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Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU To Face Creighton In NIT Opener
March 15, 2009 | Men's Basketball
March 15, 2009
Bowling Green, Ohio - The Bowling Green men's basketball team will play travel to Omaha, Neb. to face Creighton University in the first round of the 32-team National Invitational Tournament (NIT), as announced Sunday night. The Creighton Bluejays will be the second Missouri Valley Conference opponent that the Falcons face this year and the game will take place Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET.
Creighton received one of the four No. 1 seeds for the tournament and Bowling Green is a No. 8 seed. The winner will face either No. 4 seed Kentucky or No. 5 seed UNLV. No. 2 seed Notre Dame will face No. 7 seed UAB and No. 3 seed New Mexico will meet No. 6 seed Nebraska in the same bracket. The winners will play in the quarterfinals for the right to advance to Madison Square Garden for the semifinals March 31.
Bowling Green received an automatic bid to the NIT by winning the Mid-American Conference regular season conference championship and will make its first postseason appearance since playing Butler in the NIT in 2002. Creighton was a team on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament after going 26-7 and sharing the MVC regular season crown with Northern Iowa.
The Bluejays are led by MVC Player of the Year Booker Woodfox (15.9 ppg, 49 percent three-point shooting) and P'Allen Stinnett (12.3 ppg). Creighton shoots 38 percent from three-point range and 75 percent from the free-throw line. The Bluejays have been outrebounded by 3.4 boards per game but commit 3.9 less turnovers per game than their opponents.
Although the two teams have never played each other, Bowling Green did face MVC school Illinois State earlier this year, losing 78-65 on the road. Creighton lost two of its three contests with Illinois State, sandwiching 86-64 and 73-49 losses around a 74-70 win.
The Falcons went 18-12 during the regular season and split two games in the conference tournament to bring its record to 19-13 overall. Bowling Green shared the MAC regular season title with Buffalo at 11-5 but the Falcons received the conference's automatic bid to the NIT by sweeping the season series with the Bulls.
Bowling Green head coach Louis Orr was named MAC Coach of the Year and senior forward Nate Miller was named first team all-conference. Moten was an honorable mention all-conference selection, while Miller was also selected to the NABC All-District Team and to the MAC Tournament All-Tournament team after averaging 24.5 points in the two contests.
