Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host Premier All-Stars Tuesday
November 11, 2002 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 11, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after nearly a month of practices, will play a game open to the public for the first time in the 2002-03 season. The Falcons will open head coach Curt Miller's second campaign with an exhibition game against the Premier All-Stars Tuesday night (Nov. 12). Tipoff for BGSU's lone exhibition is set for 7:00 p.m. at BG's venerable Anderson Arena.
The Premier All-Stars come to Anderson for the seventh consecutive season (counting two years, 1996-97 and 1997-98, as the Ohio All-Stars), and posted an 89-81 win over the Falcons in BGSU's exhibition last season.
Following Tuesday's exhibition, the Brown and Orange will have a week and a half to prepare for the regular season. BGSU will open with three home games, beginning with a 7:00 p.m. contest vs. Youngstown State on Friday, Nov. 22.
Curt Miller welcomes back eight players who earned letters last season, but the biggest news just may be the return of a player who did not letter in 2001-02. Francine Miller appealed for and was granted a medical hardship after playing in just four games a year ago. As a result, she returns to the Falcon team as a fifth-year senior. Miller averaged 17.5 points per game in her four contests last year, and has a career total of 1,149 points, ranking her 13th in school history.
Some additional preseason notes...
WENZEL NAMED BGSU'S P-O-Y
Stefanie Wenzel was named the BGSU Player of the Year for the 2001-02 campaign ... Wenzel, who earned the award in a vote of team members, led the Falcons in scoring with 11.6 points per game ... Dana Western, the lone senior on the 2001-02 active roster, earned the Falcon award, presented to the player who exemplifies commitment, dedication and loyalty to the program ... she was one of just two Falcons to start all 28 contests ... the other Falcon to start every game, Kim Griech, was named the Impact Player of the Year ... Griech earned the award, presented to the player who made significant contributions throughout the season, after averaging 10.4 points per game, good for second on the team ... Lindsay Austin was named the team's Playmaker of the Year after leading the Falcons and ranking among the conference leaders in assists and assist/turnover ratio ... Pam Brown was named the Power Player of the Year, given to the top post player ... despite missing 10 games due to injury, Brown averaged 7.3 points and a team-high 6.0 rebounds ... Tene Lewis was named the Most Improved Player of the Year ... Lewis played in 24 games, making three starts, and was one of the team's top defenders ... Megan Jerome earned the Scholar-Athlete-of-the-Year award, maintaining a perfect 4.00 GPA as a business administration major with a concentration in finance at that time.
GO WEST
The Falcons, who have played in the East Division since the MAC went to a divisional format five years ago, move to the West Division for the 2002-03 campaign ... the move was a result of the MAC's adding the University of Central Florida as a football-only member and placing UCF in the East Division.
STEF STEPS UP
The MAC does not hand out a "Most Improved Player" award ... if the league did give out such an award, however, BGSU's Stefanie Wenzel would have been a top candidate ... Wenzel ranked at the top of the league in terms of improvement (total points as well as points per game) from 2000-01 to 2001-02 ... she upped her scoring average from 2.3 ppg as a freshman to a team-high 11.6 ppg in her sophomore campaign ... Wenzel, who scored a total of 36 points in her first season, had 325 points last winter.
'D' UP
Under the tutelage of head coach Curt Miller, the Falcons stepped up their defensive play in the 2001-02 season ... BGSU had a field-goal percentage defense of .400 last season ... that pct. is the fourth-best in school history, and the lowest over the last decade ... the school record is .348, set by the 1976-77 squad, while the '77-78 team had a FG pct. defense of .380 ... the 1992-93 team limited opponents to a .399 FG pct. ... the Falcons held foes to less than 60 points in seven games last year, after allowing opponents fewer than 60 points in only eight games over the previous four seasons combined.
DEADLY FROM LONG RANGE
At least 10 different Falcons have made a least one three-point field goal in each of the last four seasons ... in fact, 11 different members of the Brown and Orange drained a trey last season, and the same number turned the trick the year before ... the Falcons' top two long-range threats last year, Kim Griech (43 made) and Stefanie Wenzel (36), both return ... in addition, Francine Miller, who missed most of last season, enters 2002-03 with a total of 128 career three-pointers made.
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 1890 attempts ... over the last four years, Falcon teams have made 762 treys in 2,212 tries ... BGSU has made a three-pointer in a school-record 113 consecutive games.
20 MINUTES AT A TIME...
The Falcons had a great deal of success in the first half of MAC games in 2001-02, particularly at home ... BGSU's preparation prior to each conference game was evident in the team's results through the first 20 minutes ... sure, a regulation game is 40 minutes long, but the Falcons are slowly but surely making Anderson Arena a tough place to play for the opposing team ... the Brown and Orange led at halftime of all eight home MAC contests this year, and BGSU was the only team to do so ... the Falcons led 10 of the 16 conference games at the half last year.
STARTING EXPERIENCE
A total of eight of the nine returning letterwinners have started at least one game in their BGSU careers ... the complete list...
CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR
BGSU lost four games by five points or fewer last year, and the Falcons dropped a total of nine contests by 10 points or less.
WELCOME...
The Falcons have four freshmen on the 2002-03 roster, from four different states ... Britt Anderson (Fort Collins, Colo.), Molly Martin (Noblesville, Ind.), Marisa Smith (Arnold, Pa.) and Jill Lause (Dublin, Ohio) join Curt Miller's squad ... additionally, Casey McDowell (Hudson, Ohio), a transfer from Indiana State University, is on campus, but will sit out the 2002-03 season per NCAA transfer rules ... McDowell will have three years of eligibility remaining.
