BGSU And Eastern Michigan Tangle On STO Saturday Night

Bowling Green Falcons (9-10, 3-3 MAC) at Eastern Michigan Eagles (9-11, 4-2 MAC)
Jan. 28, 2012 • 6 p.m. • Ypsilanti, Mich. • Convocation Center (8,824)
Radio: Falcon Radio Network • Todd Walker (Play-by-Play)
Television: SportsTime Ohio • Michael Reghi (Play-by-Play)/Steve Mix (Color)
Live Stats: http://www.emueagles.com
Live Video: http://www.mac-sports.com
Live Audio: Stretch Internet
Complete Game Notes (.pdf)
PURCHASE TICKETS

QUICK HITS
* BGSU jumped out to a strong start in MAC crossover play, defeating Central Michigan Wednesday. The Falcons will look to make it two in a row as the team plays at Eastern Michigan, a team tied for first in the West Division, Saturday. The Falcons are part of a three-way tie (along with Kent State and Western Michigan) for sixth in the league standings.
* BGSU is 45-38 in 83 meetings all-time against Eastern Michigan and the team has won each of the past two meetings. BGSU head coach Louis Orr is 2-2 against the Eagles in his tenure with the Falcons.
* Scott Thomas has become a steals machine lately, posting 16 in the last three games. He has three consecutive games with at least four steals, including a program record-tying eight at Miami. He leads the MAC in league games only and is 12th in the country with 2.6 per game overall.
* A'uston Calhoun scored a career-high 29 points against Buffalo Saturday and followed it up with his first double-double of the season (and fourth of his career) with 14 points and 11 rebounds against Central Michigan.
* Thomas needs eight assists to break into the top 10 in BGSU history and needs one more rebound for 600 in his career. He already ranks fifth in school history in steals and ninth in three-pointers made.
* Jordon Crawford is tied for the MAC lead in assists in conference play and has at least three assists in 13 consecutive games.
* BGSU has led at the half just six times this year, but all of those leads have come at home.
* Bowling Green has shot 50 percent or better in a game eight times this year, including four of the last six contests. The Falcons are 5-3 when reaching that percentage.
* Cam Black has eight blocked shots in the last three games and has at least one in six straight contests.

BGSU AND EASTERN MICHIGAN JOCKEY FOR POSITIONING
Currently in a three-way tie for sixth place, Bowling Green goes on the road Saturday to face an Eastern Michigan squad that sits one game ahead of the Falcons in the MAC standings. Both teams could use a win in an effort to earn one of the top four spots in the MAC Tournament, which would also get the team at least one bye. The Falcons are just 2-7 on the road this year, but did pick up a victory in its last away contest, a 65-57 win over Miami. Eastern Michigan is 5-2 at home.

THE SERIES
In a series that dates back to 1916, Bowling Green holds a 45-38 lead in the all-time series against Eastern Michigan. The Falcons have won the past two meetings, including a 64-61 victory in the Convocation Center two years ago. Head coach Louis Orr is 2-2 in his BGSU tenure against Eastern Michigan.

SCOUTING EASTERN MICHIGAN
Eastern Michigan enters Saturday's contest at 9-11 overall and tied for first in the MAC West Division at 4-2. The Eagles have thrived with their defense, holding opponents to just 59.2 points per game, 17th best in the country. Eastern Michigan, though, ranks 336th out of 338 teams at only 52.6 points per contest. EMU shoots just 29 percent from three-point range, led by leading scorer Darrell Lampley, who is averaging 13.0 points per game and has made 30 three-pointers. Lampley is the only player on the team averaging more than 7.0 points per game. Head coach Rob Murphy is in his first year with Eastern Michigan after serving as an assistant coach at Syracuse for seven years. He also spent two years as an assistant coach at Kent State and coach high school basketball in Detroit.

LAST GAME: FALCONS ROLL PAST CENTRAL MICHIGAN
Bowling Green shot 62 percent in the second half and committed just 11 turnovers as the Falcons rolled to a 71-58 win over Central Michigan Wednesday. BGSU led 31-21 at the half and extended the lead to as many as 20 in the second half. Scott Thomas, A'uston Calhoun, and Jordon Crawford led the way with 14 points each, while Dee Brown added 12. Calhoun posted his first double-double of the year with 11 rebounds and Crawford added seven assists. Thomas had eight rebounds and four steals, his third consecutive game with at least that many takeaways. Cam Black was a defensive force inside, blocking three shots and earning a career-high three steals.

THE MAC TOURNAMENT
A new format for the MAC Tournament changes the bracket and seeding this year. The teams with the top two records in the league (regardless of division) will earn a double-bye into the semifinals and the next two best records will earn a bye to the quarterfinals. Teams seeded fifth through eighth will host a first-round game and teams seeded ninth through 12th will play on the road in the first round. The Falcons are currently in a three-way tie for sixth but, if the MAC Tournament were to start today, Bowling Green would be the No. 8 seed and would host No. 9 seed Central Michigan in the first round.

TORCHING THE NETS
Through six conference games, Bowling Green ranks second in the Mid-American Conference in field goal percentage and third in three-point percentage in league games. The Falcons have shot at least 50 percent from the floor in four of the six conference games and are shooting 47.8 percent overall, behind only Kent State's 48.4 percent. The team is also making 37.8 percent of its three-point attempts, trailing Kent State (37.9 percent) and Akron (41.9 percent).

FIRST HALF ROAD WOES
Bowling Green is just 2-7 on the road this year, but most of the team's struggles have come in the first half. The Falcons have trailed at the half in all nine of those contests but have outscored their opponent in the second half seven times. In fact, Bowling Green trails by an average of 8.1 points at the break but has outscored their opponents by an average of 4.6 points in the second half. BGSU averages 26.8 first-half points on the road and 39.8 second-half points.

CONSISTENTLY INCONSISTENT
In attempting to build momentum, Bowling Green has struggled to string together wins, but the Falcons have not had any extended losing streaks either. BGSU has not won or lost more than two games in a row all year. The team has had one two-game winning streak (beating Austin Peay and Detroit on consecutive nights) and two two-game losing streaks (the first against Valparaiso and Michigan State and the second against Akron and Kent State).

STAT STUFFER
While Scott Thomas has proven to be the team's most consistent scoring threat this year, he will also go down as one of the most versatile players in program history. With eight steals against Miami, he tied a program record for a single-game and moved into fifth place in BGSU history. He added four more against both Buffalo and Central Michigan and has 175 in his career, one behind Keith McLeod for fourth place. Thomas also ranks ninth in school history with 122 career three-pointers and could move into the top 10 in career assists and rebounds before the year is over. He went over 1,000 career points with a three-pointer early against Duquesne and is the only player in program history with 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 150 steals and 100 three-pointers in a career.

WHAT A STEAL
Over the course of the past two seasons, Bowling Green has been one of the top teams in the Mid-American Conference in steals, leading the conference in that category a year ago. This year, the team is fourth in the conference and, once again, Scott Thomas and Jordon Crawford are leading the way individually. The duo has combined for 75 steals and Thomas ranks second in the conference. In fact, Thomas tied the school record with eight steals against Miami and leads the league in steals in conference games. He ranks fifth in BGSU history with 175 career steals and Crawford is now over the century mark with 105. Thomas ranks 12th in the country with 2.6 steals per game and his eight against Miami are tied for the second most in a game by an NCAA Division I player this year.

THE RECORD SETTER
Senior forward Torian Oglesby set an NCAA Division I record by making 26 consecutive field goal attempts, a streak that ended with a first-half miss against Ohio. Despite the miss, Oglesby has made 48-of-57 shots on the year, shooting 84.2 percent. The old record of 25 consecutive field goal attempts without a miss was set by Ray Voelkel of American University in 1978, a mark which stood for 33 years. As if all of that is not remarkable enough, Oglesby has made 30-of-33 shots on the road, for a 90.9 field-goal percentage away from the Stroh Center.

HEIGHT IS OVERRATED
At 5-feet-6, junior point guard Jordon Crawford is the fourth-shortest player in NCAA Division I basketball. Green Bay's Eric Valentin measures in as the shortest player at 5-4, while Denver's Charles Webb and George Washington's Malik Tonkins are both 5-5. None of those players have the type of impact that Crawford has on the Falcons. In fact, Crawford's 25 points against Miami are more than the other three have combined to score all season. He is third on the team with 10.9 points per game and has started 17-of-19 contests.

IMPROVING EFFICIENCY
While Scott Thomas does just about everything on the floor for the Falcons, the area in which he most needed to improve coming into the 2011-12 season was shooting from three-point range and the free-throw line. A year ago, Thomas shot 29 percent on three-pointers and 59 percent from the charity line. This year, he has made 33-of-83 three-pointers (39.8 percent) and 35-of-51 free-throws (68.6 percent). Thomas ranks 10th in the MAC in three-point percentage and sixth in league games only.

THE BIG APOSTROPHE
Junior A'uston Calhoun has turned his game up as the 2011-12 season has worn on. He averaged just 2.5 points in the first two games of the season, improved to 12.4 points over the next five, and then averaged 14.4 in the next nine. Over the past three games, Calhoun is averaging 18.7 points per game and shooting 58.3 percent from the floor.

50 PERCENT PROVIDES BETTER THAN A 50/50 CHANCE
When Bowling Green shoots at least 50 percent from the floor, the Falcons have an excellent chance of winning the game. The Falcons went 8-1 a year ago in such instances and are 34-8 in head coach Louis Orr's four years when making at least half of their shots. This year, Bowling Green is 5-3 when shooting at least 50 percent from the floor, including all three of the team's conference wins.

DOWN LOW
Head coach Louis Orr's philosophy is always to play inside-out and the Falcons have done that well during his tenure. This year, the Falcons have scored at least 20 points in the paint in 18-of-19 games with a season-high 58 against Malone. In fact, the 58 points in the paint represents the most in a game in Orr's tenure. BGSU has scored at least 30 points in the paint in seven consecutive games as well. In 2009-10 and 2010-11, the Falcons scored 20 or more points in the paint in 57-of-63 games.

THE STROH CENTER
BGSU played its first regular season game ever in the Stroh Center against Howard. After 51 years in venerable Anderson Arena, the Falcons opened one of the newest facilities in the country.

1,000 POINT SCORERS
With a three-pointer against Duquesne, Scott Thomas became the 38th player in program history to score 1,000 career points. Senior Dee Brown also has a chance to reach 1,000 points this year, which would be just the seventh time in school history that two players have reached the milestone in the same year. Considering 11 regular season games remaining and a minimum of one MAC Tournament game, Brown needs to average 8.6 points through the remainder of the year to reach that total as he sits at 897 career points.

DEFENSE WINS
Over the course of the past three years, Bowling Green has held its opponent to 45 percent shooting or worse in 32 of the Falcons' 37 wins. A year ago, Bowling Green went just 2-12 when an opponent shot at least 45 percent, posting victories against only Manhattan (48.9 percent shooting) and Ohio (45.8 percent). This year, the Falcons have already equaled that win total but are just 2-6 when an opponent shoots over 45 percent. Bowling Green actually won for the first time in Louis Orr's tenure when a team shot 50 percent as Austin Peay scored at a 51 percent clip, but the Falcons won 82-72.

A NEW HOLIDAY TRADITION
BGSU men's basketball played on New Year's Day for the second consecutive season as the Falcons lost to Texas San Antonio in overtime, 86-79. Bowling Green is 4-2 all-time when breaking in the New Year and the Falcons were just one of eight NCAA Division I programs to play on New Year's Day in each of the past two seasons (joining Syracuse, DePaul, Marquette, Southern Illinois, Illinois State, Northern Iowa, and Evansville).

WHERE MY FALCONS AT?
Bowling Green finally returned home to open conference action after playing away from the Stroh Center for a month with five consecutive road games in five different States. According to Google Maps, the team traveled a total of 6,442 miles, or slightly more than a quarter of the way around the planet.

THE NEW HOUSE
Anderson Arena provided BGSU with an excellent home court advantage as the Falcons went 466-190 (.710) all-time in The House That Roars. Bowling Green will attempt to build a new home court advantage after going 10-5 in Anderson Arena a year ago. This year, the Falcons are 7-3 (.700) in the Stroh Center.

PARKER/HOLMES SIGN WITH THE FALCONS
Louis Orr announced the signing of Spencer Parker and Richaun Holmes during this year's early signing period. Parker is from West Bloomfield, Mich. and is playing for Fishburne Military School in Waynesboro, Va. this year. He will have four years of eligibility remaining. Holmes is from Lockport, Ill. and is playing this year at Moraine Community College. As a full qualifier out of high school, he will transfer to Bowling Green and be able to play immediately with three years of eligibility remaining.

FOREIGN TOUR
The BGSU men's basketball team got the opportunity to travel to Toronto for a summer foreign tour and play three games. The Falcons went 2-1 on the trip, gaining experience and the opportunity for extra practices.

FALCONS TO PLAY ON REGIONAL/NATIONAL TELEVISION
BGSU will play a minimum of five games on ESPNU, SportsTime Ohio, or the Big Ten Network this year. The Falcons played on ESPNU at Georgia on Nov. 13 and then played on the Big Ten Network Dec. 17 at Michigan State. The Falcons also played on STO on Jan. 7 against Ohio in the first MAC game in the Stroh Center. BGSU has two more STO games scheduled, on Jan. 28 at Eastern Michigan and on Feb. 4 vs. Northern Illinois. On top of those contests, there are approximately a dozen other opportunities for STO or ESPN to choose the Falcons for television games.

THOMAS NAMED MAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Scott Thomas was named MAC East Division Player of the Week on Nov. 28 after guiding the Falcons to a 3-1 week, including a win over Temple. Thomas scored in double-figures in all four games, averaging 12.0 points and 5.8 rebounds per contest. He also had seven assists, nine steals, and two blocked shots.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON?
Head coach Louis Orr was an All-American at Syracuse and he will have the opportunity to help his son, freshman Chauncey Orr, grow into a strong collegiate player. Chauncey was a first team all-state player at Bowling Green High School.

FIRST TEAM ALL-STATE
Bowling Green has brought in an Associated Press Division I First Team Ohio All-State player for three consecutive years. Junior Luke Kraus was named first team all-state at Findlay High School in 2008-09. Redshirt freshman Anthony Henderson earned the honor at Toledo Start High School in 2009-10 and Chauncey Orr was named to the team from Bowling Green High School in 2010-11. BGSU is the only school in the country with three players from the AP Division I First Team Ohio All-State teams from the past three years on the roster. Miami (Ohio) and Ohio State each has two.

FALCONS PICKED SIXTH
Bowling Green was picked to finish sixth in the Mid-American Conference East Division in the preseason media poll. Defending MAC champion Kent State was selected to win the East while Western Michigan was selected to win the West.

MAC Preseason Media Poll
East Division - 1. Kent State (132 points/16 first-place votes), 2. Akron (104 points/8 first-place votes), 3. Ohio (94 points), 4. Miami (80 points), 5. Buffalo (62 points), 6. Bowling Green (32 points)
West Division - 1. Western Michigan (128 points/14 first-place votes), 2. Ball State (111 points/9 first-place votes), 3. Central Michigan (92 points/1 first-place vote), 4. Toledo (76 points), 5. Northern Illinois (59 points), 6. Eastern Michigan (38 points)
Tournament Champion - Kent State 12, Akron 6, Ball State 3, Western Michigan 2, Central Michigan 1

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