Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host YSU Friday
November 18, 2002 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 18, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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YOUNGSTOWN STATE
AT
BOWLING GREEN
GAME #1
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2002
ANDERSON ARENA
BOWLING GREEN, OHIO
7:00 p.m.
SERIES: BGSU LEADS, 10-8
LAST MEETING: BGSU 71, at YSU 61 (NOV. 17, 2001)
THE GAME
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team opens the 30th season in school history with a Friday (Nov. 22) game against Youngstown State University. Head coach Curt Miller's team will face the Penguins in a 7:00 p.m. game at BGSU's venerable Anderson Arena (4,700).
Following the YSU game, the Falcons will continue a season-opening, three-game homestand by facing Iona College in a Sunday (Nov. 24) contest, beginning at 1:00 p.m. at Anderson.
WBGU RADIO TO BROADCAST AT LEAST 25 GAMES
The Youngstown State game will not be broadcast, but WBGU-FM (88.1) will air 24 regular-season games, plus any postseason action ... the BGSU department of athletics and the Bowling Green Radio Sports Organization (BGRSO) have reached an agreement to have WBGU serve as the flagship station for both hockey and women's basketball for the 2002-03 academic year ... WBGU is broadcasting Friday's (Nov. 22) hockey game vs. Michigan State, but will air Sunday's Iona contest ... the broadcasters will vary on a game-to-game basis ... games produced by BGRSO are scheduled to be available on the Internet at bgrso.org and via the Real One Package available through bgsufalcons.com.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU is coming off an 87-83 loss to the Premier All-Stars in the team's lone exhibition last Tuesday (Nov. 12) ... BG finished the 2001-02 season with a record of 9-19, and the Falcons completed Mid-American Conference play with a league ledger of 6-10 ... the Brown and Orange ended conference play in fourth place in the MAC's East Division ... a total of nine letterwinners return for 2002-03 ... that list of includes one player who did not letter last year, senior Francine Miller ... Miller played in just four of the Falcons' 28 games last year, and was granted an additional year of eligibility.
In addition to Miller, the senior class includes Kim Griech, Megan Jerome and Karen Stocz ... Griech, one of just two Falcons to start every game last year, was named the team's Impact Player of the Year for the 2001-02 campaign ... she averaged 10.4 points per game, good for second on the team ... Jerome was the Falcons' Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
The junior class includes Lindsay Austin, Pam Brown and Stefanie Wenzel ... Wenzel was named the BGSU Player of the Year last winter ... she led the Falcons in scoring with 11.6 points per game ... Austin was the team's Playmaker of the Year after leading the Falcons and ranking among the MAC leaders in assists and assist/turnover ratio ... Brown was named the Power Player of the Year, given to the top post player ... despite missing 10 games due to injury, she averaged 7.3 points and a team-high 6.0 rebounds.
The roster includes two sophomores, Tene Lewis and Sakima Smith ... Lewis was named the Most Improved Player of the Year last season ... she played in 24 games, making three starts.
The freshman class includes four players, from four different states ... Britt Anderson (Fort Collins, Colo.), Molly Martin (Noblesville, Ind.), Marisa Smith (Arnold, Pa.) and Jill Lause (Dublin, Ohio) join the 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.
On the sidelines, Curt Miller is joined by second-year assistants Jennifer Roos and Brandi Poole ... Kevin Eckert, who spent the last four seasons at the University at Buffalo, is in his first season on the staff.
BGSU went 5-7 at home last winter, and the Falcons were 3-10 on the road and 1-2 in neutral-site contests in 2001-02 ... BG went 4-4 at home and 2-6 on the road in MAC games.
SCOUTING YOUNGSTOWN STATE
Youngstown State played just one exhibition game, dropping a narrow 79-74 decision to the Ohio Girls' Basketball Magazine Legends Saturday (Nov. 16) ... the Penguins return eight letterwinners, including two starters, from last season's 12-16 team which tied for fourth in the Horizon League with an 8-8 league mark ... the returning starters from that team are senior guard Maggie Johnston and sophomore forward Jen Perugini ... Perugini, the 2002 HL Newcomer of the Year, was a preseason all-league second-team selection this year ... sophomore guard Jessica Olmstead led the Penquins with 12 points vs. OGBM, while Perugini and junior guard Devin Novak had 10 each ... Perugini and junior forward Jessica Forsythe each had nine rebounds in the game ... Perugini, Forsythe, Olmstead, Novak and sophomore forward Barb Fabianova were the starters for Saturday's exhibition ... YSU suffered a big loss when it was announced that junior guard Cathy Hanek will miss the 2002-03 season after being diagnosed with probable ankylosing spondylitis ... head coach Ed DiGregorio enters his 20th season at the YSU helm ... he has a record of 313-219 ... the school's athletic web site is www.ysu.edu/sports.
THE SERIES
The Falcons hold a 10-8 advantage over Youngstown State in the all-time series between the teams ... BGSU has won the last two meetings, and the Falcons have captured nine of the last 10 matchups ... the Brown and Orange holds a 6-4 lead in games played in Bowling Green, and the Falcons have won the last five contests at Anderson Arena ... last year, BG opened the Curt Miller Era with a 71-61 win in Youngstown (Nov. 17, 2001) ... four of the last five meetings have been decided by 10 points or less.
MUST BE THE OPENER
The Falcons will open the season against Youngstown State for the fourth consecutive year and the fifth time in the last six seasons.
IN THE OPENER...
The Falcons are 13-16 all-time in season-opening games, and BGSU has won the opener in each of the last two years, at YSU last season (71-61; Nov. 17, 2001) and at home vs. the Penguins the previous season (95-88; Nov. 18, 2000) ... BGSU is 19-9 in home openers over the years (the locations of most games in 1973-74, BG's first season, are unknown) ... the Falcons dropped last year's home opener (to Easstern Kentucky, 83-63 on Nov. 27, 2001), snapping a four-game winning streak in lidlifters at Anderson Arena ... the Falcons have won 12 of the last 14 home-opening games.
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.
LAST TIME OUT
The Premier All-Stars, propelled by an 11-0 run late in the second half, rallied for an 87-83 victory over the Falcons in BGSU's lone exhibition game (Nov. 12) ... complete information on the game can be found here.
FALCON FRESHMEN UNITE!
In BGSU's exhibition game, the four Falcon freshmen -- Jill Lause, Molly Martin, Marisa Smith and Britt Anderson -- were on the floor together for a span of approximately 3:25 in the second half ... in the contest, the frosh combined to score 30 points and shoot .667 (12-of-18) from the field, as Martin was 3-for-3 and Smith 3-for-6 ... Lause had 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting, and added eight rebounds ... Smith had nine points in just 14 minutes of action, while Martin had seven points and four assists in 14 minutes.
IS THIS PRESEASON OR MIDSEASON?
Freshman Britt Anderson, recruited to BGSU by women's basketball coach Curt Miller, competes in two sports for the Falcons ... Anderson walked on to the women's soccer team in August, and helped that squad to a fourth-place MAC finish ... Anderson, just four days removed from starting a MAC Tournament semifinal soccer match, saw action in the women's basketball exhibition ... she did not score, but had four rebounds, an assist and a steal in six minutes ... on the pitch, Anderson appeared in 19 of BG's 22 matches, starting the last 12 ... she finished fifth on the team in scoring (nine points), and was tied for fourth in goals (four).
FRANCINE MILLER ON PRESEASON ALL-MAC TEAM, AGAIN
Senior Francine Miller was named to the Preseason All-MAC Team for the third consecutive year ... Miller played in just four of the Falcons' 28 games last winter ... she scored 26 points in the season-opening win at Youngstown State (Nov. 17, 2001) before suffering a knee injury less than four minutes into the Detroit game three days later ... Miller returned for a pair of games at the beginning of the conference slate, scoring 29 points against Kent State (Jan. 2, 2002) and 15 at Central Michigan (Jan. 5) ... but, Miller, who was not fully recovered from her injury, then elected to miss the remainder of the season while it healed ... as mentioned earlier, she appealed for and was granted a medical hardship, allowing her to return to the Falcon team for the 2002-03 season.
FRANCINE THE SCORING MACHINE: MILLER ON BGSU CAREER CHARTS
Senior Francine Miller enters the 2002-03 season looking to continue move up the BGSU career scoring chart ... with 1,149 career points, Miller now ranks 13th in school history ... she has averaged 14.01 points per game over the first 82 contests of her career, the third-best average in BGSU annals.
WENZEL AT HOME IN ANDERSON ARENA
Stefanie Wenzel averaged a team-best 16.1 points in the Falcons' 12 home games last year, and had a 17.4 average in the finial 11 games at Anderson Arena ... Wenzel had five 20-point games at home last season ... Wenzel, who entered the year with a single-game best of seven points, had games of 30 (vs. UB), 25 (vs. Wright State), 23 (vs. IPFW) and two games of 20 points (vs. UA and OU) in Anderson ... in BGSU's eight MAC home games, Wenzel averaged 16.0 points and 7.1 rebounds ... she scored a total of 325 points in 2001-02, after scoring 36 points during all of her freshman campaign.
113 GAMES AND COUNTING
The Falcons have made at least one three-point field goal in every game during the past four years ... in fact, BGSU now has drained a triple in each of the last 113 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 FROM LONG RANGE
A total of 11 different Falcons made at least one three-point field goal last season ... the prior year, 11 different players made at least one long-range shot, and 10 of those players had done so 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.
TRIPLE YOUR FUN
Several players on the 2002-03 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) ... junior Stefanie Wenzel is eighth on that list (.350, 41-of-117) ... junior Kim Griech has a career three-point pct. of .335 (115-of-343) ... Miller is third all-time in three-pointers made, while Griech is fourth ... Griech is third and Miller fourth in career three-point attempts, with Wenzel 12th on that list.
