Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcon Women Head To KSU
January 22, 2002 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 22, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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BGSU (5-12, 2-4)
AT
KENT STATE (8-9, 4-2)
GAME #18
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23, 2002
M.A.C. CENTER
KENT, OHIO
7:00 p.m.
SERIES: BGSU LEADS, 31-23
LAST MEETING: KENT STATE 74, AT BGSU 60 (JAN. 2, 2002)
THE GAME: The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after seeing a two-game Mid-American Conference winning streak come to an end, remains on the road for the second consecutive contest ... the Falcons of first-year head coach Curt Miller head to Kent, Ohio, for a Wednesday (Jan. 23) matchup against Kent State University ... tipoff for that contest is set for 7:00 p.m. at KSU's Memorial Athletic & Convocation Center (6,327).
Following the KSU game, the Brown and Orange will return home for a Saturday (Jan. 26) game vs. Marshall University ... start time is scheduled for approximately 3:00 p.m. at BGSU's venerable Anderson Arena (5,000) ... please note that the start time has been changed from the original schedule ... the time has been pushed back two hours because the men's game that day, between BGSU and Kent State, has been moved to noon for television.
ABOUT THE FALCONS: BGSU has an overall record of 5-12 on the season, and the Falcons are 2-4 in MAC play after an 89-60 loss at Ball State University Saturday (Jan. 19) ... prior to that game, BGSU had posted two consecutive home wins ... the Brown and Orange defeated Akron by an 85-73 count (Jan. 14) ... that win came on the heels of a 71-69 victory over visiting Buffalo two days prior (Jan. 12) ... 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 KSU (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 four 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 10.9 points per contest, and she leads the Falcons with 29 three-point field goals on the year ... Wenzel is averaging 10.0 points per contest ... another sophomore, point guard Lindsay Austin, is averaging 9.0 points, and leads the team in both assists (5.3 apg) and steals (2.2 spg) ... she is tied for second on the squad with 4.6 rebounds ... a third sophomore, Kelly Kapferer, has 8.0 points and 4.6 boards per game.
Redshirt sophomore Pam Brown has 6.8 points and 5.4 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 ... last Monday, she had her best game since returning from the injury, with 17 points off the bench vs. UA.
Senior Dana Western-Schuka averages 6.2 points, a team-best 5.6 rebounds and 1.9 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 17 games to date, while Austin has made 16 starts ... Kapferer has started the last 14 games, while Wenzel has been in the starting lineup for the last nine 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 .351 from the field, while opponents are shooting .395 through the first 17 games ... the Falcons have made 98 three-point field goals and are shooting .283 from beyond the arc, while the foes have 93 treys and a .305 pct. ... BGSU has a free-throw pct. of .718 to the opponents' .690 ... the Falcons have been outrebounded by a 46.9 to 39.6 margin in the first 17 contests.
BGSU is shooting .363 from the field in MAC games, and the Falcons have made 42 three-pointers (7.00 per game) and are shooting .362 from behind the arc and .731 from the free-throw line in league contests.
BG is 3-5 at home, 1-5 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 KENT STATE: Kent State will enter Wednesday's game with an overall record of 8-9, and the Golden Flashes are 4-2 in MAC play ... KSU, 3-2 at home this year, saw a pair of impressive home streaks snapped earlier this season ... the Flashes had won 43 overall games at home, at the time the longest streak in the nation, before losing the home opener to Rhode Island (Dec. 1) ... KSU then had a 52-game home win streak against MAC foes snapped with a loss to Toledo (Jan. 9) ... the Flashes have had just seven healthy players for the past few games ... individually, sophomore center Andrea Csaszar leads the team in scoring and rebounding, with 16.6 points and 7.7 rebounds ... Csaszar has missed the last three games, however, with a stress fracture ... senior guard Kate Miller averages 13.6 points, while junior guard Valerie Zona has 10.9 points and a team-high 3.6 assists ... freshman forward Ashley Clark has 8.1 points and 5.9 rebounds, while sophomore guard Christi Shibata has 6.9 points and 6.3 boards ... junior center Katalin Kollat (6.8 ppg) has joined Clark, Miller, Shibata and Zona in the starting lineup for the last three contests ... last year, the Flashes went 21-8 overall and 14-2 in the MAC, winning the East Division ... Bob Lindsay, the dean of MAC coaches, is in his 13th season as a collegiate head coach, all at KSU ... he has a record of 240-127 ... Kent State's athletic web site is www.kent.edu/athletics.
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 31-23 lead over Kent State ... the Golden Flashes have won the last eight games, however, including a 74-60 verdict three weeks ago (Jan. 2, 2002) in the last matchup between the teams ... the teams are deadlocked, 12-12, in meetings in Kent, but the Flashes have won the last seven meetings at the M.A.C. Center, including last year's 92-55 win (Jan. 22, 2001) ... the Falcons' last overall series win came on Feb. 12, 1997, and BG's last win in Kent was on Feb. 5, 1994 ... KSU has won 13 of the last 14 games between the teams.
PUPIL MEETS TEACHER: The Falcons' meeting with Kent State will see BGSU head coach Curt Miller match wits with Bob Lindsay ... Miller served as a graduate assistant coach on Lindsay's KSU staff during the 1990-91, Lindsay's second year with the Golden Flashes ... KSU finished 17-12 that season and enjoyed the second-best turnaround in the nation, with a 12-game improvement over the previous year ... KSU assistant coach Lori Bodnar also was a member of that coaching staff.
WENZEL A MAC SCHOLAR-ATHLETE: Sophomore Stefanie Wenzel was named the MAC's Female Scholar-Athlete of the Week last Wednesday (Jan. 16), for her efforts in the previous 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'S SOPHOMORE SCORING: Sophomore Stefanie Wenzel had a career-high 30 points in the 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 (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.
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 170 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 the 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 has had some of her top all-around games of the year in the last few weeks ... she had nine points, nine assists and seven rebounds at Ball State (Jan. 19), tying her career standards in each of the latter two categories ... in the win over Buffalo (Jan. 12), the Cincinnati native had 15 points, just two away from her career high, seven rebounds and seven assists ... 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 11.3 points, 7.7 assists and 5.3 rebounds over the last three 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 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 four 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.
102 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 102 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.
A TALE OF TWO HALVES: Through 17 games, the Falcons have held the opponent to a field-goal percentage of .340 (181-of-533) in the first half ... when the Colorado game is taken out, BG has limited the foes to a .320 rate (158-of-493) before the intermission ... in the second half, however, the opponents have made 237-of-531 shots from the floor (.446).
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 694 treys in 1,993 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' 5.76 triples per game through the first 17 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 eighth place (.351, 73-of-208), while junior Kim Griech is 10th (.348, 101-of-290) ... Miller is third all-time in three-pointers made, while Griech is fifth and Western-Schuka tied for eighth ... Miller is third in three-point attempts, with Griech now fourth and Western-Schuka ninth.
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.
