Falcons Soar To Milwaukee With Momentum

Bowling Green Falcons (2-8) at Milwaukee Panthers (5-7)
Dec. 18, 2010 • 8:00 p.m. • Milwaukee, Wisc. • U.S. Cellular Arena

Radio: BGSU Radio Network (99.1 FM) • Todd Walker (Play-by-Play)

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

Bowling Green, Ohio - Coming off a 76-67 win over Florida International Sunday, the Bowling Green men's basketball team will look for its first winning streak of the year when the Falcons play at Milwaukee Saturday at 8 p.m. BGSU shot over 50 percent from the field for the first time this year in the win over FIU, snapping a seven-game losing streak in the process.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
• Scott Thomas, BGSU's second-leading scorer and top rebounder and assister, missed the Falcons' win over Florida International with an injury. He is probable to return to the lineup Saturday against Milwaukee.
• Dee Brown and Danny McElroy are coming off of career scoring highs against Florida International. Brown had 24 points on 6-of-8 shooting and 3-of-4 three-pointers, while McElroy scored 15 on 6-of-10 shooting.
• Brown has scored in double figures in five of the past six games for BGSU and is averaging 14.0 points per game during that stretch. He took over the team's scoring lead with his 24-point outburst against Florida International.
• In the absence of Thomas Sunday, Luke Kraus took over that role admirably. He had career highs with six assists and four rebounds and added a steal while playing 29 minutes in a starting role.

THE SERIES
Bowling Green and Milwaukee will meet for the third time in program history on Saturday. The Falcons notched an 88-55 victory in the first meeting of the two schools way back on Feb. 22, 1975 but the Panthers won last year 90-83 in overtime. Both of those first two contests took place in Anderson Arena.

SCOUTING THE MILWAUKEE PANTHERS
Milwaukee is 5-7 on the season and is coming off of a 61-47 loss to DePaul Tuesday night. The Panthers are 0-1 against MAC schools this year with a 67-55 loss to Western Michigan. Among common opponents, Milwaukee defeated Niagara 90-73, a team that beat BGSU by four. The Panthers are a dangerous three-point shooting team, making 34.6 percent of their attempts this year. Tone Boyle, a 6-foot-4 senior guard, averages 11.6 points and shoots threes at a 35.3 percent clip, while 6-8 junior forward Tony Meier is averaging 9.4 points and shooting 41.9 percent from long range. Ja'Rob McCallum, a 6-0 sophomore guard, is also a threat with 9.0 points per game and 38.9 percent three-point shooting. Anthony Hill, a 6-7 senior forward, is the team's leading scorer at 13.0 points per game.

FALCONS SHOOT OUT OF SLUMP IN 76-67 WIN OVER FIU
Bowling Green shot over 50 percent from the field for the first time this year as the Falcons defeated Florida International, coached by Isiah Thomas, 76-67 Sunday in Anderson Arena. Playing without Scott Thomas, the team's leading scorer, rebounder, and assister, the Falcons got career scoring nights from Dee Brown (24 points) and Danny McElroy (15 points). The contest was tied at 35-35 at the half but the Falcons opened the second stanza with a 14-4 run and never trailed over the final 20 minutes.

LEADING MAN
Last year, Scott Thomas led the Falcons in scoring and steals, ranking second in rebounds, assists, and blocked shots. This year, he's taking it a step further by leading the Falcons in rebounding, assists, steals, three-pointers made, and free-throws made, while ranking second in scoring. He missed the team's win over Florida International due to a back injury he sustained in practice earlier in the week, but is still averaging 10.2 points, 6.0 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 2.2 steals per contest. He has made 14 three-pointers and 20 free-throws.

DEE-LIGHTFUL
By scoring a career-high 24 points in BGSU's win over Florida International, Dee Brown has taken over the team scoring lead at 11.2 points per game. In fact, over the past six games, Brown is averaging 14.0 points per game and has scored in double figures five times.

THIEVERY
Bowling Green leads the MAC and ranks 14th nationally in steals, averaging 10.0 per game. The Falcons had a 19-steal performance against Western Kentucky, the most in a game for a MAC school this year, and added 16 against Ohio Dominican. The 19 steals were just one shy of the program record (the team had 20 steals against Heidelberg in 1990) and Scott Thomas had six steals individually in that game. Thomas ranks third in the MAC with 2.22 steals per game and Jordon Crawford is tied for fourth at 2.00 per game. Crawford, in fact, has at least two steals in five consecutive games. Dee Brown and Joe Jakubowski are also averaging at least a steal per contest. A year ago, the Falcons averaged just 6.8 steals per game.

LARGER ROLES
Four players on this year's team are averaging at least 9.0 minutes per game more than they did a year ago. Jordon Crawford, A'uston Calhoun, Luke Kraus, and Danny McElroy combined to play 666 minutes a year ago but have already played 793 this season.

SHOOTING THE ROCK
A year ago, Bowling Green led the Mid-American Conference with a 44.4 field goal percentage. After struggling to shoot through the first nine games, the Falcons shot 51 percent in the 76-67 win over Florida International Sunday. Despite that contest, the team is still shooting just 36.6 percent from the field and a MAC-worst 25.4 percent from three-point range. The team is 2-0 when shooting at least 44 percent from the field this year but has been below 35 percent five times.

DOWN LOW
Head coach Louis Orr's philosophy is always to play inside-out and the Falcons have scored at least 20 points in the paint in eight of the first 10 games after reaching that total in 27-of-30 games a year ago. Bowling Green has outscored its opponents in the paint in 6-of-9 games (Florida International and BGSU tied 30-30) this year after doing it in 23-of-30 games a year ago. The Falcons had a season-high 36 points in the paint against Ohio Dominican.

STARTING A CAREER
Freshman Cameron Black has started the first 10 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. While Black is not scoring at the same rate Stacey did as a freshman, the rest of his statistics compare favorably.

THOMAS NAMED LEGENDS CLASSIC ALL-TOURNAMENT
Scott Thomas was named to the Legends Classic Subregional Round All-Tournament team for his performances against Niagara, Detroit, and Albany. He averaged 9.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 4.7 assists, while picking up eight steals in the three games.

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.

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 INCONSISTENCY
Until Scott Thomas was injured last week, Head Coach Louis Orr seemed to be settling into a starting lineup. He had used the same lineup of Joe Jakubowski, Dee Brown, Thomas, Danny McElroy and Cameron Black for three consecutive games. In total, however, he has used seven different starting lineups in 10 games this year with nine different players picking up at least one start. Only Black, a freshman, has started all 10 games, while Thomas has nine starts and Brown has eight. A year ago, Orr used just three starting lineups and only seven players got at least one start.

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.

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)

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. Dabney played a large role in the team's game against Detroit, picking up five points, four rebounds, a blocked shot, and a steal in 13 minutes of action.

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.

WE MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE (THAT ROARS)
Anderson Arena has always been a difficult place for opponents but the Falcons are 2-2 so far in 2010-11. The Falcons are 458-187 (.710) all-time in Anderson Arena and 172-61 (.738) 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 4-28 in Head Coach Louis Orr's first four years when an opponent shoots better than 45 percent, including 1-11 a year ago and 0-5 this year. Duquesne shot a remarkable 60.7 percent, while Michigan, Niagara, Detroit, and Michigan State all shot over 45 percent.

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.

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 time 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". Here are the key events of the final year in Anderson Arena and the first year in the 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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