Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host IPFW Saturday At 3:30
December 05, 2003 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 5, 2003
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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BOWLING GREEN (3-2)
vs.
IPFW (1-5)
Game #6
Sat., Dec. 6, 2003
3:30 p.m.
Anderson Arena (4,700)
Bowling Green, Ohio
Radio: WBGU-FM (88.1)
Series: BGSU Leads, 2-0
Last Meeting: BGSU 76, at IPFW 58 (Dec. 11, 2002)
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after scoring 100 points for the first time in nearly five years, returns home for a Saturday afternoon contest (Dec. 6) ... the Falcons of third-year head coach Curt Miller will face IPFW, with tipoff scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena (4,700) ... the game is the second half of a Falcon basketball doubleheader, as the BGSU men play Northwestern at 1:00 p.m.
Following the IPFW game, the Falcons will host Oakland University on Saturday, Dec. 13, with that game scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. at Anderson.
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 home opener vs. Detroit (Nov. 25) and the two games at the Flint Hills Resources Islander Classic (Nov. 28-29) ... 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.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU checks into the IPFW game with a record of 3-2 on the young season ... the Falcons are coming off a 23-point road win at Bucknell Wednesday (Dec. 3), a game in which the Brown and Orange racked up 100 points.
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 on Nov. 25 ... the Brown and Orange split a pair of games in the Islander Classic last weekend, downing Southeast Missouri State, 70-60 (Nov. 28), but falling to host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 68-59, in the championship (Nov. 29).
Senior Stefanie Wenzel leads the team with 14.6 points per game, and is averaging 4.6 rebounds after recording a double-double at Bucknell ... three freshmen are ranked second through fourth in scoring ... Megan Thorburn has 11.2 points per contest, while Ali Mann averages 10.4 points and a team-high 7.6 rebounds ... Liz Honegger has 10.0 points and 5.2 rebounds, and leads BG with five blocked shots (1.3 bpg) ... the team's fifth starter, senior point guard Lindsay Austin, has 9.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 6.8 assists per contest, after a monster game at Bucknell ... sophomore Casey McDowell and junior Kelly Kapferer each scored in double digits vs. the Bison, and now average 6.4 and 4.0 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 return six letterwinners from that team, including a pair of starters in seniors Austin and Wenzel ... in addition, the Falcons also welcome 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, but five of the other six frosh have seen action in all five games to date (Gompers has played in three games).
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 five games ... Honegger has started at center in each of the last four games.
BG is 1-0 at home, 1-2 on the road and 1-0 in neutral-site games to date ... 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 IPFW
IPFW enters Saturday's game with a 1-5 record, but the Mastodons won the last time out ... IPFW rallied from an 18-point deficit for a 55-54 road win at Akron Tuesday (Dec. 2) ... the 'Dons have also played Kentucky, Louisville, Ball State, Arkansas-Little Rock and Stony Brook this season to date ... individually, senior forward Amy Gearlds leads the team with 14.7 points, while junior center Verea Bibbs has 12.0 points and a team-high 10.0 rebounds ... Bibbs had a whopping 23 boards in the UALR game ... junior guard Courtney Nicley has 11.5 points and 2.0 assists, tying Gearlds and senior guard Maggie Bruening for the team lead in the latter category ... sophomore guard Jenny Green (4.0 ppg) and sophomore forward Geneva Murdock (4.2 ppg) join Bruening, Gearlds and Nicley in the probable starting lineup for head coach Bruce Patterson ... Patterson welcomed back 11 letterwinners, including four starters, from last year's team that finished with a 9-19 mark ... Patterson has a record of 14-47 in his third season with the Mastodons ... he is 260-148 in his 13th season as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is www.ipfw.edu/athletics.
THE BGSU-IPFW SERIES
The Falcons lead IPFW, 2-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... the teams are meeting for the third consecutive year ... two years ago (Nov. 29, 2001), the Brown and Orange recorded a 73-57 win in the lone prior meeting at Anderson ... last season (Dec. 11, 2002), BGSU went to Fort Wayne and came away with a 76-58 victory.
LAST TIME OUT
The Falcon hit the century mark for the first time in nearly five years, scoring early and often in a 100-77 win at Bucknell Wednesday night (Dec. 3) at Sojka Pavilion ... senior Lindsay Austin had a career night to pace five double-digit scorers for the Falcons, as both BG seniors -- Austin and Stefanie Wenzel -- had double-doubles ... Austin had 21 points and 15 assists, posting career-high totals in both categories ... her assist total was just three shy of the school record ... Wenzel had 16 points, going 4-of-6 from three-point land, and a team-high 10 rebounds ... sophomore Casey McDowell had 19 points off the bench, while freshman Liz Honegger and junior Kelly Kapferer had 15 and 12 points, respectively ... the Falcons shot over 50 percent in both halves, finishing with a .565 field-goal percentage for the game ... BGSU made 12-of-22 three-point attempts (.545), but also outscored the hosts, 42-26, in the paint ... BG's balanced attack overcame a herculean effort by Bucknell's Desire Almind ... Almind scored a career-high 33 points on 14-of-16 shooting, and pulled down a game-high 16 boards ... for the complete game story, log on to www.bgsufalcons.com.
BG HITS CENTURY MARK FOR FIRST TIME THIS CENTURY
In the Bucknell game, the Falcons reached the 100-point mark for the first time in nearly five years ...
AUSTIN IS AWESOME AT BUCKNELL
Senior Lindsay Austin recorded career highs in both scoring (21) and assists (15) in the win at Bucknell ... her previous scoring best was 20 points, set in last year's game vs. IPFW ... Austin easily surpassed her previous career-high total of 10 assists (Jan. 8, 2003, vs. Ohio) ... her assist total at Bucknell fell just three shy of the BGSU record, set by Dee Knoblauch (18 vs. Central Michigan) on Feb. 2, 1983 ... Austin had tied her previous career-high assist total by halftime, with 10 helpers in the first 20 minutes at Bucknell ... in the game, Austin had her 15 assists and just one turnover in her 37 minutes of action.
THAT'S A FIRST
According to the Bucknell web site, BGSU became the first visiting women's basketball team ever to score 100 points in a game in Lewisburg.
KAPFERER KONNECTS
Junior Kelly Kapferer had had a somewhat slow start to the season, with a total of eight points over the first four games ... but, Kapferer had a fast start, to say the least, in the Bucknell game ... she came off the bench exactly six minutes into the game, and had scored 10 points before the next media timeout ... in fact, Kapferer went 5-for-5 from the field in a span of 3:36, with the last three baskets coming in a 53-second stretch ... for the game, Kapferer had 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the floor.
HONEGGER, McDOWELL COME UP BIG
Freshman Liz Honegger and sophomore Casey McDowell had the top games of their brief BGSU careers in the Bucknell contest ... Honegger scored 15 points, a season high, and just missed a double-double with a season-best nine rebounds ... the center also had three assists, two steals and two blocks ... McDowell also had the finest game of her young Falcon career ... the Indiana State transfer had 19 points in 26 minutes off the bench ... McDowell went 4-of-8 from three-point range and added three steals in the win.
DOUBLE DOUBLE-DOUBLES
The Bucknell game marked the second time this season that a pair of Falcons posted double-doubles in the same contest ... senior Lindsay Austin exploded for 21 points and 15 assists, both career highs, in the victory, while classmate Stefanie Wenzel had 16 points and a team-high 10 rebounds vs. the Bison ... in the home-opening win over Detroit (Nov. 25), Austin had 10 points and 10 rebounds, while freshman Ali Mann scored 13 points and pulled down a game-high 11 boards ... the Falcons have had five double-doubles this year to date, after recording a total of four double-doubles during all of last season.
DOUBLE DOUBLE-DOUBLES, TAKE TWO
As mentioned, the Falcons now have had two games in which two players each had double-doubles ... prior to the Detroit game, the last time two Falcons had double-doubles in the same game came on Feb. 23, 2002, when Dana Western and Stefanie Wenzel each turned the trick vs. Eastern Michigan.
THREE FRESHMEN IN STARTING LINEUP
The Falcons have had three freshmen -- Liz Honegger, Ali Mann and Megan Thorburn -- in the starting lineup in each of the last four games ... early BGSU women's basketball records are somewhat sketchy, but it is the first time in at least two decades that three frosh were in the same starting lineup ... prior to Tuesday's (Nov. 25) game vs. Detroit, the 1979-80 season would have been the last time three starters possibly could have been in the same starting lineup for BGSU.
Prior to the season-opening game at Youngstown (when both Mann and Thorburn started), the BGSU starting lineup had not featured two freshmen in nearly three years ... then-frosh Lindsay Austin and Kelly Kapferer each started a Jan. 22, 2001 game at Kent.
THE FRESHMAN IMPACT
The Falcon freshmen combined to score a total of 'only' 26 points against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and 32 at Bucknell, after scoring at least 43 points in each of the first three contests ... BGSU's frosh had combined for 45 points vs. Southeast Missouri State, 44 vs. Detroit and 43 at Youngstown State ... BG freshmen are averaging 38.0 points per game ... three of BGSU's top-four scorers are frosh.
BOARDWORK
The Falcons, who had more rebounds than their opponents on only four occasions during all of last season, held a rebounding advantage in three of this season's first four games before tying Bucknell, 37-37, in that category ... the Falcons held a 37-32 advantage in rebounding at Youngstown State ... BGSU had a total of 21 offensive rebounds vs. the Penguins, the team's most in nearly two years (since BG pulled down 27 offensive boards vs. Wright State on Dec. 15, 2001).
Then, BGSU pulled down 46 caroms to Detroit's 33 in the home opener ... and, the Falcons held a 41-38 edge over Southeast Missouri State ... on the year, BG has a rebounding margin of +1.4.
FIVE IN DOUBLE DIGITS
For the second time this season, a total of five BGSU players hit double digits in scoring in the same game ... the Falcons have turned the trick in wins over Detroit and Bucknell ... vs. UDM, senior Stefanie Wenzel led the Falcons' balanced attack with 14 points, while freshman Ali Mann had 13 ... senior Lindsay Austin and frosh Liz Honegger and Carin Horne had 10 points apiece ... at Bucknell, Austin led the way with 21 markers, followed by sophomore Casey McDowell's 19 off the bench ... Wenzel had 16 points, Honegger 15 and junior Kelly Kapferer 12 vs. the Bison ... the Brown and Orange had five players in double digits in just one game last season, a 90-85 home loss to Ball State (Feb. 19, 2003).
SENIORS LEAD THE WAY
A pair of senior co-captains, Lindsay Austin and Stefanie Wenzel, lead the youthful Falcons in 2003-04 ... and, the two certainly led the way in the win at Bucknell ... each player recorded a double-double in the win, and the two combined for 37 points, 12 rebounds and 19 assists ... Austin, in her fourth season, already has made 84 career starts in the Brown and Orange ... she has 371 assists, good for fifth place on the BGSU career list ... Wenzel burst onto the scene as a sophomore, leading the MAC in scoring increase (she went from 2.3 points per game as a freshman to 11.6 ppg the following year) ... Wenzel is the lone Falcon to average double digits in scoring in each of the last two seasons ... Austin and Wenzel lead the active Falcons with 735 and 716 career points, respectively.
HOT SHOOTING
BGSU shot a season-high .565 for the game in the win at Bucknell, after shooting .552 vs. Detroit eight days earlier ... the Falcons shot over .500 only once last season, a .571 percentage in a 50-point win over Savannah State (Dec. 22, 2002).
HOT SHOOTING II
The Falcons shot .609 from the field in the first half of the win over UDM, making 14 of 23 attempts from the floor ... the effort marked the team's best field-goal percentage in a half since Feb. 23, 2002, against Eastern Michigan ... in that game, BGSU shot .630 (17-of-27) from the field in the first half, en route to a 78-62 win over the Eagles ... in the Bucknell contest, the Falcons shot over .500 in each half ... the Falcons have shot .500 or better in four halves this season, after doing so in seven halves during all of last season.
