ROCHESTER, Mich. – In front of a crowd of 2,459 in the Athletics Center O'rena, Oakland University Men's Basketball fell by five points to Bowling Green State 87-82 on Friday night.

The visiting Falcons would win the opening tip, draining a second-chance three from the top of the arc just over a minute into the first half as Keaton Hervey would respond with the same, picking up where he left off Monday. Teams would find themselves sprinting up and down The Blacktop as the game saw 13 points on the board in the first three minutes.

A goal-tending by BGSU would knot things up at 11-11 from a Jalen Moore fly-by, coast-to-coast layup off his first steal of the game as things would tick just under 15:00 remaining to go in the half. The Falcons were shooting 50% (3-6) from the arc with 14:00 to go, leading 14-11 as Chris Conway drained an in-the-paint jumper. Oakland forced the Falcons into a frenzy at many points during the first few minutes of play with four turnovers. 

Hervey was sent to the free throw line out of the under 12:00 media timeout to complete the and-one and force the game 19-15 in Bowling Green's favor after the grad transfer was unable to convert. Will Shepherd drilled his first three-pointer of the evening in open space following Osei Price's steal from the arms of a black-jerseyed Falcon while Rocket Watts dropped in a floater to retake the lead at the 10:00-mark, 20-19.
 

𝐖𝐈𝐃𝐄. 𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐍.

Will Shepherd with the triple. pic.twitter.com/sPSHA8Rizu

— Oakland Basketball (@OaklandMBB) November 12, 2022

The Detroit native received a hand-off from his own inbound from the palms of Trey Townsend as both teams would continue to battle through the later half of the frame, sinking the short-ranged jumper at 22-21 with BGSU hitting yet another triple at the other end, answer by the Oxford native Townsend on a hook shot over his defender. 

Blake Lampman, calm and collectively, hit all three free throws at 6:69 to tie the game up again 27-27 for the third lead change of the evening following Watts' jumper one more time in the paint to mix things up a fourth time. That number would inflate to five as the two teams would take smooth jumpers, never getting away by more than five points at a time under the 4:00 media timeout.

A bounce-pass to Townsend under the basket from Moore would continue to push the envelope for Oakland as Townsend would go 1-2 from the free throw line a possession later to bring BGSU back within four with 1:51 to go in the half. The Falcons would go into the locker room with the largest lead by any team of the game at six, 45-39.

Oakland would end up out-shooting BGSU in the first half at 50% (14-28) from the field to the Falcons' 43.3% (13-30) despite the deficit 

The Golden Grizzlies would claw into the Falcons' lead out of the break behind a Townsend slam followed by takeover possessions by Watts and Moore. Lampman would deny his first block of the season sending the game to the media timeout at 15:56 before sending a Falcon to the charity stripe. 

The visiting team's lead would extend to nine points fresh off yet another triple from downtown, going 11-22 (50%) in that category to make the game 63-54. Moore would shoot some free shots off a flagrant foul from Bowling Green, inching that lead back in at 63-56 with 12:30 to go in the game. Townsend would be sent to the line a short time later, bringing the black and orange back down at 63-58 before seeing more action in the paint.

Watts would once again get a shot to land before a Bowling Green turnover would have the game at 65-62 as the Falcons' shooter would be sent to the line to make the game 68-62 a short while later. 

Moore pulled up for a flat-footed deep ball to tie things up at 68 all, forcing a BGSU timeout with 8:27 remaining in the game as an offensive foul off a missed Bowling Green shot would send Townsend to the line, giving Oakland the lead once again at 72-71. 
 

8:27 2H | 𝙋𝙪𝙡𝙡 𝙪𝙥 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚.

Where do you think you're going?? Tie ball game in Rochester.

Oakland 68, BGSU 68 pic.twitter.com/FcUKBX0xmZ

— Oakland Basketball (@OaklandMBB) November 12, 2022

The game saw a scoreless draw through a minute and a half before a free throw by Bowling Green broke the drought, gaining the lead by a single point as Hervey and company would try and keep the Falcons grounded through the visiting black jerseys scored five-unanswered points in the final 33 seconds.

Moore would have a chance at a one-and-one free throw attempt that would go awry, ending the game at 87-82 as the two team's last two meetings were decided by six total points.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• Townsend reaches the 20-plus point mark for the first time since January 29th versus UIC
• Lampman secured his first back-to-back double digit games since January 9 and January 13 against Milwaukee and Cleveland State, respectively
• Moore paced the way with eight assists along with 18 points
• Hervey was one point off from recording a double-double as the grad student had nine points and 11 rebounds
• 74 of the team's 82 points came from the starting five (85.7% of the offense)
• Oakland was an even 50% (29-58) from the field, 70.8% (17-24) from the free throw line
• The two team's tied with 34 points in the paint apiece, though the Golden Grizzlies had 23 points off turnovers to BGSU's nine

OU will round out the weekend on Sunday, November 13 against Oklahoma State for the first NCAA Division I opponent inside the O'rena since 2016 at 3:00 pm in the Athletics Center O'rena.