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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Play At IUPUI Monday
December 19, 2003 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 19, 2003
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
Complete Game Notes (20 pages) in PDF Format
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BOWLING GREEN (4-3)
at
IUPUI (1-7)
Game #8Mon., Dec. 22, 2003 - 7:00 p.m.
IUPUI Gymnasium (2,000)
Indianapolis, Ind.
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1)
Series: BGSU Leads, 1-0
Last Meeting: at BGSU 69, IUPUI 59 (Dec. 30, 2002)
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after taking a break for exams, completes the pre-Christmas schedule with a Monday (Dec. 22) road game ... the Falcons of third-year head coach Curt Miller will face IUPUI, with tipoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at IUPUI Gymnasium (2,000) ... the game will be broadcast on student station WBGU-FM (88.1).
Following the IUPUI game, the Falcons will complete the 2003 portion of the schedule with a pair of games at the EKU Comfort Suites Classic on Dec. 29-30 ... the Brown and Orange will face host Eastern Kentucky University on Dec. 29, and BG will meet Morehead State University the following afternoon ... the Falcons' next home game is Sat., Jan. 3, 2004, against Cleveland State University.
HONEGGER NAMED MAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Falcon freshman Liz Honegger has been named the Mid-American Conference Player of the Week, the league office announced on Monday (Dec. 15) ... Honegger, a native of Lafayette, Ind., earns the honor for the first time in her brief career ... she led the Falcons in scoring (16), rebounding (nine) and blocked shots (three) in BGSU's 70-63 loss to Oakland (Dec. 13) ... Honegger, who scored BGSU's first seven points of the game, had four of her nine rebounds at the offensive end ... the MAC honors one player from each of the league's two divisions each week ... Honegger, of course, captured the West Division award, while Kent State's Andrea Csaszar was named the East Division Player of the Week.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU checks into the IUPUI game with a record of 4-3 on the young season ... the Falcons, coming off back-to-back 23-point wins last week, saw that brief winning streak halted by Oakland, 70-63 (Dec. 13).
BG opened the campaign with a 79-67 loss at Youngstown State (Nov. 22), but bounced back for a 77-53 win over Detroit in the home opener (Nov. 25) ... then, the Brown and Orange split a pair of games in the Islander Classic, downing Southeast Missouri State, 70-60 (Nov. 28), but falling to host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 68-59, in the championship (Nov. 29) ... the Falcons rebounded with wins over Bucknell (100-67; Dec. 3) and IPFW (91-68; Dec. 6).
Senior Stefanie Wenzel leads the team with 15.0 points per game, and is averaging 4.1 rebounds per contest ... three freshmen are ranked second through fourth in scoring ... Ali Mann has 11.4 points and a team-high 8.1 rebounds per contest, and has three double-doubles on the year ... Liz Honegger has 10.7 points, 6.4 rebounds and leads BGSU with 10 blocked shots (1.4 bpg), while Megan Thorburn has 9.9 points per contest ... the team's fifth starter, senior point guard Lindsay Austin, also has 9.9 points, and has 4.7 rebounds and 6.0 assists per contest, leading the MAC in the latter category ... junior Kelly Kapferer and sophomore Casey McDowell average 5.7 and 5.3 points, respectively.
BG ended the 2002-03 season with a record of 12-16, and the Falcons finished the MAC campaign with a 5-11 league record ... the Falcons tied with Central Michigan for sixth in the MAC's West Division ... in 2003-04, head coach Curt Miller's Falcons returned six letterwinners from that team, including a pair of starters in seniors Austin and Wenzel ... in addition, the Falcons also welcomed back two juniors, Tene Lewis and Sakima Smith, along with a pair of sophomores in Jill Lause and Marisa Smith.
The Falcons also have nine newcomers, including Kapferer and McDowell ... Kapferer earned two letters at BGSU before sitting out last season, while McDowell sat out last year at BG after transferring from Indiana State ... the freshman class consists of Amber Flynn (Cincinnati, Ohio), Julie Gompers (Wheeling, W.Va.), Honegger (Lafayette, Ind.), Carin Horne (Lima, Ohio), Mann (Chelsea, Mich.), Kim Nowakowski (Butler, Pa.) and Thorburn (Mason, Mich.) ... Nowakowski is sidelined indefinitely due to injury.
On the sidelines, Miller is joined by third-year assistants Jennifer Roos and Brandi Poole ... Kevin Eckert is in his second season on the staff.
Austin, Mann, Thorburn and Wenzel each have started all seven games ... Honegger has started at center in each of the last six games.
The Falcons are shooting .441 from the field this season, including a stellar .420 rate from three-point land, and BGSU has a .741 free-throw conversion percentage ... the opponents have shot .399 from the floor, .307 from the arc and .685 from the line to date.
BG is 2-1 at home, 1-2 on the road and 1-0 in neutral-site games this year ... last season, the Falcons went 6-6 at home, 5-9 on the road and 1-1 on neutral courts ... in MAC contests, BGSU finished 4-4 at home and 1-7 away from Anderson Arena in 2002-03.
SCOUTING IUPUI
IUPUI enters Monday's game with a 1-7 record, and the Jaguars are coming off a narrow home loss ... IUPUI lost a Thursday (Dec. 18) contest to Loyola Marymount, 66-63 ... some of the other teams the Jags have faced this season are Cincinnati, Xavier and Ohio State, all on the road ... IUPUI is 1-2 at home and 0-5 on the road to date ... individually, sophomore forward Kia Hayes leads the team with 12.4 points per game, while senior forward Natalie Hendricks has 10.8 points and 4.9 rebounds ... junior forward Jessica James has 9.1 points and 4.8 boards ... sophomore guard Anne-Marie Tupper has 6.1 points and a team-high 13 three-point field goals made, while senior guard Angela Dancy has 5.1 points and a team-best 3.1 assists per outing ... the aforementioned five players started the LMU game, and Dancy, Hendricks and James each have started all eight contests to date ... head coach Kris Simpson welcomed back 11 letterwinners, including four starters, from last year's team that went 9-19 overall and 4-10 in the Mid-Continent Conference ... Simpson has a head-coaching mark of 91-134 in her ninth season, all with the Jaguars... IUPUI's athletics web site is www.iupui.edu/~jagsport.
THE BGSU-IUPUI SERIES
The Falcons lead IUPUI, 1-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... the lone meeting came last year, as the Brown and Orange won a 69-59 decision over the Jaguars at Anderson Arena (Dec. 30, 2002) ... Stefanie Wenzel and Jill Lause each had 14 points to pace four Falcons in double digits.
FALCON FROSH AMONG MAC LEADERS
Bowling Green is the only MAC team to have two freshmen among the league leaders in both scoring and rebounding, according to the latest conference statistics (dated Dec. 15) ... Ali Mann is tied for 20th in scoring (11.4 ppg) and ranks ninth in rebounding (8.1 rpg) ... Liz Honegger is 25th in scoring (10.7) and 15th in rebounding (6.4).
WENZEL NAMED MAC SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF WEEK, AGAIN
Senior Stefanie Wenzel earned the MAC Scholar-Athlete of the Week award, the conference office announced Wednesday (Dec. 17) ... Wenzel earned the honor for the second time in three weeks and the third time in her BGSU career ... a native of Sussex, Wis., Wenzel had 12 points and five rebounds in the Falcons' lone game the previous week, a 70-63 loss to Oakland Saturday (Dec. 13) ... an integrated language arts major, she currently maintains a 3.97 cumulative GPA ... the MAC Scholar Athlete of the Week honor is presented to a one male and one female student-athlete who have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better and performs well during the previous week's competition ... the winners are selected by one of the conference's faculty athletic representatives.
LAST TIME OUT
Oakland Amanda Batcha made all eight of her field-goal attempts as the Golden Grizzlies pulled out a 70-63 win over the Falcons at Anderson Arena (Dec. 13) ... Batcha, in addition to her 8-for-8 performance from the field, made four of her five free-throw attempts en route to a game-high 20 points ... she also added a game-best 13 rebounds, and tied for team honors with four assists ... for the Falcons, freshman Liz Honegger scored a team- and season-high 16 points, and also had nine rebounds and three blocked shots ... senior co-captains Lindsay Austin and Stefanie Wenzel joined Honegger in double digits with 14 and 12 points, respectively ... the game featured six ties and 12 lead changes ... Oakland led for nearly the entire first half, but never by more than six points, and the Grizzlies took a 33-29 advantage into the lockerroom ... the Falcons scored the first eight points of the second half, however, and the game was back and forth from there ... the opening 10 minutes of the half contained seven lead changes ... the Falcons led by four points on two occasions, the last at 48-44 when junior Kelly Kapferer made a free throw at the 11:50 mark ... but, over the next few minutes, BG would miss four free-throw tries, and OU would take advantage ... a Bonnie Baker jumper began an 8-0 run for the visitors ... Batcha followed with a hoop to tie the game, and Anne Hafeli's layup with 9:14 left gave OU the lead for good, at 50-48 ... over the next seven minutes, the Falcons never let the Oakland advantage get greater than four points, but BGSU never pulled even ... a Wenzel three-pointer at the 3:46 mark (BG's only trey of the half) cut the margin to 59-58 ... however, Nicole Piggott answered with her only basket of the game for the visitors, and Hafeli split a pair of free throws ... when Baker hit a layup at the 2:17 mark, the Golden Grizzlies had a six-point lead at 64-58, and BG could draw no closer than five points thereafter ... Austin, in addition to her 14 points, had game-high totals of five assists and four steals ... frosh Megan Thorburn and Ali Mann each scored eight points, with Mann grabbing eight rebounds.
FALCONS ON LOCAL RADIO FOR AT LEAST 25 GAMES
A total of 24 of the Falcons' 27 regular-season games, plus any postseason action, will be on the air in 2003-04 ... every remaining contest is scheduled to be broadcast ... student station WBGU-FM (88.1) is scheduled to air all but three regular-season contests (the Detroit, SE Missouri State and TAMU-Corpus Christi games were not broadcast) ... the 2003-04 academic year marks the second season of an agreement between the BGSU department of athletics and the Bowling Green Radio Sports Organization (BGRSO) to have WBGU serve as the flagship station for both hockey and women's basketball ... games produced by BGRSO are heard on the Internet at bgrso.org and via the Real One Package available through bgsufalcons.com.
GOOD START
The Falcons are off to a 4-3 start for the second consecutive season ... the last time BGSU had a better record after seven games was in 1997-98, when Jaci Clark's final Falcon team began 5-2 en route to a 21-8 record and a berth in the WNIT.
TURNING UP THE 'D'
In the Curt Miller Era, the Falcons have greatly improved defensively ... Miller's first team, the 2001-02 squad, had a field-goal percentage defense of .400, the fourth-best in school history, and the lowest in a decade ... last year, the Falcons allowed opponents to shoot .415 ... this season to date, Falcon foes have shot just .399 from the field ... over the last six games, BGSU has allowed the opponents to shoot only .379.
SHOOTING STRUGGLES
In the Falcons' game vs. Oakland, both teams struggled from both three-point land and the free-throw line ... each team made only three three-pointers in the game, with OU going 3-for-13 (.231) and the Falcons 3-of-15 (.200) ... BGSU made just one of the team's 10 second-half triple tries ... the last time BG made fewer treys in a game came on Dec. 27, 2001, when the Brown and Orange went 1-for-27 from long range in a four-point loss to Yale.
HIGH-FLYING (AND HIGH-SCORING) FALCONS
In a four-day span, the Falcons racked up the top-two scoring games in the Curt Miller Era ... BGSU's 100-point night at Bucknell (Dec. 3) marked the team's highest point total since January of 1999 ... then, BG had 91 points vs. IPFW (Dec. 6), as the Falcons posted a second consecutive 23-point win ... since the beginning of the 2001-02 season, when Miller arrived on campus, the Falcons' top offensive output had been 89 points vs. Savannah State (Dec. 22, 2002) ... BGSU averaged 95.5 points per game in the two wins.
