Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
OHIO
Men's Basketball Team Wins Nail-Biter Over Ohio
February 05, 2000 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 5, 2000
Bowling Green, Ohio -
The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team continued its winning ways at home with a hard-fought 73-69 victory over Ohio at Anderson Arena Saturday afternoon. The win was the 13th-straight at home for the Falcons who improved to 16-5 overall and 8-3 in the Mid-American Conference.
Ohio scored the first seven points of the game and rode that advantage for most of the first half leading for the first 16 minutes. Ohio led by as many as eight points in the first half before the Falcons took their first lead at 26-25 at the 4:13 mark after a 5-0 run.
Bowling Green then outscored the Bobcats 11-3 over the remainder of the first half to take a 36-28 edge to the locker room.
A 13-4 run to start the second half regained the lead for Ohio at the 13:40 mark at 41-40. Brandon Hunter had six of the Ohio points while Dustin Ford, who had 13 second-half points, added five points.
Over the next nine minutes there were seven ties and three lead changes as a four-point Ohio lead was the largest of the period.
With the game tied at 60-all at the 4:50 mark, BG scored five straight points, one free throw from Dave Esterkamp, a layup from Trent Jackson, and two free tosses by Len Matela, to lead 65-60 at the 3:54 mark.
Ohio countered with consecutive three-pointers by Dustin Ford to re-take the lead at 66-65 with 2:54 left.
Two free tosses by BG's Anthony Stacey at the 2:37 mark put the Falcons ahead for good. A Dave Esterkamp three-pointer at 1:19 was matched by a triple from Ohio's Shaun Stonerook to make it a 70-69 game at 1:02.
Keith McLeod converted a pair of free tosses with 20 seconds left to make it a three-point game. Stonerook missed a leaning three-point attempt with eight seconds left and Jackson split two free tosses with six seconds left to complete the scoring and give the Falcons the victory.
Len Matela led the Falcons with 17 points and nine rebounds as five BG players scored in double figures. BG had a 35-33 edge on the boards and shot 34 free throws to only eight for Ohio.
BG came into the game 11th in the MAC in rebounding while Ohio was second in the league averaging over 40 per contest.
