcons rallied for a 14-0 run to move ahead 17-16, turning into a 39-31 halftime lead. In the second half, the BGSU advantage grew to as many as 16, but WMU closed the gap down the stretch, drawing within one.
However, key free throw shooting late kept the Falcons in front to secure the final, making the Orange and Brown 6-0 this season in games decided by five points or less.
Individually, the duo of Marcus Hill and Rashaun Agee led the way for the Falcons, both logging double-doubles. Hill posted his ninth 20-point game of the season, finishing with 28, while registering a season-high 11 rebounds.
Agee added 12 points and a team-leading 14 rebounds for his seventh double-double in the last 10 games. DaJion Humphrey (13), EJay Greer (12) and Trey Thomas (10) all hit double-digit points as well while Jason Spurgin came close to a double-double of his own with seven points and nine rebounds.
Agee made a free throw for the first point of the game, but a 7-0 WMU run gave the Broncos a 7-1 lead at the first media timeout.
DaJion Humphrey added a jumper out of the timeout, but a 9-0 run extended the Western Michigan lead to 16-3.
Jason Spurgin ended the run with a pair of free throws. Marcus Hill followed with a steal, layup and a foul in the process for the old-fashioned three-point play to cut the lead down to 16-8 at the under-12 media timeout.
The run continued for the Falcons with Agee connecting for a three. Humphrey followed with a swipe and score before making two free throws. Hill wrapped up the run with a layup to push BGSU in front 17-16 with a 14-0 stretch.
A 6-0 burst for Western Michigan swung the score back to them at 22-17, but BGSU again answered, this time with an 8-0 run to reclaim the lead at 25-23 before Western tied it up at 25-25.
The 8-0 run consisted of back-to-back threes from Humphrey and Hill to start the run followed by two free throws from Humphrey.
Another 6-0 run, this time in favor of the Falcons, extended the lead to 33-27 for BGSU. The Falcons then tallied another 6-0 stretch, closing out the half, for a 39-31 lead at the halftime break, including an exclamation point dunk by Da’Shawn Phillip to send the teams to half.
BGSU tallied two of the first three second half buckets to stretch their lead to double-digits at 43-33, but Western Michigan quickly responded.
WMU went on a 7-0 run to close the gap to 43-40, forcing a BGSU timeout. The Falcons responded with a 6-0 run out of the timeout to rebuild the advantage to 49-43.
EJay Greer soon went on a 9-2 run of his own, hitting a pair of threes interrupted by three from the free throw line to push the BGSU lead to 62-44.
Western Michigan utilized an 8-0 run to trim the Bowling Green lead down to 66-60 before making it a one-score game at 69-66 and a one-point game at 72-71 with about two-and-a-half minutes left.
Down the stretch, the Falcons locked into form at the free throw line. Hill made six straight at the line to extend the BGSU advantage to 82-73 before Trey Thomas added two of his own to secure the 84-79 final.
With the win, the Falcons move to 14-4, the best record through 18 games since the 2001-02 season when they held the same record.
BGSU is now 5-1 in MAC play, the best record through six MAC games since the 2020-21 campaign when they posted the same record. Additionally, Coach Simon is the second BGSU coach all-time to start MAC play 5-1 in their first season at the helm of the Falcons, joining Bill Fitch (1967-68).
Bowling Green has now won 12 of their last 13 games as well as seven straight at home in the Stroh Center.
BGSU finished the game 23-of-27 (85.2%). It’s the second time this season BGSU’s shot over 85% from the line in a game. Additionally, BGSU has attempted 20-plus free throws in five of the last six games and eight of the last 10.
The Falcons registered 10 steals as a team, the most during MAC play and the first time with double-digit steals since posting 16 against Siena Heights on Dec. 22, 2023.
Hill finished with his first double-double of the season, logging a team-high 28 points and a season-high 11 rebounds. The scoring marks Hill’s ninth 20-point game this season. He also attempted a career-high 26 field goals in the game.
With 12 points and a team-leading 14 rebounds, Agee tallied his seventh double-double in the last 10 games and has tallied 10+ points in 10 straight. Agee has paced BGSU in rebounds in eight of the last nine games. He’s also hit a three in three of the last four games.
With Hill and Agee both posting double-doubles, it marks the second time this season BGSU has had a pair of double-doubles in a game. Agee and PJ Edwards previously did it against Ohio Dominican.
EJay Greer finished with a career-high 12 points, his first double-digit scoring output this season. BGSU has now had 11 players on their 14-player roster score double figures in at least one game this season. Greer also set new career-highs for free throws made (4) and threes in a game (2).
DaJion Humphrey added 13 points for the Falcons, including 11 in the first half. Humphrey added a team-leading and career-high three steals while matching his season-high for free throws made with four.
Trey Thomas added 10 points while leading the team in assists with three. Thomas has paced BGSU in assists four times this season. The Falcons are 4-0 in those games.
On the season, Bowling Green is now 13-0 when scoring 70+ points in a game. The Falcons are also 9-1 at home, 6-0 in games decided by five points or less, 6-0 when playing on Saturday and 6-0 when wearing the white uniforms with BGSU across the chest.
The Falcons will stay at home for their next game, hosting the Kent State Golden Flashes on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. tip at the Stroh Center. The game will be a Black Out with fans being asked to wear black in the stands.
