Falcons Host Morehead State For BracketBuster Game

Bowling Green Falcons (13-12) vs. Morehead State Eagles (15-13)
Feb. 18, 2012 • 2 p.m. • Bowling Green, Ohio • Stroh Center (4,347)
Radio: Falcon Radio Network • Todd Walker (Play-by-Play)/Kirk Cowan (Color)
Television: None
Live Stats: http://www.bgsufalcons.com
Live Video: America One Network
Live Audio: Stretch Internet
Complete Game Notes (.pdf)
PURCHASE TICKETS

QUICK HITS
* BGSU and Morehead State play in the Sears BracketBusters event Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Stroh Center. It is the second time the two teams have faced each other in a BracketBusters game.
* Bowling Green is 4-3 all-time against Morehead State, posting an 86-70 win in the last meeting during head coach Louis Orr's first season with the Falcons. The team also won 90-72 in the BracketBusters game in 2006.
* Scott Thomas remains at the top of the MAC and ranks ninth in the country with 2.6 steals per game. His 3.1 steals in conference games is fifth-most in the country.
* BGSU has won six games this year when trailing at the half. The Falcons had won just nine such games in head coach Louis Orr's first four years combined.
* BGSU has 10 or more steals in each of the past two games and at least eight in five straight games.
* The Falcons' 13-of-14 night at the free-throw line at Ohio was the team's best since making 15-of-16 at Central Michigan on Feb. 7, 2009.
* BGSU is 4-1 in February, tying November for most wins in a month this year.
* Thomas' 64 steals are the seventh-most in a single-season in BGSU history.
* Jordon Crawford and Thomas rank ninth and 10th on BGSU's all-time assist list. Crawford has 298 and Thomas is just behind at 289.
* Dee Brown has made 13 of his last 24 three-point attempts.
* With 15 points against Toledo, Brown now has 972 career points.
* Bowling Green's RPI of 151 is 94 spots higher than a year ago and the highest for the program since the 2004-05 team ended the year at 103.

BGSU HOSTS MOREHEAD STATE FOR SEARS BRACKETBUSTER
Bowling Green takes a break from Mid-American Conference play to host Morehead State for the annual Sears BracketBusters series. The Falcons are 5-4 all-time during the event, including a 90-72 win over Morehead State on Feb. 17, 2007. The Eagles split two non-conference games against Mid-American Conference schools this year, losing to Kent State and defeating Ball State. Bowling Green beat its only Ohio Valley Conference opponent, Austin Peay, at home during the Progressive CBE Classic.

THE SERIES
Bowling Green is 4-3 all-time against Morehead State, including two consecutive wins during the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons. The first of those contests came in the BracketBusters series and the second was the return game. The series began on Dec. 28, 1955, when Morehead State posted a 111-79 victory.

SCOUTING MOREHEAD STATE
Morehead State enters Saturday's BracketBusters game with a record of 15-13 overall. The Eagles have been successful with a smothering defense that averages 8.4 steals per game and is holding opponents to just 61.9 points per game. When Morehead State gets the free-throw line, the team has been taking advantage, making 75.2 percent of its charity shots. Terrance Hill leads the team with 13.3 points per game but has missed the last 12 contests. Only Ty Proffitt, at 10.0 points per contest, is scoring in double figures. Head coach Donnie Tyndall is 141-88 in seven seasons as head coach, including 111-83 at Morehead State. He led the Eagles to the second round of the NCAA Tournament a year ago.

LAST GAME: OHIO'S LATE RUN FINISHES OFF FALCONS
Bowling Green overcame a 12-point second-half deficit to take a 55-52 lead with six minutes remaining but Ohio closed on a 20-4 run to defeat the Falcons 72-59 Wednesday evening. Scott Thomas had a team-high 17 points and added five rebounds, while Dee Brown scored 15 points, making three three-pointers. Craig Sealey came off the bench to score nine points in 13 minutes for the Falcons.

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. Currently, the Falcons are in fifth place, one game behind Ohio and one game ahead of Eastern Michigan. If the MAC Tournament were to start today, the Falcons would earn the No. 5 seed and would host Northern Illinois in the first round.

BREAKING BRACKETS
Bowling Green is 5-4 all-time in BracketBusters games and the Falcons have already defeated Morehead State once during the event.

ONE OF THE BEST
With an assist against Ohio, Scott Thomas moved into 10th place all-time at BGSU in career assists. He already ranks fourth in career steals and sixth in career three-pointers. With 15 more rebounds, he will move into the top 10 in that category as well. He is one of only eight players ever to rank in the top 10 in BGSU history in three different statistical categories.

CALHOUN NAMED MAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
A'uston Calhoun earned the first Mid-American Conference East Division Player of the Week honor of his career Monday after averaging 23.5 points and 10.5 rebounds in wins over Ball State and Toledo. He scored 13 straight BGSU points at one point in the second half of the win over the Cardinals and posted his second double-double of the season with 20 points and 12 rebounds in the win over the Rockets. Calhoun also shot 54 percent from the field on the week and dished out four assists.

TORCHING THE NETS
Offensively, Bowling Green has played well in Mid-American Conference play, ranking third in the league in field goal percentage. The Falcons have shot at least 50 percent from the floor in five of the 12 conference contests and are shooting 45.7 percent in total, behind only Akron at 46.8 percent and Buffalo at 45.8 percent.

TORCHING THE NETS IN THE LONG TERM
Bowling Green is 35-8 in head coach Louis Orr's five years when making at least half of its shots. A year ago, the Falcons reached 50 percent nine times and went 8-1 when doing so. This year, BGSU has shot 50 percent in a game nine times again and is 6-3 when doing so, including four MAC wins. The last BGSU team to shoot 50 percent more than nine times in a season was the 2004-05 squad that did it 14 times.

STREAKING
Bowling Green had its four-game winning streak snapped Wednesday night at Ohio. Prior to that run, the Falcons had not won or lost more than two games in a row all year.

SO THAT'S WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO WIN THERE
Three of Bowling Green's four road wins this year have come in locations in which the Falcons had not won since at least 2002. BGSU had one non-conference road win (against FIU) and has posted three conference road victories (Miami, Western Michigan, and Ball State), equaling last year's MAC road win total.

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 third in the conference and, once again, Scott Thomas and Jordon Crawford are leading the way individually. No other duo in the MAC has combined for the 103 steals those two have and Thomas tied the school record with eight against Miami. In fact, he leads the MAC in steals overall and in steals in league games only. He is fourth in BGSU history with 190 career steals and Crawford is now over the century mark with 118. Thomas ranks seventh in the country with 2.6 steals per game.

A RARE COMBINATION
With 15 more rebounds, Scott Thomas will move into some rare air in the Mid-American Conference. Already ranking in the top 10 in BGSU history in assists, he will become just the fourth player at any MAC school to rank in the top 10 in their school's history in those two categories, joining Miami's Ron Harper and Chet Mason, and Ball State's Bonzi Wells.

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 60-of-75 shots on the year, shooting 80.0 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 37-of-44 shots on the road, for an 84.1 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 10.8 points per game and has started 23-of-25 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 40-of-112 three-pointers (35.7 percent) and 44-of-64 free-throws (68.8 percent).

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 14.3 in the next ten. Over the past eight games, Calhoun is averaging 15.8 points per game, while shooting 52.7 percent from the floor and grabbing 6.8 rebounds per contest.

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.

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 23-of-25 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 had scored at least 30 points in the paint in seven consecutive games before being held to 16 at Eastern Michigan. In 2009-10 and 2010-11, the Falcons scored 20 or more points in the paint in 57-of-63 games.

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 five regular season games remaining and a minimum of one MAC Tournament game, Brown needs to average 4.7 points through the remainder of the year to reach that total as he sits at 972 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 34 of the Falcons' 40 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 surpassed that win total and are 4-6 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.

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 9-3 (.750) in the Stroh Center, the team's best home mark since the 2004-05 team went 12-3.

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.

FALCONS TO PLAY ON REGIONAL/NATIONAL TELEVISION
BGSU will play a minimum of seven 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, again Jan. 28 at Eastern Michigan, and then on Feb. 4 against Northern Illinois. The Falcons have two more STO games -- Feb. 25 at home against Kent State and March 3 at Buffalo.

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.

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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