Falcons Host NIU Saturday For STO Broadcast

Bowling Green Falcons (10-11, 4-4 MAC) vs. Northern Illinois Huskies (2-18, 1-7 MAC)
Feb. 4, 2012 • 6 p.m. • Bowling Green, Ohio • Stroh Center (4,347)
Radio: Falcon Radio Network • Todd Walker (Play-by-Play)/Kirk Cowan (Color)
Television: SportsTime Ohio • Michael Reghi (Play-by-Play)/Steve Mix (Color)
Live Stats: http://www.bgsufalcons.com
Live Video: America One Network
Live Audio: Stretch Internet
Complete Game Notes (.pdf)
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SPECIAL $16 ALUMNI DAY TICKET (GOOD FOR BOTH MEN'S/WOMEN'S GAMES)

QUICK HITS
* Coming off of its biggest road MAC win in 11 years, Bowling Green hosts Northern Illinois Saturday at 6 p.m. in a game televised by SportsTime Ohio. The Falcons got back to .500 (4-4) in league play with Wednesday's win and all four of the team's league losses have been by five points or less. Northern Illinois enters at 2-18 overall and 1-7 in MAC play.
* BGSU is 28-25 in 53 meetings all-time with Northern Illinois and the Falcons have won the last five meetings against the Huskies.
* Scott Thomas ranks second in the MAC and 10th in the country with 2.5 steals per game. He has at least three steals in four of the past five games and has at least one in every game this year.
* A'uston Calhoun is averaging 17.5 points and 7.8 rebounds in the past four games. He scored a career-high 29 against Buffalo and had his first double-double of the season with 14 points and 11 rebounds against Central Michigan.
* Thomas and Jordon Crawford each have 281 career assists, sitting just two shy of breaking into the top 10 in school history.
* Crawford leads the MAC in assists in conference play (6.3 per game) and has at least three assists in 15 consecutive games.
* Bowling Green has shot 50 percent or better in a game nine times this year, including five of the last eight contests. The Falcons are 6-3 when reaching that percentage and the team has done it in all four conference wins.
* Cam Black has had at least one block in eight straight games and ranks third in the MAC in that category. He recorded his 50th career rejection against Eastern Michigan.
* With 33 blocked shots this year, Black is just three away from moving into the top 10 in a single-season. Marc Larson ranks 10th on the chart with 36 during the 2007-08 season.
* Dee Brown scored a season-high 21 points against Western Michigan and has now reached double-figures in eight straight games. He is closing in on 1,000 career points with 928.

BGSU RETURNS HOME TO HOST NORTHERN ILLINOIS ON STO
Coming off of a 24-point road win at Western Michigan, Bowling Green returns home to host Northern Illinois Saturday at 6 p.m. in a game televised by SportsTime Ohio. The Falcons returned to .500 with Wednesday night's victory and can build some momentum to start the second half of conference play against NIU. Bowling Green ended Northern Illinois' season a year ago in the first round of the MAC Tournament, a game which served as the final men's basketball game ever played in Anderson Arena. The Huskies enter Saturday's game just 2-18 overall with only one win over an NCAA Division I program.

THE SERIES
Bowling Green is 28-25 all-time against Northern Illinois and the Huskies are the only Mid-American Conference team that has not posted a win over the Falcons under Louis Orr. Orr's teams are 5-0 against NIU, including a first round MAC Tournament victory last year. Bowling Green has won three consecutive meetings over the Huskies at home.

SCOUTING NORTHERN ILLINOIS
Under first-year head coach Mark Montgomery, Northern Illinois is undergoing an extreme rebuilding project. The Huskies are just 2-18 overall with their only win over an NCAA Division I program coming against Central Michigan. On top of that, NIU's leading scorer Tim Toler was dismissed from the team four games ago. There are, however, still some dangerous weapons on the team, led by Abdel Nader, who averages 10.5 points and had made a team-high 26 three-pointers. In fact, four active Huskies have made at least 12 three-pointers on the year. Montgomery, a long-time assistant to Tom Izzo, has brought the hard-nosed Michigan State rebounding system to Northern Illinois as the Huskies lead the league in offensive rebounds and rank third overall with a +3.5 rebounding margin.

LAST GAME: FALCONS ROUT WESTERN MICHIGAN
Bowling Green made 14 of its first 15 second-half shots as the Falcons turned a two-point halftime lead into a 72-48 rout of Western Michigan Wednesday. The loss was the Broncos' first home defeat of the year and it was the first time the Falcons have won in University Arena since 2002. In fact, it was Bowling Green's largest road MAC win in 11 years. Dee Brown scored a season-high 21 points and Jordon Crawford controlled the offense in the second half, posting 13 points and seven assists in the final 20 minutes. A'uston Calhoun added 15 points as Bowling Green shot 76 percent in the second half and scored 33 points off of 22 Western Michigan turnovers. The Falcons also had a season-high 12 steals in the game.

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 a three-way tie for sixth with Ball State and Western Michigan. If the MAC Tournament were to start today, Bowling Green would be the No. 6 seed and would host No. 11 seed Miami in the first round.

TORCHING THE NETS
Offensively, Bowling Green has played well in Mid-American Conference play, ranking third in the league in scoring offense, field goal percentage, and three-point percentage. The Falcons have shot at least 50 percent from the floor in five of the eight conference contests (including all four wins) and are shooting 47.6 percent in total, behind only Akron at 48.8 percent and Kent State at 48.9 percent. Bowling Green is also shooting 39.2 percent from three-point range, behind Kent State at 39.7 percent and Akron at 41.3 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 all 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.

FIRST HALF ROAD WOES
Bowling Green is just 3-8 on the road this year, but most of the team's struggles have come in the first half. The Falcons have led at the half just once (a two-point lead at Western Michigan) but have outscored their opponent in the second half eight times. In fact, Bowling Green trails by an average of 6.5 points at the break but has outscored its opponents by 5.3 points in the second half. BGSU average 26.4 first-half points on the road and 39.2 second-half points.

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. Earlier this year, he tied the program record with eight steals in one game and currently has 179 for his career, fourth all-time at Bowling Green. Thomas also ranks ninth in school history with 126 career three-pointers, needs two assists to break into the top 10, and has over 600 career rebounds. 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.

NO STREAKING HERE
Bowling Green has not won or lost more than two games in a row all season. The Falcons have 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).

SO THAT'S WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO WIN THERE
All three of Bowling Green's road wins this year have come in locations in which the Falcons had not won in at least nine years. BGSU had one non-conference road win (against FIU) and has posted two conference road victories (Miami and Western Michigan).

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 82 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 is fourth in BGSU history with 179 career steals and Crawford is now over the century mark with 108. Thomas ranks 10th in the country with 2.5 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 53-of-65 shots on the year, shooting 81.5 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 35-of-41 shots on the road, for an 85.4 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 11.0 points per game and has started 19-of-21 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 34-of-90 three-pointers (37.8 percent) and 37-of-53 free-throws (69.8 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 14.4 in the next ten. Over the past four games, Calhoun is averaging 17.5 points per game, while shooting 56.3 percent from the floor and grabbing 7.8 rebounds per contest.

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 19-of-21 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.

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 nine regular season games remaining and a minimum of one MAC Tournament game, Brown needs to average 7.2 points through the remainder of the year to reach that total as he sits at 928 career points.

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).

DEFENSE WINS
Over the course of the past three years, Bowling Green has held its opponent to 45 percent shooting or worse in 33 of the Falcons' 38 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.

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.

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

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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