Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons To Play Two At EKU Classic
December 27, 2003 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 27, 2003
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
Complete Game Notes (20 pages) in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
BOWLING GREEN (4-4)
at
EKU COMFORT SUITES CLASSIC
Games #9 & 10Mon.-Tue., Dec. 29-30, 2003
McBrayer Arena (6,500)
Richmond, Ky.
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1)
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team closes the 2003 calendar year with a trip to Richmond, Ky. for a pair of games ... the Falcons of third-year head coach Curt Miller will compete in the EKU Comfort Suites Classic, beginning with a game against host Eastern Kentucky University Monday (Dec. 29) ... that game is scheduled for a 6:00 p.m. tipoff at McBrayer Arena (6,500).
Then, the following afternoon (Dec. 30), the Brown and Orange will take on Morehead State University in a 4:00 p.m. start ... both games will be broadcast on student station WBGU-FM (88.1) ... the University of Georgia rounds out the four-team tourney, but the Falcons will not face the Bulldogs, as the tournament's matchups are predetermined.
EKU COMFORT SUITES CLASSIC Mon., Dec. 29: Georgia vs. Morehead State, 4:00 BGSU at Eastern Kentucky, 6:00Tue., Dec. 30: BGSU vs. Morehead State, 4:00 Georgia at Eastern Kentucky, 6:00
Following the tournament, the Falcons will open 2004 and close the non-conference schedule with a Saturday (Jan. 3) game against Cleveland State University ... that contest, the first half of a Falcon hoops doubleheader, will begin at 1:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena (4,700).
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU enters McBrayer Arena with a record of 4-4 on the young season ... the Falcons are looking to snap a two-game losing streak.
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) before dropping games to Oakland (70-63; Dec. 13) and IUPUI (89-74; Dec. 22).
Senior Stefanie Wenzel leads the team with 14.5 points per game, and is averaging 4.1 rebounds per contest ... three freshmen are ranked among the team's top-five in scoring ... Ali Mann has 12.0 points and a team-high 8.3 rebounds per contest, and has three double-doubles on the year ... senior Lindsay Austin has 10.5 points, 5.1 rebounds and a team-leading 5.4 assists per contest ... freshman Megan Thorburn has 9.9 points and 3.9 boards, while classmate Liz Honegger has 9.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and leads BGSU with 10 blocked shots (1.3 bpg) ... junior Kelly Kapferer and sophomore Casey McDowell average 5.6 and 4.6 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 eight games ... Honegger has started at center in each of the last seven games.
The Falcons are shooting .424 from the field this season, including a .409 rate from three-point land, and BGSU has a .738 free-throw conversion percentage ... the opponents have shot .402 from the floor, .331 from the arc and .690 from the line to date.
BG is 2-1 at home, 1-3 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 EASTERN KENTUCKY
Eastern Kentucky enters Monday's game with a 4-4 record, and the Lady Colonels have won the last two games ... after playing the first seven games away from home this season, EKU picked up a win over Western Carolina, 93-71, at home on Dec. 17 ... individually, senior guard Katie Kelly leads the team with 18.9 points per game, while junior F/C Miranda Eckerle has 9.6 points and a team-high 6.0 rebounds per game ... both sophomore guard Laura Shelton and senior F/C Leigh Carr average 9.3 points per outing ... junior forward Candis Cook (5.8 ppg, 3.6 apg) and junior forward Pam Garrett (5.3 ppg, 5.3 rpg) join Eckerle, Kelly and Shelton in the probable starting lineup for head coach Larry Joe Inman ... Inman welcomed back 10 letterwinners, including four starters, from last year's team that went 18-11 overall and 10-6 in the Ohio Valley Conference ... Inman has a record of 252-173 in his 16th year with the Lady Colonels ... he is 413-246 in his 24th year as a collegiate head coach ... EKU's athletics web site is www.ekusports.com.
THE BGSU-EKU SERIES
The Falcons trail Eastern Kentucky, 4-1, in the all-time series between the teams ... the Lady Colonels have won both prior meetings in Richmond, including an 89-61 decision three years ago (Nov. 21, 2000) ... the most recent meeting between the teams was an 83-63 EKU win at Anderson Arena in November of 2001 ... BGSU's lone win came in the 1988-89 season.
SCOUTING MOREHEAD STATE
Morehead State will take a 3-4 record into Monday's game vs. Georgia ... in the team's most recent action, the Lady Eagles lost at Wright State (94-74; Dec. 21) to snap a two-game winning streak ... MSU has faced two Mid-American Conference teams to date, suffering losses to Ohio (74-69; Dec. 2) and Marshall (84-61; Dec. 5) ... senior guard Kandi Brown has a team-high 14.4 points per game, while freshman guard Megen Gearhart has 13.3 points and team-high totals of 2.9 assists and 1.7 steals per game ... senior forward DeVonda Williams has 9.6 points and leads MSU with 9.1 rebounds ... senior guard Haley Gilmore has 7.0 points per game off the bench, while junior center Shelly Johnson has 6.3 points and 6.1 boards ... Brown, Gearhart, Shelly Johnson and Williams each have started all seven games, while sophomore guard TaNeisha Johnson (3.4 ppg) has been in the starting lineup in each of the last three games ... head coach Laura L. Litter returned six letterwinners, including two starters, from last year's squad that finished 16-12 overall and 9-7 in the OVC ... Litter has a collegiate head-coaching record of 64-108 in her seventh year, all at MSU ... the school's athletics web site is www.msueagles.com.
THE BGSU-MSU SERIES
The Falcons lead Morehead State, 3-2, in the all-time series between the teams ... BGSU has a three-game winning streak in the series, and the teams will be meeting on a neutral floor for the second time ... in the lone meeting in the last 15 years, the Falcons picked up an 88-76 win over the Lady Eagles in Bozeman, Montana, at Montana State's GranTree Inn Classic (Nov. 27, 1999) ... only one of the five meetings has been closer than 12 points.
WELCOME TO KENTUCKY
Falcon head coach Curt Miller, in his 14th season of collegiate coaching, has never coached a game in the state of Kentucky.
WELCOME BACK TO KENTUCKY
While Miller will make his Kentucky coaching debut, one member of his staff is quite familiar with the state ... assistant coach Jennifer Roos is a native of Louisville, Ky.
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 (through Dec. 26) ... Ali Mann is 17th in scoring (12.0 ppg) and ranks sixth in rebounding (8.3 rpg) ... Megan Thorburn has moved into a tie for 27th in scoring (9.9), while Liz Honegger is 15th in rebounding (6.2).
BOARDWORK
The Falcons' total of 52 rebounds in the IUPUI game was the team's most in over three years, since the Brown and Orange had 55 boards in a win over Charleston Southern on Nov. 24, 2000 (ironically, that CSU game came at a tournament at Auburn, where IUPUI rounded out the tourney field) ... BGSU's 27 offensive rebounds vs. the Jaguars was the team's highest total since the Falcons also grabbed 27 offensive boards vs. Wright State two years ago (Dec. 15, 2001) ... the Falcons last outrebounded an opponent by 17 on Dec. 22, 2002, when BGSU pulled down 51 rebounds to Savannah State's 34 ... the last time BGSU had an advantage greater than 17 boards was on Feb. 27, 1998 (43-23 advantage in a win over Central Michigan).
BOARDWORK II
The Falcons had more rebounds than their opponents on only four occasions during all of last season ... this year, BGSU is 5-2-1 in that category (having held the rebounding advantage five times, with a draw in another contest) ... the Falcons are outrebounding the opponents by a margin of 2.5 boards per game.
TAKE SOME, THEY'RE FREE
The Falcons' total of 26 free throws made at IUPUI was the most since a Dec. 2, 2000, game vs. Detroit (26 FTM in that game), while the 36 attempts was the highest total since the aforementioned Wright State game (Dec. 15, 2001; also had 36 FTA) ... BGSU had not had higher totals in each category since a Nov. 18, 2000, win over Youngstown State (35 free throws made, 43 attempted).
