Falcons Close Season Saturday At Buffalo On STO

Bowling Green Falcons (16-13, 9-6 MAC) at Buffalo Bulls (18-9, 11-4 MAC)
March 3, 2012 • 6 p.m. • Buffalo, N.Y. • Alumni Arena (6,100)
Radio: Falcon Radio Network • Todd Walker (Play-by-Play)
Television: SportsTime Ohio • Michael Reghi (Play-by-Play)/Steve Mix (Color)
Live Stats: http://www.BuffaloBulls.com
Live Video: Mid-American Conference
Live Audio: Stretch Internet
Complete Game Notes (.pdf)
PURCHASE TICKETS

QUICK HITS
* BGSU plays at Buffalo Saturday night at 6 p.m. in a game televised on SportsTime Ohio. The Falcons could still earn either the fifth or sixth seed for the MAC Tournament and the team looks to build momentum from a 7-2 February.
* Bowling Green holds a 16-8 lead in the all-time series against Buffalo but the Bulls did win earlier this year. The Falcons have won two of the past three meetings in Buffalo.
* BGSU has exceeded its overall win total from each of the past two seasons. The nine conference wins are the most since the 2008-09 team won the MAC regular season with 11 wins.
* Scott Thomas remains at the top of the MAC and ranks 10th in the country with 2.5 steals per game. His 2.9 steals in conference games is fifth-most in the country.
* Thomas has at least one steal in every game this year.
* BGSU went 7-2 in February, the program's best month since going an identical 7-2 in December of 2006.
* The Falcons are 9-1 when making more three-pointers than their opponent. The team has made at least as many as their opponent in five straight games.
* Thomas' 73 steals are tied for the second-most in a single-season in BGSU history. He has 199 career steals, needing one more to become the third Falcon ever with at least 200.
* Cam Black's 43 blocked shots are the fifth-most in a single-season in BGSU history.
* With nine rebounds against Miami, Scott Thomas moved into the top 10 in career boards. He is one of only four players (and the only active one) from MAC institutions to rank in their program's top 10 in rebounds and assists.
* Bowling Green's RPI of 138 is 107 spots higher than a year ago (second-largest increase in the MAC behind Eastern Michigan's jump of 121 spots) and the highest for the program since the 2004-05 team ended the year at 103.

FALCONS SURGING TO CLOSE REGULAR SEASON
Bowling Green has gone 6-2 in February and has closed to within one game of fourth place in the Mid-American Conference. The top four teams in the league earn byes to at least the MAC Tournament quarterfinals so the Falcons can continue to work towards one of those Wednesday against Miami. Bowling Green is 8-6 in conference play, while Miami is 5-9. The RedHawks also have much to play for as Miami is battling for a top eight finish to earn a MAC Tournament First Round home game.

THE SERIES
Bowling Green is 16-8 all-time against Buffalo and has had success on the road in the series, winning two of the last three away contests, including a 74-71 win last year. Buffalo earned a 68-66 victory in the Stroh Center earlier this year.

SCOUTING BUFFALO
Buffalo enters the weekend at 18-9 overall and 11-4 in MAC play and could earn a co-MAC regular season title this weekend if Akron loses Friday night and the Bulls win Saturday. Buffalo has secured a bye to at least the quarterfinals of the MAC Tournament and has two conference Player of the Year candidates in senior Mitchell Watt and sophomore Javon McCrea. Watt averages 15.9 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 2.5 blocked shots per game, while McCrea is at 15.1 points and 7.1 rebounds. The Bulls are the top offensive team in the conference at 72.8 points per game and hold opponents to a league-low 38.9 percent shooting. Buffalo is also the best rebounding and shot-blocking team in the conference, while handing out a MAC-high 16.4 assists per game. Head coach Reggie Witherspoon is 226-229 in 15 years of head coach experience.

LAST GAME: FALCONS SWEEP SEASON SERIES WITH MIAMI
Bowling Green outscored Miami 7-2 down the stretch to defeat the RedHawks 56-51 Wednesday night in the Stroh Center on Senior Night. The Falcons built a 12-point second half lead but Miami used a 14-0 run to storm back. Tied at 49-49, Bowling Green scored on three straight possessions to earn the win. Jordon Crawford led the Falcons with 16 points and Scott Thomas had 10 points, nine rebounds and two steals. A'uston Calhoun added 15 points and Dee Brown had 11 points and four rebounds, including a late three-pointer that put the Falcons on top.

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 tied with Eastern Michigan for fifth place and will finish as either the fifth or sixth-seed, hosting a MAC Tournament First Round game Monday night at 7 p.m. If the MAC Tournament were to start today, the Falcons would earn the No. 6 seed and would host Central Michigan in the first round.

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 six of the 15 conference contests and are shooting 46.3 percent in total, behind only Akron at 46.4 percent.

TORCHING THE NETS IN THE LONG TERM
Bowling Green is 37-8 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 11 times and is 8-3 when doing so, including five MAC wins. The last BGSU team to shoot 50 percent more than 11 times in a season was the 2004-05 squad that did it 14 times.

EVEN MORE SHOOTING PROWESS
Bowling Green is 5-0 this year when shooting at least 54 percent from the floor, defeating Temple, Malone, Western Michigan, Morehead State, and Kent State. The Falcons did not shoot better than 52.1 percent a year ago.

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 120 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 third in BGSU history with 199 career steals and Crawford is now over the century mark with 126. Thomas ranks 10th in the country with 2.5 steals per game and he has at least one in every game this year.

AVOIDING LOSING STREAKS
Bowling Green had a four-game winning streak snapped at Ohio, but that was the first time BGSU had either won or lost more than two in a row all year. Bowling Green has not gone a full season without at least one three-game losing streak since the 2004-05 team posted three two-game losing streaks but never lost more than that in a row.

ONE OF THE BEST
With nine rebounds against Miami, Scott Thomas moved into 10th place all-time at BGSU in career rebounds. He already ranked in the top 10 in career steals, assists, and three-pointers made, becoming just the fifth player in BGSU history to rank in the top 10 in four different statistical categories.

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.

A RARE COMBINATION
With nine rebounds against Miami, Scott Thomas joined a select group in Mid-American Conference history. Already ranking in the top 10 in BGSU history in assists, he became 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.

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 27-of-29 contests.

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 72-of-93 shots on the year, shooting 77.4 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.

THE BIG APOSTROPHE
Junior A'uston Calhoun has continually turned his game up as the 2011-12 season has worn on, averaging more points at a higher shooting percentage throughout. He averaged just 2.5 points in the first two games of the season, improved to 12.4 points over the next five, 14.3 in the next ten and 14.6 over the next nine. He has again picked up his game, and is averaging 16.7 points on 61 percent shooting in the last three contests.

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 27-of-29 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.

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 57-of-146 three-pointers (39.0 percent) and 47-of-69 free-throws (68.1 percent). He made eight three-pointers in the team's BracketBusters win over Morehead State, the most since Jay Larranaga set the school record with nine in a 103-78 win over Akron on Feb. 8, 1997.

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. Dee Brown followed with a long jumper at Akron to become the 39th to reach that milestone. The duo is just the seventh in school history to score 1,000 career points in the same season.

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' 44 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 been able to overcome solid shooting nights from an opponent and are 7-7 when allowing 45 percent or higher field-goal percentage. 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 12-3 (.800) in the Stroh Center, the team's best home mark since the 2004-05 team also went 12-3. The team has not won 13 home games since going 13-1 in 2001-02.

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, on Feb. 4 against Northern Illinois, and then again on Feb. 25 at home against Kent State. The Falcons have a minimum of one more STO game -- March 3 at Buffalo. If Bowling Green advances to Cleveland for the MAC Tournament, each of those games will be televised on STO as well.

FALCONS EARN MAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK AWARDS
Scott Thomas and A'uston Calhoun have each earned Mid-American Conference East Division Player of the Week awards. Thomas won the award Nov. 28 after averaging 12.0 points and 5.8 rebounds in a 3-1 week. Calhoun received the award on Feb. 13 after averaging 23.5 points and 10.5 rebounds in wins over Ball State and Toledo.

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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