MAC Men’s Basketball Upcoming Schedule -- Tuesday, February 11
Bowling Green at Akron, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
Miami at Toledo, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
Northern Illinois at Ball State, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
Eastern Michigan at Central Michigan, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
Western Michigan at Ohio, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
All times listed are ET
TEAM-BY-TEAM NOTES
AKRON
Akron's Xeyrius Williams hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 4.2 seconds remaining to pull out a 59-58 victory over Eastern Michigan, snapping a two-game losing skid. The Zips improved to 11-2 at James A Rhodes Arena and 17-6 overall with a 7-3 league mark.
BALL STATE
Tuesday's matchup pits the MAC's top two scoring defenses in league play. The Cardinals are allowing 62.8 points per game, while the Huskies are surrendering 63.3. NIU is holding opponents to 38.7 percent shooting in conference play, the best of any MAC team. Ball State's Tahjai Teague averaged 14.5 points and 10.5 rebounds per game in last season's two meetings with NIU. He has scored at least 13 points in each of the past four contests against the Huskies.
BOWLING GREEN
BGSU has matched its best-ever start through 11 MAC games in the Michael Huger Era (Also 9-2 in 2018-19)....Since 2018, Bowling Green has racked up a record of 25-3 inside the friendly confines of the Stroh Center. That record is good enough for a conference-leading .892 winning percentage. The Falcons are 11-1 at home in 2019-20. BGSU is 51-24 at home in the Michael Huger Era...Dating back to the start of the 2018-19 season, Bowling Green has accumulated a record of 15-2 versus the West Division of the Mid-American Conference. BGSU has won 10 of its last 11 games against the MAC West.
BUFFALO
The Bulls swept the season series against Central Michigan with a 65-60 victory on Friday night at Alumni Arena. Junior Jayvon Graves had his first double-double of the season with 11 points and 12 rebounds. In the victory over the Chippewas, sophomore Jeenathan Williams led all scorers with 20 points. As a team, the Bulls are currently third in the nation in rebounding and second in offensive boards.
CENTRAL MICHIGAN
David DiLeo hit four 3-pointers in the loss at Buffalo, giving him 310 for his career and making him CMU's career leader and the MAC career leader. DiLeo passed Josh Kozinski as CMU's leader, and he passed Toledo's Nate Navigato in becoming the league's top 3-point shooter. Kozinski made 306 triples as a Chippewa from 2013-18, and Navigato made 309 from 2015-19. Over the last three games, CMU is shooting 89 percent from the free throw line as a team, making 48 of its last 54 attempts.
EASTERN MICHIGAN
Eastern Michigan heads north to challenge in-state foe Central Michigan in a Mid-American Conference West Division affair Tuesday, Feb. 11. The Eagles continue to lead the nation in steals per game with 10.8 and rank third among Division I teams in total steals (248). Individually, redshirt senior Boubacar Toure leads the MAC with a 66.0 field goal percentage (93-of-141), while redshirt junior Ty Groce is leading the team in steals with 47 (2.04 spg).
KENT STATE
The Flashes are off this Tuesday with a bye, but resume action on Saturday and host Ohio at 1 p.m. for the Autism Awareness game. The Flashes will be debuting special uniforms that were student-designed displaying the phrase “1 in 59” to promote autism awareness and education. Kent State looks to bounce back after back-to-back losses.
MIAMI
As the RedHawks look to get back on track, one of the things they will focus on is winning the rebounding battle and forcing opponent turnovers. Miami is 5-2 when outrebounding its opponent this season, but only 4-12 when it is outrebounded. The RedHawks do well at limiting their own turnovers, ranking 60th in the country with only 12.0 per game, but rank 215th in the nation in forcing turnovers, causing 13.0 per contest. They are 8-6 this when committing the same or fewer turnovers than their opponent, but 1-8 when they have committed more turnovers.
NORTHERN ILLINOIS
Eugene German is NIU’s all-time leading scorer with 2,052 career points, which also ranks 12th in MAC history and ninth among active players in NCAA Division I. German leads the MAC, and ranks 26th nationally, in scoring at 20.1 points per game. NIU’s current six-game win streak is its longest ever in Mid-American Conference play. The win streak is NIU’s longest in any conference since winning seven-straight during the 1990-91 season while a part of the Mid-Continent Conference. NIU’s 57-54 victory over Kent State last Friday (Feb. 7) gave the Huskies their first sweep of a season series against the Golden Flashes since the 1985-86 season.
OHIO
Redshirt senior Jordan Dartis became the Bobcats all-time three-point leader on Feb. 8... Sophomore Jason Preston became only the 18th player in all of DI NCAA men's basketball to record a triple double this season.
TOLEDO
Toledo will be looking to rebound from Saturday's 85-83 heartbreaking defeat at Bowling Green in front of a sold-out crowd of 5,000 fans at the Stroh Center. Marreon Jackson led the Rockets with a game-high 31 points, while Knapke tallied 23 points and a team-best seven rebounds. Jackson is leading Toledo in scoring and ranks second in the MAC with 19.5 ppg. He is the MAC's top scorer in league play with 22.5 ppg. Also ranking in the MAC's Top 10 in scoring for the Rockets is senior Luke Knapke at 16.1 ppg (7th in MAC). Senior Willie Jackson and junior Spencer Littleson are averaging 12.0 ppg and 10.5 ppg, respectively, with Jackson grabbing a MAC-high 11.8 rpg to rank fourth nationally
WESTERN MICHIGAN
Western Michigan in the second half of games during the MAC schedule under head coach Steve Hawkins is 73-54 … WMU is one of three schools to have two players rank in the top 10 in scoring in the MAC with junior Michael Flowers (17.3) and Brandon Johnson (15.4) … Junior Michael Flowers is just 22 points away from eclipsing 1,000 for his career … WMU is a staggering 8-0 when leading at the half this season and is 38-10 when leading at the half over the past three seasons.
