Bowling Green State University Athletics
Women's Hoops To Face IPFW
November 29, 2001 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 29, 2001
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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GAME #6
BGSU VS. IPFW
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2001
ANDERSON ARENA - BOWLING GREEN, OHIO
7:00 P.M.
RADIO: WBGU-FM 88.1
THE GAME: The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, looking to snap a four-game losing streak, concludes a two-game homestand with a Thursday (Nov. 29) contest ... the Falcons of first-year head coach Curt Miller face Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne ... tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at BGSU's venerable Anderson Arena (5,000) ... the IPFW contest marks the Falcons' fourth game in a seven-day span.
Following the IPFW game, the Brown and Orange will be off until a Tuesday (Dec. 4) game at Butler ... that game is scheduled to tip at 7:00 p.m. at Hinkle Fieldhouse (11,043).
RADIO: The BGSU-IPFW game is scheduled to be broadcast by campus station WBGU-FM (88.1) ... the station is scheduled to air a total of 15 women's basketball games (plus any postseason contests) this year, including all of the Falcons' home games.
A RARE HOME-OPENING LOSS: The Falcons suffered an 83-63 loss to Eastern Kentucky in Tuesday's (Nov. 27) home opener ... the setback marks only the second loss for BGSU in the last 14 home openers ... the only loss among the previous 13 home-opening contests came to nationally-ranked Notre Dame, an eventual national semifinalist, in 1996 ... overall, the Falcons now have a record of 20-9 (.690) in home openers.
WHAT? NO GAME FRIDAY? As mentioned, the Falcons' two games this week conclude a stretch in which BGSU plays four times in seven days ... the IPFW game also ends a season-opening stretch in which the Brown and Orange plays six contests in a 13-day span.
ABOUT THE FALCONS: BGSU opened the season with a 71-61 win at Youngstown State Saturday (Nov. 17), but have dropped the four games since that time ... BG suffered a five-point loss at Detroit last Tuesday (Nov. 20), 67-62, then lost to host Colorado (96-44, Nov. 23) and Yale (81-69, Nov. 24) at last weekend's Coors Classic ... Tuesday (Nov. 27), the Brown and Orange fell to Eastern Kentucky by an 83-63 count ... senior Francine Miller scored 26 points in the win at YSU, but suffered a knee injury early in the UDM game ... she played just four minutes in that game, and missed the next three contests with a knee contusion ... she will miss the IPFW game as well, and her status is day-to-day ... Miller leads the team with 13.0 points per contest, while sophomore point guard Lindsay Austin is averaging 10.8 markers, 4.0 assists and 2.6 steals ... she leads the team in each of the latter two categories, and is second on the squad with 4.6 rebounds.
Junior Kim Griech is averaging 10.2 markers, while sophomore Kelly Kapferer is averaging 7.4 points and has a team-leading field-goal percentage of .464 (13-of-28) ... senior Dana Western-Schuka has 7.0 points, 4.4 boards and 2.2 steals per game, while redshirt sophomore Pam Brown has 7.0 points and a team-best 6.8 rebounds ... Brown missed the Eastern Kentucky contest, and will miss the IPFW game, with a knee injury ... BGSU suffered an 89-81 loss to the Premier All-Stars in the team's lone exhibition (Nov. 12).
BG finished the 2000-01 season with a record of 11-18, and the Falcons completed Mid-American Conference play with a league ledger of 6-10 ... BGSU ended conference play in fourth place in the MAC's East Division ... the Falcons posted a 78-75 win at Western Michigan in the first round of the 2001 Kraft MAC Tournament, before losing to Toledo in the quarterfinal round ... a total of 11 letterwinners return from that squad.
The returnees include a pair of seniors, Miller and Western-Schuka ... Miller, who earned All-MAC Second-Team honors last year, led the team in scoring (14.3 ppg) ... she was named to the Preseason All-MAC Team by the MAC News Media Association for the second consecutive year ... Western-Schuka averaged 6.8 points and led the Falcons with 4.8 rebounds and 0.9 blocked shots per game a year ago.
Other returnees include Griech, who averaged 7.8 points and made 46 three-point field goals a year ago ... Austin started 28 of BG's 29 games last winter, and averaged 6.8 points and a team-best 3.6 assists per outing ... Brown started 18 games, including the last seven, in her first playing season ... Brown averaged 6.3 points and 4.9 boards.
Juniors Rachal Hamilton, Megan Jerome and Karen Stocz also return, and are joined by sophomores Kapferer, Emily Pohl and Stefanie Wenzel ... BGSU's two freshmen, Tene Lewis and Smith, were teammates at Detroit's Communication & Media Arts H.S. ... another newcomer, Giani Bowles, comes to BG after three years at St. John's University ... Bowles will sit out the 2001-02 season and retain one season of eligibility.
On the sidelines, Curt Miller is joined by first-year assistants Jennifer Roos and Brandi Poole ... Roos spent the last eight years as an assistant at Davidson College, while Poole was at West Virginia University last year ... Afra Smith is a student assistant coach on the 2001-02 staff.
BGSU is shooting .337 from the field, while opponents are shooting .408 through the first five games ... the Falcons have made 21 three-point field goals and are shooting .228 from beyond the arc, while the foes have 26 treys and a .321 pct. ... BGSU has a free-throw pct. of .714 to the foes' .703 ... the Falcons have been outrebounded by a 52.2 to 37.2 margin in the first five contests.
The Falcons went 6-5 at Anderson Arena last year ... BGSU was 3-12 on the road and 2-1 in neutral-site contests ... in MAC play, the Brown and Orange went 5-3 at home and 1-7 on the road.
SCOUTING IPFW: IPFW (Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne) is new to Division I this season, and the Mastodons are off to a 1-3 start ... after a season-opening win at Chicago State, 84-83 in overtime (Nov. 16), the team has lost to Morehead State (72-91, Nov. 20), Army (73-82, Nov. 24) and Ball State (50-94, Nov. 27) ... individually, sophomore guard Amy Gearlds leads the team with 13.5 points per game, while both freshman center Kathy Hay and junior guard Hilary Kulik average 11.5 points ... Hay paces the Mastodons with 8.0 rebounds per game ... senior guard Lindsay Werntz has 10.0 points per contest ... senior F/C Laura Douglas has 8.0 points and leads the team in both assists (3.8 apg) and steals (2.3 spg) ... Douglas, Kulik and junior forward Teeara Dudley (6.8 ppg, 5.3 rpg) each have started all four games, while Gearlds and Werntz have started three apiece ... the Mastodons have four letterwinners, including three starters, from last year's team that went 19-8 overall and 12-8 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference (NCAA Division II) ... head coach Bruce Patterson is in his first year at IPFW ... Patterson, who came to IPFW from St. Francis (Ill.), has an overall head-coaching record of 247-104 in his 12th season ... the school's athletic web site is www.ipfw.edu/athletics.
THE SERIES: Thursday's contest marks the first-ever meeting between the Falcons and IPFW in women's basketball.
LAST TIME OUT: Five Eastern Kentucky players scored in double figures and the visiting Colonels shot 70 percent in the second half to down the Falcons, 83-63, Tuesday (Nov. 27) ... Teresa McNair scored a team-high 13 points, had six rebounds and contributed four steals for the visitors ... for the hosts, junior Kim Griech had a game-high 14 points, while sophomore point guard Lindsay Austin scored in double digits for the third consecutive game ... Austin had 12 points and three steals ... BGSU played without a pair of starters ... the Falcons, already without senior Francine Miller, learned late Tuesday afternoon that redshirt sophomore Pam Brown also would miss the game due to injury ... BGSU fell behind early, trailing by as many as 16 points in the first half ... but, the Falcons rallied to within four points at the intermission ... in the second half, however, the Colonels scored the first eight points, sparking a 16-3 run over the first four minutes ... when the smoke had cleared, EKU led by a 46-29 count, and the Falcons never cut the lead below 11 points thereafter.
INJURY REPORT: Senior Francine Miller (knee) left the Detroit game after just four minutes, and did not see action the remainder of the night ... she missed both games in Colorado, as well as the EKU contest, with a contusion ... she is expected to miss the IPFW game as well ... another Falcon starter, redshirt sophomore Pam Brown, is sidelined with a knee injury ... Brown missed the EKU game, and will also sit out the IPFW contest ... last year, the Falcons missed a total of 41 player-games due to injury or illness ... a total of seven players, including four who were or would have been starters, were sidelined at one point or another ... all three of last year's seniors - Jackie Adlington, Angie Farmer and Afra Smith - missed at least one game ... Miller missed all of six games and part of several others ... she had a meniscus injury that bothered her for much of the year ... Megan Jerome was diagnosed with a stress fracture in her back last Feb. 2, and missed the remainder of the season.
NICE DEFENSE: While the shorthanded Falcons didn't win Tuesday's (Nov. 27) game against Eastern Kentucky, BGSU put together some stretches of solid defensive efforts ... the Brown and Orange fell behind by a 28-12 count with 8:31 remaining in the first half, but then held the Colonels without a field goal for the rest of the period ... BGSU's defense forced EKU to go 0-for-6 from the floor and commit a whopping 10 turnovers during that eight-and-a-half minute span.
NICE DEFENSE II: The Falcons held Eastern Kentucky to just a 10-of-33 effort (.303) from the field in the first half of Tuesday's game ... that marked the third time in five games that BG held the opponent to a field-goal pct. of .303 or lower in a half ... the Brown and Orange limited Youngstown State to just a .259 rate in the first half of that Nov. 17 game, then held Detroit to just a .175 shooting effort in the first half three days later ... the Falcons held the opponent to a FG pct. of .300 or less just five times in 58 halves last year.
A TALE OF TWO HALVES: Through five games, the Falcons have held the opponent to a field-goal percentage of .341 (58-of-170) in the first half ... when the Colorado game is taken out, BG has limited the foes to a .269 rate (35-of-130) before the intermission ... in the second half, however, the opponents have made 78-of-163 shots from the floor (.479) in the first five games.
LONG-RANGE WOES: The Falcons made just two three-point field goals in 15 attempts vs. Eastern Kentucky ... BGSU's triple total was the team's lowest since the Falcons went 2-of-6 from beyond the arc in last year's Ohio State game (Dec. 12, 2000).
AUSTIN NAMED TO ALL-TOURNEY TEAM: Sophomore point guard Lindsay Austin was named to the Coors Classic All-Tournament Team for her efforts in last weekend's two games ... Austin averaged 15.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 4.0 steals in the two games ... she tied for the team lead in rebounding, and led the Falcons in each of the other three categories ... Austin had a career-high 16 points in the Falcons' Friday (Nov. 23) loss to Colorado, and added 14 points, seven boards and seven assists vs. Yale the next night ... the rebounding total vs. the Bulldogs tied her career standard.
MILLER NAMED MAC P-O-W: On Nov. 20, senior Francine Miller was named the MAC's East Division Player of the Week ... Miller earned the honor after pumping in a game-high 26 points in the Falcons' win at Youngstown State (Nov. 17) ... Miller's 9-of-20 shooting effort in that contest included a 5-of-9 performance from three-point range ... she had six rebounds and a pair of steals in the win.
KAPFERER KAN DO: Sophomore Kelly Kapferer had the best game of her young Falcon career in the Detroit contest last Tuesday (Nov. 20) ... Kapferer came off the bench to post her first career double-double, with 15 points and 10 rebounds against the Titans ... she also set a career best in minutes played, with 28, and tied her career marks in field goals made (five) and attempted (eight), free throws made (five) and assists (two).
A LONG-RANGE THREAT, TOO: Sophomore Kelly Kapferer hit the first three-point field goal of her career in Friday's (Nov. 23) game vs. Colorado ... before the game was over, she had hit a second trey ... Kapferer went 2-of-3 from behind the arc in the game.
ANOTHER LONG-RANGE THREAT: Senior Dana Western-Schuka tied her career standard by sinking four three-point field goals in the Yale contest (Nov. 24) ... Western-Schuka, who has made at least one trey in each of the last four contests, has hit 7-of-16 shots from beyond the arc (.438) this season.
SEE YOU AGAIN SOON: The Falcons' meeting with Yale Saturday (Nov. 24) was the first of two contests - both at neutral sites - between BGSU and the Bulldogs in the 2001-02 season ... the Falcons will meet Yale on Dec. 27, in the first round of the Gatorade Holiday Classic in Coral Gables, Fla.
LEWIS MAKES DEBUT: The Falcons' other freshman, Tene Lewis, saw the first playing time of her BG career at UDM ... Lewis, a high-school teammate of Sakima Smith at Detroit CMA, did not play in either the exhibition game or the YSU contest ... she provided a spark off the bench Tuesday, and had two points and a steal in eight minutes ... Lewis had five points vs. Colorado, and made her first collegiate start in the Yale game.
GRIECH'S THIEVERY: Junior Kim Griech hit double digits in scoring for the second consecutive game, with 13 points at Detroit, but she really showed her prowess at the defensive end of the floor ... Griech had six steals, setting a career high, in the contest ... that total is the most by a BGSU player in nearly two years, since Jaymee Wappes had six thefts vs. St. Bonaventure (Nov. 22, 1999).
GO WEST: The 2001-02 season marks the final campaign for the Falcons as a member of the MAC's East Division ... in October, the MAC welcomed the University of Central Florida as a member for the sport of football only, beginning in 2002 ... the league placed UCF in the East Division ... BGSU is being moved to the West Division for all sports, beginning in the 2002-03 academic year.
TRIPLE YOUR FUN: Several 2001-02 Falcon team members are ranked among the BGSU career three-point leaders ... senior Francine Miller is third on the all-time school list for career three-point percentage (.421, 122-of-290) ... senior Dana Western-Schuka is seventh on that list (.368, 60-of-163), while junior Kim Griech is in ninth place (.362, 76-of-210) ... Miller is third all-time in three-pointers made, while Griech is seventh and Western-Schuka ninth on that list ... Miller is third in three-point attempts, with Griech eighth and Western-Schuka ninth.
90 GAMES AND COUNTING: The Falcons have made at least one three-point field goal in every game during the past three years ... in fact, BGSU has drained a triple in each of the last 90 games, a school record ... the last time the Falcons were held without a trey was on March 1, 1998 ... the previous school record was 29-straight games on two occasions - most recently, in the 1993-94 (last five games) and 1994-95 (first 24 games) seasons.
EVERYONE'S A THREAT: A total of 11 different Falcons made at least one three-point field goal last season ... 10 of those players had drained a "three" by the fifth game of the season ... a total of 10 different players hit a trey in 1999-2000, as well as in 1998-99 ... prior to that time, the most players to hit a trey in the same season was seven ... a total of seven different players have hit at least one three-point field goal through four games this season.
MAKING UP FOR LOST TIME: In the first 12 seasons after the three-point shot was adopted (1986-87 to 1997-98), Bowling Green teams made a total of 666 three-pointers in 1,890 attempts ... over the last three years (plus five games), BGSU's totals are nearly 93 percent of the totals during those first 12 years ... during that time, Falcon teams have made 617 treys in 1,739 tries.
STILL SHOOTING (AND MAKING) THE TREY: The three-point shot has been a staple of Falcon teams over the past few years ... two years ago, the Brown and Orange set a new NCAA Division I record for three-point field goals made per game ... BGSU sank 259 treys in 28 contests, for an average of 9.25 per game ... last season, the Falcons averaged 6.97 three-pointers made per contest ... Bowling Green made at least five treys in 25 of the 29 games last season ... BGSU is averaging "only" 4.20 treys per game through this season's first five contests.
