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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Men's Basketball Hosts Buffalo
January 23, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 23, 2006
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Buffalo (13-4, 3-3) at Bowling Green (7-9, 3-3)
Tuesday, January 24, 7 p.m.
Anderson Arena (4,700)
Series Record: BGSU leads 10-1
Last Year: at BGSU 95, Buffalo 88 (1/2/05)
Radio: BGSU Radio Network (Todd Walker and Kirk Cowan)
FALCONS BEGIN IMPORTANT MAC EAST STRETCH
The BGSU men's basketball team will begin a stretch of five straight games against MAC East opponents which have posted a combined 26-4 record during the first three weeks of the conference season. Like every team in the MAC, BGSU will play games on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday this week.
FALCONS HAVE IMPROVED SINCE MID-DECEMBER
After starting the season with a 2-6 record, the Falcons have won five of its last eight games and only a pair of one-point losses have kept BGSU from winning five of their first six games in the league. In fact, in conference play, BGSU has had a lead of nine points or more in all six league contests.
MAC ONLY STATS
Junior Martin Samarco is the league leader in free throw percentage making 93.5% of his charity tosses. He had made a stretch of 23 straight charity tosses until missing his last of eight attempts at Ball State. Senior Mawel Soler ranks third in three-point field goal percentage (54.5%), ninth in assists (3.33), and 10th in steals (1.5). Junior Steven Wright is third in steals (1.83). Junior Matt Lefeld is seventh (1.0) and freshman Erik Marschall is ninth in blocked shots (.93). The Falcons lead the MAC in turnover margin +4.83.
PLAYER NOTES
Junior Martin Samarco is the top newcomer in the MAC as far as scoring averaging 18.6 points, which ranks third in the league and leads the league in three-pointers made per game at 3.13... he has led the team in scoring 10 times this season and had a career-high 35 points against Eastern Michigan last week... he was 10 of 13 from the field and five of seven from three-point range against the Eagles... he also had 27 in back-to-back games earlier this year against Bradley and Florida State... senior guard Steven Wright suffered a broken foot in the preseason and missed the first six games of the season ... he averaged 16.5 points last week after he had a season-high 17 points, five rebounds and five assists against Eastern Michigan and 16 points, five rebounds and three assists against Ball State... he shot 52.9% from the field last week ... freshman Erik Marschall is among the top freshman in the MAC averaging 8.1 points and 4.8 rebounds...he has scored in double figures six times this season and leads the team in blockes shots with 14... senior Mawel Soler has made a team-high 65.6% of his shots from the field... he is averaging 7.3 points and 5.0 rebounds and is shooting 72.4% from the floor during his two seasons with the Falcons... he also is second on the team with 38 assists... had a career-high 17 points against Toledo and added nine rebounds and five steals and is averaging 8.0 points in MAC play... junior Matt Lefeld is arguably the most improved player in the MAC... last year he scored just 14 points all season, but equaled that in his first game this year against Western Carolina... despite sore feet which limit his practice time, Lefeld is averaging 8.7 points and 4.1 rebounds and is shooting 61.3% from the floor in the last 10 games ... freshman Dusan Radivojevic averaged seven points off the bench last week... he had eight points against Eastern Michigan making three of five shots, including two of four from long distance... he had a season-high nine points at Troy... he missed the first four games of the season due to a foot injury and suffered a broken nose in practice two weeks ago... junior John Floyd had a career-high 23-point effort, making five of seven three-pointers against Western Michigan... he had eight points and four assists against Northern Illinois... he is shooting 42.1% from three-point range (8/19) in MAC play... sophomore guard Perrick Robinson is one of the Falcons top defenders... he also has contributed in a timely manner on offense and is averaging 3.2 points... Robinson leads the team with 22 steals and is third in assists with 34... he is the only Falcon to start the season opener in each of the last two seasons ... freshman Brian Moten joined the team against Florida State and has the longest shooting range of any Falcon... he had four points at Ball State... he also had a season-high nine points against Central Michigan... junior guard Patrick Phillips made his first career start against Bradley... he had a career-high seven points against Notre Dame and added two rebounds and a steal in seven minutes of action... he also hit his first career three-pointer against CMU... freshman Darryl Clements is averaging 3.0 points and 2.2 rebounds... he had seven points against Oakland... freshman walk-on Brian Guerin returned to game action against Notre Dame after missing more than a month due to mono... sophomore walk-on Alvin Freeman is in his second year with BGSU and had three points against Urbana.
TEAM TRENDS
Saturday's game at Ball State was the 150th MAC game coached by Dan Dakich... in the last nine games, BGSU has averaged just 12.7 turnovers per game after averaging 18.3 in the first seven games of the season... in the last three games, BGSU is attempting an average of 26 free throws per game after getting to the line an average of 19 in the first eight games of the season... BGSU also is averaging 9.3 steals in the last three games... BGSU is second in the MAC in three-point field goal defense (31.8%) and overall field goal defense (41.6%)... the Falcons are 82-20 at home since the 1998-99 season... BGSU improved to 9-0 in home openers under Dan Dakich... BGSU has played six one-point games in the last year and are 4-2 in those contests.. the Falcons are 4-0 on Sunday at home... BGSU also is 7-2 in MAC openers under Dakich... BGSU is 28-3 since the 2001 season when holding an opponent under 60 points... the Falcons are 35-6 since 2000-01 when shooting over 50 percent... the Falcons are now 17-1 over the last three-plus seasons when scoring 80 points or more... against Virginia Tech, the Falcons won their road opener for the third time in Dakich's nine seasons (1999-00 at Hawaii; 2001-2002 at Duquesne)... BGSU is 23-4 when it has had to play defense with a one possession lead in the final minute since the 2001-02 season... against EMU, the Falcons got a defensive stop with a 74-71 lead with 53 seconds to go and then made five of six free throws in the closing seconds... four teams have shot below 30 percent from the field against BGSU including Urbana (25.5%), CMU (26.2%), Troy (27.8%) and Western Carolina (28.9%).
