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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Shuffle Off
February 01, 2002 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 1, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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BGSU (6-14, 3-6)
AT
BUFFALO (9-11, 4-5)
GAME #21
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2002
ALUMNI ARENA
BUFFALO, NEW YORK
7:00 p.m.
SERIES: BUFFALO LEADS, 4-3
LAST MEETING: at BGSU 71, BUFFALO 69 (JAN. 12, 2002)
THE GAME: The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, looking to rebound from a road loss, remains on the road to begin the month of February ... the Falcons of first-year head coach Curt Miller continue Mid-American Conference action with a Saturday (Feb. 2) game at the University at Buffalo ... the Falcons and Bulls are scheduled to tip off at 7:00 p.m. at UB's Alumni Arena (8,500).
Following the UB game, the Brown and Orange will return home for a Tuesday (Feb. 5) tilt vs. Ohio University ... that game begins at 7:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena (5,000) ... the UB game is the second in a seven-game stretch that sees BG play away from home five times.
ABOUT THE FALCONS: BGSU has an overall record of 6-14 on the season, and the Falcons are 3-6 in MAC play ... after posting the most decisive victory of the season, BG suffered the largest loss of the conference slate ... the Brown and Orange posted a 76-52 home win over Marshall last Saturday (Jan. 26) ... the 24-point margin of victory was BG's largest of the season ... but, Toledo dealt the Falcons an 82-51 setback Wednesday (Jan. 30) ... the Falcons' 31-point loss was the biggest in MAC play this year ... 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 10.8 points per contest, and she leads the Falcons with 35 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 10.7 points and 4.2 rebounds per contest, while point guard Lindsay Austin averages 8.8 points ... Austin leads the team in both assists (5.1 apg) and steals (2.1 spg), and is third on the squad with 4.6 rebounds per game.
A third sophomore, Kelly Kapferer, has 7.5 points and 4.8 rebounds per game ... Kapferer leads the Falcons in field-goal percentage (.421) ... redshirt sophomore Pam Brown has 7.2 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 MAC opener on Jan. 2 ... senior Dana Western-Schuka averages 6.6 points, a team-best 5.0 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 12 contests ... Griech and Western-Schuka each have been in the starting five for all 20 games to date, while Austin has made 19 starts ... Kapferer has started 17 games, while Wenzel has been in the starting lineup for the last 12 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 .356 from the field, while opponents are shooting .401 through the first 20 games ... the Falcons have made 119 three-point field goals and are shooting .287 from beyond the arc, while the foes have 110 treys and a .324 pct. ... BGSU has a free-throw pct. of .712 to the opponents' .692 ... the Falcons have been outrebounded by a 45.8 to 38.8 margin in the first 20 contests.
BGSU is shooting .371 from the field in MAC games, and the Falcons have made 63 three-pointers (7.00 per game) and are shooting .341 from behind the arc and .714 from the free-throw line in league contests.
BGSU is 4-5 at home, 1-7 on the road and 1-2 in neutral-site contests in 2001-02 ... BG is 3-2 at home and 0-4 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 BUFFALO: Buffalo will enter Saturday's game with an overall record of 9-11 ... the Bulls will check in with a record of 4-5 in MAC play, after a narrow home loss to the defending East Division champions Wednesday (Jan. 30) ... UB fell to Kent State by a 72-71 final ... that snapped a two-game winning streak for the Bulls ... Buffalo is 5-5 at home, including a 2-3 mark in MAC games at Alumni Arena ... individually, sophomore forward Jessica Kochendorfer paces the Bulls in both scoring and rebounding, with 13.9 points and 7.6 rebounds per game ... she also has 1.6 blocks per contest ... junior guard Kate McMeeken-Ruscoe has 13.2 points and a team-high 2.0 steals per outing, while sophomore forward Kim Kilpela averages 11.0 points and 7.4 rebounds ... sophomore guard Virginia Jennings has 6.8 points and a UB-best 4.8 assists ... freshman guard Erin Lawrenson (5.9 ppg) joins the aforementioned four players in UB's probable starting lineup ... last year, the Bulls went 19-9 overall and 10-6 in MAC action ... Cheryl Dozier has a record of 61-43 in her fourth year as a collegiate head coach, all with the Bulls ... Buffalo's athletic web site is www.buffalobulls.com.
THE SERIES: The Falcons lead the all-time series with 10 of the 12 MAC opponents (BGSU and NIU are tied, 9-9), but Buffalo is the lone conference team to hold an advantage over the Falcons ... UB has a 4-3 lead in a series that began in November of 1997 ... the Falcons broke a two-game UB series winning streak three weeks ago (Jan. 12, 2002), posting a 71-69 win at Anderson Arena ... UB holds a 2-1 edge in games played at Alumni Arena, including a 76-66 Bulls win in last year's meeting in New York (Feb. 24, 2001) ... the last five series games have been decided by 10 points or fewer, including four games settled by four points or less.
LAST TIME OUT: Host Toledo, leading by five points at the half, shot .643 from the floor in the final 20 minutes to run away from the Falcons Wednesday night (Jan. 30) ... the Rockets posted an 82-51 win ... BG was led by sophomore Lindsay Austin, who had 13 points, five rebounds and three assists to pace the team in each category ... classmate Stefanie Wenzel added 12 points ... Tia Davis led four UT double-digit scorers with 21 points, while Courtney Risinger had 16 ... the two players combined for 31 of the Rockets' 52 second-half points ... BGSU had a 7-4 lead after an Austin layup, but Toledo forced three turnovers and reeled off the next 13 points ... junior Megan Jerome and senior Dana Western-Schuka then teamed up for the next six points of the game, as Western-Schuka fed Jerome for a three-pointer, and Jerome returned the favor 24 seconds later ... Western-Schuka's trey cut the score to 17-13 with 12:58 left ... UT went up by as many as 12 points on two occasions in the first half, but Austin converted a driving layup, drew a foul and made the free throw to cap an 8-2 BG run to end the half ... that run cut the Rocket lead to 30-25 at the intermission ... UT opened the second stanza with a 23-9 run over the first six-and-a-half-minutes to push its lead to 53-34, and the Rockets never looked back ... the lead grew to as many as 35 points late in the contest as UT went 18-of-28 from the field in the second half ... for the game, the Falcons shot .380 (19-of-50) from the field and went 5-of-18 (.278) from three-point land ... Toledo shot .537, a season best for a BGSU opponent, from the field, including a 6-of-10 (.600) rate from long range ... Risinger was 4-of-4 from three-point land.
FIELD-GOAL PCT. DEFENSE IMPROVING: Under first-year coach Curt Miller, the Falcons have greatly improved in the area of field-goal percentage defense ... despite Toledo's success Wednesday (the Rockets shot an opponent season-high .537 from the floor), BGSU has a field-goal pct. defense of .401 this season ... that percentage, if the Falcons could maintain it, would be the fourth-best in school history, and the best since 1992-93 ... that '92-93 team limited opponents to a .399 FG pct. ... the school record is .348, set by the 1976-77 squad ... BGSU's current mark would be the second-lowest in the last 24 years.
THE GOOD...: The Falcons shot a season-best .444 from the floor vs. Marshall last Saturday (Jan. 26), 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.
...THE BAD, AS WELL AS THE UGLY: In the next game following that win over Marshall, as mentioned, the Falcons allowed Toledo to shoot .537 from the field, a season-high pct. for a BG opponent ... BGSU also committed a season-high 27 turnovers, and the Falcons were not credited with a blocked shot for the first time this year.
DOUBLE TROUBLE: Sophomore Stefanie Wenzel recorded the first double-double of her career in BG's win over Marshall (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, 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 ... overall, she has scored a total of 214 points this season, after scoring 36 points during all of her freshman campaign.
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 led the Falcons in scoring (13), rebounding (five) and assists (three) at Toledo Wednesday (Jan. 30) ... Austin had six points, five rebounds and seven assists vs. Marshall (Jan. 26), and ranks among the MAC leaders in the latter category ... through the UT game, Austin is fourth in the league with 5.10 assists per game ... in conference games only, she is tied for first, with 5.89 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).
105 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 105 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.
MILLER TO MISS REMAINDER OF SEASON: Senior Francine Miller is in the process of appealing 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.
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.
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 six 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 seven games.
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.
A TALE OF TWO HALVES: Through 20 games, the Falcons have held the opponent to a field-goal percentage of .351 (217-of-618) in the first half ... when the Colorado game is taken out, BG has limited the foes to a .336 rate (194-of-578) before the intermission ... in the second half, however, the opponents have made 276-of-618 shots from the floor (.447).
FG PCT. DEFENSE IS IMPROVED, PART II: 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 715 treys in 2,062 tries.
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 (.354, 79-of-223), while junior Kim Griech is ninth (.350, 107-of-306) ... Miller is third all-time in three-pointers made, while Griech is now tied for fourth and Western-Schuka is deadlocked for sixth ... Griech has passed Miller to move into third place in three-point attempts, with Western-Schuka eighth.
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.
