Bowling Green State University Athletics
MAC Tournament Opener Is Saturday
February 28, 2002 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 28, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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BGSU (9-18, 6-10)
AT
OHIO (12-15, 7-9)
MAC TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND
GAME #28
SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2002
"THE CONVO"
ATHENS, OHIO
12:30 p.m.
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1)
SERIES: BGSU LEADS, 35-17
LAST MEETING: BGSU 57, AT OHIO 56 (FEB. 19, 2002)
THE GAME: The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, having closed the regular season with a pair of wins, now begins play in the 2002 Kraft Mid-American Conference Tournament ... the Falcons of first-year head coach Curt Miller, the ninth seed for the 13-team tournament, will travel to Athens, Ohio, to face eighth-seeded Ohio University in a MAC Tournament first-round contest Saturday (March 2) ... tipoff is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. at "The Convo" (13,000) ... the BGSU-Ohio game will be the first half of a hoops doubleheader which will see the Falcon men close the regular season against the Bobcats in a 3:00 p.m. game.
The winner of the BGSU-Ohio game will advance to the MAC Tournament's quarterfinal round in Cleveland, Ohio, and will take on top-seeded Kent State Wednesday (March 6) ... that game will begin at 2:00 p.m. at Gund Arena (11,000) ... the semifinals will be held Friday, March 8, with the championship game scheduled for the following afternoon (March 9) ... the complete tournament schedule can be found later in this release.
WBGU RADIO: The BGSU-Ohio game is scheduled to be broadcast by campus station WBGU-FM (88.1) ... the station would air any Falcon women's basketball action in the tournament, with Erik Bell and Andy Evans mikeside.
MAC TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Saturday, March 2 - First Round (at campus sites)Game 1 - #9 BGSU at #8 Ohio, 12:30
Game 2 - #12 Central Michigan at #5 Western Michigan, 4:30
Game 3 - #13 Akron at #4 Miami, 5:00
Game 4 - #10 Marshall at #7 Eastern Michigan, 2:00
Game 5 - #11 Buffalo at #6 Northern Illinois, 2:05 CT
Wednesday, March 6 - Quarterfinals (Gund Arena, Cleveland, Ohio)
Game 6 - BGSU/Ohio vs. #1 Kent State, 2:00
Game 7 - CMU/WMU vs. Akron/Miami, 4:30
Game 8 - Marshall/EMU vs. #2 Ball State, 7:00
Game 9 - Buffalo/NIU vs. #3 Toledo, 9:30
Friday, March 8 - Semifinals (Gund Arena) - Fox Sports Net
Game 10 - Game 6 winner vs. Game 7 winner, noon
Game 11 - Game 8 winner vs. Game 9 winner, 2:30
Saturday, March 9 - Championship (Gund Arena) - Fox Sports Net
Game 12 - Semifinal winners, 1:00
(all times p.m. and Eastern unless noted otherwise)
ABOUT THE FALCONS: BGSU has an overall record of 9-18 on the season, and the Falcons finished the MAC schedule with a 6-10 league ledger ... the Brown and Orange ended the regular-season slate with a pair of victories, including a Saturday (Feb. 23) win over visiting Eastern Michigan, 78-62 ... that win came on the heels of a 57-56 win at Ohio in the regular-season road finale ... that victory snapped a four-game losing streak for the Falcons, who had lost to Marshall (Feb. 16), Western Michigan (Feb. 14), Miami (Feb. 9) and OU (Feb. 5) in that stretch ... BGSU finished in fourth place in the MAC's East Division and in ninth 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).
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 post-Christmas tournament hosted by Miami (Fla.).
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.
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 each of 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.
Sophomore Stefanie Wenzel leads the Falcons in scoring, and is averaging 11.6 points per contest ... Wenzel, who has a team-best six games of 20 points or more this year, also averages 4.3 rebounds per outing ... she had her second double-double of the season in the win over EMU ... junior Kim Griech is averaging 10.5 points per game, and leads the Falcons with 43 three-point field goals on the year ... Griech had 17 points, just two off her career high, in the win over the Eagles.
Sophomore point guard Lindsay Austin is third on the team, averaging 9.1 points ... Austin leads the team in assists (4.6 apg), steals (2.1 spg) and minutes per game (33.8) ... she is second on the team with 4.6 rebounds per game ... Austin has led BG in rebounding in three of the last five games.
Redshirt sophomore Pam Brown has 7.3 points and a team-best 6.0 rebounds ... Brown has missed a total of nine games this year with a knee (lateral meniscus) injury ... she did not suit up for seven contests in Nov.-Dec., but had successful surgery on Dec. 6, and made her return in the MAC opener on Jan. 2 ... however, she did not play in either of the last two regular-season games ... Brown had 14 rebounds in each of her last two home games, vs. Western Michigan and OU.
Sophomore Kelly Kapferer has 7.6 points and 4.4 rebounds per game, and leads the team in field-goal percentage (.449) ... Kapferer had a career-high 21 points vs. EMU, helping her earn MAC Player-of-the-Week honors ... senior Dana Western-Schuka averages 6.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game, ranking second on the team in the steals and third in boards ... on "Senior Day," the Falcon senior had a double-double, with a career-high 13 rebounds, vs. EMU ... Western-Schuka leads the Falcons with 21 blocked shots (0.8 bpg).
A total of 10 different players have started at least one game this season ... Griech and Western-Schuka each have been in the starting five for all 27 games to date, while Austin has made 26 starts ... Kapferer has started 19 games, while Wenzel has been in the starting lineup for the last 19 contests ... Brown has started nine games this year, including five-straight games before missing the OU and EMU contests ... the lineup had consisted of Austin, Griech, Kapferer, Wenzel and Western-Schuka for 12-straight games from Dec. 15 to Jan. 30, before Brown replaced Kapferer for the game at Buffalo (Feb. 2) ... but, Kapferer has returned to the starting five for the last two contests.
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 ... 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 .365 from the field, while opponents are shooting .397 through the first 27 games ... the Falcons have made 160 three-point field goals and are shooting .295 from beyond the arc, while the foes have 146 treys and a .317 pct. ... BGSU has a free-throw pct. of .696 to the opponents' .705 ... the Falcons have been outrebounded by a 44.4 to 38.2 margin in the first 27 contests.
BGSU shot .380 from the field in MAC games, and the Falcons made 104 three-pointers (6.50 per game) and shot .333 from behind the arc and .685 from the free-throw line in league contests.
BGSU went 5-7 at home, and the Falcons are 3-9 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 ... last year, the Falcons were 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 Saturday's game with an overall record of 12-15 ... the Bobcats finished MAC play with a league record of 7-9 ... that mark was good for third place in the East Division, a game ahead of the Falcons ... Ohio enters the tournament looking to snap a three-game losing streak, and the Bobcats are coming off a 92-42 loss at Kent State Tuesday (Feb. 23) ... the 50-point loss was the team's worst in over 10 years (45-97 vs. Iowa, Nov. 30, 1991) ... Ohio is 7-5 at home this season, including a 4-4 mark in MAC games at "The Convo" ... individually, the Bobcats' lone seniors are one-two in scoring ... wing Cathy Szall has a team-high 16.1 points per game and leads the team with 64 successful three-point field goals ... forward Lori Moorman has 14.9 points and a team-best 5.9 rebounds per game ... sophomore wing Candace Bates rounds out the double-digit scorers, averaging 11.2 points, while classmate Andrea Gay, a point guard, has 7.9 points and leads the Bobcats with 4.0 assists ... another sophomore, forward Latreece Bagley (5.3 ppg), joined the aforementioned four players in the starting lineup at KSU ... freshman wing Andrea Johnson and junior forward Beckie Fischer average 7.5 and 6.6 points, respectively, off the bench ... last year, the Bobcats went 9-20 overall and 5-11 in league play ... head coach Lynn Bria has a record of 32-52 in her third year in Athens ... she is 108-142 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 35-17 advantage over Ohio ... the Brown and Orange holds a slim 12-11 lead in games played in Athens, including a 57-56 BG win less than two weeks ago (Feb. 19) ... two weeks prior to that game, the Bobcats broke a six-game Falcon series win streak with a 78-69 overtime decision at Anderson Arena (Feb. 5) ... prior to that game, Ohio's most recent series win, a 96-79 verdict, had come in Athens on Feb. 21, 1998 ... BGSU has won the last three games at "The Convo."
YOU LOOK VERY FAMILIAR: The MAC Tournament game will mark the third meeting between the Falcons and Ohio in less than a month ... the first two games were decided in overtime (Feb. 5 in BG) and by a single point (Feb. 19 in Athens) ... the tourney game marks the eighth meeting between the teams in the last three seasons.
LAST TIME OUT: The Falcons played arguably their most complete game of the season Saturday (Feb. 23), and the result was a 78-62 win over Eastern Michigan ... sophomore Kelly Kapferer had a career-high 21 points, going 9-of-14 from the field to pace four Falcons in double digits in scoring ... Kapferer, who entered the game with seven three-point field goals made on the season, had a career-high three triples in five attempts ... junior Kim Griech had 17 points in the game, just two shy of her career high ... sophomore Stefanie Wenzel and senior Dana Western-Schuka each had double-doubles in the victory ... Wenzel had 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Western-Schuka, the Falcons' lone active senior, scored 10 points and added a career-high 13 boards on "Senior Day" ... Abby Wiseman was the lone EMU player in double digits, scoring 21 points ... the Falcons, playing without injured sophomore center Pam Brown, never trailed in the game ... in fact, the home team scored the game's first 16 points, with Kapferer and Wenzel combining for all but two ... EMU missed its first 10 shots from the floor before Wiseman converted at the 12:40 mark ... Griech came right back down the floor and hit a jumper to regain the 16-point lead, but the Eagles then rattled off the game's next 11 points to cut the BG lead to 18-13 at the 9:26 mark ... after BGSU coach Curt Miller used a 30-second timeout, Western-Schuka hit a three-pointer, and Griech followed with a layup to restore a double-digit lead ... the Eagles cut the Falcon advantage to seven points, 25-18, after Wiseman converted a three-point play ... but, a Kapferer basket sparked a 6-0 BG run that culminated with a Western-Schuka triple ... when the senior's shot went through the net, the Falcons had a 13-point lead, 31-18, at the 4:41 mark ... the Eagles never got within single digits again ... the home team had an 18-point lead at the half, 42-24 ... in that first half, the Falcons shot a season-best .630 from the field, making 17 shots in 27 attempts ... the Falcons shot .500 from three-point land in the first 20 minutes, going 5-of-10 ... Kapferer made her first five shot attempts of the game as the Falcons were 8-of-11 to start the contest ... after Wiseman opened the second-half scoring to cut the lead to 42-26, the home team went on a 15-3 run over the next 5:14 ... a Kapferer three-pointer gave BGSU a 20-point lead, and sophomore Lindsay Austin followed with a steal and layup ... that 15-3 run opened the BG margin to 28 points (57-29) ... the visitors got as close as 12 points, at 72-60, after Stephanie Smiley scored with 2:04 remaining ... but, BGSU went 4-of-5 from the free-throw line over the final 1:38 ... for the game, the Falcons shot a season-best .547 (29-of-53) from the floor, including a 9-of-19 effort (.474) from three-point land ... Eastern shot .339 from the field and went 4-of-25 (.160) from long distance ... the Falcons held a 39-33 rebounding edge in the game.
BGSU'S MAC TOURNAMENT HISTORY: In 2001-02, the Falcons are participating in the MAC Tournament for the 18th time in its 20-year history ... BG has posted a 21-11 record since the MAC Tournament was instituted in 1982 ... the Falcons' win total ranks BGSU second among league teams, and the .656 winning pct. is also the second-best of any school ... the Brown and Orange's total of six tournament titles places the team second among league schools ... BGSU has made the tourney for the 16th-straight year, the longest current streak among MAC schools.
BGSU VS. OHIO IN THE MAC TOURNAMENT: The Falcons and Ohio will be meeting for the fourth time in MAC Tournament play ... BGSU holds a 2-1 lead ... all of the meetings have come in the first round, as two games came in the quarterfinals in years when only eight teams qualified for the tournament ... BGSU won a 91-57 home decision in the 1992 tourney, and the host Bobcats captured an 82-77 overtime contest in the 1996 tournament ... BG hosted the Bobcats in the first round of the 2000 MAC Tournament, and the Falcons posted an 84-70 win.
BGSU VS. MAC TOURNEY FOES: The Falcons have played nine different schools in the MAC Tournament, with Toledo being the most common opponent ... BGSU has met the Rockets seven times, having won four games ... the Falcons have played Central Michigan and Kent (State) five times each, while meeting Ball State and Western Michigan four times apiece, Ohio three times, Eastern Michigan twice and Akron and Miami once each ... the Falcons' record against each team in MAC Tournament play follows:
Akron...............0-1 Ball State..........4-0 Central Michigan....3-2 Eastern Michigan....2-0 Kent (State)........3-2 Miami...............1-0 Ohio................2-1 Toledo..............4-3 Western Michigan....2-2
NINTH SEED'S THE CHARM? The Falcons are the ninth seed in the MAC Tournament for the second year in a row ... last year, BGSU headed to Western Michigan for the first round of the tourney, and posted a 78-75 victory over the eighth-seeded Broncos.
KAPFERER EARNS MAC PLAYER-OF-THE-WEEK HONORS: BGSU sophomore Kelly Kapferer has been named the MAC Player of the Week, the league office announced Monday (Feb. 25) ... Kapferer earns the honor for the first time in her Falcon career ... Kapferer, a native of Jefferson, Ohio, shares this week's East Division P-O-W honor with Kent State's Andrea Csaszar ... Kapferer averaged 15.5 points per game last week, helping the Falcons to a 2-0 record to close the regular season ... Kapferer, who also averaged 3.0 rebounds and 1.0 blocks per game, connected on 68 percent of her shots from the field on the week.
KAPFERER KONNECTS: Sophomore Kelly Kapferer's week included a career-high 21 points in the Falcons' 78-62 win over visiting Eastern Michigan (Feb. 23) ... in that game, she made nine of her 14 shots from the field, setting career bests in each category, and also set a career standard for three-point field goals made, going 3-of-5 from long range ... Kapferer had entered that game with a total of seven successful triples on the year ... in BGSU's previous game, at Ohio (Feb. 19), Kapferer had 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting, adding four rebounds and a pair of blocked shots in a 57-56 road win.
HOT SHOOTING VS. THE EAGLES: In the first half of the Eastern Michigan game (Feb. 23), the Falcons shot a season-best .630 from the field, making 17 shots in 27 attempts ... in 52 previous halves this season, BGSU had a field-goal percentage of .500 or better only three times ... the Falcons shot .500 from three-point land in the first 20 minutes, going 5-of-10 ... sophomore Kelly Kapferer made her first five shot attempts of the game as the Falcons were 8-of-11 to start the contest ... for the game, the Falcons shot a season-best .547 (29-of-53) from the floor, including a 9-of-19 effort (.474) from three-point land ... BGSU's previous season-best FG pct. was .444 in the first Marshall meeting (Jan. 26).
SENIOR HAS A "DAY" TO REMEMBER: Dana Western-Schuka, the Falcons' lone senior on the active roster, had a day to remember when the Falcons played Eastern Michigan (Feb. 23) ... Western-Schuka, who was honored prior to the game in "Senior Day" festivities, scored 10 points and pulled down a career-high 13 rebounds as BGSU posted a 78-62 win over the Eagles.
QUITE A TURNAROUND: As mentioned, the Falcons closed the regular season with a 16-point win over Eastern Michigan (Feb. 23), 78-62 ... the result marked a 52-point reversal from last year's meeting ... a year and two days prior (Feb. 21, 2001), the Eagles drubbed the Falcons by an 86-50 count in Ypsilanti in the lone matchup of the season.
LEARNING HOW TO WIN: In the last three seasons, BGSU posted an overall record of 35-49 ... this season, despite losing the team's top scorer (senior Francine Miller) to injury, coach Curt Miller's Falcons have put together some solid starts, particularly at home ... but, the Falcons are still learning how to sustain that effort over the entire 40 minutes.
In the eight MAC games at Anderson Arena this year, the Falcons never trailed at the half ... but, BGSU outscored the opponent in the second half just once (Marshall, Jan. 26) in those eight contests, resulting in a 4-4 record in home conference games ... BGSU was outscored by just two points in the second half of the EMU game (Feb. 23), though, which reduced an 18-point halftime lead only to 16 when the final buzzer sounded.
STREAKY: The Falcons put together a season-best 16-0 run in the game at Marshall (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 ... a week later, the Falcons started the game on a 16-0 run against Eastern Michigan (Feb. 23), and wound up winning by a 16-point margin.
DOUBLE TROUBLE: Sophomore Stefanie Wenzel recorded her second double-double of the season, and of her career, in the win over Eastern Michigan (Feb. 23) ... Wenzel had 15 points and 10 rebounds ... her first double-double came vs. Marshall (Jan. 26), when Wenzel led the Falcons in scoring, with 19 points, and had a career-high 11 rebounds in the win ... senior Dana Western-Schuka joined Wenzel by posting a double-double in the EMU game, with 10 points and a career-high 13 rebounds ... Western-Schuka's double-double was her first of the year, and the second of her career ... the EMU contest marked the first time that two Falcons had double-doubles in the same game since Nov. 24, 2000 (vs. Charleston Southern, Francine Miller, 23p-11r, Pam Brown, 12p-12r) ... Brown, a redshirt sophomore, had her first double-double of the year, and the third of her career, with 18 points and 14 boards vs. WMU (Feb. 14) ... sophomore Kelly Kapferer had the first two double-doubles of the year, with a 15-point, 10-rebound effort vs. Detroit (Nov. 20) and 12 points and 10 boards vs. Yale (Dec. 27).
A WINNING COMBO? The Falcons went 6-10 in MAC play this year ... the starting lineup of senior Dana Western-Schuka, junior Kim Griech and sophomores Lindsay Austin, Kelly Kapferer and Stefanie Wenzel went 5-6 in conference games during 2001-02.
MORE NOTES FROM THE LAST FEW GAMES:
GO WEST: The EMU game marked BGSU's final regular-season contest 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.
