Bowling Green State University Athletics
Women's Basketball Heads To Butler
December 03, 2001 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 3, 2001
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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GAME #7
BGSU AT BUTLER
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2001
HINKLE FIELDHOUSE
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.
7:00 p.m.
THE GAME: The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after posting a win at home, will return to the road for the final time before Christmas ... the Falcons of first-year head coach Curt Miller head to Indianapolis, Ind., for a Tuesday (Dec. 4) game vs. Butler University ... tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse (11,043).
Following the Butler contest, the Brown and Orange will return home for the final two games before the holidays ... BGSU will host UW-Milwaukee on Saturday (Dec. 8) with tipoff scheduled for 1:00 p.m. at BGSU's venerable Anderson Arena (5,000) ... the following Saturday (Dec. 15), the Falcons will host Wright State in another 1:00 p.m. contest.
ABOUT THE FALCONS: BGSU sports a 2-4 record on the young season ... the Falcons opened the season with a 71-61 win at Youngstown State (Nov. 17), but dropped 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 ... last Tuesday (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 missed the next four contests with a knee contusion ... her status is day-to-day ... Miller has 13.0 points per contest, while junior Kim Griech is averaging 11.0 markers.
Sophomore point guard Lindsay Austin is averaging 9.7 markers, 4.2 assists and 2.7 steals ... she leads the team in each of the latter two categories, and is third on the squad with 5.0 rebounds ... another sophomore, Kelly Kapferer, is averaging 8.7 points and has a team-leading field-goal percentage of .528 (19-of-36) ... redshirt sophomore Pam Brown has 7.0 points and a team-best 6.8 rebounds ... Brown missed both the Eastern Kentucky and IPFW contests with a knee injury ... she has a torn lateral meniscus ... Brown will have surgery this week, and is expected to be sidelined for 3-4 weeks.
Senior Dana Western-Schuka has 6.2 points, 5.2 boards and 1.8 steals per game, while sophomore Stefanie Wenzel, after a career-high 23 points vs. IPFW, is now averaging 5.8 points per game.
A total of eight different players have started at least one game this season ... Austin, Griech and Western-Schuka each have been in the starting lineup for all six games to date.
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 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 .346 from the field, while opponents are shooting .399 through the first six games ... the Falcons have made 27 three-point field goals and are shooting .248 from beyond the arc, while the foes have 31 treys and a .316 pct. ... BGSU has a free-throw pct. of .744 to the foes' .709 ... the Falcons have been outrebounded by a 49.0 to 38.8 margin in the first six contests.
BG is 1-1 at home, 1-2 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 BUTLER: Butler brings a record of 0-6 into Tuesday night's (Dec. 5) contest vs. BGSU ... most recently, the Bulldogs lost at Miami in Sunday action (Dec. 2) by an 86-68 score ... the Bulldogs have struggled in the early going, as the 18-point margin vs. Miami was the closest game to date ... the team has fallen to Minnesota (114-65), UT-San Antonio (67-48), Oklahoma (90-44), Utah (77-54) and Indiana (97-72) ... the BU squad is a youthful one, as the 13-player roster consists of six freshmen, six sophomores, one junior and no seniors ... individually, sophomore guard Nancy Bowden leads the team with 11.2 points per game, and also paces the squad in both assists (2.7 apg) and steals (2.7 spg) ... sophomore guard Lisa Pryor and sophomore forward Sarah Bolten average 8.7 and 8.5 points, respectively ... freshman forward Maria Marchesano has 6.7 points off the bench, while freshman center Cortney Urquhart has 6.0 points ... sophomore forward Dionne Goodwin has 5.0 points and a team-high 7.5 rebounds ... Bowden, Bolten, Pryor and Urquhart each have started all six games, while freshman guard Angel Mason (4.2 ppg) has made three starts and Goodwin two ... the Bulldogs have six letterwinners, including one starter, from last year's team that went 8-20 overall and 3-11 in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference ... the conference has since changed its name to the Horizon League ... head coach Wendy Gatlin has a head-coaching record of 18-42 in her third season, all at Butler ... the school's athletic web site is www.butlersports.com.
THE SERIES: The Falcons and Butler are tied, 1-1, in the all-time series between the teams ... both meetings came during the 1997-98 season ... the squads faced off in the first round of the UCF Turkey Shootout in Orlando, Fla., with the Falcons posting an 85-67 win (Nov. 28, 1997) ... then, the Bulldogs and Falcons both received invitations to the WNIT, and met again in Anderson Arena in March ... Butler recorded a 95-90 win in that contest (March 13, 1998) ... Tuesday's contest will be the first meeting in Indianapolis.
LAST TIME OUT: Sophomore Stefanie Wenzel came off the bench to score a career-high 23 points and lead the Falcon women's basketball team to a 73-57 victory over IPFW Thursday (Nov. 29) ... Wenzel made six of her 13 shots from the floor, including a 2-of-3 effort from three-point range ... she was a perfect nine-for-nine from the free-throw line, and also had a career-best nine rebounds ... another Falcon sophomore, Kelly Kapferer, matched her career-best effort with 15 points, while junior Kim Griech also had 15 points ... BGSU took control early and led by a 36-17 count at the half ... the Falcons held the visitors to just a 20.7 percent field-goal percentage in the first 20 minutes ... the Mastodons began the game by making just four of their first 25 shots (16.0%) before splitting the last four attempts of the half ... as a team, the Brown and Orange went 5-of-9 (.556) from three-point land in the second half ... the Falcons, paced by Wenzel, went 19-of-21 (.905) from the free-throw line ... for the first time this season, BGSU won the battle of the boards, 47-33 ... IPFW was led by junior Hilary Kulik, who had 13 points, and freshman Courtney Nicley, who chipped in 11 points.
MORE BGSU-BUTLER INFO.: Tuesday's game matches a pair of programs that qualified for national postseason play just three years ago ... both BGSU and Butler were invited to the WNIT in March of 1998, and the Bulldogs pulled out a five-point win before losing at LSU in the second round ... Butler went 25-6 that year, while the Falcons had a 21-8 record ... since that time, however, both teams have struggled ... Butler had a measure of success the next season, finishing 17-11, but the team went 10-16 and 8-20 in the last two years ... since that WNIT season, BGSU has posted records of 13-14, 11-17 and 11-18.
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 and IPFW contests, with a contusion ... her status is day-to-day ... another Falcon starter, redshirt sophomore Pam Brown, is sidelined with a knee injury ... Brown has a torn lateral meniscus ... she will have surgery this week, 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.
WHEN'LL THEY STOP WENZEL? To say that sophomore Stefanie Wenzel had a career game vs. IPFW Thursday (Nov. 29) would be a tremendous understatement ... Wenzel came off the bench to score a career-high 23 points in the Falcon win ... a native of Sussex, Wis., she made six of her 13 shots from the floor, including a 2-of-3 effort from three-point range ... she was a perfect nine-for-nine from the free-throw line, and also had a career-best eight rebounds.
WENZEL, PART II: In the win over IPFW, Falcon sophomore Stefanie Wenzel more than tripled her previous career-best scoring effort ... Wenzel had a career total of 48 points in 21 games prior to Thursday's game ... she scored a total of 36 points during all of last season, and had 12 points through five games this year, prior to her 23-point effort ... her previous best had been a seven-point game vs. Ohio State last Dec. 12 ... 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 played (28).
EXPAND YOUR HORIZONS: No, Bowling Green is not eligible for the Horizon League championship ... but, 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 Butler contest marks the first of three-straight games vs. Horizon teams for BGSU ... in addition to the Bulldogs, the Falcons also will face UW-Milwaukee (Dec. 8) and Wright State (Dec. 15) during this stretch.
KAPFERER KAN DO: Sophomore Kelly Kapferer matched her career best in the win over IPFW, scoring 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the floor ... her total of six field goals made set a new career standard ... Kapferer had the best game of her young Falcon career 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 against the Titans ... she also set a career best in minutes played, with 28, and tied her career marks in 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 the game at Colorado (Nov. 23) ... before the game was over, she had hit a second trey ... Kapferer went 2-of-3 from behind the arc in that contest, and made her third triple of the year in the win over IPFW.
NICE DEFENSE: The Falcons held Eastern Kentucky to just a 10-of-33 effort (.303) from the field in the first half of last Tuesday's game ... then, 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.
A TALE OF TWO HALVES: Through six games, the Falcons have held the opponent to a field-goal percentage of .322 (64-of-199) in the first half ... when the Colorado game is taken out, BG has limited the foes to a .258 rate (41-of-159) before the intermission ... in the second half, however, the opponents have made 93-of-194 shots from the floor (.479) in the first five games.
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 Thursday's (Nov. 29) 16-point win, 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.
MORE ON THE BGSU DEFENSE: While the shorthanded Falcons didn't win last 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 ... then, vs. IPFW Thursday (Nov. 29), the Falcons held the visiting Mastodons to just a 4-for-25 (.160) shooting effort from the field to begin the game.
FREE-THROW PROWESS: The Falcons have enjoyed success at the foul line so far in 2001-02 ... BGSU has converted free throws at a 77.4% rate, having made 99 in 133 attempts ... the Falcons were 19-of-21 (.905) vs. IPFW ... the school record for a season is .773, set in 1999-2000.
WINNING THE BATTLE OF THE BOARDS: The Falcons have struggled in the rebounding department this season, but BGSU reversed that trend in the IPFW contest ... the Falcons outrebounded the Mastodons by a 47-33 count in Thursday's win.
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 three games, however, she has scored a total of 19 points, for an average of 6.3 points over that span.
DIFFERENT PLAYERS STEPPING UP: In the first six games of the season, the Falcons have had six different players lead the team in scoring ... seniors Francine Miller and Dana Western-Schuka, junior Kim Griech and sophomores Lindsay Austin, Kelly Kapferer and Stefanie Wenzel all have paced the team in scoring on one occasion this year.
WHAT'S A DAY OFF? The Falcons' two games last week concluded a stretch in which BGSU played four times in seven days ... the IPFW game also ended a season-opening stretch in which the Brown and Orange played six contests in a 13-day span.
LONG-RANGE STRUGGLES VS. EKU: 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) ... the Falcons came back to make six treys in 17 tries vs. IPFW.
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.
MILLER MOVING UP SCORING CHARTS: Francine Miller looks to continue her move up the BGSU career scoring chart ... with 1,105 career points, Miller is the MAC's active career scoring leader, and she ranks 13th in school history ... she scored her 1,000th career point in a win over Marshall last Jan. 17 (as part of a school record-tying 35-point game) ... in that game, she became just the fifth player in BGSU annals to reach 1,000 career points as a junior ... Miller is ranked third all-time on the BGSU career scoring average list, with a points-per-game average of 13.81 ... her next target on the BGSU points list is 12th-place Andrea Nordmann (1,164 points, 1989-93).
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 (.366, 60-of-164), while junior Kim Griech is tied for eighth place (.364, 79-of-217) ... Miller is third all-time in three-pointers made, while Griech is tied for fifth and Western-Schuka ninth on that list ... Miller is third in three-point attempts, with Griech deadlocked for seventh and Western-Schuka ninth ... Griech is currently tied with former Falcon Jaymee Wappes in all three categories.
91 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 91 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 eight different players have hit at least one three-point field goal through six games this season.
