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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Men's Basketball Hosts Western Michigan
March 04, 2001 | Men's Basketball
March 4, 2001
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2001 MAC Tournament, 1st Round W. MICH. (7-20, 7-11) AT BGSU (14-13, 10-8) 7 p.m., Monday, March 5 Anderson Arena (5,000) Series Record: BGSU leads 63-32 Last Meeting: at BGSU 77, W. Michigan 61 Radio: WBVI (96.7) On the Web: www.bgsufalcons.com
MAC MADNESS
The Falcons survived a stretch which saw them play their final four regular season games in a span of seven days. The Falcons earned the #7 seed by winning eight of their last 11 games.
SERIES HISTORY
This will be the 96th meeting in a series which began in 1945. The Falcons hold a 63-32 advantage. BGSU broke open a close game in the second half to post a 77-61 triumph at Anderson Arena. The Falcons and Central Michigan are meeting for t he first time in the MAC Tournament. BGSU is 10-18 in the MAC Tournament, while Western Michigan is 6-15.
ON THE LINE
The Falcons and Broncos will be squaring off for a chance to meet Kent State in the quarterfinals in Cleveland on Thursday. WMU will be looking for its first MAC Tournament victory since defeating Ohio in the quarterfinals of the 1997 event.
MAC TOURNAMENT Monday, March 5 #9 Akron at #8 Miami, 7 p.m. #10 W. Michigan at #7 Bowling Green, 7 p.m. #11 N. Illinois at #6 Ball State, 7 p.m. #12 Buffalo at #5 Ohio, 7:30 p.m. #13 E. Michigan at #4 Toledo, 7:30 p.m.Thursday, March 8 (Gund Arena/Cleveland) #1 Central Michigan vs. Akron/Miami, Noon Toledo/EMU vs. Ohio/Buffalo, 2 p.m. #2 Kent State vs. WMU/BGSU, 7 p.m. #3 Marshall vs. Ball State/NIU, 9 p.m.
Friday, March 9 (Gund Arena/Cleveland) Semifinals, 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Saturday, March 10 (Gund Arena/Cleveland) Championship, 7 p.m. (ESPN2)
LAST TIME AGAINST WESTERN
The Falcons got back on the winning track with a 77-61 victory over the Western Michigan Broncos. Keith McLeod led all scorers with 22 points, with Trent Jackson adding 16. Len Matela chipped in 15 points, and collected 11 rebounds for his 6th double-double of the season. Brent Klassen put in a solid effort with seven points and seven rebounds, but shined at the defensive end, limiting Bronco leading scorer, Steve Reynolds, to 11 points on 5-15 shooting.
The game was close until midway through the second half, when the Falcons used a 13-0 run to push the lead to 14 points at 56-42. Western never got within 10 points the rest of the game as the Falcons iced it with some clutch free throw shooting. The Broncos were led by Jon Powell's 18 points.
With the win, Bowling Green snapped a four game losing streak.
DID YOU KNOW?
The Falcons could set a school record for single-season free throw percentage as they rank fourth in the country making 76.6 of their charity tosses. The current school record is 75.3 set during the 1964-65 season.
The Falcons entered conference play ranked 11th in the MAC in three point field goal percentage defense, but finished second in the league during MAC play holding opponents to 32.8 long distance success.
The Falcons are 6-0 when they have held their opponents below 40.0 percent shooting from the field.
In the last 11 games, BGSU has held opponents to 41.9 percent shooting from the field and 27.6 accuracy from behind the arc.
The Falcons have outrebounded eight of their last 11 opponents.
The trio of juniors Keith McLeod and Brandon Pardon and sophomore Cory Ryan have hit a combined 41.3 (47/114) of their three-point attempts since January 31.
McLeod has averaged 20.6 points in the last 11 games and has led the team in steals (2.3) and made 84.4 percent of his free throws during the Falcons late season run.
Junior Len Matela has averaged 15.4 points and 8.6 rebounds in this same time.
Pardon needs three assists to become the third player in BGSU history to dish out 200 assists in a season. Antonio Daniels (216, 1996-97) and David Greer (217, 1982-83, 242, 1981-92) also accomplished that feat. With a league leading 7.3 assist average, Pardon will become the fourth Falcon to lead the MAC joining Daniels (1996 and 1997), Brian Miller (1984) and Greer (1981, 1982 and 1983) to lead the conference in that category.
Pardon also could join Dave Esterkamp (30 games in 1999-2000) and Kirk Cowan (26 games in 1997-98) to start every game during a season since 1998.
Senior Trent Jackson is trying to join former Falcons DeMar Moore (1997) and David Jenkins (1982) as the MAC single-season leader in steals. Jackson currently averages 2.1 per game.
Freshman Josh Almanson is on a pace to set a BGSU freshman record by making 67.0 percent of his field goal attempts (75 of 112 shots).
Junior Len Matela became the first Falcon since Anthony Stacey (1995-96 and 96-97) to lead BGSU in rebounds in back-to-back seasons.
MCLEOD AND MATELA
The junior duo of Keith McLeod and Len Matela have asserted themselves as possible All-MAC performers during the last month for the Falcons.
DYNAMIC DUOS
Highest scoring teammates in MAC play McLeod (19.4)/Matela (14.8), BGSU 34.2 Webber (19.6)/Pleiness (13.6), CMU 33.2 Slay (16.7)/VanHoose (16.1), Mar. 32.8 Powell (18.2)/Reynolds (14.2), WMU 32.4 Huffman (16.9)/Mitchell (13.3), KSU 30.2
McLeod closed out MAC play with a 25-point effort against Miami and a 20-point offering at Marshall. He is the second leading scorer during the conference season. He ranks among conference games only leaders in scoring, field goal percentage (12th), free throw percentage (9th), assists (13th) and steals (3rd).
McLeod, an 81.1 percent marksman from the free throw line, has made more free throws (129) than any other MAC player has attempted in MAC action. He has made 129 of 155 attempts (83.2) in 18 league games. His 28 points at Ohio was the best scoring effort for a Falcon this season and his best-ever against a conference foe. He followed that up with a team-best 20-point effort against Buffalo and had 20 points against Marshall and 21 points at Eastern Michigan. A clutch player, he made three free throws in the final 30 seconds against Miami to give BGSU a road overtime win. He had 18 points against Kent State and 19 versus Akron and Toledo.
Matela had his eighth double-double of the season with 16 points and 11 rebounds against Miami. He tied his season best with 25 points earlier this season against Marshall. His 20 points and nine rebounds against Akron also were team-bests. He earned MAC East Division Player of the Week, February 4, after averaging 17 points and 9 rebounds that week. He grabbed an offensive board and canned two free throws with eight seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime at Miami. In addition, his hustle under the basket allowed BGSU to maintain possession with a one-point lead with 16 seconds remaining in overtime. Matela followed up his award winning performance with 19 points and 15 rebounds against Ohio. He also had 17 points against Buffalo.
Matela needs 37 points to become the 32nd member of the BGSU 1,000 point club. McLeod joined the elite group earlier this season against Kent State.
