Men's preview: Akron at Bowling Green

2/23/2002

Time: 3:30 today

Radio: 96.7, 88.1

Records: BG is 20-6, 10-5; Akron is 9-17, 5-10

Series: BG leads 19-10

Last games: BG defeated Miami 65-50 in Oxford on Wednesday; Akron beat Northern Illinois 88-80 at home on Wednesday.

Outlook: The Falcons put together one of their strongest performances of the season to hand Miami its first home loss in the conference. Now Bowling Green prepares for Akron, the team that shocked the Falcons exactly one month ago by upsetting them 87-86 in overtime. That game started the Zips on a four-game winning streak after they had lost their first six MAC games. Bowling Green is one of four teams still competing for a bye in the opening round of the MAC Tournament. The bye goes to the team with the next best record in conference play outside of the divisional champions. The Falcons have won four of their past five games. ... Akron comes into Anderson Arena after snapping a four-game losing streak, its third such streak of at least four losses this season. Akron coach Dan Hipsher, a native of Fostoria and a former player for the Falcons, has had to deal with diminished numbers all season after losing two players to injury and dismissing two more for academic shortcomings. The spark for any Akron success this season has been senior point guard Rashon Brown, who has been in double-figures in 12 of 15 league games. In MAC contests, Brown averages 20.1 points, 3.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.7 steals per game while shooting 51.4% from the field. Senior David Falknor from Bellevue is the MAC's leading 3-point shooter with 64 3's.