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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host Kent State Saturday
February 20, 2004 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 20, 2004
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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BGSU (15-8, 8-4)
vs.
KENT STATE (15-8, 8-4)
Game #24Sat., Feb. 21, 2004
1:00 p.m.
Anderson Arena (4,700)
Bowling Green, Ohio
Radio: WBGU-FM (88.1)
Series: BGSU leads, 31-25
Last Meeting: at Kent State 82, BGSU 61 (March 1, 2003)
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, with three-quarters of the Mid-American Conference schedule complete, is embroiled in the race for a home berth for the first round of the league tournament, but four tough tests remain ... the first such test comes Saturday (Feb. 21), when the Falcons of third-year head coach Curt Miller face Kent State University ... the game, which will be broadcast on student station WBGU-FM (88.1), will begin at 1:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena (4,700) ... it is the first half of a twinbill, with the Falcon men facing Youngstown State University at 3:30 p.m.
Then, the Falcons hit the road for a pair of games, heading to Marshall University for a Wednesday (Feb. 25) game before facing Ball State University on Sunday, Feb. 29 ... the Brown and Orange will end the regular season with a home contest vs. the arch-rival University of Toledo on Tuesday, March 2.
FOUR OVERTIMES FOR THE FALCONS AND HUSKIES
Fans who came to Anderson Arena for Wednesday's (Feb. 18) game certainly got more than they bargained for ... they saw a game-and-a-half, as the Falcons and Northern Illinois battled through 40 minutes of regulation, plus four overtime periods ... NIU came out on top, 102-97, as the teams tied the NCAA Division I record for most overtime periods in a game ... prior to the 2003-04 season, only eight games in NCAA Division I history had required as many as four overtimes ... the Falcons are now the lone school to have played in two of those four-OT games ... BGSU also went to four OTs on a snowy night in Muncie, Ind. ... on that evening (Jan. 6, 1999), the Falcons picked up a 106-105 victory over Ball State.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU enters Saturday's Kent State game with an overall record of 15-8, and the Falcons are 8-4 in MAC play ... the Falcons, who already have surpassed last year's win totals by three games, have clinched a winning regular-season record for the first time in six years ... BGSU, after beginning the month of February with a two-game stretch against the league's divisional leaders, then returned from a two-game road swing with a pair of wins ... after a 92-81 loss at East-leading Miami (Feb. 3), the Falcons rebounded for a 69-67 win over the other divisional leader, Western Michigan (Feb. 7) ... then, the Brown and Orange picked up victories at Ohio (76-55; Feb. 11) and Central Michigan (69-51; Feb. 14) ... most recently, however, the Falcons dropped a four-overtime game to visiting Northern Illinois, 102-97 (Feb. 18) ... despite that loss, BG has won eight of the last 11 games, all in MAC play ... since Christmas, the Falcons have captured 11 of 15 contests ... the Falcons' total of eight league wins includes four road victories, at NIU (66-58; Jan. 10), Toledo (57-54; Jan. 21), Ohio and Central.
Senior Stefanie Wenzel leads the Falcons with 15.1 points per game, and is averaging 4.8 rebounds per contest ... four freshmen are ranked among the top-six in the Falcons' balanced scoring attack ... one of those freshmen, Ali Mann, has 11.7 points and 7.5 rebounds, ranking second on the team in both categories ... Mann has a BGSU-high six double-doubles on the year ... another frosh, Liz Honegger, has 11.0 points and paces the Falcons in rebounding, with 7.6 boards per game ... Honegger also leads the Brown and Orange with 1.7 blocked shots per outing.
Senior Lindsay Austin has 10.2 points, 5.1 rebounds and team-leading totals of 5.4 assists and 2.6 steals ... Austin, who had a school-record 10 steals at Miami, has five double-doubles this year (three points-rebounds, one pts.-assists and one pts.-steals) ... freshman Megan Thorburn has 7.4 points and 3.3 caroms on the year, while classmate Carin Horne also is averaging 7.4 points after a game-high 28 vs. NIU ... junior Kelly Kapferer and sophomore Casey McDowell average 4.1 and 2.7 points, respectively, off the bench.
Austin and Wenzel each have started all 23 games, while frosh Honegger and Mann have started 22 and Thorburn 17 ... Horne has started the last six contests, while Kapferer has made a pair of starts this winter.
The Falcons are shooting .412 from the field this season, including a .336 rate from three-point land, and .750 from the free-throw line ... the opponents have shot .389 from the floor, .336 from the arc and .701 from the line to date.
BGSU is 7-3 at home, 6-5 in road games and 2-0 in neutral-site contests this year ... in league play, the Falcons are 4-2 at Anderson Arena and 4-2 away from home ... last season, BG went 6-6 at home, 5-9 on the road and 1-1 on neutral courts ... in MAC contests, the Falcons finished 4-4 at home and 1-7 away from Anderson in 2002-03.
SCOUTING KENT STATE
Kent State comes to Anderson Arena with records identical to the Falcons' marks ... the Golden Flashes are 15-8 overall and 8-4 in MAC play ... KSU enters Saturday's game having won a season-high four consecutive games ... that streak includes a 64-50 win over visiting Marshall Monday (Feb. 16) ... the Marshall win came two days after a 99-64 dismantling of Ball State, a game in which the Flashes held a 52-14 halftime lead ... KSU is 3-6 on the road this season to date, including a 1-4 record in MAC games away from home ... individually, sophomore forward Lindsay Shearer is the leading scorer among a balanced starting five ... Shearer averages 13.9 points and 7.5 rebounds ... redshirt juniors Andrea Csaszar and Heather Harris are second and third, respectively, in scoring ... Csaszar, a center, has 12.6 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.9 blocked shots per game ... Harris, a transfer from Youngstown State, has 9.4 points and a team-high 48 three-point field goals ... two other transfers, junior guard Melissa DeGrate (9.1 ppg) and redshirt sophomore guard Malika Willoughby (8.0 ppg, 6.6 apg) round out the probable starting lineup for head coach Bob Lindsay ... Lindsay welcomed back five letterwinners, including one starter, from last year's team that went 16-13 overall and 10-6 in MAC action ... Lindsay has a record of 283-150 in his 15th season as a collegiate head coach, all with the Flashes ... the school's athletics web site is www.kentstatesports.com.
THE BGSU-KSU SERIES
The Falcons lead Kent State, 31-25, in the all-time series between the teams, but the Golden Flashes have won the last 10 meetings and 15 of the last 16 contests between the two teams ... the Falcons are 15-9 in games against Kent/Kent State at Anderson Arena, and the last series win for the Brown and Orange came at Anderson, 87-77 on Feb. 12, 1997 ... in last year's lone meeting, the host Flashes picked up an 82-61 win over BG (March 1, 2003) ... each of KSU's last nine wins has been by at least 14 points, including six decisions of 20 points or greater.
MAC SERIES INFORMATION
The Falcons lead the all-time series with 10 of the 12 MAC opponents, and are tied with one other foe ... BGSU's win over Buffalo on Jan. 31 evened that series at 5-5 ... the Falcons trail only one MAC school, as Northern Illinois holds a 12-10 series advantage over BGSU.
FAMILIAR FOES
Falcon head coach Curt Miller has ties to KSU mentor Bob Lindsay and the Golden Flash program ... Miller spent a year at Kent State as a graduate assistant, and was a volunteer coach on Lindsay's women's basketball staff during the 1990-91 season ... the Flashes finished 17-12 that year, and enjoyed the second-best turnaround in the nation, with a 12-game improvement over the previous year ... Lori Bodnar, an assistant with the current KSU staff, also was a part of that 1990-91 coaching staff.
LAST TIME OUT
In an epic game at Anderson Arena, Northern Illinois outlasted the Falcons, 102-97, in four overtimes Wednesday night (Feb. 18) ... the four-OT game is tied for the longest in BGSU - and NCAA - history ... freshman Carin Horne scored a game-high 28 points, including 18 in the overtime sessions ... Horne paced five BG players in double digits, and was one of three with double-doubles ... for the visitors, Joi Scott led four double-digit scorers with 26 points, and had a game-high 16 rebounds ... Horne had a season-high 11 rebounds for her first career double-double, while senior Stefanie Wenzel scored 18 points ... frosh Ali Mann and Liz Honegger each had double-doubles, as both players had 13 points and 12 boards ... Megan Thorburn was the fourth Falcon freshman in double figures, with 15 points off the bench in only 20 minutes of action ... the Huskies got 19 points from Monique Davis and 17 from both Stephanie Raymond and Lindsay Secrest ... Jennifer Youngblood had eight points and 11 rebounds ... the Falcons ended the first half on a 10-0 run to take a 28-23 lead into the lockerroom, and BGSU led by as many as 11 points in the second half ... but, Northern battled back, and took the lead on a pair of Davis free throws with 57 seconds left ... but, Honegger hit a pair of free throws with 8.3 seconds left to send the game to OT ... in the first OT, NIU went up by six points, 66-60, with 2:06 left ... but, Wenzel cut the lead in half with a three-point play ... after an NIU free throw, Honegger and Horne each hit three-pointers to put the Falcons up by two points ... Wenzel split a pair of free throws before Raymond drilled the tying three-pointer with just five seconds left ... in the second OT, the Huskies again went ahead, this time by five points ... NIU still led by three, after Secrest split a pair of tosses with 9.5 seconds left ... but, Horne drilled another trey at the horn to force another extra session ... in the third OT, it was finally BG's turn to take an early lead ... the Falcons went up by six, 88-82, but the visitors battled back ... Davis hit a pull-up jumper as time expired to force a fourth OT ... the Huskies led for the entire fourth OT period, and with BG down by three, several last-minute turnovers kept the Falcons from getting a chance to tie the game ... NIU hit 4-of-4 free throws in the late going to clinch the win.
A FEW MORE NOTES FROM THE NIU GAME
MAC TOURNAMENT PICTURE
If the regular season ended today, the Falcons would be the fifth seed for the MAC Tournament, and would open tourney play with a first-round home game vs. #12 Akron ... BGSU needs one more win to clinch at least a top-eight seed and a home berth for the first round, and the Falcons are still in the race for a bye ... the top-three seeds in the conference tourney will earn first-round byes, with the division winners earning the first and second seeds ... the team with the best record among the remaining 11 schools will earn the third seed and the final first-round bye ... the fourth through eighth seeds for the tournament will host first-round contests on Saturday, March 6 ... following the first-round contests, the five winners will join the top-three seeds at Cleveland's Gund Arena for the quarterfinals on Wednesday, March 10 ... the semifinals and championship are scheduled for March 12 and 13, respectively ... to follow is a look at the conference record of each school, along with their remaining regular-season games...
School W-L Remaining Games Miami 11-1 @CMU, vs. BSU, vs. Buffalo, vs. KSU Eastern Michigan 10-3 vs. BSU, @Ohio, @CMU Western Michigan 9-4 vs. Ohio, vs. CMU, vs. ToledoKent State 8-4 @BGSU, vs. Buffalo, @Akron, @Miami Bowling Green 8-4 vs. KSU, @Marshall, @BSU, vs. Toledo Ball State 7-5 @EMU, @Miami, vs. BGSU, @NIU Toledo 7-6 vs. Akron, @WMU, @BGSU Marshall 5-7 vs. NIU, vs. BGSU, vs. Ohio, vs. Akron
Northern Illinois 5-8 @Marshall, vs. CMU, vs. BSU Ohio 4-8 @WMU, vs. EMU, @Marshall, @Buffalo Buffalo 3-9 @Akron, @KSU, @Miami, vs. Ohio Akron 2-10 vs. Buffalo, vs. KSU, @Marshall Central Michigan 1-11 vs. Miami, @WMU, @NIU, vs. EMU
WENZEL APPROACHING 1,000 POINTS
Falcon senior Stefanie Wenzel has a chance to reach the 1,000-point plateau for her career, perhaps as soon as Saturday ... Wenzel needs only nine more points to reach the millennium mark ... she enters the Kent State game with a career total of 991 points, ranking her 17th on the BGSU career scoring list ... 955 of those points have come since her freshman year, an average of 12.1 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 ... already, she has topped that total this season, with double-digit efforts in a team-high 20 of BGSU's 23 games, including in each of the last six contests ... her 23-point effort vs. Western Michigan upped her career scoring average into double figures, and she now averages 10.4 ppg through 95 career games.
FALCONS CLINCH WINNING REGULAR-SEASON RECORD
The Falcons have clinched a winning regular-season record for the first time in six years ... with four regular-season games remaining, BGSU is seven games above .500, at 15-8 ... the last Falcon team to have a winning overall record was the 1997-98 squad that went 21-8 and earned a WNIT berth in head coach Jaci Clark's final season in Bowling Green.
SMART ... VERY SMART
The Falcons' two senior co-captains received more honors this week ... on Thursday (Feb. 19), Stefanie Wenzel and Lindsay Austin were named to the Academic All-District IV Teams presented by CoSIDA ... Wenzel was named to the first team, while Austin has been chosen to the third team ... for Wenzel, the honor marked the second-straight season she has been named to the all-district team, after earning second-team honors last year ... she is the first Falcon to earn first-team accolades since Jacki Raterman in 1999 ... as a first-team selection, Wenzel will have her name placed on the Academic All-America ballot ... Austin earns Academic All-District honors for the first time in her Falcon career ... the team is made up of student-athletes from Division I schools in the states of Alabama, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee ... to be nominated, student-athletes must be at least a sophomore, a starter or important reserve, and must carry a cumulative GPA of 3.20 or higher ... Wenzel was one of four MAC student-athletes named to the five-member first team ... at the time of nomination, she maintained a 3.97 cumulative GPA as an integrated language arts major ... Austin carried a 3.57 cumulative GPA as a visual communication technology (VCT) major ... BG was one of just three schools (along with Cleveland State and Kent State) to have two student-athletes named to the team.
START ME UP (THE CAREER STARTS LIST)
Senior Lindsay Austin's starting assignment vs. NIU was the 102nd of her career, moving her past former teammate Francine Miller into fourth on that Falcon career list ... with at least five games remaining (four regular-season games plus the MAC Tournament's first round), Austin has a chance to move into second place on the all-time list, currently held by Susie Cassell (106 games) ... the legendary Jackie Motycka holds the BGSU record with 115 games started.
AUSTIN CITY LIMITS
Senior Lindsay Austin is on a number of other BGSU career lists, and has a chance to go where no Falcon has gone before ... she surpassed the 900-point mark last Saturday at CMU, and enters the KSU game with career totals of 923 points, 461 assists and 217 steals ... Austin became just the fourth player in school history to reach the 400 career assists barrier, and -- after her school-record total of 10 steals in the Miami game (Feb. 3) -- now ranks third in career steals at BG ... Austin is just one steal behind second-place Dee Knoblauch (218 from 1979-83), and is 24 away from school record-holder Lori Albers (241 from 1989-94) ... Austin also has an outside chance to crack the 1,000-point barrier ... no Falcon ever has totalled 1,000 points and 400 assists in a career, much less 200 steals as well ... only one BGSU player, Judit Lendvay (1989-93), had 1,000 points (1,078) and as many as 300 assists (304) ... Austin is one of only two players (joining Susie Cassell) to be ranked among the top-five on the career games started, assists and steals charts at BG.
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 seven times in 23 contests ... the Falcons have outboarded the opponent 14 times, battling to a draw in two other games ... BG has a +2.5 rebounding margin this season to date (+2.0 in MAC games).
DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE...
A trio of freshmen -- Liz Honegger, Carin Horne and Ali Mann -- had double-doubles in the Northern Illinois game ... Horne's double-double was her first of the year, making a total of six different BGSU players that have had at least one double-double this year to date ... Mann now has six, while senior Lindsay Austin has five ... Honegger now has four double-doubles, while Horne, freshman Megan Thorburn and senior Stefanie Wenzel each have one in 2003-04.
...DOUBLE YOUR FUN
As mentioned, Ali Mann has six double-doubles on the year to date ... that total is the highest for a BGSU player in a season in four years, since Francine Miller had nine in 1999-2000 ... as a team, the Falcons have 18 double-doubles, after totalling four during all of last season ... the team total is BGSU's highest since the 1996-97 season.
IT'S A SEASON-LONG BLOCK PARTY FOR HONEGGER
Freshman Liz Honegger had four more blocked shots in the Northern Illinois game, and is rapidly moving up that BGSU single-season list ... Honegger currently has 38 blocks, placing her fifth on that chart ... next in her sights is Megan McGuire, who had 39 blocks in 1988-89 ... Angie Bonner holds the top-three spots on the list, including a school-record 50 in 1989-90 ... Honegger has 19 blocks in MAC games, seven shy of that school record (26 by Bonner in 1988-89).
