Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcon Women Head To Ohio For Tuesday Tilt
February 18, 2002 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 18, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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BGSU (7-18, 4-10)
AT
OHIO (12-12, 7-6)
GAME #26
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2002
"THE CONVO"
ATHENS, OHIO
7:00 p.m.
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1)
SERIES: BGSU LEADS, 34-17
LAST MEETING: OHIO 78, AT BGSU 69 (OT) (FEB. 5, 2002)
THE GAME: The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, looking to break a four-game losing streak, hits the road for the final time in the regular season, with a Tuesday (Feb. 19) Mid-American Conference matchup ... the Falcons of first-year head coach Curt Miller will head to Athens, Ohio, to take on Ohio University ... the game is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. at "The Convo" (13,000) ... the game concludes a seven-game stretch that sees the Falcons play away from home five times.
Following the Ohio game, the Brown and Orange will return home to close the regular season with a Saturday (Feb. 23) contest vs. Eastern Michigan University ... tipoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena (5,000) ... the BGSU-EMU game will be "Senior Day," and also is the first half of a hoops doubleheader which will see the Falcon men host the University of Akron at approximately 3:30 p.m.
WBGU RADIO: The BGSU-Ohio 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.
MAC TOURNAMENT PICTURE: The Falcons will be playing a road game against a team to be determined in the first round of the 2002 MAC Tournament ... that game will be held on Saturday, March 2 ... if the season were to conclude today, the Falcons would be the 10th seed for the 13-team tournament, and would travel to face the seventh-seeded team ... that team would be either Eastern Michigan, Miami or Northern Illinois, all of whom sport 8-5 league records and are tied for fifth place overall ... the top-three seeds for the tournament earn first-round byes, with seeds four through eight hosting seeds nine through 13 ... the five first-round winners will join the top-three teams at Cleveland's Gund Arena for the quarterfinal round on March 6.
ABOUT THE FALCONS: BGSU has an overall record of 7-18 on the season, and the Falcons are 4-10 in MAC play after Saturday's (Feb. 16) 56-43 loss at Marshall ... that marked the fourth consecutive setback for the Falcons, who had previously lost to Western Michigan (Feb. 14), Miami (Feb. 9) and Ohio (Feb. 5) ... BGSU is now tied for fifth place in the East Division and 10th place overall.
Prior to the loss to Ohio, the Falcons posted a come-from-behind, 69-65 win at Buffalo (Feb. 2), the team's largest comeback in four years ... BGSU ended the month of January with the team's most decisive victory of the season -- a 76-52 home win over Marshall (Jan. 26) -- followed by the largest loss of the MAC slate, an 82-51 setback at Toledo (Jan. 30).
BG began conference play with an 0-3 mark, but rallied to beat UB and Akron, before suffering road losses to Ball State and Kent State.
Sophomore Stefanie Wenzel leads the Falcons in scoring, and is averaging 11.4 points per contest ... Wenzel, who has a team-best six games of 20 points or more this year, also averages 4.1 rebounds per outing ... junior Kim Griech is averaging 10.4 points per game, and leads the Falcons with 39 three-point field goals on the year.
Sophomore point guard Lindsay Austin averages 8.9 points ... Austin leads the team in assists (4.8 apg), steals (2.0 spg) and minutes per game (33.7) ... she is third on the team with 4.6 rebounds per game.
Redshirt sophomore Pam Brown has 7.3 points, and has a team-best 6.0 rebounds ... Brown, who missed seven consecutive contests in Nov.-Dec. with a knee (lateral meniscus) injury, has had 14 rebounds in each of the Falcons' last two home games ... she had successful surgery on Dec. 6, and made her return in the MAC opener on Jan. 2 ... soph Kelly Kapferer has 7.0 points and 4.6 rebounds per game, and leads the team in field-goal percentage (.422) ... senior Dana Western-Schuka averages 6.2 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game, ranking second on the team in the latter two categories ... Western-Schuka leads the Falcons with 20 blocked shots (0.8 bpg).
A total of 10 different players have started at least one game this season ... the lineup has remained the same for five consecutive contests ... Griech and Western-Schuka each have been in the starting five for all 25 games to date, while Austin has made 24 starts ... Kapferer has started 17 games, while Wenzel has been in the starting lineup for the last 17 contests ... Brown has started nine games this year, including the last five ... the lineup had consisted of Austin, Griech, Kapferer, Wenzel and Western-Schuka for 12-straight games, before Brown replaced Kapferer for the game at Buffalo (Feb. 2).
BGSU finished the 2000-01 season with a record of 11-18, and the Falcons completed MAC play with a league ledger of 6-10 ... BG ended conference action in fourth place in the MAC's East Division a year ago ... 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.
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 .400 through the first 25 games ... the Falcons have made 147 three-point field goals and are shooting .287 from beyond the arc, while the foes have 138 treys and a .334 pct. ... BGSU has a free-throw pct. of .698 to the opponents' .703 ... the Falcons have been outrebounded by a 45.2 to 38.4 margin in the first 25 contests.
BGSU is shooting .366 from the field in MAC games, and the Falcons have made 91 three-pointers (6.50 per game) and are shooting .323 from behind the arc and .687 from the free-throw line in league contests.
BGSU is 4-7 at home, 2-9 on the road and 1-2 in neutral-site contests in 2001-02 ... BG is 3-4 at home and 1-6 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 season.
SCOUTING OHIO: Ohio will enter Tuesday's game with an overall record of 12-12 ... the Bobcats will check into the contest with a 7-6 MAC mark after a 70-55 win over visiting Buffalo Saturday (Feb. 16) ... OU has won four of the last five contests, beginning with the overtime win at BGSU two weeks ago (78-69, Feb. 5) ... the Bobcats are 7-4 at home this season, including a 4-3 MAC record at "The Convo" ... the Bobcats average 6.54 three-pointers made per game, and the team has shot 26.2 free throws per game ... individually, the Bobcats are led by the team's two seniors ... senior guard Cathy Szall has 16.9 points per game, and also leads the team in steals (1.5 spg) ... Szall has 3.5 assists per contest as well ... senior forward Lori Moorman has 15.5 points and a team-high 5.8 rebounds per game ... sophomore wing Candace Bates also averages in double digits, with 11.7 points per contest, while classmate Andrea Gay has 8.3 points ... Gay, a point guard, has a team-best 4.1 assists per outing ... junior forward Beckie Fischer (6.8 ppg) joins the aforementioned players in the probable starting lineup ... last year, the Bobcats went 9-20 overall and 5-11 in MAC action ... head coach Lynn Bria has a record of 32-49 in her third year in Athens ... she is 108-139 in her ninth season as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletic web site is ohiobobcats.com.
THE SERIES: The Falcons are the lone MAC team that does not have a losing record in an all-time series with a single conference opponent ... BG leads the all-time series with 10 of the 12 MAC foes (BGSU is tied with both Buffalo [4-4] and NIU [9-9]), and the Falcons hold a 34-17 advantage over Ohio ... the teams are deadlocked, 11-11, in games played in Athens ... Ohio broke a six-game Falcon series win streak with a 78-69 overtime decision at Anderson Arena two weeks ago (Feb. 5, 2002) ... prior to that game, Ohio's most recent series win, a 96-79 decision, had come in Athens on Feb. 21, 1998 ... BGSU has won the last two games at "The Convo."
LAST TIME OUT: Host Marshall used a 20-0 run, spanning the end of the first half and the beginning of the second, to post a 56-43 victory over the Falcons Saturday night (Feb. 16) ... not surprisingly, in a game that featured a total of just 99 points, both teams had trouble scoring at times ... the game was scoreless for the first 2:46, before Marshall's Catie Knable got the Herd on the board ... BG did not score until senior Dana Western-Schuka hit a three-point field goal with 5:21 elapsed ... after an Ida Dotson layup at the 14:03 mark, the Thundering Herd led by a 6-3 score ... the hosts would not score again for nearly 10 minutes ... BGSU began a season-high 16-point run, starting with a layup by sophomore Kelly Kapferer ... after sophomore Stefanie Wenzel hit a pair of free throws, junior Megan Jerome pulled down a rebound and went coast-to-coast ... she hit a layup while drawing a foul, and converted the ensuing free throw to give BG a 10-6 lead at the 11:28 mark ... then, neither team scored for nearly four more minutes, until Jerome grabbed another defensive rebound and hit a pull-up jumper on the fast break ... Jerome continued her clinic by taking a nice feed from freshman Sakima Smith, drawing a foul and hitting both free throws at the 7:43 mark ... after sophomore Lindsay Austin picked Dotson's pocket and went in for a layup, Jerome hit a three-pointer to give BG a 19-6 lead with 5:47 left in the half ... Dotson scored to end MU's scoreless drought of 9:04, and the Herd cut the BG lead to 19-10 with another hoop at the 4:15 mark ... then, neither team scored until Jerome drained another triple at the 2:38 juncture ... at that point, BGSU led by a 22-10 score, with Jerome accounting for 13 of those points ... but, by the time the Falcons scored again, on an Austin free throw, the Herd led by a 30-23 score with 12:52 left in the contest ... Marshall extended the lead to 32-23, but junior Rachal Hamilton got the Falcons' first basket of the half moments later ... after Knable pulled down a rebound, Hamilton ripped the ball away and sank an acrobatic layup while falling to the floor ... the hoop narrowed the MU lead to seven points at the 12:03 mark ... BGSU sank several free throws over the next few minutes, but could not get another basket until Austin hit a shot with 6:18 left ... that basket, which cut the Marshall lead to 38-33, was just BG's second hoop of the half ... Hamilton's basket was the only BG conversion from the field in a span of 16:20 ... the Falcons got as close as four points, at 42-38, with 3:49 remaining, but Marshall scored the next six points to open a 10-point lead, and BG never got closer than eight again ... MU made 6-of-8 free throws in the game's final minute to clinch the victory ... Jerome finished the game with a total of 16 points, a season best and just two points away from her career standard ... Austin joined Jerome in double figures, with 11 points ... Austin had four of BGSU's six second-half baskets ... MU's Andrea Fitzgerald, held scoreless in the first half, led all scorers with 21 points, while Ida Dotson had 13 ... Catie Knable had 10 points and a whopping 21 rebounds, as the Herd held a 50-33 margin in that category ... the Falcons shot just .255 for the game, going 13-of-51 ... BGSU's field-goal percentage was a season low. Marshall shot an even 37 percent from the floor (20-of-54) ... the team's total of 43 points was the fewest in a MAC game in school history.
BUSY STRETCH FOR THE FALCONS: The Ohio game marks the third contest in a six-day span for the Brown and Orange ... BGSU hosted Western Michigan Thursday night (Feb. 14), then left Friday for Huntington, W. Va. ... then, after the Saturday (Feb. 16) game at Marshall, BGSU returned home in the wee hours of Sunday morning, and the team was scheduled to leave Monday for a Tuesday (Feb. 19) contest at Ohio ... after the game in Athens, the Falcons are idle until Saturday's (Feb. 23) regular-season finale vs. Eastern Michigan.
MJ FOR THREE: Junior Megan Jerome had a team-high 16 points at Marshall Saturday (Feb. 16) ... that total represented a season high, and was just two points away from her career best ... Jerome was a perfect 3-for-3 from three-point land in the game ... after starting the season by going 4-of-26 from three-point range, Jerome has now made seven of her last nine long-range attempts.
STREAKY: The Falcons put together a season-best 16-0 run in the game at Marshall Saturday (Feb. 16) ... BGSU erased an early 6-3 deficit, holding the Herd scoreless for 9:04 ... but, MU went on a 20-0 run later in the game ... BG had just one field goal in a span of 16:20.
