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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Men's Hoops Home Opener, Nov. 27, Versus Arkansas-Little Rock
December 27, 1999 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 22, 1999
THE RECORDS: The Falcons began the season with a pair of wins over the weekend in the Pepsi One/Nextel Challenge hosted by the University of Hawaii...Bowling Green defeated Jackson State then posted a 53-49 win over Hawaii to claim the tournament title...dating back to the end of last season, BG has won nine of its last 11 contests...Arkansas-Little Rock was 12-15 last season posting a 5-9 mark in the Sun Belt Conference which was good for a seventh-place tie...UALR lost to Louisiana Tech in the conference quarterfinals by a 68-66 score...they lost their last five games of the season, and nine of their last 11.
SERIES NOTES: Bowling Green has never played Arkansas-Little Rock.
LAST WEEK: The Falcons opened the season with a pair of games in the Pepsi One/Nextel Challenge hosted by the University of Hawaii...BG won the opener taking a 60-43 decision over Jackson State...the Falcons held Jackson State to 22.2% (6-of-27) shooting in the first half and 25.0% (14-of-56) for the game...the Falcons got the early jump in the game building 7-2 and 24-8 leads...they led by 20 points in the second half when Jackson State ran off eight straight points to close the gap eventually getting as close as 10 points (49-39) at the 5:51 mark...from there, BG scored the next seven points to put the game away...Anthony Stacey led three Falcons in double figures with 18 points...Len Matela added nine points and a game-high 12 rebounds...the Falcons then took the tournament title beating Hawaii in the championship game by a 53-49 count...Hawaii held the largest lead of the game, five points, at 16-11 early in the first half before taking a 25-23 lead to the locker room...after four lead changes early in the second half, Hawaii took a slim edge at the 14:59 mark and held that until the 2:18 mark when a Dubrey Black free toss put the Falcons ahead 50-49...a Dave Esterkamp lay up at the 2:02 mark gave the Falcons some breathing room and Keith McLeod scored the last point on a free throw with three seconds left...BG held Hawaii scoreless the last 4:17 of the game...McLeod led the Falcons with 11 points as six of the eight BG players who saw action scored six or more points...McLeod and Stacey both earned spots on the all-tournament team.
STACEY EYEING RECORDS: Senior forward Anthony Stacey (Elyria, Ohio/Grafton Midview) comes into his final season with a chance to put his name among the elite who have played at Bowling Green. Stacey, a first-team All-MAC selection last season, needs just 358 points to become the career scoring leader and just 24 steals to take over the top spot in that category. The least amount of points he has scored in any of his three previous full seasons was 433 and the smallest number of steals he has had in a season was 36. He began the season with 1,451 points and 173 steals while he is also 11th on the BG career field goal percentage chart shooting 50.9% while he needs just two rebounds to become only the 14th player in school history to reach the 600 rebound milestone. He could finish his career as high as fifth on the BG career rebounding list. A second-team all-district pick of the coaches last season, he averaged 18.5 points and 5.6 rebounds with 13 efforts of 20 or more points. Stacey was a first-team preseason All-MAC selection and has been tabbed by several preseason magazines as the Player of the Year in the conference.
BOWLING GREEN FAST FACTS: By capturing the tournament title in Hawaii, the program won its first regular season tournament since the 1978-79 squad won the Blade-Glass City Classic hosted by the University of Toledo...BG has now won its season opener six of the last seven years...BG has won seven home openers in row going into the contest with Arkansas-Little Rock this weekend...the Falcons received strong play from sophomore Len Matela (Merrillville, Ind./Andrean) in the Hawaii tournament as he had nine points and 12 rebounds in the win over Jackson State in 32 minutes of action and he came back to score nine points and grab nine rebounds in the win over Hawaii in 29 minutes...he came off the bench in both contests...Matela played in all 29 games last season and averaged 6.2 points and 5.1 rebounds...he had double-doubles (pts.-reb.) in five contests last season...senior Anthony Stacey (Elyria, Ohio/Grafton Midview) had four assists and four steals in the win over Hawaii to go along with eight points and three rebounds...senior Dave Esterkamp (Cincinnati, Ohio/LaSalle) contributed in a number of areas in both games of the tournament...he had 10 points and three rebounds in the Jackson State contest while adding six assists and two steals...in the win over Hawaii, he had eight points, six rebounds, three assists, and one steal...the Falcons were guilty of 21 turnovers in the win over Jackson State, but were guilty of only 15 in the win over Hawaii...sophomore Brent Klassen (Kimball, Neb./Kimball H.S./New Hampton (N.H.) Prep School) started both games of the tournament at center and responded with two points and nine rebounds in the win over Jackson State and added six points and one rebound in the Hawaii game...he played only 76 minutes in 12 games last season...junior Trent Jackson (Rochester, N.Y./Franklin H.S./Ohio State) also started both games and had 10 points and six rebounds...he played in 18 games last season making one start...he averaged just over 10 minutes per game last season.
ARKANSAS-LITTLE ROCK NOTES: Head coach Sidney Moncrief, the former five-time NBA all-star, is in his first season as the head coach for the Trojans...they split their two exhibition games and start the regular season tomorrow (Nov. 23) hosting Oklahoma State before making the trip to Bowling Green...UALR lost a 98-87 decision to Athletes in Action in their second exhibition game after opening with a 77-68 win over Arkansas Express...in the win over the Express, returning starter Allen Barksdale (6-4, guard) led the team with 20 points while junior Stan Blackmon (6-6, forward) added 19 points...two other players also scored in double digits...UALR shot 54.3% from the floor in the game, 65.2% in the first half...in the loss to Athletes In Action, the same two led the way, this time Blackmon scored 24 and Barksdale added 22...Barksdale, who led the team in scoring last season at 14.9 points per game, hit 10-of-20 from three-point range in the two games...he was third in the country last season averaging 3.8 "threes" per game...he was 95-of-234 (40.6%) from three-point range last year...UALR shot 55.6% from the floor in the first half of the Athletes In action game and led at the break by a 48-44 score...UALR has six players on its roster from junior colleges...they have only four letterwinners returning from last season with Barksdale the only starter.
NEXT WEEK: The Falcons host Illinois State on Dec. 1 before taking part in the Rock-N-Roll Shootout at Gund Arena in Cleveland on Dec. 4. The Falcons will oppose Cleveland State at 8:30 following the Cincinnati-Gonzaga contest which tips off at 6:30.
Probable Starters
Bowling Green F - Dave Esterkamp, 6-7, 220, Sr., 9.0 ppg, 4.5 rpg F - Anthony Stacey, 6-4, 235, Sr., 13.0 ppg, 5.5 rpg C - Brent Klassen, 6-8, 220, So., 4.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg G - Trent Jackson, 6-4, 205, Jr., 5.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg G - Keith McLeod, 6-2, 185, So., 13.0 ppg, 1.5 apg Off The Bench G - Dubrey Black, 6-3, 185, Jr., 3.5 ppg, 2.0 rpg G - Graham Bunn, 6-1, 170, So., 0.0 ppg, 0.5 rpg C - Len Matela, 6-9, 220, So., 9.0 ppg, 10.5 rpg
