Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Head To Ball State Saturday
January 17, 2002 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 17, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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BGSU (5-11, 2-3)
AT
BALL STATE (11-4, 3-1)
GAME #17
SAT., JAN. 19, 2002
Worthen Arena - Muncie, Ind. - 1:30 p.m.
SERIES: BGSU leads, 33-8
LAST MEETING: at BGSU 96, Ball State 87 (Feb. 9, 1999)
THE GAME: The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, coming off back-to-back Mid-American Conference wins, takes to the road for the next two contests ... the Falcons of first-year head coach Curt Miller head to Muncie, Ind., for a Saturday (Jan. 19) matchup against Ball State University ... tipoff for that contest is set for 1:30 p.m. at BSU's John E. Worthen Arena (11,500) ... please note that the start time has been pushed back one-half hour from the original schedule.
Following the BSU game, the Brown and Orange will play a Wednesday (Jan. 23) game at Kent State University ... that game will begin at 7:00 p.m. at KSU's M.A.C. Center (6,327) ... BGSU's next home game is Sat., Jan. 26, vs. Marshall at venerable Anderson Arena (5,000) ... the Marshall game is the first half of a doubleheader, with the BGSU men's team taking on Kent State at approximately 3:30 p.m.
ABOUT THE FALCONS: BGSU has an overall record of 5-11 on the season, and the Falcons are 2-3 in MAC play after posting two consecutive home wins ... the Brown and Orange defeated Akron by an 85-73 count Monday night (Jan. 14) ... that win came on the heels of Saturday's (Jan. 12) 71-69 victory over visiting Buffalo ... sophomore Stefanie Wenzel, who had a career-high 30 points vs. UB, followed that performance with a team-high 20 points vs. UA ... BGSU also has faced Northern Illinois (52-56, Jan. 9), Central Michigan (71-81, Jan. 5) and Kent State (60-74, Jan. 2) in conference action ... prior to the KSU contest, the Brown and Orange split a pair of games in Florida to finish the non-league slate ... the Falcons lost to Yale, 51-47, in the first round of the Gatorade Holiday Classic in Coral Gables, Fla. (Dec. 27) ... BGSU rebounded to win the consolation game of the tourney, hosted by the University of Miami, the next day (Dec. 28) ... the Falcons topped Lehigh by a 63-55 count ... BGSU had a pair of players, junior Kim Griech and sophomore Kelly Kapferer, named to the all-tournament team.
For BGSU, the victory over Lehigh snapped a four-game losing streak ... the Falcons had opened the season with a 71-61 win at Youngstown (Nov. 17), but lost the next four games ... BG had returned to the win column with a 73-57 victory over visiting IPFW (Nov. 29) before dropping the next four contests.
Senior Francine Miller has not played in the last three games, and will miss the remainder of the season ... she is in the process of appealing for a medical hardship ... Miller saw action in each of the first two MAC contests ... playing for the first time since Nov. 20, she had a game-high 29 points in just 25 minutes vs. KSU ... Miller had 15 points off the bench at CMU ... she was the team's top scorer in the three full games in which she saw action this year ... Miller had 17.5 points per contest in her four games played ... not counting the Detroit game (in which she played four minutes and attempted just one shot), she averaged 23.3 points per game.
Junior Kim Griech is averaging a team-best 10.8 points per contest, and she leads the Falcons with 26 three-point field goals on the year ... Griech tied her career high with 19 points in the NIU contest ... Wenzel, after scoring 50 points in the last two games, is averaging 10.5 points per contest ... another sophomore, point guard Lindsay Austin, is averaging 9.0 points, and leads the team in both assists (5.1 apg) and steals (2.3 spg) ... she is third on the squad with 4.4 rebounds ... a third sophomore, Kelly Kapferer, has 7.8 points per game.
Redshirt sophomore Pam Brown has 6.4 points and 5.3 rebounds ... Brown missed seven consecutive contests with a knee (lateral meniscus) injury ... she had successful surgery on Dec. 6, and made her return in the KSU game ... on Monday, she had her best game since returning from the injury, with 17 points off the bench vs. UA.
Senior Dana Western-Schuka averages 6.3 points, a team-best 5.8 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game.
A total of 10 different players have started at least one game this season ... Griech and Western-Schuka each have been in the starting lineup for all 16 games to date, while Austin has made 15 starts ... Kapferer has started the last 13 games, while Wenzel has been in the starting lineup for the last eight contests.
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 returned from that squad.
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, while Poole was at West Virginia last year.
BGSU is shooting .350 from the field, while opponents are shooting .390 through the first 16 games ... the Falcons have made 92 three-point field goals and are shooting .281 from beyond the arc, while the foes have 84 treys and a .303 pct. ... BGSU has a free-throw pct. of .735 to the opponents' .686 ... the Falcons have been outrebounded by a 46.8 to 39.6 margin in the first 16 contests.
BGSU is shooting .365 from the field in MAC games, and the Falcons have made 36 three-pointers (7.20 per game) and are shooting .371 from behind the arc and .784 from the free-throw line in league contests.
BG is 3-5 at home, 1-4 on the road and 1-2 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 BALL STATE: Ball State will enter Saturday's game with an overall record of 11-4, and the Cardinals are 3-1 in MAC play ... BSU, 5-0 at home this year, has won six consecutive games at Worthen Arena ... BSU has the most overall wins (tied with Miami) and best winning pct. of any MAC team this year ... the Cardinals started the year with a 3-2 record that included a loss at Connecticut, but have won eight of 10 games since that time ... BSU rebounded from last Saturday's (Jan. 12) 67-64 loss at Northern Illinois to post an 85-74 victory at Ohio Wednesday (Jan. 16) ... the Cards have also played Central Michigan and Marshall in league action, defeating both ... individually, junior forward Tamara Bowie, the reigning MAC Player of the Year, leads the team in both scoring and rebounding ... Bowie averages 17.4 points and 7.1 rebounds ... sophomore guard Johna Goff has 12.5 points and 3.7 assists, while sophomore forward Jessica Reiter has 11.7 points and 6.6 boards ... freshman Kate Endress has scored 10.7 points, and senior center Amy Fuller has 9.5 points and 6.1 rebounds ... senior guard Shala Crook has 5.8 points and team-best averages of 6.1 assists and 2.3 steals ... Bowie, Crook, Fuller, Goff and Reiter comprise the probable starting five for coach Tracy Roller's Cardinals ... last year, the Cardinals went 19-9 overall, setting a school record for wins, and 11-5 in the MAC ... Roller is in her first year as a collegiate head coach after spending the last two seasons as a BSU assistant ... Ball State's athletic web site is currently www.bsu.edu/sports.
THE SERIES: The Falcons lead the all-time series with 10 of the 12 MAC opponents (BG and NIU are tied, 9-9, and the Falcons trail Buffalo, 4-3), and BG holds a 33-8 lead over Ball State ... the Falcons have won the last five meetings, and BG has captured 17 of the last 18 matchups between the teams ... the Falcons and Cardinals have not met in nearly three years, however, since a 96-87 BG win at Anderson Arena on Feb. 9, 1999 ... in the last game in Muncie, the Falcons captured an epic, four-overtime battle by a 106-105 final (Jan. 6, 1999 - boxscores for both games can be found on page 14 of this comprehensive game notes package) ... BGSU has a 12-7 record in games played in Muncie, and the Falcons have won the last two contests there.
ARE YOU IN THE MAC? As mentioned, the Falcons have not played Ball State in nearly three years ... in a quirk in Mid-American Conference scheduling, the Cardinals did not appear on the BGSU schedule in either the 1999-2000 or 2000-01 seasons ... so, the Falcons did not play the Cards during the Brenda Oldfield Era in Muncie ... the only players on the current Falcon roster who have faced Ball State are seniors Francine Miller and Dana Western-Schuka ... Miller, as mentioned, will miss Saturday's game.
LAST TIME OUT: Four players scored in double figures to lead the Falcons to an 85-73 victory at home against Akron Monday night (Jan. 14) ... with the victory, the Falcons remain perfect in home games vs. UA, improving the all-time record to 16-0 ... sophomore Stefanie Wenzel led BGSU in scoring for the second consecutive contest, with a 20-point effort ... she made 11-of-12 free throws and had seven rebounds ... redshirt sophomore Pam Brown came off the bench to score a season-high 17 points, while senior Dana Western-Schuka had 13 points and sophomore point guard Lindsay Austin had 10 points, seven assists and five steals ... just before the game's first media break, BG took the lead for good on a three-pointer by junior Kim Griech ... following the timeout, the Falcons tightened the clamps at the defensive end of the floor ... BGSU held UA without a point for a span of 9:44, and the Falcons did not allow the Zips a basket for 11:28 ... BG went on a 12-0 run and led by a 27-16 count before the Zips finally got a basket with 4:51 left in the half ... BG extended the lead to 14 points, 39-25, at the intermission, and the Falcons took their biggest lead, 65-46, with 9:02 left in the game ... Akron was led by Lindsay Hemmelgarn's 22 points.
WENZEL A MAC SCHOLAR-ATHLETE: Sophomore Stefanie Wenzel was named the MAC's Female Scholar-Athlete of the Week on Wednesday (Jan. 16), for her efforts in last week's two games ... Wenzel, who earns the honor for the first time in her BGSU career, averaged 20.0 points and 6.0 rebounds as the Falcons split a pair of home games, vs. Northern Illinois and Buffalo ... Wenzel, currently undecided upon a major, had a 3.90 cumulative GPA entering the fall semester ... the MAC award is presented to one male and one female each week ... the honorees must have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better and have performed well during the previous week's competition.
WENZEL STEPS UP HER SCORING: Sophomore Stefanie Wenzel had a career-high 30 points in Saturday's (Jan. 12) win over Buffalo ... Wenzel also set career bests for free throws made (11) and attempted (12), three-pointers made (five) and minutes played (37) vs. the Bulls ... she added a team-best 20 points in the Akron game Monday (Jan. 14), matching her 11-of-12 FT performance of two days prior ... Wenzel now has four games of 20-or-more points this season ... she also joined an exclusive group of Falcons who have scored 30 or more points in a game.
WENZEL AT HOME IN ANDERSON ARENA: Sophomore Stefanie Wenzel is averaging 16.4 points in the Falcons' eight home games this year, and has an 18.4 average in the last seven games at Anderson Arena ... she has scored 50 points in the last two games, both wins, and has four 20-point games at home this season ... Wenzel, who entered the year with a single-game best of seven points, has had games of 30 (vs. UB), 25 (vs. Wright State), 23 (vs. IPFW) and 20 points (vs. UA) in Anderson this year.
STEF'S SOPHOMORE SEASON: Sophomore Stefanie Wenzel has scored a total of 168 points this season, after scoring 36 points during all of her freshman campaign.
DEFENSE SHUTS DOWN THE ZIPS: Akron's offense was in high gear at the start of Monday's (Jan. 14) game, as the Zips took a 13-11 lead with less than four minutes gone ... then, however, the Falcons turned up the heat at the defensive end of the floor ... BG held UA without a point for a span of 9:44, and did not allow the Zips a basket for 11:28 ... during that stretch, the BG defense forced Akron to miss 16 consecutive shots and turn the ball over seven times ... after allowing Akron those first 13 points on six baskets in the game's first 3:41, the Falcons let the Zips sink just three more buckets and score a total of 12 points in the final 16:19 of the half ... Dominique Harris, the Zips' leading scorer entering the game, was held scoreless in the game.
NICE OFFENSIVE EFFORTS: BGSU scored a season-high 85 points in Monday's win over Akron (Jan. 14), after scoring 71 vs. Buffalo two days earlier ... the Falcons' point total marked the second-most allowed by Buffalo this season ... in the most recent NCAA statistics prior to the game, UB was ranked ninth in the nation in scoring defense (as of Jan. 7), and the Bulls had come to BG allowing just 55.4 points per game.
BGSU BENCH PROVIDES A LIFT: The Falcon bench proved to be a contributing factor in the victory over Akron ... redshirt sophomore Pam Brown scored a season-high 17 points off the bench, and the Brown and Orange got eight points and a team-high eight rebounds from freshman Sakima Smith ... junior Megan Jerome (two points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals in 12 minutes) and freshman Tene Lewis (two points and three boards in nine minutes) also provided a spark for the hosts.
MILLER TO MISS REMAINDER OF SEASON: Senior Francine Miller will appeal to the Mid-American Conference office for a medical hardship, and will miss the remainder of the 2001-02 season ... if the appeal is accepted, Miller will be granted an additional year of eligibility, and will return to the Falcon team for the 2002-03 season ... the MAC office will not rule on the appeal before the end of the 2001-02 season ... for Miller to be eligible to receive the hardship waiver, she can not play in any of the Falcons' remaining games ... Miller saw action in four games this season, starting the first two contests of the year.
AUSTIN CITY LIMITS: Sophomore point guard Lindsay Austin had one of her top all-around games of the year in the win over Buffalo (Jan. 12) ... the Cincinnati native had 15 points, just two away from her career high, and tied her career standard with seven rebounds ... Austin also had seven assists, just two shy of that personal career mark, in 39 minutes ... Austin hit a number of key baskets in the game, and also blocked a UB three-point attempt with just over a minute left in the game and the shot clock winding down ... she had 10 points, seven assists and five steals, tying her career best in the latter category, vs. Akron ... Austin is averaging 12.5 points, 7.0 assists and 4.5 rebounds over the last two games.
SUCCESS IN THE CLASSROOM: Falcon women's basketball student-athletes traditionally are strong in the classroom, and the past semester was no exception ... BGSU posted a 3.22 GPA for the fall 2001 semester, and the team's cumulative GPA currently stands at 3.11 ... a total of eight student-athletes had a GPA of over 3.40 in the fall.
INJURY REPORT: Once again, the Falcons are without a key contributor, as senior Francine Miller is sidelined ... Miller, who has played in just four games this year, will miss the remainder of the season while appealing for a medical hardship ... Miller was injured early in the season's second game, and missed the next nine contests ... she returned to play in the first two MAC games.
Redshirt sophomore Pam Brown has returned to active duty ... Brown, who missed seven consecutive contests with a lateral meniscus injury, had successful surgery on Dec. 6, and has come off the bench to play in the last five games.
Redshirt junior Rachal Hamilton is sidelined with a recurrence of her plantar fascia injury ... the injury, which she suffered in the summer, forced her to miss the first game of the season ... she has missed the last three games, and will be in a cast for the next several weeks.
ANDER-RIFFIC! The Falcons have made at least six three-pointers in every home conference game in the last two-plus years ... the Falcons tied a season high with nine triples in the KSU game (Jan. 2), and hit eight shots from beyond the arc - all in the first half - vs. Buffalo (Jan. 12) ... BG drained six treys against both NIU (Jan. 5) and Akron (Jan. 14) ... BGSU made a total of 68 treys in eight home MAC games last year ... in 1999-2000, the Falcons made an average of 11.75 three-point field goals per contest ‚ adding in the 2000 MAC Tournament first-round contest vs. Ohio, BGSU is averaging 9.5 treys and shooting .420 (199-of-474) over the last 21 home games vs. MAC teams.
101 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 now has drained a triple in each of the last 101 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 year ... this year, that trend is continuing, as 11 different players have hit at least one trey ... junior Karen Stocz hit the first triple 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 three-pointers 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 triple in the same season was seven.
A TALE OF TWO HALVES: Through 16 games, the Falcons have held the opponent to a field-goal percentage of .337 (168-of-498) in the first half ... when the Colorado game is taken out, BG has limited the foes to a .317 rate (145-of-458) before the intermission ... in the second half, however, the opponents have made 216-of-494 shots from the floor (.437).
60 ON 'D' IS (USUALLY) KEY: The Falcons' loss to Yale (Dec. 27) ended a long, long trend ... BGSU fell to the Bulldogs despite allowing just 51 points ... that loss ended a streak of 93 consecutive wins for the Falcons when holding the opposition under 60 points ... the last BG loss in such a situation had come early in the 1983-84 season, in a 59-47 loss at Indiana.
60 ON 'D' IS ... NEVER MIND: The Falcons, after winning those 93 consecutive games when limiting the opponents to fewer than 60 points, now have lost two of the last three such games ... Northern Illinois scored just 56 points Wednesday (Jan. 9), but held BG to 52.
The Falcons held Yale and Lehigh to 51 and 55 points, respectively, on consecutive nights in late December ... the Falcons had not held back-to-back opponents to under 60 points since January of 1997 ... in the decade of the 1990s, the Falcons went a perfect 46-0 when holding foes to 60 points or less ... in the history of the program, the Falcons now have a record of 167-12 when holding the opponent to less than 60 points ... nine of those 12 losses came prior to the 1980-81 season ... BG is 113-3 (.974) in such games over the last 21-plus seasons.
NICE DEFENSE: The Falcons have held the opponent to a field-goal percentage of .303 or lower in a half seven times this season ... last year, BG limited the opponent to a FG pct. of .300 or less just five times in 58 halves ... in an entire game, BGSU has held five opponents to .350 shooting or worse this year, after doing so only once during the entire 29-game campaign last winter.
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.
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-and-a-half years, the Falcons have surpassed each of those totals for the first 12 years ... since the beginning of the 1998-99 season, Falcon teams have made 688 treys in 1,974 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 year ... this season, BGSU is averaging 'only' 5.75 triples per game through the first 16 contests.
TRIPLE YOUR FUN: Several players on the 2001-02 Falcon roster are ranked among the BGSU career three-point leaders ‚ Francine Miller is second on the all-time school list for career three-point percentage (.425, 128-of-301) ‚ senior Dana Western-Schuka is in ninth place (.348, 71-of-204), while junior Kim Griech is 10th (.344, 98-of-285) ... Miller is third all-time in three-pointers made, while Griech is fifth and Western-Schuka ninth ... Miller is third in three-point attempts, with Griech now fourth and Western-Schuka ninth.
