Bowling Green State University Athletics
Stacey Named To All-MAC First Team
March 07, 2000 | Men's Basketball
March 7, 2000
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Bowling Green senior Anthony Stacey has been named to the All-Mid-American Conference First Team, the league office has announced. Senior forward Dave Esterkamp and sophomore center Len Matela earned honorable mention on the all-conference squad.
BGSU was the only school to place three players on the 2000 All-MAC Team.
Stacey earns all-league honors for the fourth time in his storied Falcon career. He earned all-conference honorable mention as both a freshman and a sophomore, and was named to the all-league first team last year.
Stacey, a 6-4 forward from Elyria, Ohio, led the Falcons in scoring as BGSU captured the MAC regular-season title. The championship was the team's second in four years, but the first outright title since 1983. He is averaging 17.0 points and 5.9 rebounds per contest, ranking seventh in the league in the former category and 17th in the latter. Stacey is sixth in the MAC in steals (1.9), seventh in field-goal percentage (.461) and fifth in free-throw accuracy (.776).
In a 71-61 win over Kent on Feb. 16, Stacey hit a fallaway jumper to become the most prolific scorer in school history. He now has 1,927 points, and also holds the school's career steals record, with 225.
Stacey has posted double-digit scoring efforts in 26 of his 28 games this year, including the last 21 contests. He has had 10 games of at least 20 points, including the last three games and four of the last five contests.
Esterkamp currently averages 13.0 points to rank second on the squad and tied for 20th in the conference. He is shooting .550 from the field on the year, and shot .613 from the floor in league games. Esterkamp has scored in double digits in 20 of this year's 29 games, including five games of 20 points or more.
Matela averages 12.7 points (23rd in the MAC) and 7.7 rebounds (sixth in the MAC), while shooting .627 from the field. His field-goal percentage would lead the entire league, but he falls just a few field goals shy of the minimum to qualify. In MAC games only, he made a whopping 65.3% of his field-goal attempts and averaged 14.4 points and 8.2 boards. He is shooting .775 from the free-throw line this year, and has had 18 double-digit scoring efforts, including 12-straight at one point. Matela is 15th in the league in blocked shots.
Joining Stacey on the first team are Shaun Stonerook of Ohio, Tamar Slay of Marshall, T.J. Lux of Northern Illinois and Toledo's Greg Stempin. The second team consists of Kent's John Whorton and Trevor Huffman, Ball State's Duane Clemens, Miami's Anthony Taylor and Akron's Jami Bosley.
Esterkamp and Matela are joined on the honorable-mention list by Marshall's J.R. VanHoose, Tony Barksdale of Western Michigan, David Webber of Central Michigan, UA's Jimmal Ball, Eastern Michigan's Calvin Warner, OU's Sanjay Adell, UT's Justin Hall and Miami's Rob Mestas.
The MAC's specialty awards, including Player of the Year, Coach of the Year and Freshman of the Year, are scheduled to be announced sometime on Thursday (March 9).
