Bowling Green State University Athletics
Women's Basketball Hosts UW-Milwaukee
December 07, 2001 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 7, 2001
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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GAME #8BGSU VS. WISCONSIN-MILWAUKEE
BGSU VS. WISCONSIN-MILWAUKEE
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8, 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 close the pre-Christmas schedule with a pair of home games, beginning Saturday (Dec. 8) ... the Falcons of first-year head coach Curt Miller host the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a 2001 NCAA Tournament participant, in a 1:00 p.m. contest ... BGSU's venerable Anderson Arena (5,000) will serve as the game site.
Following the UWM contest, the Brown and Orange will remain home for the final game before the holidays ... BGSU will host Wright State University in another Saturday (Dec. 15) afternoon contest ... tipoff again is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. at Anderson.
Then, BGSU will be idle from competition for nearly two weeks, before the Falcons play in the Gatorade Holiday Classic in Coral Gables, Fla., 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.
WBGU RADIO: The BGSU-UWM 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 2-5 record on the young season ... most recently, the Falcons dropped an overtime contest at Butler, 78-73, Tuesday (Dec. 4) ... BGSU had opened the season with a win at 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 ... 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 have surgery Saturday (Dec. 8) to remove loose cartilage from her kneecap, and is expected to be sidelined for 7-10 days ... 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 is averaging 11.6 markers, while sophomore point guard Lindsay Austin is averaging 10.7 markers, 4.3 assists and 2.6 steals ... she leads the team in each of the latter two categories, and is third on the squad with 4.7 rebounds ... another sophomore, Kelly Kapferer, is averaging 8.3 points and has a team-leading field-goal percentage of .500 (22-of-44) ... redshirt sophomore Pam Brown has 7.0 points and a team-best 6.8 rebounds ... Brown has missed the last three contests with a knee injury (torn lateral meniscus) ... Brown had successful surgery Thursday (Dec. 6), and is expected to be sidelined for 3-4 weeks.
Senior Dana Western-Schuka has 5.9 points, 5.0 boards and 1.6 steals per game, while sophomore Stefanie Wenzel is averaging 5.3 points per game ... Wenzel had a career-high 23 points vs. IPFW.
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 seven games to date, while Austin has made six 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.
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 .355 from the field, while opponents are shooting .398 through the first seven games ... the Falcons have made 34 three-point field goals and are shooting .256 from beyond the arc, while the foes have 38 treys and a .304 pct. ... BGSU has a free-throw pct. of .750 to the foes' .687 ... the Falcons have been outrebounded by a 49.1 to 39.0 margin in the first seven contests.
BG is 1-1 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 UW-MILWAUKEE: Wisconsin-Milwaukee brings a record of 3-4 into Anderson Arena, and the Panthers will be looking to snap a three-game losing streak ... Wednesday (Dec. 5), UWM suffered a 61-57 loss at Valparaiso ... the team also lost home games to Marquette (67-65, Nov. 27) and third-ranked Vanderbilt (79-64, Nov. 30) ... the Panthers opened the season with wins over Northern Illinois and Illinois State, and the other win came at Montana State ... the latter game, which was part of MSU's tournament, came a day after a loss to Ole Miss in the first round ... individually, junior guard Jessica Wilhite leads the team with 15.3 points per game, and has 4.9 rebounds as well ... Wilhite was selected as the preseason Horizon League MVP by the league's coaches, media and SIDs ... sophomore center Maria Viall, like Wilhite a preseason all-league first-team pick, averages 13.7 points and 4.9 boards, while senior guard Holly Tamm has 10.0 points and a team-high 3.3 assists ... Viall has blocked 13 shots this year (1.9 bpg) ... senior forward Stefanie Kaufmann, who averages 9.1 points, leads the Panthers with 5.6 rebounds ... senior guard Allison Klaas (4.1 ppg) joins Kaufmann, Tamm, Viall and Wilhite in the probable starting lineup ... last year, the Panthers went 19-11 overall and tied for the league (then known as the Midwestern Collegiate Conference) title with a 12-2 conference slate ... UWM won the league tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament ... the Panthers have eight letterwinners, including three starters, back from that squad ... head coach Sandy Botham has a record of 80-67 in her sixth year at UWM ... she has an overall head-coaching mark of 105-71 in her seventh season ... the school's athletic web site is www.uwmpanthers.com.
THE SERIES: The Falcons lead UWM by a 2-1 count in the all-time series between the teams ... BGSU won the only previous meeting in Anderson Arena, by a final of 83-62 nearly eight years ago (Dec. 23, 1993) ... that came a year after an 88-69 Falcon triumph in Milwaukee (Dec. 7, 1992) ... the Brown and Orange ventured to UWM last year, and held a one-point halftime lead before falling by a 68-48 result (Dec. 28, 2000).
YOU LOOK FAMILIAR...: Sophomore Stefanie Wenzel will see a familiar face when the Falcons and Panthers take the court Saturday ... 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) ... both Stefanie and Angela have played in all seven of their team's games off the bench this year ... Angela is averaging 3.0 points, while Stefanie has 5.3 points per outing.
...SO DO YOU: The Falcons will greet another familiar face when UWM steps into Anderson Arena Saturday ... Shonda Stampley, who spent the past two seasons (1999-2000 and 2000-01) as a BGSU assistant coach, is in her first season as an assistant at UWM.
LAST TIME OUT: Sarah Bolten scored 11 of her school record-tying 37 points in the overtime period, as host Butler downed the Falcons, 78-73, Tuesday (Dec. 4) ... the win was the first of the season for the Bulldogs ... BG, playing without two starters, got a career-high 17 points from sophomore Lindsay Austin, pacing four Falcons in double digits ... junior Kim Griech added 15, while freshman Tene Lewis had the first double-digit scoring game of her career, with 10 points on the night ... junior Megan Jerome had 10 points for the visitors as well, scoring all 10 in the second half ... all 11 players who suited up for the Falcons saw action ... BGSU shot .403 from the floor, while holding BU to a .387 field-goal percentage ... both teams made seven three-pointers on the night, with all seven of the hosts' treys coming from Bolten ... Butler got to the free-throw line 38 times, making 23 (a FT pct. of .605), while the Falcons were 12-of-15 (.800) on the evening ... in addition to her scoring total, Bolten grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds, as the Bulldogs held a 50-40 advantage in that department ... for the Falcons, sophomore Kelly Kapferer tied her career best with 10 rebounds ... BG forced Butler to commit 25 turnovers, but the Falcons were guilty of 22 miscues of their own.
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 has missed each of the five games since that time ... Miller will have surgery Saturday (Dec. 8) to remove loose cartilage from her kneecap, and is expected to be sidelined for 7-10 days ... 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).
Another Falcon starter, redshirt sophomore Pam Brown, has missed the last three contests with a knee injury (lateral meniscus) ... Brown had successful surgery Thursday (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.
DOUBLE DIGITS: Freshman Tene Lewis and junior Megan Jerome each had 10 points in the game at Butler Tuesday (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.
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 ... 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 that 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 (28).
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 UWM contest marks the second of three-straight games vs. Horizon teams for BGSU ... the Falcons just played Butler (Dec. 4), and BGSU also will face Wright State (Dec. 15) during this stretch.
A TALE OF TWO HALVES: Through seven games, the Falcons have held the opponent to a field-goal percentage of .324 (73-of-225) in the first half ... when the Colorado game is taken out, BG has limited the foes to a .270 rate (50-of-185) before the intermission ... in the second half, however, the opponents have made 103-of-224 shots from the floor (.460) in the first seven games ... BGSU did hold Butler to just a .333 conversion rate in the second half Tuesday, the lowest FG pct. for an opponent 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 75.0% rate, having made 111 in 148 attempts ... 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.
KAPFERER KAN DO: Sophomore Kelly Kapferer has matched her career bests in several categories over the past two games ... in the win over IPFW, 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, 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 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 ... 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.
DIFFERENT PLAYERS STEPPING UP: In the first six games of the season, the Falcons 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 paced the team in scoring on one occasion during that time ... Austin came off the bench for a career-high 17 points in the Butler game, becoming the first Falcon to lead the team in that category twice this year.
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 Falcons have struggled in the rebounding department this season, losing the battle of the boards six times in the first seven 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 (.364, 60-of-165), while junior Kim Griech is in ninth place (.358, 82-of-229) ... 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.
