The big three of Brandon Bowdry, Carlos Medlock and Justin Dobbins is the driving force behind the success of Eastern Michigan men’s basketball team.
As a team, the Eagles are averaging 66.1 points, but 44 of those points come from Bowdry (16.5 ppg), Medlock (15.6) and Dobbins (11.9).
“You know what Carlos, Justin and Brandon are going to give you pretty much night in and night out,” coach Charles Ramsey said in a teleconference Tuesday.
With Bowdry, Dobbins and Medlock shouldering the load on offense, Ramsey said he is looking for his other players to pick up their scoring, namely Jay Higgins, Antonio Green and Will Cooper.
“With Jay, Antonio and Will, if those guys can step up and give us six to eight points that will really help us,” he said. “If we can start hitting a few more shots that helps our offense immensely. They’ve been doing a terrific job on defense”
Bowdry a double-double machine
After averaging 14.8 points and 7.2 rebounds in 2008-09, Bowdry has stepped his game up a notch.
Heading into Wednesday night’s game against Toledo, Bowdry was leading the Mid-American Conference in rebounding (10) and was fourth in scoring (16.5).
The junior forward won the MAC West Division Player of the Week award for his performance last week, his third of the season.
“He’s been very important,” Ramsey said. “You know, he’s reaping the reward of the work he’s put in. Its no accident he had a great offseason and a great preseason. He’s been banged up and working hard in practice everyday.
“Hopefully, he’ll be fresh down the stretch and be able to continue to put up those kind of numbers,” Ramsey said.
Bowdry has led the Eagles in rebounding in 21 of the team’s first 25 games this season.
BracketBuster coming up
After Wednesday night’s game against Toledo, the Eagles head to Detroit on Saturday to take on the University of Detroit in the annual BracketBuster game.
Heading into Wednesday’s game against Wright State, the Titans were 15-12 (7-8 Horizon League). Tip off is 3:35 p.m.
Dailey travels with team
Quintin Dailey, a guard, traveled with the team to Toledo but did not play.
“He will travel with us tomorrow,” Ramsey said in a teleconference Tuesday. “And then we’ll kind of just play it from here.”
Dailey was recently suspended indefinitely for violating unspecified team rules.
Dailey was averaging 3.9 points and 2.0 rebounds this season, his first with the team after transferring from Sheridan (Wyo.) Community College.
Coming down the stretch
With four more games until the MAC tournament and the Eagles in the middle of the West Division standing, the end of the season is coming into view. But, based on where the team is right now, is this where the Eagles thought they would be at this point in the season?
“No,” Ramsey said. “But, in being realistic, it’s where we are, and the good thing is we still have an opportunity. We kind of got off to a rough start conference wise. So, we’re playing catch up in a little bit of a way. We still have ball games to play. I like our focus, I like our mentality.”
