BGSU Returns Home To Host Niagara Tuesday Night For Final November Home Game

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team will be back at the Stroh Center Tuesday night (Nov. 19), hosting the Niagara Purple Eagles. BGSU and Niagara are scheduled for a 7 p.m. tip with a White Out at the Stroh Center for Falcon Fans. The game will mark the last home contest for Bowling Green until Dec. 7 with BGSU coming off a close game against Michigan State on Saturday (Nov. 16). The game between the Falcons and Purple Eagles will be available to stream on ESPN+ with a radio feed from Todd Walker on WFRO Eagle 99.

Opening Tip
The Falcons and Purple Eagles will be meeting for the 10th time in program history with Niagara holding the all-time advantage with a 6-3 record. Niagara's visit to the Stroh Center will be the first trip to Bowling Green for the Purple Eagles since the 1972 season. The game will be a white out at the Stroh Center with fans asked to wear white in support of the Falcons. This will mark the final home game in the month of November for the Falcons with BGSU's next home game being on Dec. 7.

A Bowling Green Win Would…

Mark the first win over Niagara for the Falcons since the 1967 season and the first at home since the 1954 campaign.
Push the Falcons above .500 at home with their second-straight home win.
Bring Bowling Green's record in the month of November during the Simon Era back to .500 with a 6-6 record.
Give Coach Simon 148 career wins as a head coach, nearing the 150-milestone.

Scouting The Purple Eagles
Niagara enters the game against the Falcons with three games played this year, opening the season with a 100-65 win over Houghton before losses on the road to Michigan State and Detroit Mercy. Against the Spartans, the lone common opponent, Niagara fell 96-60 with Olumide Adelodun leading the team with 13 points while Jahari Williamson went 4-of-8 from three. The game against BGSU will be Niagara's third-straight road game in a string of seven with them playing fellow MAC member, Kent State, on Thursday (Nov. 21).

BGSU vs. Niagara, All-Time
This will be the 10th meeting all-time between Bowling Green and Niagara, but just the second since 1972, playing in 2010 with a neutral site game. The Purple Eagles will be making the trip to Bowling Green for the first time since 1972 and have won the last four meetings between the teams. For the Falcons, their last win in the series came on Dec. 14, 1967 on the road while the last home win for BGSU over Niagara was on Feb. 15, 1954 with a 104-67 final score.

Johnson, Marcus Or Magic?
Following the game against Michigan State, Tom Izzo was quoted as saying that Bowling Green's Marcus Johnson reminded him of Magic Johnson, garnering national attention from multiple outlets, including the Field of 68. The stat line matches up for the Falcon. For BGSU, Johnson scored 23 points, his first 20-point game of the season, with five rebounds and two assists, leading the Falcons in all three stats for the game. Through the first four games this season, Johnson is one of just two Falcons to record double-digit points in every game and is averaging a team-high 18.8 points. Last year at D-II Wheeling, Johnson finished 14th in the nation for points per game (21.6).

Three-Defense Top 10 In The Nation
Through the first four games of the season, Bowling Green has been one of the best teams in the nation against the three-point shot. The Falcons are allowing teams to shoot just 22.4% from deep, the seventh-best mark in the nation behind only LSU, Pacific, North Dakota, Iowa State, Coastal Carolina and Michigan. Only one team has shot above 23% from deep against the Falcons with Davidson shooting 40%. Bowling Green held Southern Miss to 22.7%, Taylor to 9.7% and Michigan State to 20% from behind the arc.

Campbell Enters Nation's Top 10
Javontae Campbell has been a menace defensively for the Falcons this year, forcing 12 turnovers for an average of three steals per game. Campbell's total has him inside the top 10 in the nation for total steals, as well as being second in the Mid-American Conference behind Central Michigan's Anthony Pritchard who leads the nation with 17 steals. As for Campbell's per game average, he's tied for 12th in the nation and second in the MAC with Akron's Nate Johnson while trailing Pritchard (4.25). Last year, Campbell averaged 3.25 steals per game for Northern Oklahoma, totaling 78 over 24 games.

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