Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host Miami On Senior Day for Men's Basketball
March 02, 2007 | Men's Basketball
March 2, 2007
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MIAMI (15-13, 10-5) AT BOWLING GREEN (12-17, 2-13) SUNDAY, MARCH 4, NOON Anderson Arena (4,700) Series Record: Miami leads 71-45 Radio: BGSU Network (Todd Walker and Kirk Cowan) TV: MAC TV-Fox Sports Ohio, Time Warner-Buffalo, Comcast-Chicago and Michigan (Jeff Phelps and Nate Ross) Up Next: BGSU at First Energy MAC Tournament, March 7, TBA
FALCONS CLOSE OUT REGULAR SEASON ON SENIOR DAY AGAINST MIAMI
The Falcons will close out the 2006-07 regular season at home against Miami. BGSU is coming off a 77-64 loss at home to Kent State, while Miami fell 52-45 at Ohio on Thursday night. Earlier this season, Miami defeated the Falcons, 66-60 in Oxford. Thhis will be the final home game for BGSU seniors Martin Samarco and Matt Lefeld.
FIRST ENERGY MAC TOURNAMENT BEGINS WEDNESDAY
For the first time in Mid-American Conference history, all 12 teams will advance to Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena for the First Energy MAC Men's Basketball Tournament. Depending on the outcome of games around the league on Sunday, BGSU will either play the fifth seed at 3 p.m. or the sixth seed at 7 p.m. in a first round game on Wednesday, March 7. The championship game is scheduled for 7 p.m., Saturday, March 10 and will air on ESPN2.
LEFELD IS TOP MEN'S BASKETBALL STUDENT ATHLETE IN LAST 18 YEARS
Senior center Matt Lefeld will likely be remembered for two things. He is the top student-athlete the program has produced in the last 18 years and foot pain that requires hours of therapy to play or practice have limited his ability. He was named third team ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American by the College Sports Information Directors of America this past week.. Lefeld, a native of Coldwater, Ohio, holds a 3.97 grade point average and is majoring in purchasing and supply chain management. He is the first Falcon athlete this year to earn Academic All-American accolades. To be honored, a student-athletes must have a GPA above 3.2 and be a starter or important reserve. Lefeld, a two-time Academic All-MAC and CoSIDA All-District choice, is now listed as one of the top 15 scholar-athletes in all of Division I men's basketball. He has started 17 games this season and averaged 3.0 points and 2.1 rebounds. For his career, he has played in 103 career games and started 56 times. Lefeld is just the fourth men's basketball player in the history of the program to be honored with this distinction. John Heft was an honorable mention pick in 1969, Joe Faine earned second team honors in 1980 and Steve Martenet was a third team choice in 1988. Over time, BGSU student-athletes have been named Academic All-American on 65 occasions. He is the son of Allen and Linda Lefeld.
SAMARCO IS THE MAC'S TOP SCORER, ONE OF FALCONS' TOP JC TRANSFERS EVER
Senior Martin Samarco is looking to become the third Falcon under Dan Dakich (Keith McLeod-2002, John Reimold-2005) to lead the MAC in scoring. The Ypsilanti, Michigan native and transfer from Schoolcraft College is averaging 19.6 points heading into the final week of the season. He also is just the second junior college transfer to eclipse the 1,000-point mark in his career (Tommy Harris-1,137 points). His 19.2 career scoring average ranks fifth all-time in BGSU history. He had his 25th 20+point effort with his 25 points at Akron. Against EMU, he became the 35th member of the 1,000 point club with the Falcons and is now 28th all-time in scoring with 1,115 points. He was named MAC East Player of the Week (1/8) for the second time this season after his 43-point performance against Buffalo earlier this year. He made a career-high 16 field goals and tied his career-best with seven three-point field goals. He also was honored earlier this season (12/18) and has been chosen for the award four times in his career. He was the top returning scorer in the MAC after he finished second in the league averaging 18.9 points per game. He also is fourth all-time in three-point field goals made at BGSU with 174 and set a school record last year with 100. He is the eighth player that Dan Dakich has coached that has scored 1,000-points or more at BGSU. He is the son of James Lewis and Angela Samarco.
HAMBLET HEATING UP
Junior Ryne Hamblet had 21 points and four assists against Kent State after having a 20-point, 10-assist effort last week against Akron. He scored a career-high 24 points and added six rebounds and three steals in 41 minutes at Buffalo. In the last eight games, he is averaging 14.1 points and is shooting 46.3 (19/41) from three-point range.
