Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Have Three Games This Week
February 07, 2000 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 7, 2000
Bowling Green, Ohio -
THIS WEEK: Following a game today (Feb. 7) at Toledo, the Falcons conclude a stretch of four games in eight days with a Wednesday contest at home against Buffalo at 7 p.m. They end the week with a contest on the road against Miami on Saturday which begins at noon.
BGSU COACH DAN DAKICH: BGSU head coach Dan Dakich is in his third season after taking over the program on April 21, 1997. His team posted a 10-16 overall mark and a 7-11 record in Mid-American Conference play his first season before rebounding last season to finish 18-10 overall and 12-6 in loop action. Dakich spent 16 years at Indiana, the first four as a player for the Hoosiers, and the last 12 as an assistant coach under Bob Knight, before taking the job at Bowling Green, his first head coaching position. His teams have compiled a 44-31 record at BG.
THE RECORDS: The Falcons have won 10 of their last 12 and begin the week with a 16-5 overall record and a 8-3 mark in the MAC...BG has won 13 in a row at home and are 9-0 at Anderson Arena this season...BG has won 23 of its last 30 games dating back to February of last season...Buffalo, who will be playing its fourth successive road contest when it faces the Falcons, will bring a 5-17 overall mark and a league aggregate of 3-10...they have lost their last three and are 1-11 on the road this season, 0-8 in MAC play...Miami, which hosts Akron on Wednesday, has lost its last three to drop to 10-10 overall and 6-6 in the MAC East Division...Miami is 6-3 at home this season, 3-3 in MAC play.
SERIES NOTES: Bowling Green and Buffalo will be meeting for the fourth time with the Falcons having won all three previous meetings...BG won the meeting earlier this season by a 96-90 score while last season the Falcons posted an 84-61 victory at home and a 62-59 decision on the road...Bowling Green and Miami will be meeting for the 104th time with Miami holding a 65-38 edge having won 11 of the last 15, and 16 of the last 21, in the series...BG's five wins, all at home - 68-63 (1999-2000), 69-58 (1998-99), 72-59 (1997-98), 83-80 (1996-97), and 74-59 (1993-94) - are the lone series victories since the 1991-92 season...Miami has a 37-12 edge at home in the series having won 12 in a row...BG's last win in Oxford was a 65-59 decision in the 1987-88 season...11 of the last 21 meetings have been decided by double digits with six of those games decided by 15 or more points...the two programs have split their two regular season meetings each of the last three seasons with each winning on its home floor.
LAST WEEK: Bowling Green began the week with a 71-61 loss at Ball State...BSU had as much as an 11-point cushion in the first half before the Falcons scored the last six points of the first half and the first nine points of the second half to take the lead...BG still led with 9:36 left when the Cardinals scored six straight points to take the lead for good with under five minutes remaining...BSU then converted eight straight free tosses to secure the win...Len Matela led the Falcons with 24 points and 16 rebounds while Anthony Stacey added 15 points and eight rebounds...BG was guilty of 20 turnovers compared to only 10 for Ball State...they completed the week with a hard-fought 73-69 victory over Ohio at home...Ohio led most of the first half before the Falcons went on an 11-3 run to end the first half building an eight-point halftime edge...Ohio wiped that out with a 13-4 run to start the second half...there were three lead changes and seven ties in the middle portion of the second half and consecutive three-pointers by Ohio gave them a one-point lead at the 2:54 mark...but, two free throws from Anthony Stacey and a three-pointer by Dave Esterkamp gave the Falcons a four-point lead with just over one minute left...Ohio would close to within one point, but two free throw by Keith McLeod with 20 seconds left and one from Trent Jackson with six seconds left secured the win...BG was led by Matela with 17 points and nine rebounds as five players scored in double digits...BG was 29-of-34 from the line while Ohio was seven-of-eight.
STACEY SETS ONE RECORD, EYEING ANOTHER: Senior forward Anthony Stacey (Elyria, Ohio/Grafton Midview) had his sights on a couple BGSU school records coming into the season and he has eclipsed one of those. Stacey became the school career leader in steals with a theft early in the Miami game on Jan. 19. He now has 209 steals in his career to surpass the previous mark of 201 set by David Jenkins (1981-84). He now has his sights set on the career scoring record. He needs 63 points (needs to average 9.0 points in remaining seven regular season games) to move past record-holder Howard Komives (1962-64) who scored 1,834 points. Stacey begins the week with 1,772 points. He is now third on the BG career scoring list. He also has become one of only 14 players who have collected 600 or more rebounds with 710 in his career, seventh on the all-time BG list. He could finish his career as high as fifth on the BG career rebounding list. Stacey also ranks 12th in school history having shot 50.0% from the field. 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 21 games this season, he is averaging 16.1 points, first on the team, 6.2 rebounds, second on the team, 2.4 assists, fourth on the team, 1.8 steals, first on the squad, while shooting 46.0% from the floor, 33.9% from three-point range, and 80.2% from the charity stripe. He is averaging 17.2 points in MAC play.
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 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...the Falcons went into their game Dec. 11 against Northern Iowa as one of only 22 (there are 318 programs across the country) Div. I program left without a loss...the 11-2 record in the first 13 games ties them with the 1937-38 squad for the eighth-most wins by any team in school history with only two losses...the 3-0 start in MAC play was the best since the 1982-83 squad started with the same record.
BOWLING GREEN FAST FACTS: The Falcons have won 13 in a row at home and 28 of their last 33 against MAC foes...BG is 73-14 at home over the last six-plus seasons...BG was second in the country in the NCAA statistics last week in field goal percentage and 12th in free throw percentage...the Falcons received points in the USA Today/CNN national poll last week...BG has shot over 50% from the field in seven of their last 11 games and are now shooting 50.0% to lead the MAC...BG is shooting 51.5% from the floor in MAC play...sophomore Len Matela (Merrillville, Ind./Andrean) continued his strong play last week with 24 points and 16 rebounds against Ball State and 17 points and nine rebounds against Ohio...he continued his excellent shooting hitting 17-of-25 shots from the field in the two games...he is now shooting 64.3% for the season and 67.3% in MAC play...he is also shooting over 80% from the free throw line for the season and leads the team in rebounding...he has averaged 16.0 points and 8.8 rebounds in MAC play...his rebound total in the Ball State game equalled his career high...he has recorded six double-doubles in the last 12 games...senior Dave Esterkamp (Cincinnati, Ohio/LaSalle) continues to be one of the best all-round players in the MAC...he had 15 points and six rebounds in the two games last week...he is shooting over 65% from the field this season on the two-point shots...he now needs only 53 points to become the 30th member of the 1,000-point club at BG...sophomore Brandon Pardon (Van Wert, Ohio/Lincolnview H.S./Wright State) missed both games last week with a dislocated left shoulder suffered in practice on Monday (Jan. 31)...he is day-to-day for the games this week...sophomore Keith McLeod (Canton, Ohio/McKinley) had 21 points and 11 assists in the two games last week and is still second on the team in scoring at 13.7 points...he was seventh in the nation last week in three-point field goal percentage and is shooting 50.6% from beyond the arc as this week starts...he has scored in double digits in 10 of the last 12 contests...freshman Seth Doliboa (Springboro, Ohio) made his first career start in the Ohio game and scored 10 points hitting all four of his shots from the field and both three throw attempts...he also had four rebounds in 16 minutes of action...he had played a total of 16 minutes in the first 10 MAC games of the season...Bowling Green posted wins over both the teams they play this week earlier this season...BG defeated Buffalo on the road by a 96-90 count and they defeated Miami at Anderson Arena by a 68-63 score.
BUFFALO NOTES: Head coach Reggie Witherspoon is 3-14 since taking over the top spot in early December...Buffalo is coming off a 93-65 loss at Toledo on Saturday afternoon...guard Damien Foster (6-5, Jr.) led the Bulls with 18 points while forward Mike McKie (6-8, So.) added 14 points and nine rebounds...Foster is averaging 9.1 points per game this season while McKie is at 8.9 points and leads the team in rebounding at 5.9 caroms per game...he also has 54 blocked shots this season...Foster is second on the squad with 26 three-pointers...junior Louis Campbell (6-2, Jr.) is the leading scorer for the Bulls at 11.4 points while he is is third on the team with 25 three-pointers...Campbell is second on the team in rebounding averaging 5.4 per game...the only other player in double figures is center Nikolai Alexeev (6-11, Jr.) who is at 10.1 points and averages 4.7 rebounds...the only player averaging in double figures in MAC play is forward Rick Fox (6-8, So.) at an even 10.0 points per game...he is averaging 8.9 points for the season...guard Alexei Vasiliev (6-3, Sr.) is the top three-point shooter with 36 triples while shooting 46.8% from beyond the arc...Buffalo has 154 more turnovers than assists for the season while shooting only 39.4% from the field for the year...their opponents are +52 in the assist-turnover area...Buffalo has 10 players who have logged 175 or more minutes this season.
MIAMI NOTES: Head coach Charlie Coles is in his fourth season at Miami with his teams having compiled a record of 72-39...his career mark of 164-123 is for 10 seasons of coaching at the collegiate level...Miami has lost to Western Michigan and Northern Illinois on the road and dropped a contest to Toledo at home in their three-game losing skid...prior to that, they had won four of their last five...guard Anthony Taylor (6-1, Sr.) leads the team averaging 18.5 points and has 31 three-pointers while shooting 36.9% from beyond the arc...he is fourth in the MAC in scoring...the only other player in double figures is swingman Jason Stewart (6-5, Sr.) who is scoring at a 10.5 clip...he leads the team with 38 three-pointers shooting 31.9% from behind the circle...three other players are averaging eight or more points per game...guard Rob Mestas (5-10, Sr.) is at 9.4 points and 5.5 assists, third in the MAC...he has 30 three-pointers and is shooting 33.0% from that range...guard Jason Grunkemeyer (6-5, Jr.) is scoring 9.3 points and has 35 three-pointers while leading the MAC shooting 50.7% from beyond the arc...centers Refiloe Lethunya (6-8, Sr.) and Mike Ensminger (6-6, Jr.) are averaging 8.0 and 4.2 points, respectively, while leading the team in rebounding at 5.9 and 5.7, respectively...Miami is shooting only 42.7% from the floor as a team, but they are fourth in the MAC averaging over seven three-pointer per game...Miami is 61-8 at home over the last five-plus seasons.
NEXT WEEK: The Falcons finish out the home portion of their 1999-2000 regular season schedule with games Feb. 16 against Kent at 7 p.m. and Feb. 19 at 3:30 against Eastern Michigan.
Probable Bowling Green Starters
F - Dave Esterkamp, 6-7, 220, Sr., 12.5 ppg, 4.9 rpg F - Anthony Stacey, 6-4, 235, Sr., 16.1 ppg, 6.2 rpg C - Len Matela, 6-9, 220, So., 13.2 ppg, 8.0 rpg G - Keith McLeod, 6-2, 185, So., 13.7 ppg, 3.1 apg G - Trent Jackson, 6-4, 205, Jr., 9.5 ppg, 2.4 rpg Off The Bench G - Brandon Pardon, 6-1, 185, So., 6.4 ppg, 5.7 apg C - Brent Klassen, 6-8, 220, So., 2.6 ppg, 1.7 rpg G - Graham Bunn, 6-1, 170, So., 2.7 ppg, 1.7 apg
Compare The Teams
( ) - MAC RankBowling Green Scoring: 76.8 ppg (3) Scoring Margin: +6.4 (4) FG%: 50.0% (1) 3-Pt. FG%: 36.5% (4) FT%: 75.4% (3) Pts. Allowed: 70.4 ppg (7) FG% Defense: 44.0% (9) Reb. Margin: +1.5 (5)
Buffalo Scoring: 67.6 ppg (12) Scoring Margin: -15.7 (13) FG%: 39.4% (13) 3-Pt. FG%: 32.1% (12) FT%: 60.5% (13) Pts. Allowed: 83.3 ppg (13) FG% Defense: 46.1% (13) Reb. Margin: -7.7 (13)
Miami Scoring: 63.7 ppg (13) Scoring Margin: +0.9 (9) FG%: 42.7% (10) 3-Pt. FG%: 36.7% (3) FT%: 71.5% (4) Pts. Allowed: 62.8 ppg (1) FG% Defense: 42.9% (6) Reb. Margin: -2.5 (11)
