Bowling Green State University Athletics
Men's Basketball Visits Kent State
January 25, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 25, 2006
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Bowling Green (7-10, 3-4) at Kent State (13-5, 7-0)
Thursday, January 26, 7 p.m.
MAC Center (6,327)
Series Record: BGSU leads 76-58
Last Year: BGSU 77, at Kent State 73 (2/12/05)
Radio: BGSU Radio Network (Todd Walker and Kirk Cowan)
FALCONS ARE IN AN IMPORTANT MAC EAST STRETCH
The BGSU men's basketball team is in a stretch of five straight games against MAC East opponents which posted a combined 26-4 record against MAC West competition. Like every team in the MAC, BGSU will play games on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday this week.
FALCONS LOOK TO IMPROVE SUCCESS IN CLOSE GAMES
The optimistic Falcon fan will tell you that BGSU has led in each MAC game this season and its last three losses in the league have come by a combined five points. Last year, BGSU was 8-3 in games decided by six points or less, while this year the Falcons are 1-4 in games decided by a similar margin.
SAMARCO AND SOLER AMONG THE BEST IN MAC ONLY GAMES
Junior Martin Samarco is the league leader in free throw percentage making 93.9% of his charity tosses and has made a league-high 3.43 three-pointers per game. He is second in the league in scoring at 20.4 points per game. Senior Mawel Soler is the MAC leader in field goal percentage (67.6%) and three-point field goal percentage (58.3%) Samarco had 30 points and made six of 10 three-point field goals against Buffalo, while Soler had a career-high 19 points and made eight of nine field goal attempts against the Bulls.
PLAYER NOTES
Junior Martin Samarco is the top newcomer in the MAC and is tied for the MAC overall lead in scoring at 19.3 points per game... he also ranks fourth in free throw percentage (84.4%), eight in three-point field goal percentage (42.4%) and ranks first in three-point field goals made per game (3.31)... he has led the team in scoring 11 times this season and had a career-high 35 points against Eastern Michigan last week... 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 in those games... freshman Erik Marschall is among the top freshman in the MAC averaging 7.6 points and 4.7 rebounds... he has scored in double figures six times this season and leads the team in blocked shots with 14... he had a career-high three steals against Buffalo... senior Mawel Soler has made a team-high 68.5% of his shots from the field and is averaging 7.9 points and 4.9 rebounds... he is shooting 70.8% from the floor during his two seasons with the Falcons... he also is second on the team with 40 assists... his play has stepped up in the MAC and he is averaging 9.6 points against the league.. 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 8.4 points and 4.1 rebounds and is shooting 58.7% from the floor in the last 11 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 a season-high eight assists against Buffalo... he is ninth in the league in assists at 3.59 per game... sophomore guard Perrick Robinson is one of the Falcons top defenders... he also has contributed in a timely manner on offense and is averaging 3.0 points... Robinson leads the team with 22 steals and is third in assists with 35... 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 provided a huge lift to the Falcons when he scored four second half points against Buffalo... 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 2.7 points and 2.0 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
The Falcons have won two of their last three games in the MAC Center... In 2003, BGSU rallied from a 24-point deficit in the second half to notch a 78-74 victory... last year, the Falcons captured a 77-73 win in the only meeting of the season between BGSU and KSU... . the Falcons are averaging 9.3 steals in the last three games... in the last eight games, teams are averaging 20.5 turnovers a game against the Falcons... Buffalo had 29, the most by a Falcon opponent this year... the Falcons are 82-21 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 35-7 since 2000-01 when shooting over 50 percent... the Falcons are 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%).
