The Bulldogs allowed a conference-low 55 points in a blowout win on Thursday, sweeping the season series against Purdue Northwest.
The No. 24 ranked Ferris State men’s basketball team (22-6, 12-5 in GLIAC) took advantage of their penultimate home-court finale, as they captured their second straight win.
The first half was a defensive battle for both teams. Both the Bulldogs and the Pride (6-19, 3-12 in GLIAC) shot under 30% from the field, but Ferris was able to grab the edge even without their shots falling.
The Bulldogs won the offensive rebounding battle 10-1 and registered six more shots from the field than Purdue Northwest, which gave them a 32-20 lead at the end of the first half.
Ferris won the rebounding battle across the entire game 54-32 and junior center Nate Claerbaut loved how his team was able to control the glass.
“In a couple of our losses at Tech and at Grand Valley, we were nonexistent on the glass,” Claerbaut said. “It has been a huge emphasis in practice and it looked really good tonight.”
Freshman guard Jaxson Whitaker was able to provide a much-needed spark for a stagnant Ferris offense in the first half. Whitaker tallied seven points on 40% from the field (2-5) in the first and he was the Bulldogs’ leading scorer across the entire game, tallying 16 points.
Ferris came out in the second half with a much better offensive performance, after a sub-30% first half, they ended the game shooting 42.6% (29-68) from the field.
Although the percentage of made shots was lower than the normal 47.5% from the Bulldogs, head coach Andy Bronkema was happy with the looks they generated and walked away holding Purdue Northwest to 31.7% (20-63) from the field.
“I compare it to baseball, sometimes you hit a perfect line drive right to somebody,” Bronkema said. “I’m just worried about distributing the shots to the right people and taking open shots and we did that well tonight. When you play defense how we did, you can get away with a lower shooting night sometimes.”
The bench was yet again a strong suit for Ferris as they outscored the Pride’s second unit 46-24. Four different Bulldog bench players totaled five-plus points.
The Bulldogs will be back at home Saturday, Feb. 22 at 3 p.m. versus the Wisconsin-Parkside Rangers for their final regular season outing inside Jim Wink Arena. Ferris dropped its first match versus the Rangers last month, 78-66.