Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Fly to Furman
November 26, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 26, 2007
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) -
BGSU at FURMAN
Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007 • 7:00 p.m.
Timmons Arena (3,500) • Greenville, S.C.
RECORDS: Bowling Green 3-2 (0-0 MAC) // Furman 0-4 (0-1 SoCon)
RADIO: BGSU Radio Network - Todd Walker
SERIES: Furman leads, 1-0 // STREAK: Furman - 1
LAST MEETING: Furman 63, at Bowling Green 59 (Nov. 19, 2006)
BGSU Notes, Stats & Bios in PDF Format
FALCONS BEGIN THREE-GAME ROAD SWING
The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team begins a three-game road swing, playing in three different states in a 10-day span ... the Falcons of head coach Louis Orr head to South Carolina for a Tuesday (Nov. 27) game vs. Furman University ... tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at Timmons Arena (3,500) ... following Tuesday's game, the Brown and Orange will continue the road swing with games against Oakland (Dec. 1) and Northern Colorado (Dec. 6), before taking a break for exams.
THE OPENING TIP (STORYLINES)
• Temple snapped the Falcons' three-game winning streak Saturday (Nov. 24), riding an early second-half run to a 72-55 win at venerable Anderson Arena.
• Junior Nate Miller tied his career high with 21 points in that game ... Miller had 15 of his points in the first half as the Falcons forged a 31-31 tie at the intermission.
• Tuesday's game at Furman will mark the Falcons' first game in the state of South Carolina in over a quarter-century ... BGSU participated in the IPTAY Tournament, hosted by Clemson, playing the Tigers exactly 26 years prior to the date of the Furman game ... on Nov. 27, 1981, the Falcons fell to Clemson by a 109-91 score ... BG bounced back to defeat fellow Mid-American Conference member Ball State, 78-72, the following night.
• Marc Larson's season-high scoring total last year was four points ... he has topped that total in four of this year's first five games ... with 45 points, the sophomore center already has tripled his scoring total for all of last season.
FALCONS VS. THE SOUTHERN CONFERENCE
BGSU enters Tuesday's game with an all-time record of 3-5 against teams currently in the Southern Conference ... the Furman game, however, will mark the Falcons' fourth game vs. the SoCon in the last two years (plus 18 days) ... BGSU has opened two of the last three seasons with games against Western Carolina, and the Falcons faced Furman last Nov. 19 at Anderson Arena ... BG's wins vs. SoCon teams have come against The Citadel (1-0), Davidson (1-1) and Georgia Southern (1-0), with all of those games coming during the Jim Larranaga Era at BG ... the Falcons also had faced Elon (0-1), in addition to Furman (0-1 entering Tuesday) and WCU (0-2).
LAST TIME OUT
Visiting Temple went on an 18-4 run early in the second half, pulling away from the Falcons for a 72-55 win at Anderson Arena Saturday (Nov. 24) ... the loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Brown and Orange ... junior Nate Miller led all players with 21 points, tying his career high ... Miller was 9-of-14 from the field and also added seven rebounds and a game-high three steals ... Dionte Christmas scored 20 points and Mark Tyndale 19 for the Owls ... the Falcons had battled back from a six-point first-half deficit to forge a 31-31 tie at the intermission, and BG took a brief lead early in the second half before the Owls made their run ... Temple shot 52.9 percent for the game, including a 68.2% rate in the second half ... the Owls outscored the Falcons by a 41-24 count in the final 20 minutes ... the first half of the game featured seven ties and eight lead changes ... the Brown and Orange took the lead just nine seconds into the second half, on a layup by Miller that completed an 8-0 run ... but, the lead would be BG's last ... Christmas hit a triple at the other end of the floor for the first of seven-straight TU points ... several minutes later, the Owls would score nine consecutive points to take a 49-37 lead with 12:16 left, and the hosts were unable to narrow the gap ...sophomore Marc Larson had 11 points, while classmate Ryan Sims had six in just four minutes off the bench.
ABOUT THE FALCONS The Falcons enter the Furman game with a 3-2 record on the young season ... BGSU, as mentioned above, is coming off a 72-55 loss to Temple on Saturday (Nov. 24), a loss that snapped a three-game winning streak for the Brown and Orange ... those wins came over Belmont, Cincinnati and Morehead State ... the Falcons are 1-1 at home, 1-0 on the road and 1-1 in neutral-site games ... BGSU is shooting 46.0 percent from the field, while allowing the opponents to shoot just 39.4% ... individually, redshirt freshman Chris Knight leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, with 14.4 points and 6.4 boards per game ... junior Nate Miller is second on the team in both categories, with 13.6 points and 5.2 boards per contest ... Ryne Hamblet, the team's lone senior, has 10.8 points, 3.6 caroms and a team-leading 5.8 assists per contest to date ... sophomore Marc Larson has 9.0 ppg to date, and is shooting 60.9% from the field (14-of-23) ... junior Brian Moten and sophomore Otis Polk are averaging 5.4 and 5.2 ppg, respectively, and each player has a stellar FG pct. to date ... Moten is shooting 68.8% from the field (11-of-16) and 62.5 from the three-point line (5-for-8), while Polk is 11-of-13 (84.6%) from the floor through the first five games ... junior Darryl Clements is averaging 4.8 points, 3.6 boards and 2.6 assists per game, while freshman Joe Jakubowski has 4.2 points and 2.2 helpers per contest to date ... soph Ryan Sims is averaging 2.2 ppg ... freshman Cameron Madlock made his collegiate debut in the Morehead State game ... Clements, Hamblet, Knight, Larson and Miller each have started all five games to date for first-year BGSU head coach Louis Orr ... the Falcons returned a total of eight letterwinners from last season's team, including five of the top-seven scorers and three starters from the lineup that BGSU used down the stretch.
A BGSU WIN WOULD ...
• give the Falcons their first-ever victory over Furman (the Paladins currently lead the series, 1-0);
• improve BGSU's record to 4-2 after six games for the first time in three seasons (since the 2004-05 team lost the season opener, then won the next six games);
• give the Brown and Orange two road wins and three wins away from home this season, nearing the totals for all of last season (three road wins, five total wins away from home in 2006-07); and
• give the Falcons four wins in the month of November for the first time since 2001-02 (4-1).
LEAD, TRAIL, OR GET OUT OF THE WAY
In basketball, obviously, the goal is to be leading on the scoreboard at the end of the game ... one way to make sure that happens is to lead for the entire game ... the Falcons led from wire to wire two times in a three-game span (Belmont and Morehead State) ... in fact, BGSU has led during nearly 61 percent of this season's 200 minutes played ... the Falcons have trailed just over 32% of the time to date.
SCOUTING FURMAN
Furman is 0-4 on the young season ... the Paladins are coming off a 68-63 loss to Georgia Southern on Friday (Nov. 23) ... that game was both the home opener and the Southern Conference opener ... Furman's other games to date all were on the road, against UNC Asheville (75-78; Nov. 9), Clemson (46-91; Nov. 12) and Saint Louis (69-83; Nov. 17) ... individually, freshman guard Justin Dehm is averaging 13.3 points per game to lead the team, while senior forward George Brozos has 10.8 ppg ... freshman guard Bobby Austin and junior forward Alex Opacic are averaging 9.3 and 8.8 points per outing, respectively ... Austin, Brozos, sophomore guard Tony Anderson (2.3 ppg, a team-leading 5.3 assists per game) and junior forward Stanley Jones (5.5 ppg, team-leading 4.0 rebounds per game) each have started all four games to date ... Dehm has rounded out the starting five in each of the last two games for head coach Jeff Jackson ... Jackson, in his second year with the Paladins, welcomed back five letterwinners, including one starter, from last year's team that finished 15-16 overall and 8-10 in SoCon play ... Jackson is 36-80 in his fifth season as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is www.furmanpaladins.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons trail Furman, 1-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... the lone previous meeting came at Anderson Arena last season (Nov. 19, 2006), as the Paladins came to Northwest Ohio and posted a 63-59 win ... the Falcons rallied from a 12-point second-half deficit, but tied the score with 2:35 to go, before the visitors scored six of the game's last eight points.
MUCH HAS CHANGED IN A YEAR
Tuesday's BGSU-Furman game likely will bear little resemblance to last year's contest at Anderson Arena ... of the combined total of 122 points in that game, 102 were scored by players that will not be in uniform for this season's contest ... the Paladins lost five letterwinners, including four starters, from last year's team ... the 2007-08 roster contains players that combined for 15 points in the game at Anderson last year ... for the Falcons, only five points were scored by players who will be in uniform on Tuesday (Ryne Hamblet - 3; Brian Moten - 2).
HOME-OPENING SUCCESS
BGSU's 86-70 win over Morehead State (Nov. 17) extended a lengthy streak ... the Falcons have won the home opener in 16 consecutive seasons and in 21 of the last 22 years ... BG's last home-opening loss came against Findlay in the 1991-92 campaign.
SHOOTING THE LIGHTS OUT
The Falcons shot a blazing 66.7 percent from the field in the win over Morehead State ... that marked BGSU's highest field-goal percentage in a game in nearly 13 years, since a 67.8% shooting effort vs. Central Michigan in 1994-95 ... the school single-game record is 70.2%, on Feb. 12, 1979, against Duquesne.
LENDING A HELPING HAND
No fewer than three players had at least five assists in the Morehead State game ... senior Ryne Hamblet and freshman Joe Jakubowski had six apiece, while junior Darryl Clements had five ... Clements and Jakubowski, who shared the Falcons' point-guard duties for the bulk of the game, combined for 11 assists and just one turnover.
SHARING THE WEALTH
BGSU has enjoyed success on offense in the season's early going, in no small part because of the Falcons' penchant for sharing the ball ... BG had four double-digit scorers in each of the season's first three games, and five different players scored at least 10 points in the win over Morehead State.
DIFFERENT PLAYERS STEPPING UP
Through the first five games, no fewer than eight different BGSU players have had at least one double-digit scoring game this year to date ... senior Ryne Hamblet and redshirt freshman Chris Knight each hit double figures in all four games, while junior Nate Miller also has four double-digit outings and sophomore Marc Larson three ... juniors Darryl Clements and Brian Moten, soph Otis Polk and freshman Joe Jakubowski have one such game apiece.
SHOOTING SUCCESS
BGSU is shooting 46.0 percent from the field through five games ... by contrast, the Falcons are letting opponents shoot only 39.4% this year to date ... the Falcons shot at least 50.0% from the field twice in a three-game span (Belmont and Morehead State) ... over the first four games, Morehead State's 39.2% FG rate was the highest for a BGSU opponent.
LARSON-Y
Sophomore Marc Larson needed just two games to top his scoring total for all of last season ... Larson, who scored a total of 15 points as a freshman, had a career-high six points against Western Carolina ... the next night, he obliterated that total, with 14 points as the Falcons defeated Belmont ... the Mattawan, Mich., native had a perfect shooting day, going 4-for-4 from the field and 6-for-6 from the line, en route to another 14-point game vs. Morehead State ... he scored 11 more points vs. Temple, and is averaging 9.0 points per game ... with a total of 45 points this year to date, Larson has tripled his scoring total for all of last season.
