Tomorrow will be a big day for Bowling Green basketball as both the men’s and women’s teams look to remain undefeated at home.
The men’s team enters the game with a record that now sits at 8-7 (1-1 Mid-American Conference), after a disappointing loss at Kent State Wednesday night.
Akron will enter the game at 8-7 (0-2 MAC) as they look to rebound after a narrow 63-61 loss to Buffalo Wednesday night.
So far this season BG is 6-0 at home, 2-0 on neutral floors and 0-7 when playing the part of the away team. Luckily for the Falcons, this game is in BG.
With a win tomorrow night, BG will have started off the conference season 2-1 and will have dropped Akron to 0-3. In order to win they’ll need to do things a bit differently than last year when they were swept by the Zips.
To start, Chris Knight will have to once again come up big for the Falcons. The sixth man has had a huge impact of late and is currently the most reliable option on offense, once again leading the team on Wednesday night with 17 points.
“Just because you’re not a starter, that doesn’t mean you’re not one of the best five players,” head coach Louis Orr said.
The Falcons will also need to perform better from beyond the arc tomorrow night. On Wednesday the team went 2-for-23 from three-point-land.
“We shot quick threes on a lot of possessions,” Orr said. “That really caught up with us in the second half. If you’re going to shoot 23 threes, you have to make more than two.”
Otis Polk has the potential to have a big impact on the game as well. Polk finished the game on Wednesday night with eight points and 10 rebounds despite seeing very little action during the second half. After the game one Kent State coach expressed that if Polk had stayed out of foul trouble, he could have done some serious damage.
Polk’s size will once again present matchup problems for the defense, and could lead to him having a big night.
“We have to bounce back,” Orr said. “We played good basketball and bounced back before, so I think we’ll bounce back.”
The game, scheduled to start at 8 p.m., will be televised on ESPNU.
But before the men take the floor, Curt Miller’s red hot women’s team will try to make it 15 straight victories.
After an 0-2 start to the season, the women have advanced their record to 14-2 (3-0 MAC). Like the men, the women are 6-0 when at home and will be favored in tomorrow’s matchup.
The Falcons will enter the game after three come-from-behind victories to open up conference play.
Lauren Prochaska is coming off a game in which she tied her career high in points with 32.
But Prochaska hasn’t been alone, as BG has been getting major contributions from Tracy Pontius, Niki McCoy, Jen Uhl and several others.
The Zips will enter the game after losing to Ohio earlier in the week, a team that the Falcons have already beaten. Akron’s record currently sits at 6-10 (1-2 MAC), and the team is .500 when on the road.
BG will look to start off strong and not fall behind as they did in the first three conference games. This should be a possibility as Akron has been prone to sluggish starts so far this season as well.
The game is set to tip off at 1 p.m.
The women will be looking to extend their scorching hot streak to 15 games while the men will be looking to gain a big win over a team that has had their number recently.
It’s sure to be a big day in Anderson Arena.
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Contact assistant sports editor Jason Jones at [email protected].
