BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team will be back at the Stroh Center for a pair of home games this holiday season. BGSU will begin the stretch on Saturday (Dec. 21), hosting St. Thomas in a 2 p.m. tip. The Falcons will then transition to a Monday (Dec. 23) contest against Aquinas College at 3 p.m. The two games will mark the final non-conference opponents for the Falcons before MAC play begins on Jan. 3 at home against Akron. Both games against the Falcons will be available to stream on ESPN+ with a radio feed from Todd Walker on WFRO Eagle 99. 

Opening Tip
The Falcons will be playing both St. Thomas and Aquinas for the first time in program history, bringing the program's total teams played to 325 over the 110 seasons. St. Thomas and Aquinas will join Southern Miss, Taylor University and Weber State as new opponents added to the program's history this season. The Falcons have won three-straight home games and are 3-1 at home this season entering the two-game stretch to close out the month of December. St. Thomas and Aquinas will mark the final opponents for Bowling Green before diving into the Mid-American Conference schedule, beginning with Akron on national TV on Jan. 3. 

At The Game

The game against St. Thomas on Saturday will have free parking. There will also be a football team recognition during the game before football heads to the 68 Ventures Bowl in Mobile, Ala. There will be a football send off event prior to the game as well in Schmidthorst Heritage Hall. Additionally, there will be a special video board presentation for the holidays.

The game against Aquinas will have $3 tickets for fans and free parking. Santa will be at the Stroh! Fans can meet Santa on the main concourse before the game. There will also be a special video board presentation for the holidays. 

Injury Update
The Falcons have sustained a few injuries in recent weeks. Sam Towns (lower body), Youssef Khayat (lower body) and DaJion Humphrey (undisclosed) are currently out indefinitely for Bowling Green. Additionally, Greg Spurgin (lower body) is expected to return soon.  

Home For The Holidays
The next three games for the Falcons will be played at home inside the Stroh Center. So far this season, Bowling Green holds a 3-1 record at home, including a three-game win streak. The only loss was to Davidson in the home opener by just six points. In home games this year, BGSU is averaging 92.5 points per game with two 100-point outputs. Inside the Stroh Center, Marcus Johnson is averaging 18.0 points per game followed by 16.5 for Derrick Butler and 15.0 for Javontae Campbell. 

Scouting The Tommies
St. Thomas enters the game against the Falcons with a 9-4 record on the season. Now in their fourth season at the Division I level, the Tommies are coming off a 20-win 2023-24 campaign and a 19-win 2022-23 season. St. Thomas has had just four losses this season, coming up short to Oklahoma State (81-70), Arizona State (81-66), Wofford (81-73) and Milwaukee (69-65). They'll head into Saturday's matchup against the Falcons riding a five-game winning streak. Included in that streak is a win over MAC member Western Michigan. On Dec. 13, the Tommies topped WMU 77-71 at home. Against the Broncos, St. Thomas led by sophomore Ben Nau with a career-high 22 points. As for the season as a whole, Miles Barnstable and Drake Dobbs have paced the Tommies. Barnstable leads the way with 12.8 points per game while shooting 90.9-percent at the line, but Dobbs follows closely with 10.2. Dobbs also leads the team in field goal percentage (58.2%), three-point percentage (51.9%), assists per game (3.5) and minutes per game (25.6). Kendall Blue is also averaging double-digits points for the Tommies, being between Barnstable and Dobbs with 11.4 points per game.

Scouting The Saints
Aquinas College will enter the game against the Falcons with an exactly .500 record, going 6-6 overall while being 3-3 within the WHAC. Within the last week, Aquinas took on Spring Arbor, who is receiving votes in the NAIA rankings, falling 83-60 Tuesday (Dec. 17). The Saints followed it up by bouncing back with a win over Goshen in an 82-73 final on Thursday (Dec. 19). The Falcons will be the second opponent from the MAC for Aquinas. On Dec. 5, the Saints hosted Central Michigan with the Chippewas claiming a 93-69 final score. Statistically, the Saints are led by redshirt junior guard Devon Boyd. The Grand Rapids, Mich. native currently leads the team in multiple statistics, including points per game (15.4), three-point percentage (42.1), free throw percentage (85.0), assists per game (3.8), steals per game (1.1) and minutes per game (27.9). Boyd is joined on the category leaders by 6-foot-7 sophomore forward Caden Pokorzynski. From Rockford, Mich., Pokorzynski leads the team in field goal percentage (59.5) and rebounds per game (9.7). Pokorzynski has three double-doubles so far this season, all coming within the last month. His best game was against Northwestern Ohio, logging 23 points and 17 rebounds. 

Campbell Among Nation's Best
Javontae Campbell has worked his way up the nation's leaderboard for steals per game, now sitting at second in the nation with an average of 3.2 steals per contest. Additionally, Campbell is sixth in the nation for total steals with 32. Among the MAC, no other player is averaging more than 2.5 steals per game or has 25 or more steals on the season. At his current pace, with 31 games on the regular season schedule, Campbell is projected to log 99 steals, which would shatter BGSU's single-season steals record, currently set at 82 by DeMar Moore in 1996-97.

Johnson Leads Falcons At The Line
As a team, Bowling Green is shooting 79.9-percent at the free throw line this season. The mark is not only the best in the Mid-American Conference, but ranks 13th in the nation. Leading the Falcons is Marcus Johnson, shooting 93.3-percent at the line with just two misses in 30 attempts. Johnson is tied for 13th in the nation himself while ranking second in the MAC behind only Buffalo's Ryan Sabol who is 34-of-36 compared to Johnson's 28-of-30. 

BGSU's Triple Threat
Among the MAC scoring leaders, Marcus Johnson, Javontae Campbell and Derrick Butler all rank inside the Top 12 making Bowling Green the only team with three players on the list. Not only are the Falcons the only team with three players inside the MAC's top 12 for scoring, only one other team has multiple, being Miami (OH). Miami's two players rank eighth and ninth while for BGSU Johnson ranks second, Campbell fifth and Butler 12th. Johnson is currently averaging 17.1 points per game, just one point off the conference lead. Campbell clocks in at fifth, averaging 16.1 points per game, making BGSU the only team with two players inside the top five. Butler rounds out the list of Falcons in the top 12 at 12th with an average of 14.6 points per game. 

Follow the Falcons
Be sure to follow the Falcons' men's basketball team on social media
Twitter - @BGSU_Athletics and @BGSUMBB
Instagram - 'bgfalcons' and 'bgsumhoops'
Facebook - 'BGSU Athletics'
YouTube - 'Falcon Athletics'