Falcons Host Miami For MAC Tourney Monday Night

BGSU vs. Miami
MAC Tournament First Round
Monday, March 11, 2013; 7:00 p.m.
Stroh Center (4,280) / Bowling Green, Ohio
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COMPLETE GAME NOTES (.PDF)

2013 MAC TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
First Round March 11 - Campus Sites Game 1 - #9 Central Michigan (4-12) at #8 Buffalo (7-9), 7 pm Game 2 - #10 Northern Illinois (3-13) at #7 Eastern Michigan (7-9), 7 pm Game 3 - #11 Miami (3-13) at #6 Bowling Green (7-9), 7 pm Second Round March 13 - Quicken Loans Arena Game 4 - #5 Ball State (8-8) vs. Game 1 Winner, 6:30 PM (STO) Game 5 - Game 2 Winner vs. Game 3 Winner, 9 PM (STO) Third Round March 14 - Quicken Loans Arena Game 6 - #4 Kent State (9-7) vs. Game 4 Winner, 6:30 PM (STO) Game 7 - #3 WMU (10-6) vs. Game 5 Winner, 9 PM (STO) Semifinals March 15 - Quicken Loans Arena Game 8 - #1 Akron (14-2) vs. Game 6 Winner, 6:30 PM (STO) Game 9 - #2 Ohio (14-2) vs. Game 7 Winner, 9 PM (STO) Championship March 16 - Quicken Loans Arena Game 8 Winner vs. Game 9 Winner, 6:30 PM (ESPN2)

QUICK HITS (SIZED FOR YOUR TWITTER ADDICTION)
* Bowling Green opens the MAC Tournament Monday night by hosting Miami in the first round at 7 p.m.
* The Falcons are the No. 6 seed for the MAC Tournament and Miami is the No. 11 seed.
* BGSU defeated Miami in the Stroh Center 52-44 just about two weeks ago.
* BGSU is 11-4 at home this year, while Miami is 3-13 on the road.
* Bowling Green is 52-77 all-time against Miami but has won four straight against the RedHawks at home.
* BGSU and Miami last played in the MAC Tournament in 2005, with the RedHawks winning 84-64 in the second round.
* With 72 blocked shots this year, Richaun Holmes is BGSU's all-time single-season leader.
* Bowling Green has dominated in the paint lately, scoring 94 points in the key over the past two games.
* A'uston Calhoun needs 30 points to pass the great Nate Thurmond for 18th place on BGSU's career scoring list.
* Jordon Crawford had 26 points on 9-of-13 shooting in Friday night's win over Buffalo.
* Richaun Holmes' .627 field-goal percentage is currently the sixth-best single-season in BGSU history.
* A'uston Calhoun needs three rebounds to reach 600 for his career.
* BGSU has outrebounded 5-of-6 opponents (and tied Kent State). The Falcons are +52 during the six-game stretch.
* The Falcons lost at home in a MAC Tournament First Round game against Central Michigan a year ago.
* If BGSU wins Monday, the Falcons will play the winner of No. 7 E. Michigan and No. 10 N. Illinois Wednesday at 9 pm at Quicken Loans Arena.

MAC TOURNAMENT STARTS MONDAY NIGHT
Bowling Green hosts Miami Monday night at 7 p.m. for the first round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament. The Falcons are the No. 6 seed, while Miami is seeded 11th. It is the third consecutive year in which BGSU has hosted a first-round game and the second straight year that Bowling Green plays as the No. 6 seed. Two years ago, the Falcons (seeded seventh) beat Northern Illinois in the opening round, but Central Michigan upset Bowling Green last year. BGSU and Miami split two games this year, each winning at home.

THE SERIES
Bowling Green is 52-77 all-time against Miami, including a split of two regular season games this year. The RedHawks won the first meeting, 63-60 in Oxford, before Bowling Green won 52-44 just about two weeks ago. The Falcons have won four in a row at home over Miami and are 5-1 against the RedHawks in Bowling Green under Head Coach Louis Orr. The teams have not played each other in the MAC Tournament since an 85-65 Miami win in the 2005 quarterfinals. In fact, the RedHawks are 7-1 against Bowling Green in the MAC Tournament all-time.

LAST GAME: CRAWFORD'S 26 POINTS GUIDES BG PAST BUFFALO
Bowling Green overcame an eight-point deficit as Jordon Crawford scored 20 second-half points in a 76-65 win over Buffalo to close the regular season Friday night. Crawford had a game-high 26 points on the evening and A'uston Calhoun added 15 points and four rebounds. Cam Black had a season-high 13 points to go with six rebounds, two blocks, two assists and a steal. The Falcons shot 58 percent in the second half and outscored the Bulls 44-30 over the final 20 minutes. BGSU held a 32-29 rebounding edge and had just nine turnovers, seven fewer than Buffalo.

BLOCK PARTY
With four blocked shots at Akron, Richaun Holmes broke the BGSU single-season record of 59, set by Cornelius Cash in 1973-74. Holmes has 72 blocks this year and ranks 36th in the country with 2.3 per game. He has blocked at least four shots seven times this year and had a string of 15 consecutive games with at least one blocked shot earlier this year. On top of that, Holmes' 72 blocks rank as one of the top 20 single seasons in MAC history.

PROTECT THIS HOUSE
Bowling Green's 132 blocked shots this season are the second-most for the program since it became an official statistic in 1985-86. Only the 2007-08 team blocked more shots, posting 152.

CONTROLLING THE PAINT
In Bowling Green's loss to Kent State Tuesday, the Falcons scored a season-best 50 points in the paint. The team followed it up with 44 points in the paint against Buffalo Friday night. The 94 points in back-to-back games is the most since the team had 58 against Malone and 44 against Valparaiso in consecutive games a year ago.

CHAIRMEN OF THE BOARDS
For most of the season, Bowling Green struggled to rebound and the Falcons were -61 on the year following the Akron game on Feb. 16. But over the past six games, the Falcons have not been outrebounded (they tied Kent State) and, in fact, are a dominant +52 on the boards, an average of 8.7 per game more than the opposition.

THE SPLITS
Bowling Green's home and away free-throw shooting numbers are eye-popping. On the road, the Falcons have attempted 35 fewer free-throws than opponents have made, shooting just 68.1 percent. At home, Bowling Green has attempted 34 more free-throws than opponents, shooting 72.2 percent at the stripe. In 13 road games, BGSU has been outscored by an average of 6.6 points per game at the free-throw line.

STIFLING
Five times this year Bowling Green has held an opponent to 44 points or fewer in a game. The last time a BGSU team held their opponents to that few points five times or more came in the 1949-50 season when Harold Anderson's crew kept seven teams below 45 points.

1-2 PUNCH
Senior forward A'uston Calhoun and senior guard Jordon Crawford are one of three sets of teammates in the Mid-American Conference averaging at least 30.0 points per game combined at 30.4 points this year. Kent State's Chris Evans and Randal Holt, along with Toledo's Rian Pearson and Julius Brown, are at 31.0 points.

67 OR FEWER
Bowling Green is 0-13 this year when opponents score at least 68 points and 13-5 when holding those teams to 67 or less. To go one step further, the Falcons had held their opponents to 60 points or less in nine consecutive wins before Buffalo scored 65 Friday night in a BGSU victory.

HOME COURT ADVANTAGE
In two years, the Stroh Center has proven to be a difficult place for opponents to play. The Falcons are 11-4 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 23-8 record in the Stroh Center comes out to a .742 winning percentage, which is higher than the program's .709 winning percentage in Anderson Arena, the home for the Falcons from 1960-2011. BGSU went 6-2 at home in league games in each of the past two seasons.

STROH IN THE 70'S
BGSU is 11-0 all-time when scoring at least 70 points in the Stroh Center. The Falcons went 5-0 last year and are 6-0 this year with wins over Detroit, Kent State, Ball State, Western Michigan, New Orleans and Buffalo when scoring 70 or more.

DOUBLE-DIGIT HOME WINS
With a win over Miami two weeks ago, the Falcons have won at least 10 home games in each of the past three years.

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 39-9 in Orr's five years at Bowling Green when reaching that total. BG has shot 50 percent from the field three times this year, beating Ball State and Western Michigan at home after losing to Miami on the road.

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 blocked as many or more shots than its opponent in 23-of-31 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 72 blocks, ranking third 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. The Falcons also won when shooting exactly 40 percent Wednesday against Miami.

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.

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 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 111-of-123 games. The high-water mark came when Bowling Green scored 58 points in the paint against Malone a year ago.

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