The Eastern Michigan Eagles (10-9, 0-6) men’s basketball team played against the Bowling Green Falcons (14-5, 5-1) on Tuesday, Jan. 21 and lost their sixth straight game 62-59. The Eagles have dropped all of their conference games so far this season, after starting 10-3.
The Eagles started the first half with a few quick points but the Falcons answered right back making the score 5-3 in favor of Bowling Green. The Falcons then started to use full-court press on the Eagles, causing disruption for Eastern Michigan and pushing them to turn the ball over.
EMU turned the ball over 12 times compared to Bowling Green’s seven turnovers. The score went back and forth through the first half until Bowling Green’s Daeqwon Plowden dunked over Eastern Michigan’s Darion Spottsville to make the score 24-24. The halftime score was also tied at 27-27.
Bowling Green broke through Eastern Michigan’s zone in the beginning of the second half, amassing a 10-4 run in the first five minutes of the second half to go up 34-40 over the Eagles. The Falcons kept a consistent lead until a dunk from Boubacar Toure sparked life into the Eagles. Toure scored six of Eastern Michigan’s last 18 points.
The Eagles rode the momentum to a one-point lead with three minutes to go but a four-point run from the Falcons proved too much for the Eagles, who fell to 10-9 on the season and an 0-6 record in the MAC. Justin Turner led all scoring with 25 points and had the best shooting percentage from three-point range at 50 percent on six shots.
Toure led the Eagles’ scoring with a double-double, totaling 17 points and 13 rebounds in the loss. Noah Morgan scored 16 points and grabbed five rebounds for EMU. No other Eastern Michigan player scored 10+ points but Ty Groce (seven points, six rebounds) and Chris Barnes (four points, two assists) contributed as well.
Ball movement and turnovers plagued the Eagles’ performance, with the team only creating three assists in the whole game as well as turning the ball over 19 times. EMU also had a poor shooting night, only converting 13% from beyond the arc. The Eagles’ next game is versus the Miami Redhawks in Oxford, Ohio on Saturday, Jan. 25. Miami is 1-5 in the MAC and is in last place in the East division of the MAC.
