Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host Ball State To Open MAC Play
January 06, 2004 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 6, 2004
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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BOWLING GREEN (7-4, 0-0)
vs.
BALL STATE (6-6, 1-0)
Game #12Wed., Jan. 7, 2004
7:00 p.m.
Anderson Arena (4,700)
Bowling Green, Ohio
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1)
Series: BGSU Leads, 33-11
Last Meeting: Ball State 90, at BGSU 85 (Feb. 19, 2003)
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after winning three consecutive games to close the non-league portion of the schedule, now turns its attention to the Mid-American Conference ... the Falcons of third-year head coach Curt Miller will host defending MAC West Division co-champion Ball State University Wednesday (Jan. 7), with tipoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena (4,700) ... the game will be broadcast on student station WBGU-FM (88.1).
Following the BSU game, the Falcons will head to the MAC's 'West Coast' to open the road portion of the conference slate ... the Brown and Orange will face Northern Illinois University Saturday afternoon (Jan. 10), with tipoff scheduled for 2:05 p.m. locally (3:05 p.m. Eastern) at the Convocation Center (9,100) in DeKalb, Ill.
HONEGGER NAMED MAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
For the second time in her young BGSU career, freshman Liz Honegger was named the MAC's Player of the Week, the league office announced Monday (Jan. 5) ... a native of Lafayette, Ind., she averaged 18.3 points, 8.7 rebounds and 3.0 blocked shots as the Falcons went 3-0 on the week ... she had the first two 20-point games of her career, and set a school record with seven blocks in a 70-57 win at Eastern Kentucky (Dec. 29) ... she went 10-of-14 from the field vs. EKU and was 9-of-12 in the win over Cleveland State Saturday (Jan. 3) ... on the week, Honegger had a field-goal percentage of .611, including an 8-of-16 (.500) effort from three-point land.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU enters the Ball State game with a record of 7-4 on the season ... the Falcons have won a season-high three consecutive games as the team heads into the MAC portion of the schedule ... last week, the Falcons posted three double-digit wins, downing host Eastern Kentucky (70-57) and Morehead State (65-51) at the EKU Comfort Suites Classic, and Cleveland State (82-67) to close the non-league schedule.
Senior Stefanie Wenzel leads the Falcons with 15.7 points per game, and is averaging 4.4 rebounds per contest ... three freshmen are ranked among the top-five in the Falcons' balanced scoring attack ... freshman Liz Honegger has 11.9 points and 6.9 rebounds per game, ranking second in each category, and she leads the Falcons with 1.7 blocked shots per game ... senior Lindsay Austin has 10.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and a team-leading 6.0 assists per contest, and also has a BGSU-high four double-doubles on the year ... freshman Ali Mann has 9.9 points and a team-high 7.8 rebounds per contest, and has three double-doubles ... freshman Megan Thorburn has 9.4 points and 3.6 caroms on the year ... junior Kelly Kapferer and sophomore Casey McDowell average 5.1 and 4.2 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 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 11 games ... Honegger has started each of the last 10 contests.
The Falcons are shooting .426 from the field this season, including a .377 rate from three-point land, and BGSU has a .740 free-throw conversion percentage ... the opponents have shot .394 from the floor, .332 from the arc and .675 from the line to date.
BG is 3-1 at home, 2-3 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 BALL STATE
Ball State will invade Anderson Arena with a 6-6 overall record, and the Cardinals are 1-0 in MAC play after a home win over Marshall, 71-63, Saturday (Jan. 3) ... BSU, after winning four-straight games in late November, had lost four-of-five contests prior to Saturday's win ... the Cards bring a 3-1 road record into Wednesday's game ... individually, junior G/F Kate Endress leads the team, and the MAC, in scoring, with 20.0 points per game, and also has 6.3 rebounds ... senior guard Johna Goff has 12.8 points and a team-high 4.8 assists per contest, while senior F/C Jessica Reiter has 9.9 points and a BSU-best 10.2 rebounds ... sophomore guard Dana Collins (6.9 ppg) and senior guard Julie Just (5.3 ppg) round out the probable starting lineup for head coach Tracy Roller ... Roller welcomed 10 letterwinners, including four starters, from last year's team that went 21-10 overall and 12-4 in MAC action ... the Cardinals tied for the MAC's West Division title a year ago ... Roller has a head-coaching record of 51-24 in her third year, all in Muncie ... the school's athletics web site is ballstatesports.com.
THE BGSU-BSU SERIES
The Falcons hold a 33-11 lead over Ball State in the all-time series between the teams, but the Cardinals have captured the last three meetings ... BSU won both of last year's meetings, a 96-71 verdict in Muncie (Jan. 22, 2003) and a 90-85 thriller at Anderson Arena (Feb. 19, 2003) ... the latter game was Ball State's first-ever win in BG, and the Falcons now have a 20-1 record in home games vs. the Cards ... last year's game in BG also marked the first time the Falcons had hosted BSU in over four years (since a 96-87 BG win on Feb. 9, 1999) ... overall, Ball State's last three wins snapped a five-game BG series win streak, and the Falcons had won 17 of the 18 meetings prior to the current BSU streak.
MAC SERIES INFORMATION
The Falcons lead the all-time series with 10 of the 12 MAC opponents ... Northern Illinois holds an 11-9 series advantage over BGSU, while Buffalo has a narrow 5-4 lead in that series.
SO BGSU IS 61 POINTS BETTER THAN BGSU?
On Nov. 22, Youngstown State beat BGSU by 12 points, 79-67, in the season-opening game for both teams ... then, last week (Dec. 30), Cleveland State posted a 34-point win over YSU, 88-54 ... Saturday (Jan. 3), the Falcons picked up a 15-point win against CSU, 82-67.
LAST TIME OUT
Freshman Liz Honegger's 22 points led four double-digit scorers as the Falcons closed the non-conference portion of the schedule with an
82-67 win over Cleveland State Saturday afternoon (Jan. 3).
NON-LEAGUE SUCCESS
The Falcons' win over CSU gave the team a 7-4 non-conference season for the second year in a row ... the last time the Falcons put together back-to-back winning records in non-MAC play came a decade ago, when BG had three-straight winning non-league records from 1991-92 to 1993-94.
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 ... Wenzel now has 816 career points, while Austin has scored 805 points ... they become the 25th and 26th players in school history to score at least 800 points ... Wenzel now ranks 24th in BGSU scoring annals, while Austin is 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. the Vikings, Austin increased her total to 403 career helpers ... she is the MAC's active career scoring leader ... Austin 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 is the MAC's active career assists leader.
STEF'S SCORING STREAK
Senior Stefanie Wenzel had 18 points in the win over Cleveland State ... Wenzel has now scored in double digits in 10 consecutive games, a career-long streak ... her previous best was a six-game double-digit scoring streak late in her sophomore season of 2001-02.
STEF SHOOTS, SCORES IN SECOND HALF
Senior Stefanie Wenzel has been scoring a great deal of points as of late, but she has really stepped up her scoring in the second half ... over the last two games, Wenzel has scored a total of 35 points after halftime ... she had 21 of BGSU's 33 second-half points in the win over Morehead State, then scored 14 points in the second stanza vs. Cleveland State.
WENZEL AT THE LINE
Part of the reason for Stefanie Wenzel's scoring surge has been her ability to get to the free-throw line ... over the last two games, Wenzel has made 13-of-14 charity tosses, including 12-of-12 in the second half of those games ... Wenzel has nearly matched her free-throw totals for all of last season ... she is 40-of-49 at the stripe this year after going 45-of-53 during 2002-03.
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 Jan. 6) ... Ali Mann is tied for 30th in scoring (9.9 ppg) and ranks seventh in rebounding (7.8 rpg) ... Liz Honegger is 14th in scoring (11.9 ppg) and is 13th in rebounding (6.9).
FALCON SENIORS UP THERE, TOO
BGSU's two seniors also are listed in a number of MAC statistical categories, heading into the Ball State game ... Stefanie Wenzel currently ranks third in the league in scoring (15.7 ppg), while Lindsay Austin is second in the conference in both assists (6.00 apg) and assist/turnover ratio (1.94) ... Wenzel is also ranked in three-point field goals made (fourth), three-point FG percentage (fifth), free-throw pct. (sixth) and field-goal pct. (ninth) ... Austin is fifth in the league in steals and 23rd in scoring.
BGSU'S BOARDWORK PAYING OFF
The Falcons had more rebounds than their opponents on only four occasions during all of last season ... through 11 games this year, BG has BEEN outrebounded only twice ... BGSU is 7-2-2 in that category (having held the rebounding advantage seven times, with a draw in two other contests) ... the Falcons are outrebounding the opponents by a margin of 3.0 boards per game.
DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE...
With 14 points and 12 assists vs. Cleveland State, senior Lindsay Austin picked up her fourth double-double of the season ... freshman Ali Mann had three double-doubles in her first six collegiate games, and senior Stefanie Wenzel and freshman Liz Honegger each have a double-double this season as well
