On Saturday, January 18, the Eastern Michigan University men’s basketball team won its second game in Mid-American Conference play this season, 68-62, against Bowling Green State University (BGSU).
The win marks Eastern Michigan’s second consecutive win against Bowling Green, a streak that goes back to last season. The Eagles also have a win in conference play against Northern Illinois University at home this year, which means their win over Bowling Green is their first conference win away from the George Gervin GameAbove Center in 2025.
As a team, Eastern Michigan had 26 bench points; bench points notably marked the course of the game. The Eagles beat the Falcons 26-5 in this category, led by Jalin Billingsley (Cleveland, Ohio/Lutheran East/Georgetown), with eight points not starting the game.
The game started in favor of Bowling Green, who led the game 10-9 before the Eagles went on a 13-2 run to lead the game 21-12 with 10 minutes to play in the first half.
The following 10 minutes saw Bowling Green make its case for why it is still worthy of staying in these games. The team finished the half on a 14-8 run and trailed 29-26 heading into the locker room.
Things got intense once the second half started, with the lead going back and forth in favor of both teams. There were seven lead changes throughout the contest as Eastern Michigan led the first part of the second half by one, 48-47.
With the next five minutes going by, Eastern Michigan got ahead from there, and it might have made a difference in the game. They went on a 14-6 run to give themselves a nine-point cushion, 62-53 on a three-point play by Jalen Terry (Flint, Michigan Beecher/Oregon/DePaul).
From that point, the Falcons went on a 6-0 run and shut down the Eagle offense for the next two and a half minutes before Billingsley made a free throw, making one out of two in the sequence.
BGSU would follow this up on another 3-0 run to cut the Eagles lead to just one, 63-62 with 1:25 to go. After this, Eastern Michigan would shut out the Falcons for the last 85 seconds. They could ice the clock to where Bowling Green was able to have two possessions after that, where they missed two three-pointers.
Two free throws from Da’Sean Nelson (Toledo, Ohio/Robert S. Rogers/Kilgore College/DePaul) and a three-pointer from Terry scored 68-62 to secure the win for Eastern Michigan.
Offensively, the Eagles were led by Christian Henry (Chicago, Illinois/The Skill Factory/Panola College) and Arne Osojnik (Ljubljana, Slovenia/Dream City Christian), who had 17 points and 16 points and Osojnik also recorded 11 rebounds. His 11 rebounds are by far a season-best, and the 16 points tie a season-best, which was also done at Oakland on November 21.
Terry and Nelson scored 13 and 10 points, giving the Eagles four players scoring double figures for the contest.
Other individual statistics for Eastern Michigan include eight rebounds, five assists for Terry, and three steals for Osojnik. The Slovenian also added three steals to his name, the second-most he has had in a game this season.
Next, Eastern Michigan returns home for a two-game homestand. The first game will be against the Ohio University Bobcats on Tuesday, January 21. Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m. The homestand will conclude against Buffalo on Saturday, January 25, with tip-off at 2:00 p.m. Both games will be streamed live on ESPN+ and can be listened to on WEMU 89.1 FM.
