Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Head To Toledo Wednesday
January 29, 2002 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 29, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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BGSU (6-13, 3-5)
AT
TOLEDO (11-7, 6-1)
GAME #20
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2002
JOHN F. SAVAGE HALL
TOLEDO, OHIO
7:00 p.m.
RADIO: WBGU-FM 88.1
SERIES: BGSU LEADS, 28-23
LAST MEETING: TOLEDO 81, BGSU 63 (MARCH 6, 2001)
THE GAME: The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, coming off the most decisive victory of the season to date, now must take to the road to face the defending Mid-American Conference Tournament champion ... the Falcons of first-year head coach Curt Miller make the short trip north for a Wednesday (Jan. 30) game at the University of Toledo ... the arch-rivals are scheduled to face off at 7:00 p.m. at UT's John F. Savage Hall (9,000).
Following the UT game, the Brown and Orange will head to New York for a Saturday (Feb. 2) game against the University at Buffalo ... that contest is slated to tip off at 7:00 p.m. at Alumni Arena (8,500) ... BGSU's next home game is on Tuesday, Feb. 5, vs. Ohio University at venerable Anderson Arena (5,000).
WBGU RADIO: The BGSU-UT game is scheduled to be broadcast by campus station WBGU-FM (88.1) ... the station's broadcast schedule called for 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 has an overall record of 6-13 on the season, and the Falcons are 3-5 in MAC play after a 76-52 home victory over Marshall Saturday (Jan. 26) ... the 24-point margin of victory was BG's largest of the season ... prior to the MU game, the Falcons had suffered road losses to Kent State (62-82, Jan. 23) and Ball State (60-89, Jan. 19) ... the loss at BSU snapped the Falcons' first two-game winning streak of the season, which included home victories over Akron (85-73, Jan. 14) and Buffalo (71-69, Jan. 12) ... 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.
The Falcons opened the season with a 71-61 win at Youngstown State (Nov. 17), but lost the next four games ... BG returned to the win column with a 73-57 victory over IPFW (Nov. 29) before dropping the next four contests ... the Falcons ended the non-conference portion of the schedule with a victory over Lehigh in a tournament hosted by Miami (Fla.).
Senior Francine Miller has not played since Jan. 5, 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 (Jan. 2) ... Miller had 15 points off the bench at CMU (Jan. 5) ... 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 11.1 points per contest, and she leads the Falcons with 34 three-point field goals on the year ... three true sophomores and a redshirt soph round out the Falcons' top-five scorers ... Stefanie Wenzel is averaging 10.6 points and 4.3 rebounds per contest, while point guard Lindsay Austin averages 8.6 points ... Austin leads the team in both assists (5.2 apg) and steals (2.1 spg), and is third on the squad with 4.6 rebounds per game.
A third sophomore, Kelly Kapferer, has 7.9 points and 4.9 rebounds per game ... Kapferer leads the Falcons in field-goal percentage (.421) ... redshirt sophomore Pam Brown has 7.3 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 MAC opener on Jan. 2 ... senior Dana Western-Schuka averages 6.7 points, a team-best 5.1 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game.
A total of 10 different players have started at least one game this season, but the lineup has remained the same for the last 11 contests ... Griech and Western-Schuka each have been in the starting five for all 19 games to date, while Austin has made 18 starts ... Kapferer has started 16 games, while Wenzel has been in the starting lineup for the last 11 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 .355 from the field, while opponents are shooting .395 through the first 19 games ... the Falcons have made 114 three-point field goals and are shooting .287 from beyond the arc, while the foes have 104 treys and a .316 pct. ... BGSU has a free-throw pct. of .712 to the opponents' .690 ... the Falcons have been outrebounded by a 46.3 to 39.5 margin in the first 19 contests.
BGSU is shooting .370 from the floor in MAC games, and the Falcons have made 58 three-pointers (7.25 per game) and are shooting .347 from behind the arc and .713 from the free-throw line in league contests.
BGSU is 4-5 at home, 1-6 on the road and 1-2 in neutral-site contests in 2001-02 ... BG is 3-2 at home and 0-3 on the road in MAC games ... last year, the Falcons went 6-5 at Anderson Arena, 3-12 on the road and 2-1 in neutral-site affairs ... in league play, the Brown and Orange went 5-3 at home and 1-7 on the road last year.
SCOUTING TOLEDO: Toledo will enter Wednesday's game with an overall record of 11-7 ... the Rockets will check in with a record of 6-1 in MAC play, good for a first-place tie in the West Division ... UT is the hottest team in the league, having won seven consecutive games, including five on the road ... last week, the Rockets posted victories at Central Michigan, 63-47 (Jan. 23) and Ohio, 86-74 (Jan. 26) ... Toledo has a 3-3 record at home this season, including a 1-1 mark at Savage Hall in league action ... individually, senior center Melantha Herron paces the Rockets in both scoring and rebounding, with 13.3 points and 8.4 rebounds per game ... senior guard Courtney Risinger has 12.9 points per game and a team-best 47 three-point field goals, while junior forward Teresa Kahle is averaging 11.7 points and 6.6 rebounds ... junior forward Tia Davis has 9.9 points per outing ... senior guard Shekinah Brazzle (3.9 ppg, 3.7 apg) joins the aforementioned four players in UT's probable starting lineup ... last year, the Rockets went 25-6 overall and 15-1 in MAC action ... UT won the 2001 MAC Tournament ... head coach Mark Ehlen has a record of 151-51 in his seventh year with the Rockets ... he is 273-181 in his 16th year as a collegiate head coach ... Toledo's athletic web site is www.utrockets.com.
THE SERIES: The Falcons lead the all-time series with 10 of the 12 MAC opponents (BGSU and NIU are tied, 9-9, and the Falcons trail Buffalo, 4-3), and BG holds a 28-23 advantage over Toledo ... the Rockets hold a 13-9 lead in games played in the Glass City ... last year, the Falcons broke a four-game series losing streak with a 63-58 home win in the teams' only regular-season meeting (Jan. 13, 2001) ... but, the Rockets exacted revenge with an 81-63 triumph in the quarterfinal round of the MAC Tournament at Cleveland's Gund Arena (March 6, 2001) ... UT has won the last two games at Savage Hall ... in the last meeting at UT, the hosts pulled away late for an 83-63 win two years ago (Jan. 11, 2000).
LONE LEAGUE LOSS LAST YEAR: When BGSU and Toledo met on Jan. 13, 2001, the Falcons posted a narrow home win, 63-58 ... that loss would prove to be the only setback for the Rockets in league play ... as mentioned, Toledo gained a measure of revenge two months later, ending BGSU's season in the quarterfinal round of the MAC Tournament.
SISTER ACT: Toledo junior Teresa Kahle is the younger sister of former BGSU standout Sherry Kahle ... Sherry earned four letters for the Brown and Orange, completing her eligibility two years ago.
LAST TIME OUT: The Falcons led from start to finish Saturday (Jan. 26), recording a 76-52 victory over Marshall ... BGSU got 19 points and a career-high 11 rebounds from sophomore Stefanie Wenzel, who posted the first double-double of her collegiate career ... junior Kim Griech had 14 points in the game, all in the first half ... senior Dana Western-Schuka rounded out BG's double-figure scorers with 11 points ... all 11 of the Falcons' players in uniform scored at least one point in the game ... BG led by a 13-10 margin when a bucket by sophomore Pam Brown was followed by a Western-Schuka three-pointer ... those two hoops began a 13-0 run ... MU got back within nine points, but BG went on a 14-5 run to end the half ... after the Falcons scored the first five points of the second half, Marshall never got closer than 19 points the rest of the day ... MU was led by Ida Dotson, who had 18 of the team's 26 first-half points en route to a game-high 22 points ... the Falcons, who had outrebounded the opponent in just two previous games this season, held a 45-36 advantage on the boards ... BGSU shot a season-best .444 from the floor, limiting the visitors to a .311 field-goal percentage.
A PLUS B PROBABLY EQUALS C: The Falcons shot a season-best .444 from the floor vs. Marshall Saturday, and BGSU won the rebounding battle by nine, 44-35 ... it is probably not a coincidence, then, that the result was a 24-point win for the Brown and Orange, the largest margin of victory of the 2001-02 season ... that margin was the largest for BG in nearly two years, since an 86-50 home triumph over Northern Illinois on Feb. 7, 2000.
DOUBLE TROUBLE: Sophomore Stefanie Wenzel recorded the first double-double of her career in BG's win over Marshall Saturday (Jan. 26) ... Wenzel led the Falcons in scoring, with 19 points, and had a career-high 11 rebounds in the win ... the double-double was just the third of the year by a Falcon player ... sophomore Kelly Kapferer had the first two, with a 15-point, 10-rebound effort against Detroit (Nov. 20) and a 12-point, 10-board game vs. Yale (Dec. 27).
WINNING THE BATTLE OF THE BOARDS: The Falcons outrebounded Marshall in Saturday's game, marking just the third time this season that BG has held an advantage in that category.
WENZEL AT HOME IN ANDERSON ARENA: Sophomore Stefanie Wenzel is averaging a team-best 16.7 points in the Falcons' nine home games this year, and has an 18.5 average in the last eight games at Anderson Arena ... she has scored a total of 69 points in the last three games, all 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 ... in BGSU's five MAC home games, Wenzel is averaging 17.0 points and 7.0 rebounds to lead the team in both categories.
STEF'S SOPHOMORE SEASON: Sophomore Stefanie Wenzel has scored a total of 202 points this season, after scoring 36 points during all of her freshman campaign.
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), and hit eight vs. Marshall (Jan. 26) ... 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 9.4 treys and shooting .416 (207-of-498) over the last 22 home games vs. MAC teams.
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 six points, five rebounds and seven assists vs. Marshall Saturday (Jan. 26), and ranks among the MAC leaders in the latter category ... Austin is third in the league with 5.21 assists per game ... in conference games only, she is tied for first, with 6.25 apg ... Austin 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 averaged 11.3 points, 7.7 assists and 5.3 rebounds in the three-game span (UB, UA and BSU).
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 that 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 ... against Marshall, the Falcons scored 76 points, tied for the second-highest effort this year.
104 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 104 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.
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 ... six Falcons have a cumulative GPA of 3.31 or higher, led by junior Megan Jerome's perfect 4.00 GPA ... Stefanie Wenzel has a 3.93 GPA through the fall, while Emily Pohl has a 3.88 GPA ... in addition to Wenzel, two other BGSU starters have a GPA in excess of 3.50, as both sophomore Lindsay Austin and junior Kim Griech maintain a 3.58 cumulative GPA ... in all, 10 of the 14 student-athletes on the current roster have a cumulative GPA of 2.75 or better.
INJURY REPORT: The Falcons currently have two players sidelined, including senior Francine Miller ... Miller, who played in just four games this year, will miss the remainder of the season while appealing for a medical hardship ... she 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, suffered in the summer, forced her to miss the first game of the season ... she has missed the last five games, and will be in a cast for the next several weeks.
Redshirt soph Pam Brown missed seven-straight games with a lateral meniscus injury, but had successful surgery on Dec. 6, and has come off the bench to play in the last six games.
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.
EVERYONE'S A THREAT FROM LONG RANGE: A total of 11 different Falcons have made at least one three-point field goal this season ... 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 ... last year, 11 different Falcons made at least one long-range shot, and 10 of those players had drained a 'three' by the fifth game 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.
BGSU BENCH PROVIDES A LIFT VS. AKRON, MARSHALL: The Falcon bench proved to be a contributing factor in the victories over Akron and Marshall ... redshirt sophomore Pam Brown scored a season-high 17 points off the bench vs. UA, 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 ... in the MU contest, all 11 Falcons that saw action in the game (including, of course, six players off the bench) scored at least one point.
A TALE OF TWO HALVES: Through 19 games, the Falcons have held the opponent to a field-goal percentage of .348 (206-of-592) in the first half ... when the Colorado game is taken out, BG has limited the foes to a .332 rate (183-of-552) before the intermission ... in the second half, however, the opponents have made 258-of-590 shots from the floor (.437).
60 ON 'D' IS (USUALLY) KEY: The Falcons had won 93 consecutive games over an 18-year span when holding the opposition to less than 60 points, but that streak came to an end on Dec. 27 ... on that date, BGSU lost to Yale despite allowing just 51 points ... the last Falcon 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, then lost two of the next three such games ... Northern Illinois scored just 56 points on Jan. 9, but held BG to 52 ... the Falcons got back on the right track Saturday (Jan. 26), holding Marshall to 52 points in a 24-point win.
HOLDING 'EM BELOW 60, PART III: 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 168-12 when holding the opponent to less than 60 points ... nine of those 12 losses came prior to the 1980-81 season ... BG is 114-3 (.974) in such games over the last 21-plus seasons.
FG PCT. DEFENSE IS IMPROVED: The Falcons have held the opponent to a field-goal percentage of .303 or lower in a half eight 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 six opponents to .350 shooting or worse this year, after doing so only once during the entire 29-game campaign last winter.
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 710 treys in 2,044 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' 6.00 triples per game through the first 19 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 (.355, 78-of-220), while junior Kim Griech is right behind (.352, 106-of-301) ... Miller is third all-time in three-pointers made, while Griech is fifth and Western-Schuka is now tied for seventh ... Miller and Griech are deadlocked for third in three-point attempts, with Western-Schuka eighth.
NOTING THE FALCONS: With the victories over Marshall (Jan. 26) and Akron (Jan. 14), the Falcons remain perfect in home games vs. both teams ... BGSU has won all five games vs. the Thundering Herd at Anderson Arena, and the Falcons are 8-1 all-time vs. MU ... BG is now 16-0 all-time in home contests vs. the Zips ... the Falcons lead that overall series by a 30-2 count.
BGSU has surrendered 70 points or less on seven occasions this season, posting a 5-2 record in those contests ... the Brown and Orange held opponents under 70 points five times during all of last year.
