Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host Rockets, Honor Seniors Tuesday
March 01, 2004 | Women's Basketball
March 1, 2004
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
Complete Notes (22 pages) in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
BGSU (17-9, 10-5)
vs.
TOLEDO (12-14, 8-7)
Game #27Tue., March 2, 2004
7:00 p.m.
Anderson Arena (4,700)
Bowling Green, Ohio
TV: BCSN (Tape Delay)
Radio: WBGU-FM (88.1)
Series: BGSU leads, 30-25
Last Meeting: BGSU 57, at Toledo 54 (Jan. 21, 2004)
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after recording a pair of Mid-American Conference road wins last week, returns home to complete the regular-season schedule Tuesday evening (March 2) ... the Falcons of third-year head coach Curt Miller will host the arch-rival University of Toledo in a 7:00 p.m. tip at venerable Anderson Arena (4,700) ... the game, which will be broadcast on student radio station WBGU-FM (88.1), also is scheduled to be televised on a tape-delay basis in the Toledo area, on the Buckeye Cable Sports Network (BCSN) ... air times have not yet been announced.
Following the UT game, the Falcons will host a first-round game in the Kraft MAC Tournament ... BGSU will face either the University of Akron or Central Michigan University on Saturday afternoon (March 6), with tipoff scheduled for 1:00 p.m. at Anderson ... the winner of that game will advance to Cleveland's Gund Arena for a quarterfinal game on Wednesday, March 10 ... the semifinals (March 12) and championship (March 13) are also held at Gund Arena.
SENIOR NIGHT
The Toledo game marks "Senior Night" for the Falcon women's basketball program ... the team's senior co-captains, Lindsay Austin and Stefanie Wenzel, will be recognized in ceremonies prior to the game.
MOST-IMPROVED TEAM IN THE MAC?
A case can be made that the Falcons are the MAC's most improved team ... the 84-79 overtime win at Ball State Saturday (Feb. 29) improved BGSU's records to 17-9 overall and 10-5 in MAC play ... in each case, the Falcons have topped the win totals from last season by five games ... last year's squad went 12-16 overall and 5-11 in the MAC ... heading into Tuesday's action, BG is the lone team to have five more league wins than a year ago ... in all games, the Falcons are one of three teams (Akron and Eastern Michigan) to display a five-game improvement in the win column over a year ago.
WIN DIFFERENTIAL, 2002-03 TO 2003-04 MAC Games Only All Games 1. Bowling Green, +5 1. BGSU, Akron, Eastern Michigan, +5 2. Miami, +3 4. Marshall, Miami, Ohio, +3 3. Eastern Michigan, +2 4. Akron, KSU, Ohio, WMU, +1
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU enters Tuesday's Toledo game with an overall record of 17-9, and the Falcons are 10-5 in MAC play ... BG, having surpassed last year's win totals by five games, has clinched a winning record for the first time in six years ... the Falcons, after picking up road victories at Ohio (76-55; Feb. 11) and Central Michigan (69-51; Feb. 14), then dropped a pair of home games -- a four-OT game to Northern Illinois (Feb. 18), 102-97, and a 71-62 loss to Kent State three days later ... BGSU bounced back, however, with two more road wins last week ... the Falcons posted a 77-67 victory at Marshall Wednesday (Feb. 25), before beating Ball State, 84-79 in overtime, in a MAC TV game on Sunday (Feb. 29) ... BG has won 10 of the last 14 games, all in MAC play ... since Christmas, the Falcons have captured 13 of 18 contests ... the Falcons' total of 10 league wins includes six road victories, at NIU (66-58; Jan. 10), Toledo (57-54; Jan. 21), Ohio, Central, Marshall and BSU.
Senior Stefanie Wenzel leads the Falcons with 15.0 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 ... one of those frosh, Ali Mann, has 12.7 points and 7.8 rebounds, leading BG in rebounding and ranking second in scoring ... Mann has a BGSU-high seven double-doubles on the year ... another freshman, Liz Honegger, has 10.5 points and is second on the Falcons in rebounding, with 7.5 boards per game ... Honegger leads the Brown and Orange with 1.6 blocked shots per outing.
Senior Lindsay Austin has 9.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and team-leading totals of 5.6 assists and 2.8 steals ... Austin, who at BSU came as close to a quadruple-double as any Falcon ever has, has five double-doubles this year (three points-rebounds, one pts.-assists and one pts.-steals) ... freshman Carin Horne has 7.4 points and 3.5 caroms on the year, while classmate Megan Thorburn is averaging 7.3 points ... junior Kelly Kapferer and sophomore Casey McDowell average 4.3 and 2.5 points, respectively, off the bench.
BGSU 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 for sixth in the MAC's West Division last year ... in 2003-04, head coach Curt Miller's Falcons returned six letterwinners from that team, including a pair of senior co-captains in starters 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 Falcon staff.
Austin and Wenzel each have started all 26 games, while frosh Honegger and Mann have started 25 and Thorburn 18 ... Horne has started eight contests, while Kapferer has made a pair of starts this winter.
The Falcons are shooting .409 from the field this season, including a .333 rate from three-point land, and .730 from the free-throw line ... the opponents have shot .388 from the floor, .331 from the arc and .701 from the line to date.
BGSU is 7-4 at home, 8-5 in road games and 2-0 in neutral-site contests this year ... in league play, the Falcons are 4-3 at Anderson Arena and went 6-2 away from home ... last season, BG was 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 just 1-7 away from Anderson in 2002-03.
SCOUTING TOLEDO
Toledo enters Tuesday's game with an overall record of 12-14 and a MAC mark of 8-7 ... the Rockets saw a two-game winning streak snapped with Saturday's (Feb. 28) narrow 62-61 loss at Western Michigan ... UT is 5-7 in road games this season, including a 3-4 mark in MAC road contests to date ... individually, senior guard Kelly Walker leads the team with 12.0 points per game, including a UT-high 55 three-point field goals ... junior center Karin Hoogendam averages 11.8 points and a team-best 6.7 rebounds per game, while freshman guard Danielle Bishop has 9.2 points and 5.0 boards per outing ... senior point guard Mary Blessing has averages of 7.9 points and 3.8 assists, while senior forward Julie Hillis has 7.2 points and 6.2 rebounds ... those five players comprise the probable starting lineup for coach Mark Ehlen ... Ehlen welcomed back eight letterwinners, including three starters, from last year's team that went 20-10 overall and tied for the West Division title with a 12-4 MAC record ... Ehlen has a record of 189-79 in his ninth season in the Glass City ... he is 311-209 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, 30-25, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU has captured the last two meetings ... the Falcons have a 16-7 mark in games played at Anderson Arena ... BGSU made the short trip north and won by a 57-54 count earlier this season (Jan. 21, 2004) ... last year, the teams split their two meetings, with the home team winning each time ... host UT won a 70-62 decision in Savage Hall (Jan. 15, 2003), while the Falcons picked up a 66-62 win at Anderson in the rematch (Feb. 8, 2003) ... Toledo has won three of the last five games and eight of the last 11 meetings ... the Falcons have won the last two home games vs. the Rockets, however, and BG has taken three of the last four meetings in Anderson ... four of the last six series contests, including each of the last three games, have been decided by single digits.
MANN NAMED MAC PLAYER OF WEEK
Freshman Ali Mann was named the MAC Player of the Week, the conference office announced Monday (March 1) ... Mann averaged 24.0 points and 7.5 rebounds as the Falcons picked up a pair of road wins ... she shot .577 from the field and .750 (6-of-8) from three-point range as the Falcons won at both Marshall (77-67, Feb. 25) and Ball State (84-79 in OT, Feb. 29) ... Mann had 20 points, a team-high eight rebounds and a season-best four steals at MU, where her 6-of-10 shooting night included a 3-for-5 effort from three-point range ... Sunday at BSU, Mann had a game-high 28 points and added seven boards ... her totals of nine field goals made and 16 attempted both were season highs ... she also tied her season best with three three-pointers, a mark she had set four days earlier at MU ... Mann was a perfect 3-for-3 from long range in the BSU game.
MAC TOURNAMENT PICTURE
If the regular season were over, 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 has clinched a home berth for the first round ... the Falcons will finish as either the fourth or fifth seed, and will play either UA or Central Michigan ... 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, 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 game, if any...
School W-L Tuesday Miami 14-1 vs. Kent State Eastern Michigan 11-4 @Central Michigan Kent State 11-4 @MiamiWestern Michigan 11-5 idle Bowling Green 10-5 vs. Toledo Toledo 8-7 @Bowling Green Ball State 7-8 @Northern Illinois Marshall 7-8 vs. Akron
Northern Illinois 6-9 vs. Ball State Ohio 6-9 @Buffalo Buffalo 4-11 vs. Ohio Akron 2-13 @Marshall Central Michigan 1-14 vs. Eastern Michigan
LAST TIME OUT
The Falcons rallied from an 11-point second half deficit for an 84-79 overtime win at Ball State Sunday afternoon (Feb. 29) in a televised game ... freshman Ali Mann led all players with a career-high 28 points, while classmate Megan Thorburn had 17 ... senior Lindsay Austin had seven points in the overtime period, and came close to a quadruple-double, with nine points, 11 rebounds, nine assists and nine steals ... more information on the Ball State game can be found elsewhere on bgsufalcons.com.
THE FALCONS...
NEARLY A QUADRUPLE-DOUBLE
Senior Lindsay Austin came as close to a quadruple-double as any Falcon ever has ... in the Ball State game (Feb. 29), Austin had nine points and team-high totals of 11 rebounds, nine assists and nine steals ... the steals total was just one away from her school-record total of 10, set at Miami earlier in the month (Feb. 3) ... Austin also had a blocked shot in 41 minutes of action at BSU ... she scored seven of her nine points in the overtime period.
SOME STRIKING SIMILARITIES
It can be argued, quite convincingly, that this year's Falcon team has enjoyed the most success since 1997-98 ... BG has won 17 games for the first time since that 1997-98 team went 21-8 en route to a WNIT bid ... BGSU is 10-5 in MAC play, the most league victories since Jaci Clark's final team ... and, BGSU has finished the road portion of the 2003-04 season with a 6-2 record, the best since that same '97-98 squad had a 7-2 mark ... this year's Falcons have a road record of 8-5 and a mark of 10-5 in all games away from home, matching the 1997-98 squad (8-4, 10-6).
WENZEL SURPASSES 1,000-POINT PLATEAU
In the Kent State game (Feb. 21), Falcon senior Stefanie Wenzel became the 17th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point plateau for her career ... Wenzel hit the millennium mark by converting a three-point play with 11:09 left in the second half of that game ... entering the Toledo game, Wenzel now has a career total of 1,033 points, ranking her 16th on the BGSU career scoring list ... 997 of those points have come since her freshman year, an average of 12.2 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 has topped that total this season, with double-digit efforts in a team-high 23 of BGSU's 26 games, including in each of the last eight contests ... over the last month, Wenzel has upped her career scoring average into double figures, and she now averages 10.5 ppg through 98 career games.
HOME TO STAY (also titled, PICKED FOR SIXTH, NO WORSE THAN THIRD)
Since the beginning of the 2003-04 season, Falcon head coach Curt Miller has stated that a primary goal of his team is to finish among the top-eight teams in the MAC, thereby earning a home game for the first round of the league tournament ... mission accomplished ... Miller and the Falcons have clinched a winning record, both overall and in MAC play, and BGSU will be at home when MAC Tournament play begins on Saturday (March 6) ... BG currently holds down the fifth spot in the seedings, and the Falcons could finish as high as the fourth seed ... BGSU was picked to finish sixth in the West in the MAC News Media Association's preseason poll.
HOME COOKIN': TRYING TO HOLD SERVE AT HOME ...
The Falcons have a record of 7-4 at home, including a MAC mark of 4-3 at Anderson Arena this year ... BGSU's home win total is the highest since the 1998-99 season, when the Falcons went 8-4 ... the Falcons are looking for the first winning MAC home record in three years.
...AND LOOKING TO STEAL SOME ON THE ROAD
The Falcons went just 1-7 in MAC road games last year ... only a three-point decision at Akron (65-62) went into the plus column for the Brown and Orange ... this year, however, BGSU enjoyed great success in hostile league venues ... the Falcons finished with a mark of 6-2 in MAC road games this season, the best league road record since 1997-98 ... overall, the Falcons are 8-5 in road games this year, and BG is 10-5 in all games played away from home in 2003-04.
MORE ON THE ROAD WARRIORS
The Falcons closed the road portion of the MAC schedule with four consecutive victories ... that marked BGSU's first four-game conference road win streak in six years, since late January-early February of 1998.
IT TAKES A THIEF
Senior Lindsay Austin had nine steals in the game at Ball State Sunday (Feb. 29) ... prior to this season, that would have set a school record ... Austin, however, had set a new record earlier in February, with 10 steals in the Feb. 3 game at Miami ... Austin now has had two of the top-three single-game steals totals in school history, and -- with 229 steals -- is within striking distance of the BGSU career record.
'TENE' STANDS FOR 'TENACIOUS'
Junior Tene Lewis has provided a spark off the bench in the last three games ... she entered the Kent State game (Feb. 21) averaging 6.8 minutes per contest, with season totals of 16 free throws attempted, 20 rebounds, 16 assists, 13 steals and 22 points in 21 games ... in the last three contests, Lewis has averaged 13.0 minutes and has totalled 13 rebounds, six assists, six steals and 11 points ... she has gotten herself to the free-throw line 20 times in those three games, including eight times against both KSU and Marshall ... in the KSU contest, Lewis had four points, two rebounds and a game-high (and career-high tying) four steals in just nine minutes ... additionally, she had an assist and took a charge ... at Marshall, Lewis had three points and hauled down a season-high seven rebounds (tying a career best) in 10 minutes ... she also had an assist and a steal vs. the Herd ... she played a season-high 20 minutes at BSU, and also set a season best with four assists.
SMART ... VERY SMART
On Feb. 19, the Falcons' two senior co-captains were named to the Academic All-District IV Teams presented by CoSIDA ... Stefanie Wenzel was named to the first team, while Lindsay Austin was 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, a student-athlete 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.
THREE-MENDOUS: BG DIALS LONG DISTANCE
The Falcons have made 10 three-point field goals in each of the last two games, after going 18 games without hitting double digits in that category ... BG has now turned the trick four times this season ... the Falcons' 10 triples made at Marshall marked the first double-figure performance in that category since a Dec. 6 win over IPFW (also 10 treys) ... the Falcons made 10 more shots from behind the arc in the Ball State game ... BG's season high is 12, recorded at Bucknell (Dec. 3).
IT'S IN THE CARDS FOR THORBURN
Freshman Megan Thorburn has struggled with her shooting touch during MAC play ... but, Thorburn enjoyed success Sunday (Feb. 29) at Ball State ... she had 17 points, her season-best total for a MAC game, vs. the Cardinals ... Thorburn's previous best point total in league play was 15, in the Falcons' other OT contest, vs. Northern Illinois ... her season best is 22 points in the season opener at Youngstown State ... Thorburn hit a pair of three-pointers at Ball State, the first time since that YSU game that she had made more than one trey in a game.
START ME UP (THE CAREER STARTS LIST)
Senior Lindsay Austin's starting assignment at Ball State was the 105th of her career, moving her past Sara Puthoff (1994-98) into third place on that Falcon career list ... with at least two games remaining (one regular-season game 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 HIGH ON OTHER BGSU CAREER LISTS AS WELL
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 at CMU (Feb. 14), and enters the UT game with career totals of 947 points, 482 assists and 229 steals ... Austin became just the fourth player in school history to reach the 400 career assists barrier, and in the Kent State game (Feb. 21), she moved past Dee Knoblauch (218 from 1979-83) into second place on the steals list ... Austin is 12 steals away from school record-holder Lori Albers (241 from 1989-94) ... she also has an outside chance to crack the 1,000-point plateau ... 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.
I AM IRON WOMAN
Senior Lindsay Austin leads the Falcons with an average of 33.6 minutes per game this year ... believe it or not, Austin has played at least 40 minutes in three of the last four games ... she played 42 minutes before fouling out of the four-OT Northern Illinois game ... after logging "only" 33 minutes vs. Kent State, Austin played all 40 minutes of the Marshall game, then played 41 of the 45 minutes at Ball State ... she is averaging 39.0 minutes over the last four contests.
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 nine times in 26 contests ... the Falcons have outboarded the opponent 15 times, battling to a draw in two other games ... BG has a +2.0 rebounding margin this season to date (+1.3 in MAC games).
BOARDWORK PAYING OFF, PART II
BGSU, as mentioned, has had more rebounds than the opposition 15 times in 2003-04, and the Falcons are 11-4 in such contests ... the Brown and Orange had held the rebounding advantage only nine times (in 56 games) over the previous two years, going 7-2 in such games (4-0 in 2002-03, 3-2 in 2001-02).
IT'S A SEASON-LONG BLOCK PARTY FOR HONEGGER
Freshman Liz Honegger had four blocked shots in the Northern Illinois game, and is rapidly moving up that BGSU single-season list ... entering the Toledo game, Honegger now has 42 blocks this year, good for fourth place ... Angie Bonner holds the top-three spots on the list, including a school-record 50 in 1989-90 ... Honegger has 23 blocks in MAC games, just three shy of that school record (26 by Bonner in 1988-89).
