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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host Buffalo Saturday To Close January Slate
January 30, 2004 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 30, 2004
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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BOWLING GREEN (11-6, 4-2)
vs.
BUFFALO (4-12, 2-4)
Game #18Sat., Jan. 31, 2004
1:00 p.m.
Anderson Arena (4,700)
Bowling Green, Ohio
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1)
Series: Buffalo Leads, 5-4
Last Meeting: at Buffalo 72, BGSU 60 (Feb. 12, 2003)
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after a narrow road loss, returns home for a Saturday (Jan. 31) matinee ... the Falcons of third-year head coach Curt Miller will face the University at Buffalo, with starting time set for 1:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena (4,700) ... the game, which will be broadcast on student station WBGU-FM (88.1), is the first half of a hoops doubleheader ... following the women's game, the Falcon men will take on Marshall University at 3:30 p.m.
Following the UB game, the Falcons will return to the road for a Tuesday (Feb. 3) game vs. East Division-leading Miami University ... tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at MU's Millett Hall (9,200).
SO CLOSE...
The Falcons' 61-59 loss at Eastern Michigan Tuesday (Jan. 27) snapped a season-long four-game winning streak ... despite the setback, BGSU still has won seven of nine games since the Christmas holiday ... the two losses during that time each were two-point, last-minute setbacks, to EMU and Ball State (72-70; Jan. 7) ... five of the Falcons' six MAC games have been decided by eight points or fewer.
DOUBLY GOOD
Freshman Ali Mann had a double-double, with game-high totals of 22 points and 10 rebounds, at Eastern Michigan ... both Mann and senior Lindsay Austin each have four double-doubles this year, and BGSU players have totalled 12 double-doubles on the season ... last year, Falcon players had a season total of four double-doubles.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU enters the Buffalo game with a record of 11-6 on the season, and the Falcons saw a season-best four-game win streak come to an end with Tuesday's (Jan. 27) loss at Eastern Michigan ... the Falcons are 4-2 in MAC play, and have won seven of the last nine games ... other than the EMU game, the only setback since Christmas was a 72-70 home loss to Ball State in the MAC opener (Jan. 7) ... between the BSU and EMU games, BGSU picked up a pair of road wins, sandwiched around two home victories ... BGSU had a 66-58 road win over Northern Illinois (Jan. 10), then topped Akron (85-48, Jan. 14) and Central Michigan (68-60, Jan. 17) at home, before picking up a 57-54 win at Toledo (Jan. 21).
Senior Stefanie Wenzel leads the Falcons with 14.1 points per game, and is averaging 4.6 rebounds per contest ... four freshmen are ranked among the top-six in the Falcons' balanced scoring attack ... freshman Ali Mann has 12.0 points and a team-high 7.5 rebounds ... senior Lindsay Austin has 10.5 points, 5.1 rebounds and team-leading totals of 5.6 assists and 2.4 steals per contest ... both Mann and Austin have four double-doubles this season to tie for the team lead.
Another frosh, Liz Honegger, has 10.4 points and is second on the team in rebounding, with 7.2 boards per game ... Honegger leads the Falcons with 1.7 blocked shots per outing ... freshman Megan Thorburn has 8.6 points and 4.0 caroms on the year, while classmate Carin Horne is averaging 5.1 points off the bench ... junior Kelly Kapferer and sophomore Casey McDowell average 4.2 and 3.1 points, respectively.
Austin, Mann, Thorburn and Wenzel each have started all 17 games ... Honegger has started each of the last 16 contests.
The Falcons are shooting .413 from the field this season, including a .349 rate from three-point land, and BGSU has a .745 free-throw conversion percentage ... the opponents have shot .385 from the floor, .325 from the arc and .669 from the line to date.
BG is 5-2 at home, 4-4 in road games and 2-0 in neutral-site contests this year ... in league play, the Falcons are 2-1 at Anderson Arena and 2-1 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 BUFFALO
Buffalo enters the BGSU game with an overall record of 4-12, and the Bulls are 2-4 in the MAC after a 66-47 loss at Northern Illinois Monday (Jan. 26) ... the Bulls have dropped the last two games after winning three of the previous four contests ... UB's MAC wins both have come at home, vs. Marshall and Central Michigan ... individually, senior F/G Jessica Kochendorfer leads the team in scoring and rebounding, with 13.9 points and 8.1 boards per game ... she also averages a team-best 2.3 blocked shots ... sophomore guard Brooke Meunier has 12.7 points per game, while senior forward Kim Kilpela has 10.3 points and 6.7 boards ... junior guard Alison Bennett has 6.0 points ... junior guard Talia Merlino joins Bennett, Kilpela, Kochendorfer and Meunier in the probable starting lineup for head coach Cheryl Dozier ... Dozier welcomed back eight letterwinners, including four starters, from last year's team that went 18-11 overall and 9-7 in MAC action ... she has a record of 83-74 in her sixth season as a collegiate head coach, all at UB ... the school's athletics web site is www.buffalobulls.com.
THE BGSU-BUFFALO SERIES
The Falcons trail Buffalo, 5-4, in the all-time series between the teams, and the Bulls won last year's lone meeting, 72-60 in Buffalo (Feb. 12, 2003) ... that UB win snapped a two-game Falcon series win streak, including a narrow 71-69 BGSU victory in the last meeting at Anderson Arena (Jan. 12, 2002) ... the Bulls have won two of the three meetings at Anderson ... prior to last year's 12-point UB win, each of the previous six meetings had been decided by 10 points or less, including five by four points or fewer.
WENZEL FOR THREE VS. UB
Senior Stefanie Wenzel has had a successful career, but she has certainly found success vs. Buffalo ... Wenzel is averaging 9.9 points per game in her career, but she is averaging 22.0 points vs. the Bulls ... she had a career-high 30 points against UB in her sophomore year (Jan. 12, 2002), then had 21 markers in the rematch in New York (Feb. 2, 2002) ... last year, in the lone meeting, Wenzel hit five three-point field goals en route to 15 points off the bench ... Wenzel has hit five three-pointers three times in her career, all against Buffalo.
LAST TIME OUT
Host Eastern Michigan rallied for a 61-59 win over the Falcons Tuesday night (Jan. 27) ... freshman Ali Mann led all players in both scoring and rebounding en route to her fourth double-double of the year ... Mann had 22 points and 10 rebounds in the narrow loss.
FIRST ROAD LOSS IN OVER A MONTH
The loss at Eastern Michigan was the Falcons' first setback away from home in over a month (since Dec. 22) ... BGSU had won three consecutive road games and four games away from Anderson Arena since a loss at IUPUI to end the pre-Christmas schedule.
HOLDING DOWN THE BIG THREE
The Falcons held EMU's top-three scorers -- Ryan Coleman, Nikki Knapp and Sarah VanMetre -- well below their averages ... the three players entered Tuesday's game averaging a combined 38.3 points per game, but totalled just 17 points vs. BGSU ... the three made just 5-of-23 shots from the floor.
ANOTHER 20-POINT GAME FOR MANN
Freshman Ali Mann had a game-high 22 points, adding 10 rebounds, at Eastern Michigan ... it marked the third time this season that she has topped the 20-point mark ... she now has four double-doubles on the season, tying senior Lindsay Austin for the team lead.
OUTREBOUNDING THE LEADERS
BGSU outrebounded the MAC's top-rebounding team, at least according to the latest league statistics, Tuesday night ... Eastern Michigan entered the game leading the MAC in rebounding margin, at +10.4 ... in league games only, Eastern led all teams with a +10.8 margin ... but, the Falcons held a 40-36 advantage on the boards.
FAMILIAR FACES
BGSU assistant coach Kevin Eckert certainly is familiar with the Buffalo program ... Eckert, in his second year on Curt Miller's staff, came to BGSU after spending four seasons on Cheryl Dozier's UB staff ... while with the Bulls, he worked primarily with developing the team's post players, and also served as the staff's recruiting coordinator.
FALCONS ON THE NCAA CHARTS
The Falcons have had two of the top-seven games in the country, in terms of free-throw percentage, this season ... according to the latest NCAA statistics (through games of Mon., Jan. 26), BGSU has the sixth-best performance in that category, with a .957 FT pct. in the win over Central Michigan (Jan. 17) ... the Falcons went 22-for-23 from the line in that game, after going 21-for-22 in the home win over IPFW on Dec. 6 ... the IPFW game is the seventh-best in the nation this year (minimum 15 FT made) ... also, senior Lindsay Austin's 15-assist game at Bucknell (Dec. 3) ties her for the seventh-highest total this season to date.
FALCONS WIN AT TOLEDO
The Falcons' 57-54 win at Toledo (Jan. 21) was the first win at John F. Savage Hall for any member of the current squad, including seniors Lindsay Austin and Stefanie Wenzel ... it marked BGSU's first win at Savage since Jan. 8, 1998 ... since Austin and Wenzel arrived at BG, however, the Falcons are now 3-3 vs. the Rockets in overall meetings.
HOT SHOOTING HELPS MAKE IT HAPPEN
The Falcons shot .609 from the field in the second half of the win at UT, tying a season best ... BGSU also shot .609 in the first half of the home-opening win over Detroit, going 14-for-23 from the floor in both cases.
FALCONS TOP '02-03 TOTAL OF MAC ROAD WINS
After just two games, the Falcons had surpassed last season's total of MAC road victories ... BGSU is now 2-1 in conference road games this season ... last winter, the Brown and Orange went 1-7 in MAC games away from home, with only a three-point win at Akron (65-62) going in the plus column for the Falcons ... overall, the Falcons are 4-4 in road games this year, and BG is 6-4 in all games played away from home.
AUSTIN COULD ENTER UNCHARTED WATERS
Senior Lindsay Austin has a chance to go where no Falcon has gone before ... she enters the Buffalo game with career totals of 868 points and 432 assists ... Austin is just the fourth player in school history to dish out 400 assists, and could become the 17th Falcon to score 1,000 career points ... no Falcon ever has totalled 1,000 points and 400 assists in a career ... only one BG player, Judit Lendvay (1989-93), had 1,000 points (1,078) and 300 assists (304) ... with a current total of 197 steals, Austin also could become only the fourth BGSU player to crack the 200-steals barrier.
WENZEL EYES THAT CENTURY MARK, TOO
Both of the Falcon seniors have a chance to reach the 1,000-point barrier for their careers ... Stefanie Wenzel enters the UB game with a career total of 883 points ... 847 of those points have come since her freshman year, an average of 11.6 points per game over the last two-plus seasons ... the lone returnee to have averaged double digits in scoring in each of the last two years, Wenzel had 15 games of 10 or more points last year, the most among returning Falcons ... she leads the team in that category again this season, with double-digit efforts in 14 of the team's 17 games.
EIGHT (HUNDRED) IS GREAT
Senior co-captains Stefanie Wenzel and Lindsay Austin each moved past the 800-point mark for their BGSU careers in the Cleveland State game ... they become the 25th and 26th players in school history to score at least 800 points ... entering the UB contest, Wenzel now has 883 career points to rank 23rd in BG history, while Austin has scored 868 (25th).
FOUR HUNDRED NOT TOO SHABBY, EITHER
In addition to surpassing the 800-point mark, senior Lindsay Austin became just the fourth player in school history to record 400 assists in a career with her 12-assist game vs. Cleveland State (Jan. 3) ... entering the UB contest, she now has a total of 432 assists ... Austin, the MAC's active career assists leader, very likely will end her career in fourth place on the BG list ... third place belongs to Paulette Backstrom (1985-89), who had 559 career assists ... Dee Knoblauch (1979-83) holds the BG record with 673 career assists.
AUSTIN ALSO ON THE STEALS LIST
Senior Lindsay Austin ranks fourth in BGSU history in career assists, and has added her name to the Falcon career steals list, too ... Austin currently has 197 steals as a Falcon, placing her fourth in BG annals ... she moved past Susie Cassell (196 steals from 1990-94) in the Eastern Michigan game ... Lori Albers (1989-94) holds the school record with 241 career steals ... Austin and Cassell are the only two players to be ranked in the top-five on both BGSU's assists and steals charts.
AUSTIN ON ANOTHER LIST
The Eastern Michigan game was the 100th of senior Lindsay Austin's career ... Austin has started 96 of those games, the sixth-highest total in school history ... Austin's next start will tie her with Angie Bonner for fifth on that list ... Jackie Motycka holds the school record with 115 career games started.
