Falcons Return Home To Host High-Flying Dukes

Bowling Green Falcons (1-2) vs. Duquesne Dukes (1-1)
Nov. 22, 2010 • 7 p.m. • Bowling Green, Ohio • Anderson Arena (3,500)

Radio: BGSU Radio Network (99.1 FM) • Todd Walker (Play-by-Play)/Kirk Cowan (Color)

Live Stats: http://www.bgsufalcons.com
Online: America One (live video)/Stretch Internet (audio)
Complete Game Notes (.pdf)

Bowling Green, Ohio - Bowling Green will look to remain unbeaten at home in the team's final season in Anderson Arena when the Falcons host Duquesne, out of the Atlantic 10, Monday night at 7 p.m. In the team's only other home game this year, Bowling Green defeating Ohio Dominican 81-55.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
• This contest will be a battle of wills with two contrasting styles. In Duquesne's two exhibition games and two regular season contests, the Dukes averaged 97.8 points and went over 100 points three times. In Bowling Green's exhibition game and three regular season contests, the Falcons allowed an average of just 53.5 points and gave up more than 60 just once.
• With 14 points in the first half against Michigan, A'uston Calhoun broke his career scoring high. He finished the game with 16 points and appeared to show signs of breaking out of an early-season shooting slump.
• The Falcons have had 10 turnovers or less in each of the past two games. Duquesne, on the other hand, has forced 20+ turnovers in each of its first two contests. Bowling Green and Duquesne are each forcing more than five turnovers per game more than they are committing.

THE SERIES
This is the 25th meeting between Bowling Green and Duquesne and the Dukes hold a 15-9 edge in the all-time series. The teams last played in Pittsburgh on New Year's Eve, 2008 and Duquesne came away with a 76-65 victory. The last meeting in Anderson Arena came on Jan. 2, 2008 and Bowling Green lost 96-78. Prior to that, the Falcons came away with a 64-62 victory at Duquesne on Dec. 5, 2001.

SCOUTING THE DUQUESNE DUKES
Duquesne will create some unique issues Monday night with an up-tempo style contrasting what Bowling Green likes to do. In the team's two exhibition games and first regular season contest, the Dukes scored 100, 118, and 110 points. Robert Morris used a excellent defense to hold Duquesne to 63 points Friday night but the Dukes will look to push tempo at every opportunity. Senior Damian Saunders is a preseason first team Atlantic-10 selection and saw his first action of the year against Robert Morris. The Dukes forced 24 and 21 turnovers in their first two games and will try to rattle the BG guards. Five players are scoring in double-figures, led by Bill Clark with 18.5 points per game. He also leads the squad with 6.0 assists per contest. T.J. McConnell is dangerous from long range, making 6-of-7 three-point attempts this year. Head coach Ron Everhart is 65-62 in his fifth season at Duquesne and 239-234 in 17 seasons overall, including stints at McNeese State and Northeastern. He has led Duquesne to the postseason in each of the past two seasons, playing in the NIT in 2008-09 and the CBI in 2009-10.

FALCONS STRUGGLE OFFENSIVELY IN LOSS TO MICHIGAN
Bowling Green went more than seven minutes without a field goal to start the second half and Michigan pulled away after a tight first half for a 69-50 victory Thursday night. The Falcons trailed 28-27 with three minutes remaining in the first half but Michigan closed the period with an 11-4 run to take a 39-31 lead into the break. The Wolverines extended the lead early in the second half and cruised to the win. A'uston Calhoun led the team and scored a career-high 16 points. Dee Brown added 12 and Scott Thomas had eight points, nine rebounds, and three assists.

STARTING A CAREER
Freshman Cameron Black has started the first three games of the 2010-11 season. He is the first BGSU freshman to start that many games to begin his collegiate career since Anthony Stacey started all 27 games during the 1995-96 season. Stacey went on to have one of the best careers in program history, setting the school record with 1,938 career points.

VETERAN GUARDS MEAN FEWER TURNOVERS
It was expected that Bowling Green's experienced backcourt would mean steady leadership and smart play throughout the 2010-11 season and so far the team's turnover totals are bearing that out. The Falcons had just eight turnovers against Ohio Dominican and then only 10 against Michigan (Ohio Dominican had 23 and Michigan had 13. In fact, the Falcons are averaging just 11.3 turnovers per game this year, compared to 14.0 per game a year ago. The team has not averaged less than 12.0 turnovers per game for an entire season since averaging 11.7 per game during the 1982-83 season.

ORR SIGNS TEAMMATES IN EARLY SIGNING PERIOD
Head coach Louis Orr announced that Canton Timken High School teammates Jehvon Clarke and Desmond Rorie signed National Letters of Intent during the early signing period to attend Bowling Green for the 2011-12 season. Clarke is a highly-touted 6-foot-1 point guard who averaged 15.5 points, 5.6 assists, and 3.0 steals per game as a junior. Rorie is a 6-9 post player whose best days are ahead of him. He averaged 3.7 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 3.7 blocked shots per game as a junior.

MAKING AN IMPACT EARLY
Against Howard, Cameron Black became the first true freshman to start the first game of his collegiate career at BGSU since Ryan Sims started the first game of the 2006-07 season. Here are the stat lines of the most recent players to start their first collegiate game as a true freshman:

FALCONS PICKED FIFTH
Bowling Green was picked to finish fifth in the Mid-American Conference East Division in the preseason media poll. The Falcons had 42 points to edge Buffalo (32 points) in the division. Defending MAC Tournament champion Ohio was selected first, followed by Kent State, Akron, and Miami.

MAC Preseason Media Poll
East Division - 1. Ohio (128 points/12 first-place votes), 2. Kent State (114 points/8 first-place votes), 3. Akron (104 points/4 first-place votes), 4. Miami (84 points), 5. Bowling Green (42 points), 6. Buffalo (32 points)
West Division - 1. Ball State (124 points/12 first-place votes), 2. Central Michigan (122 points/8 first-place votes), 3. Eastern Michigan (88 points/2 first-place votes), 4. Western Michigan (68 points), 5. Northern Illinois (64 points/2 first-place votes), 6. Toledo (38 points)
Tournament Champion - Ohio (10), Kent State (6), Central Michigan (4), Ball State (2), Akron (2)

THOMAS NAMED PRESEASON ALL-MAC
Scott Thomas was selected as one of five Preseason All-MAC East Division players by vote of the media. Thomas led BGSU in scoring and steals a year ago, ranking second in rebounds, assists, and blocked shots. He averaged 13.2 points per game on the season but improved that average to 15.4 points in conference games and 16.9 points over the final eight contests.

Preseason All-MAC Teams
East Division - Brett McKnight (Akron), Scott Thomas (Bowling Green), Justin Greene (Kent State), Julian Mavunga (Miami), D.J. Cooper (Ohio)
West Division - Jarrod Jones (Ball State), Trey Zeigler (Central Michigan), Brandon Bowdry (Eastern Michigan), Xavier Silas (Northern Illinois), Flenard Whitfield (Western Michigan)

3-DEE
In his first two seasons at Bowling Green, junior guard Dee Brown has proven to be one of the most accurate three-point shooters in program history. He has a 40.9 percent three-point percentage in his career, fourth-best in school history. In fact, only one player in program history has attempted more than Brown's 115 career long-range shots and made them at a higher percentage. Steve Martenet is the program's record holder by making 56.7 percent of his 67 career attempts. Josh Almanson shot 46.2 percent in 106 career attempts and John Reimold made 42.5 percent of his 536 career three-point attempts.

EXPERIENCE AT THE POINT
Most experts agree that an experienced point guard can play a huge role in a team's success in college basketball. If that's the case, then Bowling Green could be primed for a big season. Point guard Joe Jakubowski enters the 2010-11 season with 85 games started, 10th most in the country.

CONSISTENT LINEUP?
A year ago, Bowling Green Head Coach Louis Orr used just three starting lineups and only seven players picked up a start during the course of the year. This year, Orr has already used different starting combinations in the first two games and eight different players have made at least one start. Only junior Scott Thomas and freshman Cameron Black have started each of the first three games, although Orr has gone with Jordon Crawford, Luke Kraus, Thomas, Danny McElroy and Black for the past two contests.

THE PRIDE OF FINDLAY, OHIO
Sophomore guard Luke Kraus had a highly decorated prep career at Findlay High School, where he passed Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to become the school's all-time leading scorer. Since Roethlisberger officially changed his hometown to the fictional Corey Rawson, Ohio during the offseason, Kraus is now likely the most famous athlete from Findlay, Ohio.

THE WALK-ONS
Head Coach Louis Orr accepted two walk-ons to his program this year and both are seniors in eligibility. Wiley Roberts is a feel-good story who served as a team manager for the past two years at Bowling Green. Mike Dabney spent the 2006-07 season at NAIA Concordia University in Ann Arbor, Mich., where he posted the third-highest single-season blocked shot total in program history with 56 rejections. Roberts saw his first collegiate action by playing one minute in the team's victory over Ohio Dominican and Dabney got his first BGSU action with one minute against Michigan.

NAME DROPPING
BGSU freshman Craig Sealey was a part of two AAU National Championship teams with the All-Ohio Red Team in 2006 and 2007. Sealey's teams included Ohio State freshmen Jared Sullinger, J.D. Weatherspoon, and Aaron Craft, along with Michigan State freshman Adreian Payne.

PAINTIN' THE TOWN
Head Coach Louis Orr's philosophy is always to play an inside-out game, but with a new group of post players, the Falcons may look to attack from the inside in different fashion. A year ago, the team scored at least 20 points in the paint in 27-of-30 games and outscored 23-of-30 opponents in the paint. This year, the Falcons have reached that 20-point threshold in each of the first three contests, outscoring their opponents in the paint twice. Bowling Green had a season-high 36 points in the paint against Ohio Dominican.

WE MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE (THAT ROARS)
Anderson Arena has always been a difficult place for opponents and the Falcons are 1-0 so far in 2010-11. The Falcons are 457-185 (.712) all-time in Anderson Arena and 171-59 (.743) in the past 18 years.

DEFENSE WINS
Bowling Green held opponents below 45 percent shooting in 13 of its 14 victories (Valparaiso shot 46.4 percent) a year ago, a trend for success that has been the norm under Head Coach Louis Orr. The Falcons are just 4-24 in Head Coach Louis Orr's first four years when an opponent shoots better than 45 percent, including 1-11 a year ago and 0-1 this year. Michigan shot 48.1 percent in Monday night's 69-50 Bowling Green loss.

HE'S SMART TOO!
Joe Jakubowski was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District team in voting by the members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Bowling Green was one of only five teams in the country to place multiple players on one of the eight first team all-district teams as Jakubowski and graduate Marc Larson each made the team. Larson went on to be named ESPN The Magazine Second Team Academic All-American.

ALL-ANDERSON TEAM NAMED
In recognition of the final season in Anderson Arena, the Bowling Green Department of Athletics announced the All-Anderson Team -- the 13 best BGSU players to play in the Anderson Arena era. The 13 members of the team represent 19 first team All-MAC selections, four MAC Players of the Year, and six members of the BGSU Athletics Hall of Fame. Eight of the 13 players were selected in the NBA Draft and/or played in the NBA. One of the players, Nate Thurmond, is an NBA Hall of Famer and was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. The entire team will be honored during Bowling Green's final regular season game in Anderson Arena against Buffalo on either March 4 or 5.

All-Anderson Team
Cornelius Cash, 1972-75
Antonio Daniels, 1993-97
Bob Dwors, 1962-65
David Greer, 1979-83
Colin Irish, 1979-84
Shane Kline-Ruminski, 1991-95
Howard Komives, 1961-64
Keith McLeod, 1998-02
Marcus Newbern, 1978-82
Jim Penix, 1968-70
Walt Piatkowski, 1965-68
Anthony Stacey, 1995-00
Nate Thurmond, 1960-63

IT WILL STILL ROAR
Known as "The House That Roars", Anderson Arena will play host to the Bowling Green men's basketball team for the final year in 2010-11. The team will move into the brand new Stroh Center next year and will open the building by hosting Howard on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011. In honor of the final season in Anderson Arena, the Athletics Department is holding a year-long celebration titled "Closing The Doors Of The House That Roars". Following is a list of some of the key dates/events of the final year in Anderson Arena and the first year in Stroh Center:

Jan. 29, 2011 - Men's basketball throwback game vs. Eastern Michigan
March 4/5, 2011 - All-Anderson Team recognized vs. Buffalo
March 5, 2011 - The B!G Event; One final celebration of Anderson Arena
Sept. 9, 2011 - Volleyball vs. Michigan State; Stroh Center ribbon-cutting
Nov. 12, 2011 - Men's basketball vs. Howard; First game in Stroh Center
Nov. 17, 2011 - Women's basketball vs. Purdue; First game in Stroh Center
March 17-20, 2012 - NCAA Women's Basketball Tourney in Stroh Center

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