Bowling Green State University Athletics
Women's Basketball To Host Wright State Saturday
December 12, 2001 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 12, 2001
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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GAME #9
BGSU (2-6) VS. WRIGHT STATE (0-8)
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2001
ANDERSON ARENA - BOWLING GREEN, OHIO
1:00 p.m.
RADIO: WBGU-FM 88.1
THE GAME: The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, still without a pair of starters, will play one final game before breaking for exams and the holiday season ... the Falcons of first-year head coach Curt Miller end the pre-Christmas schedule with a Saturday (Dec. 15) game against Wright State University ... tipoff is set for 1:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena (5,000).
Following the WSU contest, the Brown and Orange will have nearly two weeks off from competition before heading to Coral Gables, Fla., for the Gatorade Holiday Classic on Dec. 27-28 ... BGSU will meet Yale in the first round of that tournament, and the Falcons will face either Lehigh or host Miami (Fla.) in the second game ... then, the Brown and Orange will return home to begin the Mid-American Conference slate, diving right in with a Jan. 2 home game vs. defending East Division champion Kent State.
WBGU RADIO: The BGSU-Wright State 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.
ABOUT THE FALCONS: BGSU sports a 2-6 record on the young season, and the Falcons are looking to snap a two-game losing streak ... last week, the Falcons dropped a pair of contests, falling in overtime at Butler, 78-73 (Dec. 4), before losing a home tilt to UW-Milwaukee, 77-52 (Dec. 8) ... BGSU had opened the season with a win at 71-61 win at Youngstown State (Nov. 17), but lost the next four games .. BG suffered a five-point loss at Detroit (Nov. 20), 67-62, then lost to host Colorado (96-44, Nov. 23) and Yale (81-69, Nov. 24) at the Coors Classic ... on Nov. 27, the Brown and Orange fell to Eastern Kentucky by an 83-63 count, but BG rebounded to post a 73-57 win over IPFW two days later (Nov. 29).
Individually, 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 has not played since, due to a knee injury ... she will had surgery Saturday (Dec. 8) to remove loose cartilage from her kneecap, and is expected to be sidelined for 7-10 days from that time ... she will not play in the Wright State game (Dec. 15), but is expected to be available for the tournament in Florida (Dec. 27-28) ... Miller has 13.0 points per contest.
Junior Kim Griech and sophomore point guard Lindsay Austin each are averaging 10.4 points per game ... Austin leads the team in both assists (4.3 apg) and steals (2.5 spg), and is third on the squad with 4.1 rebounds ... another sophomore, Kelly Kapferer, is averaging 8.3 points and has a team-leading field-goal percentage of .491 (26-of-53) ... redshirt sophomore Pam Brown has 7.0 points and a team-best 6.8 rebounds ... Brown has missed the last four contests with a knee injury (torn lateral meniscus) ... Brown had successful surgery on Thursday, Dec. 6, and is expected to be sidelined for 3-4 weeks from that time ... as is the case with Francine Miller, the coaching staff hopes to have Brown back for the tournament in Florida.
Sophomore Stefanie Wenzel has 6.5 points per game, while senior Dana Western-Schuka averages 5.6 points, 4.6 boards and 1.4 steals per game.
A total of nine different players have started at least one game this season ... Griech and Western-Schuka each have been in the starting lineup for all eight games to date, while Austin has made seven starts.
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.
This year, BGSU is shooting .355 from the field, while opponents are shooting .401 through the first eight games ... the Falcons have made 38 three-point field goals and are shooting .259 from beyond the arc, while the foes have 46 treys and a .319 pct. ... BGSU has a free-throw pct. of .744 to the foes' .686 ... the Falcons have been outrebounded by a 48.4 to 38.5 margin in the first eight contests.
BG is 1-2 at home, 1-3 on the road and 0-1 in neutral-site contests in 2001-02 ... the Falcons went 6-5 at Anderson Arena last year ... BGSU was 3-12 on the road and 2-1 in neutral-site affairs ... in MAC play, the Brown and Orange went 5-3 at home and 1-7 on the road last year.
SCOUTING WRIGHT STATE: Wright State brings a record of 0-8 into the week, and the Raiders have a Wednesday (Dec. 12) home contest vs. Ohio before heading to BGSU for Saturday's game ... the team is coming off a 92-75 loss to visiting Morehead State on Dec. 6 ... WSU is 0-1 in Horizon League play, with that game - a 60-59 road loss to UIC (Dec. 3) marking the team's closest contest to date ... the Raiders opened the season with setbacks to MAC schools Ball State (89-54, Nov. 16) and Miami (98-73, Nov. 20), and the team has also faced Texas A&M, Jackson State, West Virginia and IPFW ... individually, freshman guard Tiffany Webb leads the team with 12.4 points per game, and paces the squad in assists (3.6) and steals (2.9) as well ... another freshman, forward Angie Ott, has 9.1 points per game, while junior forward Brie Pennington averages 8.8 points and 4.9 rebounds ... junior forward Katie Bussan has 7.4 points ... sophomore forward Iesha Gray has 9.5 points and a team-high 6.2 rebounds per contest ... a total of 10 different players have made at least one start this year, with Webb and Bussan the only two players to start all eight games ... last year, the Raiders went 6-22 overall and posted a league (then known as the Midwestern Collegiate Conference) record of 3-11 to tie for seventh ... first-year head coach Bridgett Williams has seven letterwinners, including one starter, back from that squad ... Williams has an overall head-coaching mark of 10-54 in her third season ... the school's athletic web site is www.wsuraiders.com.
THE SERIES: The Falcons lead Wright State by a 4-2 count in the all-time series between the teams ... the Falcons have a 3-0 mark vs. the Raiders in Anderson Arena, and BGSU has won the last three overall meetings ... the teams have met just once since 1982, with that meeting coming a year ago ... last season, the Brown and Orange took to the road and captured a 56-52 decision at WSU's Nutter Center (Dec. 16, 2000) ... four of the last five meetings have been decided by five points or less ... the other two series meetings have been decided by margins of 36 points or more.
LAST TIME OUT: UW-Milwaukee posted a 77-52 win over the Falcons in Anderson Arena last Saturday (Dec. 8) ... UWM made eight three-point field goals in 19 attempts, and the Panthers got to the line for 28 shots, sinking 19 ... BGSU made 4-of-14 long-distance attempts and went to the line 12 times, making eight ... sophomore Stefanie Wenzel led the Falcons in both scoring and rebounding, with 15 points and seven rebounds in a career-high 32 minutes ... she sank two three-pointers to tie her career standard in that department ... Wenzel's older sister, Angela, is a junior for UWM and scored six points for the visitors ... the Panthers, a 2001 NCAA Tournament team, were coming off a loss at Valparaiso, and UWM coach Sandy Botham shook up her lineup, starting her five available freshmen ... the five responded by staking the Panthers to a 14-9 lead after six-and-a-half minutes ... UWM led by 12, 35-23, at the half ... in the second half, BG cut the lead to 10 points, but he Panthers responded, upping the lead to 18 (55-37) over the next five minutes ... but, the Falcons made one last run at the visitors ... back-to-back treys by senior Dana Western-Schuka and Wenzel cut the margin to 12 points, and a bucket by sophomore Lindsay Austin made it a 55-45 game with 10:42 remaining ... from there, however, the Panthers allowed BGSU to score just seven points the rest of the way ... UWM scored the next six points of the contest to move the lead to 16, and BG could not narrow the gap ... Christine Gutierrez had a team-high 14 points, while Maria Viall added 12 points and a team-high seven rebounds ... Wenzel was the lone Falcon in double digits in the scoring department.
INJURY REPORT: Senior Francine Miller (knee) left the Detroit game (Nov. 20) after just four minutes, and did not see action the remainder of the night ... she has missed each of the six games since that time ... Miller had surgery Saturday (Dec. 8) to remove loose cartilage from her kneecap ... she will not play in the Wright State game, but is expected to be available for the tournament in Florida (Dec. 27-28).
Another Falcon starter, redshirt sophomore Pam Brown, has missed the last four contests with a knee injury (torn lateral meniscus) ... Brown had successful surgery on Dec. 6, and is expected to be sidelined for 3-4 weeks.
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.
EXPAND YOUR HORIZONS: No, Bowling Green is not eligible for the Horizon League championship ... it only seems that way ... the Falcons compete against five of the nine Horizon League (formerly the Midwestern Collegiate Conference) institutions this season ... BGSU opened the season with games at HL members Youngstown State and Detroit ... the WSU contest marks the last of three-straight games vs. Horizon teams for BGSU ... the Falcons have also played Butler (Dec. 4) and UW-Milwaukee (Dec. 8) during this stretch.
WENZEL VS. WENZEL: Sophomore Stefanie Wenzel played against a sibling when the Falcons met UW-Milwaukee Saturday (Dec. 8) ... Wenzel's sister, Angela, is a member of the UWM squad ... Angela, a junior in eligibility, is in her second playing season at UWM after transferring from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) ... Stefanie was the lone Falcon in double digits in the game, with 15 points ... she also led the Brown and Orange in rebounding (seven) and minutes played (a career-high 32) ... Angela came off the bench to score six points and grab four rebounds for the Panthers.
HOME COOKING FOR WENZEL: Sophomore Stefanie Wenzel has had a pair of solid efforts in the Falcons' last two home games ... she entered the IPFW contest (Nov. 29) with a total of 48 career points in 21 games at BG ... in the last two home games, Wenzel has totalled 38 points ... she has 40 points in the last three games overall ... Wenzel had team bests of 15 points and seven rebounds in Saturday's (Dec. 8) UW-Milwaukee game, playing a career-high 32 minutes.
WHAT A NIGHT FOR WENZEL: To say that sophomore Stefanie Wenzel had a career game vs. IPFW (Nov. 29) would be a tremendous understatement ... Wenzel came off the bench to score a career-high 23 points in the Falcon win ... she more than tripled her previous career-best scoring effort (seven points) ... a native of Sussex, Wis., Wenzel also shattered her career bests in a mere eight additional categories - rebounds (eight), field goals made (six) and attempted (13), free throws made (nine) and attempted (nine), assists (two), three-point field goals made (two) and minutes (28) ... she tied the three-point FG total and set a new best for minutes played (32) vs. UWM on Dec. 8.
STOCZ STRIKES: Junior Karen Stocz celebrated her 21st birthday on Dec. 8, and had a solid game off the bench ... the junior hit the first three-point field goal of her career, and set a career best with two blocked shots vs. UWM ... she tied her career best with three steals, and also had four rebounds in the contest ... Stocz played 17 minutes, just three shy of her career standard.
93 GAMES AND COUNTING: The Falcons have made at least one three-point field goal in every game during the past three-plus years ... in fact, BGSU has drained a triple in each of the last 93 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 ... this year, that trend is continuing, as 11 different players have hit at least one trey through the first eight games ... junior Karen Stocz hit the first trey of her career vs. UWM (Dec. 8), four days after freshman Tene Lewis made her first collegiate trey at Butler (Dec. 4) ... also at Butler, junior Megan Jerome hit her first two triples of the year ... 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 TALE OF TWO HALVES: Through eight games, the Falcons have held the opponent to a field-goal percentage of .332 (85-of-256) in the first half ... when the Colorado game is taken out, BG has limited the foes to a .287 rate (62-of-216) before the intermission ... in the second half, however, the opponents have made 116-of-252 shots from the floor (.460) in the first eight games ... BGSU held Butler to just a .333 conversion rate in the second half, the lowest FG pct. for a foe in the second stanza this year.
FREE-THROW PROWESS: The Falcons have enjoyed success at the foul line so far in 2001-02 ... BGSU has converted free throws at a 74.4% rate, having made 119 in 160 attempts ... BG currently ranks 36th in the nation in that category (through games of Dec. 10) ... the Falcons were 19-of-21 (.905) vs. IPFW and 12-of-15 (.800) at Butler ... the school record for a season is .773, set in 1999-2000.
DOUBLE DIGITS: Freshman Tene Lewis and junior Megan Jerome each had 10 points in the game at Butler (Dec. 4) ... Lewis and Jerome became the ninth and 10th different Falcon players to hit double figures in scoring on at least one occasion this year ... a total of 12 different players hit double digits in that category during all of last season, after eight players did so in 1999-2000.
KAPFERER KAN DO: Sophomore Kelly Kapferer matched her career bests in several categories over a two-game span ... in the win over IPFW (Nov. 29), she scored 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the floor ... her total of six field goals made set a new career standard, while her point total tied a career high ... then, at Butler (Dec. 4), she tied her rebounding best with 10 boards ... Kapferer had set her career bests in both points and rebounds in the Detroit contest (Nov. 20) ... in that contest, Kapferer came off the bench to post her first career double-double, with 15 points and 10 rebounds ... she also set a career best in minutes played, with 28, and tied her career marks in free throws made (five) and assists (two).
NICE DEFENSE: The Falcons held Eastern Kentucky to just a 10-of-33 effort (.303) from the field in the first half of that game ... two days later, BGSU limited IPFW to just a .207 rate (6-of-29) before halftime ... that marked the fourth time in six 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.
60 ON "D" IS KEY: Not surprisingly, BGSU has been quite successful when limiting the opposition to 60 points or less over the years ... the Falcons limited IPFW to just 57 points in that 16-point win (Nov. 29), marking the first time this year BG held the opponent under the 60-point plateau ... the Falcons held the opponent to fewer than 60 markers only twice last season, and won both games ... the Falcons have won 22 consecutive games when holding the opposition under 60 points ... since 1991-92, the Brown and Orange is 46-3 when holding foes to 60 points or less ... the Falcons held Butler to 59 points in regulation in Tuesday's (Dec. 4) game, but BG scored just 59 points as well ... Butler wound up with a total of 78 points and an overtime win.
MORE ON THE BGSU DEFENSE: While the shorthanded Falcons didn't win the game against Eastern Kentucky (Nov. 27), 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 ... then, vs. IPFW (Nov. 29), the Falcons held the visiting Mastodons to just a 4-for-25 (.160) shooting effort from the field to begin the game.
STOCZ SCORES: Junior Karen Stocz entered the season with a career scoring average of 1.7 points per game ... and, she scored a total of just two points in the Falcons' first three games this year ... over the last five games, however, she has scored a total of 29 points, for an average of 5.8 points over that span.
SEE YOU AGAIN SOON: The Falcons' meeting with Yale on 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.
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.
NOTING THE FALCONS: The only two players on the 13-woman active roster who have yet to hit a three-point field goal this year are sophomore Pam Brown (who has played in just four games due to injury) and junior Rachal Hamilton (who has hit 2-of-7 triple tries in her career, but has yet to attempt one this season) ... sophomore Lindsay Austin led the Falcons in scoring (12.5 ppg), assists (4.5 apg) and steals (2.0 spg) in last week's two contests, at Butler and against UWM ... the Falcons have struggled in the rebounding department this season, losing the battle of the boards seven times in the first eight games ... but, BGSU reversed that trend in the IPFW contest ... the Falcons outrebounded the Mastodons by a 47-33 count in that win ... junior Kim Griech had a career-high six steals at Detroit (Nov. 20) ... that total was the most by a BGSU player in nearly two years, since Jaymee Wappes had six thefts vs. St. Bonaventure (Nov. 22, 1999) ... the Falcons held Detroit to a field-goal percentage of just .303, after limiting Youngstown State to a .323 success rate in the season opener ... last year, the Falcons held only one opponent to less than 35 percent shooting during the entire 29-game campaign ... BG's defense held UDM to just seven baskets in 40 attempts (.175) in the first half of that game ... the Falcons' game vs. IPFW concluded a stretch in which BGSU played four times in seven days ... that IPFW game also ended a season-opening stretch in which the Brown and Orange played six contests in a 13-day span ... 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 ... the Falcons suffered an 83-63 loss to Eastern Kentucky in the home opener (Nov. 27) ... 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.
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 (.367, 61-of-166), while junior Kim Griech is in ninth place (.353, 82-of-232) ... Miller is third all-time in three-pointers made, while Griech has moved into fifth ... Western-Schuka is ninth on that list ... Miller is third in three-point attempts, with Griech sixth and Western-Schuka ninth ... the complete lists can be found elsewhere in these notes.
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 eight games), BGSU's totals are over 95 percent of the totals during those first 12 years ... during that time, Falcon teams have made 634 treys in 1,794 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" 4.75 treys per game through this season's first eight contests.
