Bowling Green State University Athletics
Men's Basketball Hosts Northern Illinois
January 09, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 9, 2006
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N. Illinois (7-4, 2-1) At Bowling Green (5-7, 1-1)
Wednesday, January 11, 7 p.m.
Anderson Arena (4,700)
Series Record: Tied 23-23
Last Year: at BGSU 78, NIU 67 (1/9/05)
at NIU 72. BGSU 61 (2/23/05)
Radio: BGSU Radio Network (Todd Walker and Kirk Cowan)
FALCONS LOOK TO REBOUND AGAINST NORTHERN ILLINOIS
The BGSU men's basketball team will look to put Saturday's loss at Western Michigan behind them as it prepares to face MAC West leader Northern Illinois. In the last five games, the Huskies have played in two overtime affairs and have seen the other three games decided a combined five points.
SERIES NOTES
The series is tied at 23 wins apiece. BGSU has won nine of the last 11 meetings against NIU since Dan Dakich became head coach. Last year, BGSU took a 78-67 win at home and lost 72-61 in DeKalb. Three years ago, NIU won at BGSU, 63-46.
WHEN BGSU PLAYS WELL, THE DEFENSE IS USUALLY THE KEY
Despite a strong shooting performance by Western Michigan, BGSU has limited opponents to just 39.4% shooting from the field and 28.3% from long distance in the last five games The Falcons also have forced an average of 24.3 turnovers per game in that same span. In BGSU's win over Central Michigan last week, they limited the Chippewas to just two points in the first 8:35 and held the visitors without a field goal for a 15 minute stretch (3:05 of the first half to the 8:05 mark of the second half). During that time, CMU missed all eight field goal attempts and turned the ball over eight times. The 44 points allowed was the least given up by a Falcon squad under Dan Dakich in a MAC game.
PLAYER NOTES
Senior guard Steven Wright returned to the lineup against UALR, made a career-high four three-point field goals against FSU and had a season-high 14 points against Notre Dame... he has averaged 8.8 points and 3.5 rebounds... since his return to the lineup BGSU is giving up just 57 points per game as opposed to 71.0 per contest when he was injured ... he suffered a broken foot in the preseason and missed the first six games of the season... he averaged 11.1 points and 3.1 assists and led the Falcons in steals with 37 a year ago... junior Martin Samarco is the top newcomer in the MAC as far as scoring averaging 17.5 points, which ranks third in the league and is 11th in the MAC in rebounding at 5.5 per game... he is second in the league in three-pointers made per game at 2.91... he has led the team in scoring eight times this season and had 27 in back-to-back games against Bradley and Florida State... freshman Erik Marschall is the top scoring freshman in the MAC averaging 9.2 points... he is among the top shooters in the league making 50.6% of his shots and is sixth in the league in blocked shots at 1.0 per game... he has scored in double figures six times this season... senior Mawel Soler is the top shooter in the MAC making 71.7% of his shots... he is averaging 7.2 points and 5.1 rebounds and is shooting 72.4% from the floor during his two seasons with the Falcons... he also is third on the team with 21 assists... he had 10 points and five assists against Western... 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... he had a career-high 17-point effort against UALR and is averaging 8.4 points and 4.5 rebounds... junior John Floyd is coming off a career-high 23-point effort, making five of seven three-pointers against Western 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... sophomore guard Perrick Robinson had one of his better offensive nights when he contributed eight points and three assists against Bradley... Robinson leads the team with 15 steals and is third in assists with 25... he is the only Falcon to start the season opener in each of the last two seasons ... freshman Dusan Radivojevic saw his first action of the season against Oakland and has been a key performer off the bench... he had a season-high nine points at Troy... he missed the first four games of the season due to a foot injury... he suffered a broken nose in practice last week and is wearing a protective mask... freshman Darryl Clements is averaging 3.0 points and 2.2 rebounds... he had seven points against Oakland... freshman Brian Moten joined the team against Florida State and has the longest shooting range of any Falcon... he had a season-high nine points against Central Michigan... 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
BGSU leads the MAC in field goal percentage defense (40.1%) and three-point field goal defense (30.2%) ...BGSU improved to 9-0 in home openers under Dan Dakich... the Falcons also are 9-0 under Dakich in the game directly before Christmas... BGSU also is 7-2 in MAC openers under Dakich... BGSU is 27-2 since the 2001 season when holding an opponent under 59 points... the Falcons are 35-5 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 22-3 when it has had to play defense with a one or two-point lead in the final minute since the 2001-02 season... the win against Va. Tech was the fourth for the Falcons by one point in the last two seasons (Toledo, 70-69; Ball State, 70-69; Miami, 57-56; Virginia Tech 72-71)... 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%).
