Bowling Green State University Athletics
BG-UT: Round One Set For Wednesday
January 20, 2004 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 20, 2004
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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Miller and Wenzel Quotes
BOWLING GREEN (10-5, 3-1)
at
TOLEDO (7-8, 3-1)
Game #16
Wed., Jan. 21, 2004
7:00 p.m.
John F. Savage Hall (9,000)
Toledo, Ohio
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1)
Series: BGSU Leads, 29-25
Last Meeting: at BGSU 66, Toledo 62 (Feb. 8, 2003)
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, winners of three consecutive games and six of the last seven contests, begins a tough two-game Mid-American Conference road swing this week ... the Falcons of third-year head coach Curt Miller will face the arch-rival University of Toledo in Wednesday (Jan. 21) action, with starting time set for 7:00 p.m. at John F. Savage Hall (9,000) ... the game will be broadcast on student station WBGU-FM (88.1).
Following the UT game, the Falcons will make another short trip north for a contest vs. Eastern Michigan University on Tuesday, Jan. 27 ... that game will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the Convocation Center (8,824) ... BGSU's next home game is Saturday, Jan. 31, vs. the University at Buffalo.
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 15 contests ... the Falcons have outboarded the opponent 10 times, battling to a draw in two other games ... BG has a +3.7 rebounding margin this season, and a +5.5 margin in MAC games to date.
BOARDWORK PAYING OFF, PART II
BGSU, as mentioned, has had more rebounds than the opposition 10 times in 15 games in 2003-04, and the Falcons are now 8-2 in such contests ... 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).
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU enters the Central Michigan game with a record of 10-5 on the season, and the Falcons have won three consecutive games, tying a season best ... the Falcons are 3-1 in MAC play after a pair of home wins last week ... after Wednesday's (Jan. 14) 37-point win over Akron, 85-48, BG came from behind to pick up a 68-60 win over Central Michigan Saturday (Jan. 17) ... the Falcons have won six of the last seven games ... BGSU 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 4.5 rebounds per contest ... four freshmen are ranked among the top-six in the Falcons' balanced scoring attack ... freshman Ali Mann has 11.3 points and 7.3 rebounds to rank second on the team in both categories ... Mann has three double-doubles on the year, and had a season-best 24 points in Saturday's win over CMU ... another frosh, Liz Honegger, has 11.0 points and a team-high 7.7 boards per game ... Honegger leads the Falcons with 1.9 blocked shots per game ... senior Lindsay Austin leads the Falcons with four double-doubles, and has 10.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and team-leading totals of 5.9 assists and 2.5 steals per contest ... freshman Megan Thorburn has 9.2 points and 3.8 caroms on the year, while classmate Carin Horne is averaging 5.5 points off the bench ... junior Kelly Kapferer and sophomore Casey McDowell average 4.1 and 3.5 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 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 15 games ... Honegger has started each of the last 14 contests.
The Falcons are shooting .415 from the field this season, including a .355 rate from three-point land, and BGSU has a .742 free-throw conversion percentage ... the opponents have shot .388 from the floor, .330 from the arc and .667 from the line to date.
BG is 5-2 at home, 3-3 in road games and 2-0 in neutral-site contests this year ... in league play, the Falcons are 2-1 at Anderson Arena and 1-0 away from home ... 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 in 2002-03.
SCOUTING TOLEDO
Toledo enters the BGSU game with an overall record of 7-8, and the Rockets are 3-1 in the MAC ... UT fell from the ranks of the league's unbeaten with a 69-56 loss at Kent State Saturday ... that loss broke a three-game winning streak, after the Rockets had lost five games to close the non-league schedule ... UT is 3-0 against the MAC West Division to date, with wins over Central Michigan, Ball State and Eastern Michigan ... individually, junior center Karin Hoogendam leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, with 11.7 points and 7.3 boards ... senior guard Kelly Walker has 11.1 points and a team-high 34 three-point field goals on the year, while freshman guard Danielle Bishop is averaging 8.7 points per contest ... senior guard Mary Blessing has 8.0 points and a UT-high 3.7 assists, while the fifth probable starter, senior forward Julie Hillis, has 7.0 points and 5.5 rebounds per outing ... head coach Mark Ehlen welcomed back eight letterwinners, including three starters, from last year's team that went 20-10 overall and 12-4 in MAC action, tying for the West Division title ... Ehlen has a record of 184-73 in his ninth season in the Glass City ... he is 306-203 in his 18th season as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is www.utrockets.com.
THE BGSU-TOLEDO SERIES
The Falcons lead Toledo, 29-25, in the all-time series between the teams, but the Rockets hold a 15-9 advantage in home games vs. BGSU ... last year, the teams split their two meetings, with the home team winning each time ... host UT won a 70-62 decision at Savage Hall just over a year ago (Jan. 15, 2003), while the Falcons picked up a 66-62 win at Anderson Arena in the rematch (Feb. 8, 2003) ... Toledo has won three of the last four games and eight of the last 10 meetings, and the Rockets hold a four-game home win streak since BG's last victory at Savage (85-80; Jan. 8, 1998) ... three of the last five series contests, including both of last year's games, have been decided by single digits.
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 Jan. 10 ... Buffalo has a narrow 5-4 lead in that series.
LAST TIME OUT
The Falcons rallied from a second-half, double-digit deficit to record a 68-60 win over Central Michigan Saturday afternoon (Jan. 17) at Anderson Arena ... BGSU scored the game's last nine points, holding Central scoreless over the final 2:33 ... the BGSU seniors, Lindsay Austin and Stefanie Wenzel, each hit key shots in the late going ... BG freshman Ali Mann led all players with a game- and career-high 24 points, going 7-of-10 from the field, while Austin and Wenzel each had 14 ... Ann Skufca was CMU's lone double-digit scorer, with 19 ... the Falcons held a 34-31 rebounding margin, including a 17-10 advantage in the second half ... BGSU shot .550 from the field in the second stanza en route to .420 for the game, while CMU shot .411 from the floor ... the Brown and Orange shot .957 from the line (22-for-23) while CMU was 8-for-12 from the stripe.
A SCHOOL RECORD (SORT OF)
BGSU made 22-of-23 free throws in the Central Michigan game ... the .957 free-throw percentage tied a school record, for games in which BG had more than 12 attempts ... BGSU has had numerous perfect free-throw percentages over the years, but never when attempting more than 12 ... BGSU also went 22-of-23 in a Feb., 2000, win over Akron, and the Falcons were 12-for-12 on two occasions against Northern Illinois ... Saturday vs. CMU, the Falcons made the first 20 free-throw attempts of the day, before a miss with 27 seconds left ... freshman Ali Mann went 9-of-10 from the line, while seniors Stefanie Wenzel (six attempts) and Lindsay Austin (five) and senior Megan Thorburn (two) were perfect from the stripe.
BLOCK PARTY VS. THE CHIPPEWAS
Saturday, during the Falcons' 6-0 run that tied the game at 54, BGSU blocked shots on three consecutive CMU possessions ... freshman Megan Thorburn blocked a Tiffany Douglas jumper with 5:47 left, leading to her own layup off senior Lindsay Austin's behind-the-back assist ... then, freshman Ali Mann blocked a Sharonda Hurd shot ... BG turned the ball over, but Thorburn thwarted a Morgan Wills shot with 4:37 remaining ... the Falcons had seven blocks in the game, with Thorburn, Mann and fellow freshman Liz Honegger recording two apiece.
MANN, OH MANN: ALI HAS CAREER-HIGH 24 VS. CENTRAL
Freshman Ali Mann played a big part in the Falcons' two home wins last week ... on Wednesday (Jan. 14), Mann tied for game honors with 15 points in the win over Akron ... three days later, Mann had a career-high 24 points, going 7-of-10 from the field and 9-of-10 from the line, in the win over CMU ... she averaged 19.5 points and 5.0 rebounds on the week, shooting .619 from the floor (including a 3-of-4 effort from three-point land) and .714 from the stripe ... in addition to points, Mann also set career bests with two blocked shots and 38 minutes played vs. the Chippewas.
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.
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 71 games of the Curt Miller Era, BGSU has held the opponent below 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.
THE FRESHMAN IMPACT
The Falcon freshmen combined to score a season-high 55 points against Akron, and -- as a group -- are averaging 38.7 points per game to date ... BGSU's frosh scored at least 43 points in each of the first three contests, and combined for 47 points vs. Cleveland State and 49 vs. Ball State ... the freshmen have scored 52.4 percent of the Falcons' points this year ... four of BGSU's top-six scorers are frosh.
