Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons To Face Unbeaten Illinois State Saturday
December 04, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 4, 2008
Game #7
Bowling Green (3-3) at Illinois State (7-0)
Dec. 6, 2008 • Normal, Ill. (Redbird Arena) • 8:05 p.m.
Radio: Falcon Radio Network • Todd Walker
Complete Release in PDF Format 
SETTING THE STAGE
• The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team is on the road for the fourth consecutive weekend, looking to beat a strong Illinois State team. The Falcons are 0-3 in true road contests this year but did have a pair of neutral site wins against Georgia State and Concordia St. Paul at Minnesota.
• The game marks the fourth meeting between the two programs. Illinois State beat Bowling Green 69-58 last year and BGSU's lone win in the series came in an 80-60 victory in during the 1999-00 season. The two programs have met in December for every contest.
THE OPENING TIP (STORYLINES)
• Bowling Green will need to show strong leadership this weekend to bounce back from what could be a demoralizing loss to Savannah State Monday. The Falcons led by 21 points at the half but Savannah State stormed back for a 57-54 win.
• BGSU has turned to its defense to win games this year, holding opponents to 39 percent shooting, second-best in the MAC. The Falcons held Savannah State to 21 percent from the floor in the first half as Bowling Green opened up a big lead but the Tigers shot 54 percent in the second half for the comeback.
• Bowling Green's defense is anchored by its interior play and the Falcons have blocked 4.2 shots per game, second in the conference. Otis Polk ranks third in the MAC and Erik Marschall is tied for seventh in that category.
SCOUTING ILLINOIS STATE
• Illinois State has jumped out to a 7-0 start a year after advancing to the second round of the NIT Tournament. The Redbirds are not bashful about shooting three-pointers, ranking fourth in the country in three-pointers made per game and 11th in three-point percentage. In the team's most recent victory over UC Santa Barbara, Illinois State made 14-of-28 from long range.
• ISU lost three starters from a year ago but brought in Oregon transfer Champ Oguchi, who leads the team at 17.4 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. A junior college transfer, Lloyd Phillips, is third on the team in scoring at 11.0 points per game and has made 14-of-29 three-pointers.
• Senior point guard Emmanuel Holloway has been running an efficient offense and has 26 assists with just six turnovers.
MAKING THINGS INTERESTING
Four of Bowling Green's first six games have been decided in the final five minutes and three of those contests were decided in the final minute of play. The most exciting of those games was a 77-76 overtime win against Georgia State to open the season. Darryl Clements and Brian Moten made three-pointers in the final 15 seconds of regulation just to force overtime and Joe Jakubowski knocked down a 25-foot three-pointer as the buzzer sounded in the extra session for the win. Against Ohio State, Bowling Green led with six minutes to play but the Buckeyes scored eight straight late to come away with a four-point victory. In a 57-54 loss to Savannah State, BGSU led until the final 1:17 of the contest and missed on two attempts to tie the game in the final 60 seconds.
TRACKING FALCON MILESTONES
A number of BGSU players are closing in on career milestones or have recently reached them:
• Darryl Clements needs one rebound to reach 200 for his career and 80 points to get to 500.
• Joe Jakubowski is one rebound shy of 100 for his career and three points short of 300.
• Mark Larson needs 18 points for 200 in his career.
• Erik Marschall posted three rebounds against Savannah State to get to 250 for his career.
• With 12 points against Savannah State, Nate Miller went over 750 for his career (now at 755). He needs nine rebounds to get to 400 during his career and six assists to get to 150.
• Otis Polk needs 10 points for 250 in his career.
WE MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE (THAT ROARS)
Anderson Arena has always been a difficult place for opponents and the Falcons opened the building in 2008-09 by defeating Wayne State by 32 points. Bowling Green made "The House That Roars" especially tough on conference foes a year ago, going 6-2. Those six victories included wins over the teams picked to finish first (Kent State), second (Miami) and third (Ohio) in the East Division preseason poll. In fact, the team was roughly two minutes away from a perfect home record in MAC action, losing to Central Michigan in overtime and to Akron by nine points. CMU forced overtime on a putback with 0.9 seconds left in regulation, while Bowling Green led Akron with just over two minutes remaining and trailed by just one point with under a minute left.
RISING STOCK
Two of the contributing offensive factors to Bowling Green's start are the Falcons improvement in scoring and in free-throw shooting. BGSU is averaging five more points per game than a year ago and is shooting free-throws at a 71.6 percent clip, a huge improvement over 63.3 percent in 2007-08.
THE SCORING TOUCH
Senior Brian Moten has become the Falcons' most consistent scoring option in 2008-09, posting at least 10 points in each of the team's first five games. He scored a season-high 21 points against Concordia St. Paul and has made at least two three-pointers in every game this year. Dating back to last year, he has scored in double figures in nine of 11 contests. Moten now has 25 career games with 10+ points and three with 20 or more points.
DEFENSE WINS
Bowling Green has buckled down defensively in 2008-09, holding all six of its opponents to less than 45 percent shooting, allowing less than 70 points in each of the past five contests. None of the Falcons' last four opponents have shot better than 40 percent. A year ago, opponents shot 45 percent or better nine times and the Falcons were 1-8 in those games.
CLEMENTS' CAREER WEEKEND
Senior guard Darryl Clements was named to the NABC Classic All-Tournament team after setting his new career scoring high not just one time, but twice during the weekend. Clements made a crucial three-pointer with 15 seconds remaining in regulation that helped pushed the season opener against Georgia State to overtime -- a game the Falcons eventually won. He then scored a career-high 19 points in the team's loss to Minnesota, before pumping home 22 in BGSU's win over Concordia St. Paul. He also led Bowling Green in assists, steals and field goal percentage during the weekend.
BLOCK PARTY, HOSTED BY OTIS
Junior Otis Polk moved into seventh place on BGSU's career blocked shot leaderboard with three against Savannah State. His 89 career blocks are just 28. A year ago, he had four blocks in four different games, ending the season with 51, the second highest single-season total in Bowling Green history. Cornelius Cash set the mark with 59 blocks in 1973-74.
