Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host Chippewas Saturday
January 16, 2004 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 16, 2004
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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BOWLING GREEN (9-5, 2-1)
vs.
CENTRAL MICHIGAN (4-10, 0-3)
Game #15Sat., Jan. 17, 2004
1:00 p.m.
Anderson Arena (4,700)
Bowling Green, Ohio
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1)
Series: BGSU Leads, 33-12
Last Meeting: at Central Michigan 42, BGSU 30 (Feb. 5, 2003)
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, having won five of the last six games, completes a two-game Mid-American Conference homestand Saturday (Jan. 17) ... the Falcons of third-year head coach Curt Miller will face Central Michigan University in a 1:00 p.m. game at venerable Anderson Arena (4,700) ... the game will be broadcast on student station WBGU-FM (88.1).
Following the CMU game, the Falcons will begin a tough two-game road trip with a Wednesday (Jan. 21) contest vs. the arch-rival University of Toledo ... that game will begin at 7:00 p.m. at UT's John F. Savage Hall (9,000) ... BGSU then plays at Eastern Michigan University on Jan. 27, before returning home for a Jan. 31 game vs. the University at Buffalo.
BGSU BESTS AKRON IN BATTLE OF THE BOARDS
BGSU pulled down a total of 52 rebounds, tying the team's season high, in Wednesday's (Jan. 14) 85-48 win over Akron ... the Falcons also had 52 boards at IUPUI ... in the UA game, BG's rebounding margin of +22 was the team's largest in the Curt Miller Era ... in fact, it marked the Falcons' biggest margin in almost seven years, since a March 4, 1997, game vs. Ball State ... in that game, an 81-76 MAC Tournament Quarterfinal win at Anderson, BGSU held a 53-31 edge in rebounding ... the Brown and Orange had outrebounded BSU by 25, 47-22, in the teams' regular-season meeting at Anderson that year (Feb. 5, 1997), an 82-69 BGSU victory.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU enters the Central Michigan game with a record of 9-5 on the season ... the Falcons are 2-1 in MAC play after Wednesday's (Jan. 14) 37-point win over Akron, 85-48 ... BG opened the league schedule with a 72-70 home loss to Ball State (Jan. 7), snapping a season-best three-game winning streak, but the Falcons bounced back with a 66-58 road win over Northern Illinois three days later.
Senior Stefanie Wenzel leads the Falcons with 14.4 points per game, and is averaging 4.4 rebounds per contest ... four freshmen are ranked among the top-six in the Falcons' balanced scoring attack ... freshman Liz Honegger has 11.4 points to rank second, and has assumed the rebounding lead, with 7.8 boards per game ... Honegger leads the Falcons with 1.9 blocked shots per game ... another frosh, Ali Mann, has 10.4 points and 7.4 rebounds per game, and has three double-doubles on the year ... senior Lindsay Austin leads the Falcons with four double-doubles, and has 10.3 points, 5.5 rebounds and a team-leading 6.0 assists per contest ... freshman Megan Thorburn has 9.6 points and 3.9 caroms on the year, while classmate Carin Horne is averaging 5.8 points ... junior Kelly Kapferer and sophomore Casey McDowell average 4.4 and 3.5 points off the bench, 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 had nine 'newcomers' when practice commenced in October, 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.), Horne (Lima, Ohio), Mann (Chelsea, Mich.), Kim Nowakowski (Butler, Pa.) and Thorburn (Mason, Mich.) ... Nowakowski has been sidelined due to injury, and will redshirt the 2003-04 season.
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 14 games ... Honegger has started each of the last 13 contests.
The Falcons are shooting .414 from the field this season, including a .356 rate from three-point land, and BGSU has a .725 free-throw conversion percentage ... the opponents have shot .387 from the floor, .335 from the arc and .667 from the line to date.
BG is 4-2 at home, 3-3 in road games and 2-0 in neutral-site contests 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 CENTRAL MICHIGAN
Central Michigan enters the BGSU game with an overall record of 4-10, and the Chippewas are 0-3 in the MAC after Wednesday's 74-59 loss to visiting Northern Illinois ... CMU has also played Toledo and Eastern Michigan in conference play to date ... individually, sophomore guard Casey Manning leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, with 10.9 points and 6.1 boards ... a pair of sophomore forwards, Lindsay Mecoli and Chasidy Myers, are averaging 10.5 and 8.5 points, respectively, although Myers has missed the last six games due to injury ... still another soph, guard Erin Kuhl, has 7.4 points and a team-high 2.9 assists per game ... junior guard Lindy Hatfield (6.5 ppg) and senior center Amanda Elwer (5.4 ppg) join Kuhl, Manning and Mecoli in the Chippewas' probable starting lineup ... head coach Eileen Kleinfelter welcomed back eight letterwinners, including three starters, from last year's team that went 11-17 overall and 5-11 in MAC action ... Kleinfelter has a record of 25-45 in her third season in Mt. Pleasant ... she is 247-126 in her 13th season as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is www.cmuchippewas.com.
THE BGSU-CMU SERIES
The Falcons lead Central Michigan, 33-12, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU is 17-4 in home games vs. the Chippewas ... CMU has won two of the last three meetings, after BG had taken the previous five games ... the Falcons have won the last six home games vs. Central, since a 60-58 CMU win on Feb. 8, 1995 ... last year, the teams split their two games, with the Falcons capturing a 63-45 decision at Anderson (Jan. 18, 2003), and the Chippewas holding BG to a school record-low scoring total in a 42-30 CMU triumph in Mt. Pleasant (Feb. 5, 2003) ... none of the last five games, and only one of the last 12 meetings, has been decided by fewer than nine points.
MAC SERIES INFORMATION
The Falcons lead the all-time series with 10 of the 12 MAC opponents, and trail the other two series by the slimmest of margins ... Northern Illinois holds an 11-10 series advantage over BGSU, after the Falcons' win on Saturday (Jan. 10) ... Buffalo has a narrow 5-4 lead in that series.
LAST TIME OUT
The Falcons got offensive Wednesday night (Jan. 14), posting an 85-48 win over Akron at Anderson Arena ... a pair of freshmen, Liz Honegger and Megan Thorburn, had double-doubles in the win ... Honegger tied for team honors with 15 points, and grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds ... Thorburn had 14 points and a season-high 10 boards ... two other Falcon starters were in double digits in the scoring column, as freshman Ali Mann tied Honegger with 15 points and senior Stefanie Wenzel added 12 ... Lori Krezeczowski was the lone UA player in double digits, with 14 points ... the Brown and Orange had a 52-30 rebounding advantage in the win, with BGSU players grabbing 22 offensive boards.
HONEGGER HITS THE BOARDS
BGSU freshman Liz Honegger had a game-high 13 rebounds in the Falcons' 85-48 win over Akron Wednesday (Jan. 14), four days after she had led all players with 17 boards in the win at Northern Illinois ... Honegger's total at NIU the highest by a BGSU player in nearly eight years, since Charlotta Jones had 22 in a Falcon win over Miami on Jan. 31, 1996 ... simple arithmetic shows that Honegger has 30 rebounds in the last two games ... on the season, she is averaging a team-high 7.8 boards per game, including 11.0 per game in the three MAC contests ... a pair of freshmen, Honegger and Ali Mann, rank among the MAC's rebounding leaders ... Honegger is eighth, while Mann has 7.4 caroms per game to rank 14th ... Honegger is the league's second-leading rebounder in conference contests.
STILL UNBEATEN AT HOME VS. UA
Following Wednesday's 37-point win, the Falcons remain undefeated in home games against Akron ... BG now holds a 17-0 advantage in Anderson Arena vs. the Zips, and the Falcons hold an overall 32-2 lead in the series.
FALCONS DO IT WITH DEFENSE, TOO
Akron's totals of 48 points, 18 field goals made and 30 rebounds were season lows for a BGSU opponent ... UA's field-goal percentage of .310 was the second-lowest against the Falcons this year ... Detroit shot .309 in a 77-53 BG win on Nov. 25.
BGSU'S BOARDWORK PAYING OFF
Last year, the Falcons held a rebounding advantage just four times in 28 games ... in 2003-04, BG has BEEN outrebounded only three times in 14 contests ... the Falcons have outboarded the opponent nine times, battling to a draw in two other games ... BG has a +3.7 rebounding margin this season.
ANOTHER REBOUNDING NOTE
The Falcons are 7-2 when outrebounding the opponent this season ... BGSU, as mentioned, has had more rebounds than the opposition nine times in 14 games in 2003-04 ... the Brown and Orange held the rebounding advantage only nine times (in 56 games) over the previous two years, also going 7-2 in such games (4-0 in 2002-03, 3-2 in 2001-02).
TAKING CARE OF THE BALL
The Falcons had just one turnover during the entire first half in building an early lead at Northern Illinois Saturday (Jan. 10) ... similarly, BGSU had another solid start to Wednesday's (Jan. 14) Akron game ... the Falcons did not have a turnover for the first 11:26 ... BG's first turnover came when a three-second violation was called in the paint ... the second turnover, at the 6:24 mark, came when freshman Megan Thorburn grabbed a rebound, but was tied up for a jump ball (with the alternate possession going to the Zips) ... by that time, however, the Falcons had a 28-12 lead en route to a 23-point halftime margin.
HOLDING THEM UNDER 60
The Falcons allowed NIU to score only 58 points in Saturday's (Jan. 10) win, then limited Akron to just 48 points, a season-low total for a BG opponent, in Wednesday's (Jan. 14) win ... in the first 70 games of the Curt Miller Era, BGSU has held the opponent under 60 points on 18 occasions ... prior to Miller's arrival, the Falcons had held foes to less than 60 points in only eight games over the previous four seasons combined ... BG had won 93 consecutive games over an 18-year span (including a perfect 46-0 in the decade of the 1990s) when holding the opposition to less than 60 points, but that streak came to an end on Dec. 27, 2001, and BG lost three of the next five such games ... in the history of the program, the Falcons now have a record of 179-14 when holding the opponent to less than 60 points ... nine of those 14 losses came prior to the 1980-81 season ... BG is 125-5 (.962) in such games over the last 22-plus seasons ... one of those five losses came last year (5-1), and three more the previous season (4-3) ... the Falcons are 5-0 this year when holding the opponent under 60 points.
DOUBLE DOUBLE-DOUBLES
The Akron game marked the fourth time this season that a pair of Falcons posted double-doubles in the same contest ... freshman Liz Honegger had 15 points and a game-high 13 boards, while classmate Megan Thorburn (14 points, 10 rebounds) had her first collegiate double-double ... in the Eastern Kentucky contest (Dec. 29), Honegger had 24 points and 10 rebounds, while senior Lindsay Austin scored 10 points and grabbed 11 boards ... at Bucknell (Dec. 3), Austin exploded for 21 points and 15 assists, both career highs, while classmate Stefanie Wenzel had 16 points and a team-high 10 rebounds vs. the Bison ... Austin had 10 points and 10 rebounds vs. Detroit (Nov. 25), while freshman Ali Mann scored 13 points and pulled down a game-high 11 boards ... prior to the UDM game, the last time two Falcons had double-doubles in the same game came on Feb. 23, 2002 (Wenzel and Dana Western vs. Eastern Michigan).
