It’s not every day a team can say they are playing their biggest game of the season but it appears as if the Bowling Green women’s basketball team has earned that right.
The Falcons welcome Eastern Michigan to Anderson Arena and there are plenty of reasons for BG to look forward to this one.
The Eagles are arguably the best team in the Mid-American Conference this season and currently sit at 11-2 on the season.
On top of this they are the defending MAC champions.
And to make matters worse, they have knocked BG out of the MAC tournament each of the past two years, including last year’s MAC title game.
“Their top seven is loaded,” BG head coach Curt Miller said. “They’re big, athletic and deep and that is what separates them from the rest of the league.”
And for Miller, this assessment goes beyond just this season.
“On paper they’re one of the best MAC teams ever assembled,” he said.
They’re led by senior guard Ryan Coleman, one of the best players in the MAC.
She leads the team with 16 points, 3.2 assists and 6.7 rebounds per game and will provide headaches for BG.
She is flanked by eight other players that average over 10 minutes per game.
They’ve defeated their opponents by an average of 16.6 points per contest and have beaten the likes of Missouri and Michigan on the way to showing why they are favored to win the conference.
And they’ve found a way to take advantage of their often overmatched opponents from every conceivable angle.
“The one major strength of Eastern is their inside and outside scoring,” Miller said.
But the Falcons have looked every bit as good recently.
In their last six games they have beaten opponents by an average of 16.6 points per game and have won their first two MAC road games by an average of 19 points.
They’ve been just as strong as Eastern, but Miller is certain the best is yet to come.
“We’re becoming more efficient on offense,” he said. “But we’re still not playing our best basketball.”
The one aspect of the game that may be bothering the Falcons is the lack of attendence they’ve seen in their only two home games this season, in which they’ve drawn an average of 558 fans.
This may be the game the team gets a chance to blow the roof off Anderson Arena with a David and Goliath type matchup in which the David has looked pretty solid lately.
“I’m hoping our momentum turns into people coming out and seeing the Falcons,” Miller said.
The table is set for a great game, now all the two teams can do is sit down and enjoy the meal.
The game is slated to start at 7 p.m. in Anderson Arena.