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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
BUFFALO
Falcons Post Win Over Buffalo
February 09, 2000 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 9, 2000
Bowling Green, Ohio -
It wasn't easy, but the Bowling Green State University men's basketball team won its 14th straight game at home by defeating Buffalo, 77-68, at Anderson Arena on Wednesday night. With the win, BG improves to 17-6 overall and 9-4 in the Mid-American Conference.
Buffalo controlled the early portion of the first half leading for the first eight minutes building as much as a six-point lead when they scored the first six points of the game.
Bowling Green took their first lead at 17-16 at the 12:28 mark and eventually built a five-point lead at the 11:02 mark (24-19).
From there, neither team led by more than four points until BG scored the last four points of the half to take a 46-40 lead to the locker room.
Dave Esterkamp carried the Falcons in the first half scoring 20 points while Len Matela added 10 points as BG shot 62.1% from the field (18-of-29).
BG scored eight of the first 12 points of the second half to build a 10-point bulge at 54-44 at the 18:14 mark. After the two teams traded baskets, Buffalo went on an 11-0 run to wipe out the BG lead and take a 57-56 lead at the 14:32 mark.
Buffalo led 63-60 at the 11:41 mark when the Falcons held them to five points the rest of the game.
Bowling Green took the lead for good at the 9:39 mark on a layup by Keith McLeod to make the score 64-63. That came in the middle of a 10-0 BG run which put the Falcons ahead by a 70-63 count at the 7:25 mark.
Six points would be as close as Buffalo would get the rest of the way.
Esterkamp led the Falcons with 23 points while adding eight rebounds. Anthony Stacey scored 15 points and had 10 rebounds while Matela ended the game with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Esterkamp now needs 18 points to become the 30th player in school history to score 1,000 points while Stacey needs 32 points to become the BG career scoring leader. He has 1,803 points.
