COLLEGE BASKETBALL
UT vs. BG: always lots on the line
By MATT MARKEY
BLADE SPORTS WRITER
BOWLING GREEN - Nobody will win the Mid-American Conference championship when Toledo and Bowling Green square off in the regular-season finale at Anderson Arena this afternoon. Still, there is plenty on the line for both teams.
There are also plenty of seats still available with BG students on break.
The Rockets (12-15, 6-11 MAC) are coming off a 100-64 win over Ball State on Wednesday and looking to maintain that surge of momentum going into a MAC Tournament game on Monday. Toledo is the No. 12 seed in the tournament and will play on the road against No. 5 - likely Western Michigan or Akron - but won?t know its opponent for certain until after today?s games.
The Falcons (12-14, 8-9) have won two in a row after a seven-game losing streak, and still have a shot at landing a home game in the tournament.
"Two wins in a row are real big for this program right now," BG freshman Ronald Lewis said. "We had been on a losing streak, but teams come back, and we?re on our streak coming back. Saturday?s game is a big game for us."
Toledo senior Nick Moore, who had a career-high 38 points in the win over Ball State, said that victory is indicative of how well the Rockets can play when they find their stride.
"We?ve shown flashes of what we can do all season," Moore said. "We just haven?t finished games in the last three minutes. We did show what we could do from start to finish [against Ball State], but I?m pretty disappointed we couldn?t do that all season."
Toledo coach Stan Joplin, whose team fed off its early success in Wednesday?s game and then had it snowball into a strong overall performance, said the rivalry with BG remains intense despite the fact that neither team is in the conference race.
"I think it?s good for college basketball," Joplin said. "I think the players really like to feed off of that. It would really be good if both teams were fighting for something a little bit more instead of where they are in the conference. But I think you can throw out the records anyway because both teams are going to play hard."
Bowling Green coach Dan Dakich said he is a bit worried about his team?s stamina since it played Thursday night and will face the Rockets on one day?s rest. The Falcons have dealt with depth-related issues most of the season because injuries took three starters from the lineup. BG has just six scholarship players on the active roster, and two legitimate inside players.
"Obviously Toledo played really well the other night," Dakich said. "And I?m a little concerned about fatigue with us coming back for a 2 o?clock game. This is one I wish maybe we played at night. We?re going to give it our best shot. They have a lot of guys that they can bring in up front, and we?ve got two guys over 6-6, so we better come to battle."
There was a skirmish or two the first time the Rockets and Falcons met this season, a 73-59 win by Toledo that had five technical fouls and three ejections. Falcon senior Cory Ryan said intense play sometimes leads to tempers flaring.
"We?re going to play hard, and they?re going to play hard," Ryan said. "Whatever happens, happens. The fight last time wasn?t because the two teams didn?t like each other, it was because two teams were just playing as hard as they possibly could. That?s what it?s going to be on Saturday. It?s going to be a tough battle between two teams wanting to win the last game of the season."
