Tourney Time! Falcons Open MAC Tournament At Home Monday

No. 6 Bowling Green Falcons (16-14) vs. No. 11 Central Michigan Chippewas (10-20)
March 5, 2012 • 7 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 hosts Central Michigan in the first round of the MAC Tournament Monday night at 7 p.m. The Falcons are the No. 6 seed after going 9-7 in the regular season and CMU is the No. 11 seed after going 5-11.
* Bowling Green is 37-31 all-time against Central Michigan, including a 71-58 win in the Stroh Center earlier this year. CMU won the only postseason meeting, an 87-70 victory in the 2003 MAC Tournament Quarterfinals.
* 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 11th in the country with 2.4 steals per game. His 2.7 steals in conference games is eighth-most in the country.
* Thomas had at least one steal in every game this year, until going without one in the final regular season game at Buffalo.
* The Falcons are 9-1 when making more three-pointers than their opponent.
* 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 45 blocked shots are the fourth-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 141 is 104 spots higher than a year ago (second-largest increase in the MAC behind Eastern Michigan's jump of 112 spots) and the highest for the program since the 2004-05 team ended the year at 103.

FALCONS BEGIN MAC TOURNAMENT MONDAY
Bowling Green will need to win five games in six days to earn its first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 1968 and the Falcons will open that trek at home Monday night at 7 p.m. BGSU, seeded sixth, will host No. 11 seed Central Michigan. A year ago, the Falcons were the seventh seed and defeated Northern Illinois at home in the first round of the conference tournament. Bowling Green has won at least one game in the MAC Tournament in two of the past three years.

THE SERIES
Bowling Green is 37-31 all-time against Central Michigan, including a 71-58 win over the Chippewas in the Stroh Center earlier this year. A'uston Calhoun had 14 points and 11 rebounds, while Jordon Crawford had 14 points and seven assists. The Falcons led by 10 at the half and by as many as 20 in the second half. These two teams have met just once in the MAC Tournament previously with Central Michigan earning an 87-70 win in Gund Arena in the 2003 quarterfinals.

SCOUTING CENTRAL MICHIGAN
Central Michigan enters Monday's contest with a record of 10-20 overall and the Chippewas went 5-11 in conference play. CMU, though, has been surging of late and closed the season with wins in two of its final three contests. Central Michigan, though, went just 2-13 on the road this year and only 1-7 in MAC play, defeating Eastern Michigan 60-56 in Ypsilanti. Sophomore guard Trey Zeigler is a dynamic player and head coach Ernie Zeigler's son. He is averaging 16.2 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, while ranking second on the team in assists, blocks, and steals. The Chippewas rank last in the MAC in free-throw shooting and rebounding margin, but are second in turnover margin and fourth in blocked shots. Coach Zeigler is in his sixth season at CMU with a career record of 74-110.

LAST GAME: BUFFALO HOLDS OFF FALCONS LATE
Buffalo scored the final seven points of the second half to earn the No. 2 seed for the MAC Tournament in a 68-64 win over Bowling Green Saturday night. The Falcons led 31-30 at the half and had a nine-point lead with nine minutes remaining but the Bulls went on a 12-0 run to take the lead. The Falcons fought back to take a 64-61 lead on a Jordon Crawford three-pointer but Buffalo closed the game out. A'uston Calhoun scored a game-high 23 points and Dee Brown had 15 points, five rebounds, five assists, and four 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) earned a triple-bye into the semifinals and the next two best records earned a double-bye to the quarterfinals. Teams seeded fifth through eighth will host a first-round game Monday against teams seeded nine through 12. Bowling Green earned the No. 6 seed and will need to win five games to win the MAC Tournament.

Monday, March 5, 2012
First Round (High Seed Campus Sites)
Game 1: No. 12 Northern Illinois at No. 5 Eastern Michigan, 7 p.m.
Game 2: No. 9 Ball State at No. 8 Western Michigan, 7 p.m.
Game 3: No. 10 Miami at No. 7 Toledo, 7 p.m.
Game 4: No. 11 Central Michigan at No. 6 Bowling Green, 7 p.m.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012 (Quicken Loans Arena)
Second Round (Games on STO)
Game 5: Game 1 Winner vs. Game 2 Winner, 7 p.m.
Game 6: Game 3 Winner vs. Game 4 Winner, 9:30 p.m.

Thursday, March 8, 2012 (Quicken Loans Arena)
Quarterfinals (Games on STO)
Game 7: Game 5 Winner vs. No. 4 Kent State, 7 p.m.
Game 8: Game 6 Winner vs. No. 3 Ohio, 9:30 p.m.

Friday, March 9, 2012 (Quicken Loans Arena)
Semifinals (Games on STO)
Game 9: Game 7 winner vs. No. 1 Akron, 7 p.m.
Game 10: Game 8 winner vs. No. 2 Buffalo, 9:30 p.m.

Saturday, March 10, 2012 (Quicken Loans Arena)
MAC Championship
Game 11: Championship Game, 8 p.m. (ESPN2)

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 121 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 127. Thomas ranks 11th in the country with 2.4 steals per game and he had at least one in every game of the regular season until foul trouble limited his minutes against Buffalo and kept him from getting one.

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 16 conference contests and are shooting 46.2 percent in total, behind only Akron and Buffalo, both at 46.3 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.

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.

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 28-of-30 contests.

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.

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.

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 28-of-30 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 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 18.3 points on 54 percent shooting in the last four contests.

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.

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 58-of-148 three-pointers (39.2 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 7-8 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 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 close out the regular season on STO at Buffalo on March 3 and every game Bowling Green plays in Cleveland during the MAC Tournament will be televised on the regional sports channel.

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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