Falcons Head To Buffalo To Deal With Bulls

BGSU at Buffalo
Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013; 7:00 p.m.
Alumni Arena (6,100) / Buffalo, N.Y.
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COMPLETE GAME NOTES (.PDF)

2012-13 MAC STANDINGS
EAST TEAMS	MAC	OVERALL
Akron	3-0	12-4
Ohio	3-0	12-5
Kent State	2-1	11-6
Miami	2-1	7-8
Bowling Green	1-2	6-10
Buffalo	0-3	5-12
WEST TEAMS	MAC	OVERALL
Toledo	2-1	6-8
Ball State	1-2	7-8
Central Michigan	1-2	8-8
Eastern Michigan	1-2	8-9
Northern Illinois	1-2	3-12
Western Michigan	1-2	9-7

QUICK HITS (SIZED FOR YOUR TWITTER ADDICTION)
* Bowling Green looks for its first road win Saturday as the Falcons play at Buffalo Saturday at 7 p.m.
* BGSU is 16-9 all-time against Buffalo, but the Bulls won both contests a year ago.
* With a win, the Falcons would be 2-2 in MAC play for the second consecutive season.
* Richaun Holmes ranks 17th in the country in blocked shots at 2.9 per contest.
* According to StatSheet, Richaun Holmes is blocking 16.7 percent of opponent's shots when he is on the floor -- third-best in the country.
* Richaun Holmes is on pace to block 85 shots in the regular season, 26 more than the school record.
* Richaun Holmes already is tied for fifth on the single-season blocked shot list at BGSU with 44 this year.
* Jordon Crawford has made 26 of his last 28 free-throws after making just 9-of-19 attempts to start the year.
* Jordon Crawford needs just four points to become the 41st player in BGSU history with 1,000 career points.
* With two blocked shots at Miami, Cam Black moved into 10th place in career rejections at BGSU with 83.
* BGSU has committed a MAC-low 12.6 turnovers per game. Toledo is second at 12.7 per contest.
* BGSU has won four games this year when shooting below 40 percent from the field.
* A'uston Calhoun and Jordon Crawford each scored at least 20 points in a game for the second time this year when doing so at Miami.
* Bowling Green shot a season-best 58 percent from the floor in Wednesday's loss at Miami.

FALCONS LOOK TO RETURN TO .500 AT BUFFALO
The Bowling Green men's basketball team is looking to get back to .500 in Mid-American Conference play and pick up its first road win of the season Saturday as the Falcons play at Buffalo at 7 p.m. Coming off of a last-second 63-60 loss at Miami Wednesday, Bowling Green is just 1-2 in conference play. Buffalo is the lone winless MAC team at 0-3.

THE SERIES
Despite losing two games last year, Bowling Green holds a 16-9 edge in the all-time series with Buffalo, which includes a 5-5 mark under Louis Orr. While the Falcons lost 68-64 in Buffalo a year ago, the team did win on the road against the Bulls in the 2010-11 season.

MIAMI EDGES FALCONS LATE
A'uston Calhoun and Jordon Crawford each scored 21 points but Miami closed out a tough game down the stretch for a 63-60 win over Bowling Green Wednesday night in Millett Hall. The Falcons led for much of the evening but the RedHawks took the lead late and Crawford's three-point attempt at the buzzer bounced off the back iron. Bowling Green led by as many as 10 points in the first half and held a 34-30 halftime lead.

BLOCK PARTY
Richaun Holmes has at least five blocked shots in three of the past six games, including a career-high six at North Dakota. With 44 this year, he is on pace to end the 31-game regular season with 85 rejections, which would shatter the school record of 59 for a single-season (Cornelius Cash in 1973-74). Holmes ranks 13th in the country with 2.9 per contest and is third in the country by blocking 16.7 percent of the shots taken when he is on the floor. He has blocked at least one shot in 12 consecutive games and ranks second in the MAC in blocked shots.

CLOSE THE DEAL
In eight of the team's 10 losses this year, the Falcons have been ahead or tied in the final 10 minutes. Six times, Bowling Green has had possession in the final 10 seconds of those losses with a chance to win or tie.

1,000 POINT TEAMMATES
Against Michigan State, A'uston Calhoun scored his 1,000th career point. With 996 points, Jordon Crawford needs just four more to reach that same mark. They would become just the eighth set of teammates to reach the milestone in the same season. It would also be the first time that it's happened in back-to-back seasons as Scott Thomas and Dee Brown both did it last year.

PLUS/MINUS
Although they rank just fourth and fifth on the team in scoring, Richaun Holmes and Anthony Henderson may have had the largest impact on the success of the team so far this year. Bowling Green has outscored its opponents by 35 points when Holmes is on the floor and 26 when Henderson is on the court. Those are the top two plus/minus ratings on the Falcons this year.

HEATING UP LATE
Over the past eight games, senior point guard Jordon Crawford has contributed much more offensively in the second half. He has scored just 33 first-half points during that stretch on 13-of-47 (27.7 percent) shooting, but has posted 87 points after halftime on 37-of-80 (46.3 percent) shooting.

1-2 PUNCH
Senior forward A'uston Calhoun and senior guard Jordon Crawford currently rank as the second-highest scoring duo in the Mid-American Conference. Calhoun and Crawford have combined for 32.5 points per game to trail Toledo's Julius Brown and Rian Pearson at 32.8 points per contest. Kent State's Chris Evans and Randal Holt are third at 31.3 points per game.

MORE OF THE DYNAMIC DUO
Both A'uston Calhoun and Jordon Crawford are averaging at least 16.0 points per game. The last BG teammates to finish a season at 16.0 points per game or better were John Reimold (18.5 points) and Josh Almanson (17.2 points) in 2004-05.

50% IS GREATER THAN 80%
Under Head Coach Louis Orr, Bowling Green has won more than 80 percent of its games when its shoots at least 50 percent from the floor. A year ago, the Falcons went 8-3 in such games and are 37-9 in Orr's five years at Bowling Green when reaching that total. BG shot 50 percent from the field for the first time in a loss at Miami Wednesday.

HINDSIGHT IS 20-20
When Jordon Crawford and A'uston Calhoun each scored 21 points at Miami, it marked the second time this year that the senior duo has each reached the 20-point mark in the same game. Unfortunately, the Falcons have lost both of those contests (the other being a triple overtime loss at South Florida). In fact, Bowling Green has lost all three games in their careers when they both scored 20 points (losing at Valparaiso a year ago).

BLOCKING OUT
Bowling Green has had as many or more blocked shots than its opponent in 14-of-16 games this year, including a season-high 10 against USF. It marked the first time the Falcons had 10 blocked shots in a game since blocking 11 at Illinois State on Dec. 6, 2008. Sophomore transfer Richaun Holmes has led the way with 44 blocks, ranking second in the MAC.

WINNING UGLY
One sign of a good team is the ability to win games when not playing at its best. Four times this year, the Falcons have won games when shooting below 40 percent from the field, beating Lake Erie, Wright State, Samford and Eastern Michigan. A year ago, BGSU lost all seven contests when it show below 40 percent.

HOME COURT ADVANTAGE
In just over one year, the Stroh Center has proven to be a difficult place for opponents to play. The Falcons are 5-2 this year at home after going 12-4 a year ago, including a mark of 3-0 against teams that eventually went to the NCAA Tournament (victories over Detroit, Temple and Ohio). The 17-6 record in the Stroh Center comes out to a .739 winning percentage, which is higher than the program's .709 winning percentage in Anderson Arena, the home for the Falcons from 1960-2011.

D-FENSE! D-FENSE!
Earlier this year, Bowling Green held Wright State and Samford to 42 points or less in back-to-back games. It was the first time the team had done that in successive games since doing so against Loyola and Pepperdine on Dec. 22 and Dec. 27, 1949. It also marked the first time the team held back-to-back opponents to 83 points or less since holding Western Ontario and Miami to 82 points on Dec. 8 and Dec. 12, 1962.

STROH IN THE 70'S
BGSU is 6-0 all-time when scoring at least 70 points in the Stroh Center. The Falcons went 5-0 last year and defeated Detroit 70-65 this year.

NOT ONE, NOT TWO, BUT THREE OVERTIMES
While the school record for overtimes in a single game is four, Bowling Green played a triple overtime contest for the first time in 20 years against South Florida earlier this year. The last time the Falcons went that deep into the night came in a 91-88 loss to Ball State on Jan. 29, 1992. Overall, the Falcons have played in four overtime sessions already this year, the most since the team played four overtime games in the 2001-02 season.

THE POST GAME
Head coach Louis Orr's philosophy is always to play inside-out and the Falcons have done that well during his tenure. In the past four seasons, BGSU has scored 20 or more points in the paint in 98-of-110 games. The high-water mark came when Bowling Green scored 58 points in the paint against Malone a year ago.

FRESH FACES
BGSU head coach Louis Orr announced the signing of three student-athletes during the fall signing period. J.D. Tisdale (Flint, Mich./Swartz Creek High School), Zach Denny (Germantown, Ohio/Valley View High School) and Garret Mayleben (Milford, Ohio/Milford High School) will join transfer Josh Gomez (Brooklyn, N.Y./Rice High School/Iona) among next year's incoming class.

LITTLE BIG MAN
At 5-feet-6, junior point guard Jordon Crawford is likely the best player in the country at his height. Over the summer, Bleacher Report named him the best Division I player in the nation at his height. Crawford currently ranks fifth in the MAC at 16.4 points per game.

FALCONS ON REGIONAL/NATIONAL TELEVISION
BGSU will play a minimum of three games on ESPNU and SportsTime Ohio this year. The Falcons hosted Michigan State on ESPNU on Dec. 18 and then played host to Eastern Michigan on STO on Jan. 12. The third guaranteed contest comes on STO on Jan. 30 at home against Akron. There will be 10 more MAC games selected to be aired on ESPN/STO throughout the year.

PRESEASON ALL-MAC
A'uston Calhoun earned East Division Preseason All-MAC honors by voting of 24 members of the MAC News Media. Calhoun was one of five players selected in the East Division, joining Buffalo's Javon McCrea, Akron's Zeke Marshall, and Ohio's D.J. Cooper and Walter Offutt.

MEDIA PICKS BOWLING GREEN FIFTH
Bowling Green was picked to finish fifth in the East Division by vote of 24 members of the MAC News Media. The Falcons were chosen ahead of Miami, while Ohio was selected to win the division, followed by Akron, Kent State and Buffalo.

CSM HONORS CALHOUN, CRAWFORD
College Sports Madness released its preseason All-MAC awards, naming A'uston Calhoun first team preseason All-MAC and Jordon Crawford third team.

A'USTON IS ALL-MAC
A'uston Calhoun was named to the 2012 All-MAC Second Team by vote of the league's 12 head coaches after being named honorable mention in 2011. Calhoun ranked fifth in the MAC in scoring in league games (15.1 points per game), eighth in field-goal percentage (50.3 percent), and 12th in rebounding (5.4 per game).

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