GAME NOTES: Coming off their first national postseason tournament win in four decades, the Bowling Green Falcons try to make it two in a row on Saturday afternoon as they tangle with the Canisius Golden Griffins in the second round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament at the Stroh Center.

Bowling Green, which is in the postseason for the first time since the 2011-12 campaign, is enjoying its first 20-win season since 2001-02 and the team made it 21 earlier this week with a narrow 67-64 victory over St. Francis-PA. That victory also took place at the Stroh Center, where the Falcons are 11-5 this season.

Three years ago, BGSU took part in this tournament and was one-and-done following an 86-69 loss to Oakland.

Meanwhile the Golden Griffs, who are representing the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, entered this event after losing their one and only decision during the conference tournament two weeks ago, falling to Monmouth in a 60-54 final. However, the offense turned it around in the first round of this event on Wednesday night with an 87-72 thumping of Dartmouth at the Koessler Athletic Center in Buffalo.

As far as the all-time series is concerned, Bowling Green leads by a 9-5 margin, with the Flacons winning the most recent contest during the 2009-10 season by a score of 58-54.

The winner of this meeting heads to the quarterfinals next week to face an opponent to be determined.

Except for Kevin Bleeker who tallied just two points in 14 minutes of action, every starter for Canisius landed in double figures during the 15-point win against the Big Green earlier in the week. Jamal Reynolds set a new career high with 22 points, adding a team-best 10 rebounds and six assists for good measure, followed by Zach Lewis with 20 points of his own. Josiah Heath responded with 14 points and eight boards, Kassius Robertson tacked on 13 points, and Jeremiah Williams 12 points, although the latter shot only 4-of-13 from the floor as the team was 52.7 percent accurate overall.

Not much of an imposing threat this season with an average of 64.9 ppg, the effort three nights ago surely raised a few eyebrows with so many players involved in the victory. On paper it appears as though Lewis might be the only constant on offense with his 12.8 ppg, having made good on 73 3-pointers over the course of starting all 31 games. The team is still alive in the postseason despite shooting just 40.6 percent from the field and 31.9 percent out on the perimeter.

In a game that featured eight ties and 13 lead changes, the Falcons trailed by as many as eight just minutes into the first half, but then recovered later in the period and managed to escape by stopping St. Francis on five straight possessions, eventually resulting in the three-point win. Anthony Henderson led all scorers with 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field, which included 4-of-5 behind the 3-point line, followed by Jehvon Clarke and Josh Gomez with 12 and 10 points, respectively, for a group that won the rebounding battle by a 43-31 margin.

Bowling Green played without scoring leader Richaun Holmes (14.8 ppg) the last time out, which means the Falcons were also missing their top rebounder (7.9 rpg) and could be without him for this outing as well due to injury, but nothing is set in stone. Should Holmes be unable to go, that leaves only Clarke as the sole double-digit scorer on the stat sheet with his 10.5 ppg, and Zack Denny (9.3 ppg) the top man on the glass with 5.2 rpg.

If Holmes is unable to go in this meeting the Falcons will have some issues, but given the fact that, for the most part, Canisius is not a high-scoring program this should still be a home win in waiting for BGSU.