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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Men's Basketball Team Takes Week Off For Finals
December 27, 1999 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 13, 1999
THIS WEEK: Bowling Green will take the week off to complete final exams before resuming their 1999-2000 schedule with a contest Saturday against West Virginia. The contest will tip off at 7 p.m. at Civic Center Coliseum in Charleston, W. Va.
THE RECORDS: The Falcons fell from the ranks of the unbeaten with their loss to Northern Iowa on Saturday...BG will take a 6-1 mark into the West Virginia game having won 13 of their last 16 games dating back to the beginning of February last season...BG is 2-1 on the road this season...West Virginia will have a 3-3 record going into the game with the Falcons after losing a 75-64 decision to Ohio on Saturday in Charleston...WVU has lost its last two and three of its last four after starting the season with a pair of wins...WVU is 1-1 in games thus far played in Charleston.
SERIES NOTES: Bowling Green and West Virginia have played twice with the Mountaineers winning both...the last meeting came in 1996-97 in a first round NIT game in Morgantown which WVU won by a score of 98-95...the only other meeting was an 85-78 win in the 1976-77 season in a tournament hosted by the University of Kentucky.
LAST WEEK: The Falcons split their two games last week with the Falcons earning a 69-57 decision over Oakland before they lost by an 83-75 count in overtime to Northern Iowa...in the win at Oakland, BG trailed most of the first half before taking the lead for good scoring 12 of the last 14 points of the half to enjoy a 27-21 edge at the break...Oakland closed the gap to one point as late as the 10:28 mark of the game, but BG scored three-pointers on three consecutive trips down the court to rebuild the lead to 10 points with eight minutes left and went on for the victory..Trent Jackson led the Falcons with a career-high 23 points while also adding seven assists...Keith McLeod had 17 points and Anthony Stacey had 16 points and 13 rebounds...BG held Oakland to 33.3% shooting and had a 40-30 edge on the boards...in the loss to Northern Iowa, BG led for only a little over three minutes in the game, but one of those instances was with 2:04 remaining in regulation time...Northern Iowa tied the game at 68-all with a pair of free throws at the 1:31 mark and had several close shots in the final seconds to win the game, but could not convert...NIU then scored the first five points of overtime before BG closed to within two points with 59 seconds left...but, NIU made its next eight free throws to secure the win...McLeod led the Falcons with 21 points, 18 in the second half, while Jackson added 15 and Dave Esterkamp 14...NIU hit 28-of-33 from the line, including their last 16 of the game, and had a 34-22 edge on the boards.
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 275 points (13.1 average in the 21 remaining regular season games) to become the career scoring leader and just 15 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 is now seventh on the BG career scoring list with 1,560 points while his 187 steals are third on that list. He also has become one of only 14 players who have collected 600 or more rebounds with 636 in his career, 11th on the all-time BG list. Stacey also ranks 11th in school history having shot 50.7% from the field. 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. Through seven games this season, he is averaging 15.6 points, leads the team, 7.0 rebounds, leads the team, 2.4 assists, third on the team, 2.0 steals, first on the squad, while shooting 47.9% from the floor, 45.0% from three-point range, and 78.0% from the charity stripe. He scored 22 points and had 18 rebounds in the two games last week, including his 14th career double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds against Oakland.
FAST START: The 6-0 start by the Falcons this season was the fifth-best start in school history and the best since the 1947-48 squad started with seven wins in a row...the other four best starts all occurred in the 1940s...the Falcons went into their game Saturday against Northern Iowa as one of only 22 (there are 318 programs across the country) Div. I program left without a loss...the six-game win streak was the longest since 1991-92 when that team also won six in a row in the middle portion of the season.
PARDON BEGINS PLAY THIS WEEK: The Falcons will welcome sophomore guard Brandon Pardon (Van Wert, Ohio/Lincolnview H.S./Wright State) to the fold this week as he becomes eligible at the end of the semester on Friday. Pardon transferred to Bowling Green last December from Wright State where he started 24 of 28 games in the 1997-98 season as a true freshman averaging 6.1 points finishing second on the squad in minutes played. He has been practicing with the team over the last year. He will play the point guard slot and could move into a starting role. He was third in the Mr. Basketball balloting in the state of Ohio as a prep senior averaging 21.3 points and 9.3 assists.
BOWLING GREEN FAST FACTS: Junior Trent Jackson (Rochester, N.Y./Franklin H.S./Ohio State) in the early going this season is one of the most improved players in the country..he is third on the team in scoring, 14.0 points, while shooting 62.3% from the floor...one of the top defensive players on the team, Jackson has started all seven games this season averaging 26.1 minutes...last season he averaged just over 10 minutes per game seeing action in 18 games making one start...he scored a total of 44 points (2.4 avg.) and shot just 32.6% from the floor...he played a total of only 11 minutes in the last four games of the season last year...an explosive leaper with excellent quickness, Jackson has 11 dunks this season...he has made 33 of his 50 shots (66.0%) from the floor in the last five games averaging 17.6 points...he had a career high 23 points in the win over Oakland hitting 10-of-14 shots from the field and had 15 points in the Northern Iowa contest...sophomore Keith McLeod (Canton, Ohio/McKinley) has strung together three consecutive strong offensive games with 17 points in the Oakland game and 21 points in the Northern Iowa contest last week...he is now second on the team averaging 14.6 points while leading the team with 28 assists in the seven games...he has hit 21-of-35 (60.0%) shots from the floor in the last three games averaging 20.3 points...he has hit 12 of his 16 attempts from three-point range in those three games...he had 18 of his 21 points in the Northern Iowa game in the second half hitting all seven of his shots from the field, including four three-pointers...sophomore Len Matela (Merrillville, Ind./Andrean) continues to give the Falcons a valuable contribution off the bench...he is averaging 9.9 points and 6.4 rebounds, second on the team, while playing an average of 25.6 minutes per contest...he had eight points and 10 rebounds in the two games last week...senior Dave Esterkamp (Cincinnati, Ohio/LaSalle) continues to be one of the best all-around players in the MAC...he is averaging 10.4 points, fourth on the team, 5.0 rebounds, third on the team, and he is second on the team with 27 assists and 13 steals...he has hit 22 of his 39 (56.4%) two-point shots this season...Esterkamp has 10 dunks this season...the Falcons were sixth in the nation in the first NCAA statistics last week in field goal percentage at 52.8%...that figure has dropped to 50.7% after the two contest last week...the Falcons had outscored their first five opponents by almost 10 points per game in the first half before Northern Iowa built a 39-29 lead over the Falcons in the loss...Northern Iowa was only the fifth BG opponent in the last 35 games to shoot 50% or better from the field in a game...NIU shot 52.1%, 59.1% in the first half...only two current members of the team played in the March, 1997 game against West Virginia...Stacey had 11 points and six rebounds in 36 minutes while Esterkamp did not score in 12 minutes of action.
WEST VIRGINIA NOTES: Head coach Gale Catlett is in his 22nd season at WVU with his teams having compiled a record of 403-238...in his 28 years of collegiate coaching he has a 529-282 mark...WVU has lost to Tennessee (94-54), Duquesne (94-80), and Ohio while beating Wofford (72-54), Robert Morris (66-63), and McNeese State (93-84)...the Tennessee contest was the only one played on the road...WVU was 10-19 last season and 12th in the Big East with a 4-14 mark...WVU returns two starters and five letterwinners from a year ago...the two returning starters, forward Marcus Goree (6-8, Sr.) and forward Chris Moss (6-8, So.), lead the team in scoring and rebounding this season...Goree, who was a second-team All-Big East pick a year ago, is averaging 12.3 points and 9.0 rebounds to lead the team in both categories...he is also shooting over 54% from the field...Moss is averaging 12.0 points and 8.0 rebounds while shooting over 58% from the floor...Goree had 11 points and eight rebounds while Moss added five points and seven rebounds in the loss to Ohio...other starters include guard Tim Lyles (5-11, Fr.), who is averaging 9.2 points after hitting for 25 points to lead the team against Ohio, guard Lionel Armstead (5-11, So., 7.3 ppg), and center Calvin Bowman (6-9, Jr., 11.2 ppg)...WVU has only 23 three-point field goals in their six games with six by substitute Jason D'Alesio (5.5 ppg) the top figure on the team...Lyles leads the team with 22 assists...WVU is shooting just 56.7% (72-of-127) from the charity stripe as a team.
NEXT WEEK: The Falcons return home for the first time since Dec. 1 hosting Urbana on Dec. 22 at 7 p.m. BG then closes out its non-league schedule on Dec. 30 against Arkansas-Little Rock in a 5:15 contest in Arkansas.
Probable Bowling Green Starters
F - Dave Esterkamp, 6-7, 220, Sr., 10.4 ppg, 5.0 rpg F - Anthony Stacey, 6-4, 235, Sr., 15.6 ppg, 7.0 rpg C - Brent Klassen, 6-8, 220, So., 3.4 ppg, 2.9 rpg G - Trent Jackson, 6-4, 205, Jr., 14.0 ppg, 2.4 rpg G - Keith McLeod, 6-2, 185, So., 14.6 ppg, 4.0 apg Off The Bench G - Brandon Pardon, 6-1, 185, So. G - Graham Bunn, 6-1, 170, So., 4.3 ppg, 1.7 apg C - Len Matela, 6-9, 220, So., 9.9 ppg, 6.4 rpg
Compare The Teams
Bowling Green Scoring: 74.1 ppg Scoring Margin: +8.1 FG%: 50.7% 3-Pt. FG%: 35.6% FT%: 76.5% Pts. Allowed: 66.0 ppg FG% Defense: 42.3% Reb. Margin: +1.3
West Virginia Scoring: 71.5 ppg Scoring Margin: -5.8 FG%: 45.1% 3-Pt. FG%: 25.0% FT%: 56.7% Pts. Allowed: 77.3 ppg FG% Defense: 45.5% Reb. Margin: +3.7
