The 2015-16 Season Begins as BGSU hosts Two Games in Three Days

Friday, November 13

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Illinois State

Tickets

Lauren Tibbs v Ashland Nov 7 2015 - Larry Clapper photo

Lauren Tibbs & the Falcons play 2 games in 3 days at the Stroh this weekend (Larry Clapper photo)

Photo by: Larry Clapper

November 12, 2015 | Women's Basketball

Falcons face Illinois State, Bradley this Weekend

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team opens the 2015-16 campaign with a pair of home games this weekend, beginning with a Friday night (Nov. 13) contest vs. Illinois State University. The Falcons of head coach Jennifer Roos will meet the Redbirds in a 7:00 p.m. start at the Stroh Center (4,347).

Then, BGSU will be right back at it on Sunday afternoon (Nov. 15), when the Brown and Orange will take on Bradley University. Tipoff for Sunday's game is set for 2:00 p.m. at the Stroh.

LINKS
GAME NOTES: BGSU | Illinois State | Bradley*
AUDIO: Coach Roos Previews the Weekend Games
2015-16 Women's Basketball Media Central
Buy Tickets | Season Ticket Video
Join the Falcon Club Today!
* heading into BU's Friday game at Detroit

PROMOTIONS, EVENTS, ETC.
As always, there will be a number of promotions surrounding this weekend's games. The weekend's events include...

• FRIDAY – Falcons Fighting Hunger – a canned food drive organized by BGSU's Student-Athlete Advisoty Committee (SAAC) each year. Fans are encouraged to bring one or more non-perishable items to Friday's game to donate to the cause. Any fan making a donation will receive a voucher good for 25% off of a ticket to a future game.

• FRIDAY – It's On Us – a cultural movement aimed at fundamentally shifting the way we think about sexual assault. There will be a table with more information about the initiative, and fans are also encouraged to watch the video board for It's On Us messages which will be displayed throughout the game.

• SUNDAY – Not In Our Town – BGSU and the City of Bowling Green join together to affirm their commitment to social justice, equity and inclusion as well as embrace and celebrate diversity. In joining together, both the campus and community have adopted the "Not In Our Town" slogan and agreed to be a part of the Not In Our Town movement. Sunday's game is one of the first in a week-long series of events throughout BG. There will be a table with more information about Not In Our Town at Sunday's game.

• SUNDAY – Falcon Gymnastics – members of coach Kerrie Turner's BGSU gymnastics team are scheduled to perform at halftime of Sunday's game.

• SUNDAY – Post-Game Autograph session – members of the women's basketball team will be signing autographs in the Hall of Fame area of the Stroh Center following Sunday's game. Free team photos will be available for players to sign, and fans are also welcome to bring their own items or purchase other items in the Falcon Team Store inside the Stroh Center.

BGSU HOOPS TO BE SHOWN ON ESPN3
All BGSU home regular-season men's and women's basketball games will be broadcast on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app for 2015-16. The ESPN3 platform is a piece of a 13-year media rights deal that was agreed upon last August between the Mid-American Conference and ESPN and runs through 2026-27. The current men's and women's basketball television schedule is the largest in conference history.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
Fans who can't make it to the game can still follow the Falcons in a veritable plethora of ways. As mentioned, all home games are scheduled to be streamed for free on ESPN3 unless picked up by another TV entity.

Additionally, every game – home and away – will be broadcast by the Bowling Green Radio Sports Organization, the flagship home of Falcon women's basketball. Most games will be available over the air at WBGU-FM 88.1, but all games will be available on the web at FalconRadio.org.

Live stats will be available for all games, and fans can also follow @BGSUwbb on Twitter for in-game updates as well as other exciting information about all things BG women's hoops.

Log on to BGSUFalcons.com on the day of the game, and do one or more of the following...
• click the 'calendar of events' link;
• navigate your way to the women's basketball schedule page; and/or
• head to the women's basketball home page and bask in the glory of the "Game Day Central" page, which will feature links, rosters, schedules, game notes, releases, unicorns and rainbows (Editor's note: the "Game Day Central" page will not actually feature unicorns or rainbows).

LAST TIME OUT: FALCONS FALL TO ASHLAND IN EXHIBITION
• Visiting Ashland University used a late run to surge past the Falcons, 59-53, in exhibition play on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 7) inside the Stroh Center.

• In her first game in a BGSU uniform, redshirt senior Lauren Tibbs scored a team-high 16 points. Another fifth-year senior, Erica Donovan, joined her in double digits with 11 points on the afternoon.

• The game featured nine ties and 12 lead changes. The lead changed hands for the final time with 2:49 left in the fourth quarter, when AU's Kelsey Peare hit a three-pointer to spark a late 9-0 run for the Eagles.

That triple was followed by a McKenzie Miller trey, the visitors' 11th successful three-point shot of the day. The Eagles – a perennial Division-II power with a veteran roster – then made three free throws to extend the lead to eight points. That eight-point margin was the largest by either team in the entire game, before a pair of late Falcon charity tosses closed the scoring.

• AU's Andi Daugherty led all players with 21 points, adding eight rebounds, a game-high four assists and two blocked shots. Teammate Laina Snyder had a double-double, with 13 points and 13 boards, and also had three helpers and a game-high four steals.

• Miller added nine points and Peare eight for AU. The Falcons got eight points from redshirt sophomore Kennedy Kirkpatrick and six from freshman Carly Santoro off the bench. Junior Rachel Konieczki scored five points and dished out a BG-best three assists.

• Ashland returned 11 players from a team that won 25 games a year ago and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. In the last four seasons, AU has won a national championship, reached another national title game and posted an overall record of 113-21.

FALCONS PICKED TO PLACE THIRD IN MAC EAST IN 2015-16
The Falcons have been picked to finish third in the MAC's East Division in the 2015-16 season, according to the league's preseason coaches poll. BGSU won nine divisional titles in a 10-year span, before finishing sixth in the East last year. The Falcons have had the league's best overall regular-season mark in eight of the last 11 seasons. Ohio and Eastern Michigan were picked to win the East and West divisions, respectively, in 2015-16, and the Bobcats were the choice to win both the conference overall regular-season and tourney crowns.

DONOVAN NAMED TO PRESEASON ALL-MAC TEAM
For the second year in a row, Erica Donovan was named to the Preseason All-MAC Team. Donovan, a fifth-year senior, is one of just two players around the conference to be named to the preseason all-league team for a second-straight season. The San Antonio, Texas, native led the Falcons in scoring (15.3 ppg) and rebounding (9.1 rpg) last year, before suffering an injury in late December and missing the rest of the season.

ABOUT THE FALCONS
• Head coach Jennifer Roos and the Falcons return a total of eight letterwinners in 2015-16, and all eight have started at least five games in their BGSU careers to date. That group includes seniors Erica Donovan and Miriam Justinger, juniors Rachel Konieczki and Abby Siefker, redshirt sophomore Kennedy Kirkpatrick and true sophs Sarah Baer, Rachel Myers and Haley Puk.

• Those eight returnees have been joined by five newcomers, including a pair of transfers who are eligible to play immediately. The quintet of new faces includes fifth-year senior Lauren Tibbs, junior Ashley Tunstall and freshmen Maddie Cole, Sydney Lambert and Carly Santoro.

• Donovan was named to the Preseason All-MAC Team, despite missing most of last season due to injury. She was one of just two players conference-wide to be named to the preseason all-league team for the second-straight season.

• The 2014-15 Falcons went 9-21 overall after four players on the 12-woman preseason roster suffered season- or career-ending injuries, and a fifth missed the bulk of the conference schedule due to injury as well. The returning players have a combined total of 203 starts in the Brown and Orange.

• BGSU finished with a mark of 2-16 in Mid-American Conference play. BG is looking to snap a school-record 12-game losing streak after dropping a pair of narrow decisions at home to end the 2014-15 regular season, then falling at Western Michigan in the first round of the MAC Tournament. BG ended the regular season with a 55-47 loss to Buffalo and a 79-71 setback vs. Akron.

• It's an impressive feat that, prior to last season, BGSU had never lost as many as 20 games in a season. And, no Falcon team had ever lost more than seven games in a row prior to the current streak. Of course, it's also very likely that no team in program history ever saw the roster reduced to seven healthy bodies, including just one post player, as happened to the 2014-15 Falcons in early January.

• BG had lost one-third of the preseason roster at that point, as four of the 12 players on the BGSU preseason roster had suffered season- or career-ending injuries. That quartet included two starters, and a fifth player (and third starter) saw very little playing time during the MAC portion of the schedule.

• The Falcons saw 25 percent of the roster – three of the 12 players on the team at that time – sidelined for the season in mid-to-late December of 2014. That percentage reached 33.3% as a fourth player suffered a season-ending injury in early January. Two of those four players were starters, and a fifth Falcon – and third starter – played only 35 minutes during the MAC schedule, missing 10 of the 18 conference matches altogether and playing more than four minutes only twice in league play.

• Donovan was one of the three players injured in December. She was the Falcons' leading scorer and rebounder at the time of her injury, with 15.3 points and 9.1 rebounds per game. Donovan had 20 points in each of her last two games, with a career-high 15 boards in the latter contest.

• Siefker and junior Leah Bolton also were among the many Falcons who were sidelined. Bolton saw action in the Falcons' exhibition game last year, but did not play in a regular-season game in 2014-15. In January, it was announced that Bolton would apply for a medical retirement, ending her BGSU playing career.

• Siefker started the first 12 games of the year, and averaged 5.4 points and 6.3 rebounds. She was second on the team in rebounding behind Donovan, and led the Falcons in blocked shots, with 1.0 rejections per game.

• Two Falcons, Justinger and Konieczki, started all 30 games last season. Myers and Puk made 18 and 11 starts, respectively, during their freshman year, with another first-year Falcon, Baer, starting six games. Kirkpatrick, a redshirt freshman in '14-15, started the last five games of the season.

• Justinger and Myers have scored 10.3 and 8.4 ppg, respectively, a year ago. Konieczki had 5.6 points per game, with Puk averaging 5.2 ppg and Kirkpatrick 5.1.

• Justinger had 5.3 rpg last season, ranking her second among 'active' Falcons at the end of the year. She led the team with 2.1 assists per game, followed by Konieczki's 1.6 helpers per contest. Kirkpatrick and Myers each handed out 1.1 assists per game.

• Justinger had 1.2 steals per outing to lead the team in that category, while Konieczki had 1.1 spg. Siefker had 12 blocked shots in her 12 games played, while Baer blocked nine shots in her initial collegiate season.

• BGSU shot 35.3 percent from the field, 31.8% from three-point range and 77.0% (good for sixth in the nation) from the free-throw line in '14-15. The Falcons' opponents shot 41.1% from the floor, 30.1% from the arc and 66.4% from the stripe.

• The Falcons made a total of 199 three-pointers a year ago. Myers knocked down 45 long-range attempts, tops among returnees, while Justinger and Puk connected 30 and 28 times, respectively, from beyond the arc. Konieczki made 19 three-point tries and Kirkpatrick 16 last winter.

SCOUTING ILLINOIS STATE
Illinois State, like BGSU, opens the 2015-16 regular season on Friday night. The Redbirds posted a 71-70 win over Lindenwood in the team's lone exhibition game on Nov. 4. Freshman guard Shakeela Fowler scored a game-high 22 points in her first action with ISU, while fellow freshman guard Katrina Beck had 16 points and senior forward Octavia Crump 12. Head coach Barb Smith returns four letterwinners, including two starters, from the 2014-15 team. The Redbirds were picked to finish 10th in the Missouri Valley Conference in '15-16, according to the league's preseason poll. The Redbirds finished 2-28 overall, with a 2-16 conference mark, a year ago. Crump is the team's top returning scorer, having averaged 10.6 points per game last fall. Senior forward Colleene Smith (3.5 ppg) led last year's club with 5.8 rebounds per game, while Crump pulled down 5.7 boards per contest.

THE BGSU-ISU SERIES
• The Falcons lead Illinois State, 5-2, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU picked up a 58-54 win on the road last season (Dec. 19, 2014). Erica Donovan had game-high totals of 20 points and 15 rebounds, while three of her teammates had either eight or nine points. One of those three, Abby Siefker, scored eight points and also had totals of 12 rebounds and five assists. Octavia Crump led the hosts with 17 points, while Colleene Smith had 11 rebounds.

• Prior to last season, the Falcons and Redbirds had not met in just under two decades. The last meeting before December of 2014 came in December of 1994, with the host Redbirds downing the Brown and Orange, 75-52.

• The teams met six times in a seven-year span between 1988 and '94. That 1994 ISU win snapped a three-game BGSU series winning streak.

• BGSU has outscored Illinois State by a narrow 513-504 margin – an average of exactly one point per game – over the first nine meetings. Each of BGSU's first four series wins was by a margin between eight and 16 points, with last year's four-point Falcon victory the closest game in the series history to date. ISU's two wins were by 22- and 23-point margins, respectively.

• BGSU is 3-0 in home games (0-0 at the Stroh Center) and 2-2 on the road vs. ISU over the years. Jennifer Roos is 1-0 against the Redbirds as a collegiate head coach.

A LOOK AT BRADLEY
Bradley opens the season at Detroit on Friday night (Nov. 13) before coming to BG for Sunday's game. The Braves won a pair of home exhibitions, defeating McKendree, 52-38 (Nov. 1), and Missouri-St. Louis, 78-65 (Nov. 7). After fielding a young and inexperienced team last year, coach Michael Brooks welcomes back two of his top-three scorers and 10 of the top-12 players in that category this season. Brooks and the Braves return nine letterwinners, including four starters, from last year's team that went 6-24 overall and 5-13 in Missouri Valley Conference play. Redshirt junior Whitney Tinjum is the top returning scorer after averaging 11.7 points per game a year ago. She also had 6.1 rebounds per game, and is one of three returning players to pull down six or more boards per contest a year ago. That group also includes sophomore forward Tamya Sims (8.0 ppg, 6.4 rpg) and junior guard Leti Lerma (5.9 ppg, 6.2 rpg). Bradley's 2015-16 newcomers include fifth-year senior Kat Yelle, who earned three letters at Ohio University. The Braves were picked to finish ninth in the MVC in the league's presseason poll.

THE BGSU-BRADLEY SERIES
• The Falcons lead Bradley, 1-0, in that series, with the only prior meeting coming a year ago. BGSU downed the Braves, 61-47, in Peoria in the last game prior to the holiday break (Dec. 21, 2014).

• Rachel Konieczki had 12 points to lead a balanced attack, as six Falcons scored at least seven points on the afternoon. In just her second game at Bradley, Whitney Tinjum tied for game honors with 15 points, adding 11 rebounds.

• Jennifer Roos is 1-0 against the Braves in her collegiate head-coaching career.

MAC TIES
The will be multiple individuals with Mid-American Conference ties on the opposing bench during BGSU's two weekend games. Illinois State assistant coach Lisa Hayden is in her third season with the Redbirds after 12 years on the staff at Miami University. Bradley assistant coach Skyler Young is a graduate of Western Michigan, and spent time on the staffs at both WMU and Ohio. And, Bradley fifth-year senior guard Kat Yelle is in her first year with the Braves after graduating from Ohio in May of 2015. A three-year letterwinner with the Bobcats, Yelle averaged 6.4 points and 2.7 assists per game in helping the Bobcats to a MAC championship last year.

THREE-GION OF BOOM
BGSU will be looking to extend an impressive streak as the 2015-16 season begins. The Falcons have hit at least one three-pointer in each of the last 341 games. BG has not been held without a triple in over 10 years – since Feb. 12, 2005, at Akron, when the Falcons won, 61-52, despite going 0-of-13 from long distance.

FALCONS VS. THE MAC
Despite last year's struggles after the injury bug bit BG, the Falcons continue to own the best record in MAC history. Entering 2015-16, BGSU has an all-time record of 392-169 (.699) in MAC regular-season contests, for the most wins and highest winning percentage of all league institutions. And, BG leads the series with all 11 MAC foes, making the Falcons the only team in the league, obviously, with a winning series record against every other school. BG also has the most overall victories and highest overall winning pct. of any conference institution.

UP NEXT
Following this weekend's two games at the Stroh Center, BGSU will hit the road for the first time in 2015-16, making a trip to the Queen City. The Falcons will face Cincinnati on Saturday, Nov. 21, with tipoff set for 2:00 p.m.

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