BG hopes history repeats in visit to East leader Kent

2/14/2004

BOWLING GREEN - If nothing else, history is on the side of the Bowling Green men s basketball team today as it plays MAC East leader Kent State on the Golden Flashes home court.

Certainly the numbers are not in BG s favor. Kent State enters the contest on a seven-game winning streak and tied with Western Michigan for the best record in the MAC, while the Falcons are at .500 in the MAC and had lost four of their last five games before beating Ohio on Wednesday.

Bowling Green also has struggled on the road this year, going 1-8. That s not a good sign for a team preparing to play at Kent State, where the Flashes have an 8-1 record at home this year and a 65-10 mark at the MAC Center over the past five seasons.

History says a Bowling Green victory is possible, though.

Last year the Falcons fell behind Kent State by 24 points but staged a second-half rally to claim a 78-74 victory. And almost precisely seven years ago today BG found itself trailing the Flashes 42-17 at the half, yet rallied to win 70-69.

But for Bowling Green coach Dan Dakich, the only history that impresses him is that the Golden Flashes have won 76 league games since 1999; the next-highest team, BG, has 62 MAC victories in that span.

“I think Kent has done the best job of sustaining success in our league,” he said. “And this year s team, because of its four seniors, is incredibly difficult to play.”

BG will have to find a way to deal with guard DeAndre Haynes, who had 21 points and eight assists in the Golden Flashes 71-64 win at BG on Jan. 28.

And the Falcons also must shoot better to beat Kent State. In the first meeting BG took a school-record 34 shots from 3-point range, but made only eight (23.5 percent); on the season the Falcons are connecting on 36.8 percent of their treys.