March 8, 2011
Final Stats
Final Box in PDF Format 
Bowling Green 74, Northern Illinois 54
Anderson Arena | Bowling Green, Ohio
|
|
|
1st |
2nd |
Final |
Northern Illinois
|
32
|
22
|
54
|
Bowling Green
|
34 |
40
|
74
|
|
|
|
| Player of the Game |
 |
Tim Toler
Points: 13
Rebounds: 8
|
|
Team Stats
|
NIU |
OPP |
FG Percentage
|
41.5 |
51.7 |
| 3-Point FG Percentage |
31.3 |
46.7 |
| FT Percentage |
71.4 |
62.5 |
Offensive Rebounds
|
8 |
6 |
| Defensive Rebounds |
25 |
24 |
| Total Rebounds |
33 |
30 |
Assists
|
14 |
20 |
Turnovers
|
17 |
8 |
Blocks
|
3 |
1 |
Steals
|
5 |
10 |
Points in the Paint
|
20 |
36 |
Points off Turnovers
|
5 |
28 |
|
|
| |
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Northern Illinois men's basketball team fell, 74-54, at Bowling Green on Tuesday night in the first round of the FirstEnergy Mid-American Conference Tournament. The Huskies trailed by just two at halftime but the Falcons shot 56.7 percent (17-of-30) in the second half to extend the lead and claim the victory.
Junior forward Tim Toler led NIU with 13 points and eight rebounds, freshman forward Nate Rucker added 10 points. Senior guards Jeremy Landers and Michael Patton each had nine points and four rebounds in their final game in a Northern Illinois uniform.
"If we had come out and played as well in the second half as we did in the first half it would have been a different ballgame, but we just didn't," said NIU head coach Ricardo Patton. "Bowling Green went on a hot streak early in the second half, they made shots, and then we started to press, and we just got away from what was successful in the first half."
NIU shot 32.0 percent (8-of-25) in the second half after shooting 50 percent (14-of-28) in the opening 20 minutes.
Bowling Green committed just two turnovers in the second half and held a 28-5 advantage in the contest in points off turnovers.
The Huskies and Falcons traded baskets in the early going, Toler and Patton fueled the NIU offense early on as both knocked down a shot from inside and a shot from outside the three-point arc.
Redshirt freshman forward Antone Christian hit a trifecta from the wing to give NIU a 15-13 lead with 14 minutes to play in the half, but Bowling Green answered with nine-straight to take a 22-15 advantage. The Huskies trimmed the lead back to three, 22-19, with a layup from Rucker and a floater by Toler with just over eight minutes left before the break.
Trailing by a half-dozen, Landers started a 7-0 run for NIU with a pull-up jumper. Christian added a three from the corner and Toler capped the run with a layup to put the Huskies ahead, 32-31, with less than a minute to play. On the final possession of the half, Dee Brown buried a three-pointer from the corner for Bowling Green to give the Falcons a 34-32 lead at the intermission.
A'uston Calhoun led all scorers with 17 points in the first half for Bowling Green on 8-of-13 shooting. Toler scored 11 to pace NIU in the opening stanza. NIU had 10 assists on its 14 baskets and Bowling Green had 11 assists on its 14 first half makes.
Bowling Green raced out to the first seven points after the intermission, pushing its lead to 41-32, forcing an NIU timeout.
A basket by Toler trimmed the Bowling Green lead back to seven, but the Falcons used a 7-2 spurt to push their advantage to a dozen, 50-38, with 12:33 remaining.
The Huskies continued to struggle offensively and the Falcons slowly continued to increase their advantage as the lead grew to more than 20, 64-43, until freshman guard Aksel Bolin connected on a three from the corner with six minutes left.
As they had all season, the Huskies continued to play hard but were unable to come up with a run late in the game to threaten the Falcons.
Calhoun finished with a game-high 25 points. Scott Thomas chipped in 12 points and a game-high nine assists and Brown also reached double figures for the Falcons with 10 points.
Bowling Green advances to play Western Michigan in the quarterfinals of the MAC Tournament on Thursday. Northern Illinois finishes its season with a record of 9-21.
