Senior Night A Success As Falcons Top Toledo, 71-62

Tuesday, March 2

Bowling Green, Ohio (Senior Night)

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

TOLEDO

March 02, 2004 | Women's Basketball

March 2, 2004

Final Stats| Quotes

MAC Tournament Bracket (courtesy MAC office) in PDF Format
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team got out to a fast start, leading from wire to wire in a 71-62 win over the University of Toledo Tuesday night (March 2). The Mid-American Conference game, which completed the regular season for both teams, was held at Anderson Arena.

With the win, the Falcons improve to 18-9 overall and end MAC play with an 11-5 record, reversing last year's 5-11 league ledger. The Rockets drop to 12-15 and 8-8, respectively. BG has swept a pair of regular-season games from UT for the first time since 1997-98.

BGSU's win, combined with a Kent State win at Miami, gives the Falcons the fourth seed for the 13-team Kraft MAC Tournament, which begins this weekend. BG will open tourney play with a Saturday (March 6) game vs. Central Michigan, beginning at 1:00 p.m. at Anderson Arena.

On "Senior Night" at Anderson Arena, senior Stefanie Wenzel had a team-high 19 points, while freshmen Megan Thorburn had 17 points for the second consecutive game. Another freshman, Ali Mann, scored 14 points, while the other two starters, senior Lindsay Austin and freshman Liz Honegger, had nine points apiece.

Toledo got a game-high 20 points from Danielle Bishop, while Karin Hoogendam and Kelly Walker had 13 and 11 points, respectively.

For the Falcons, the first five minutes of the game could not have been much better. BGSU made 7-of-8 shots to begin the contest. After a steal and layup by Austin just 14 seconds into the game, Wenzel hit a jumper on the Falcons' next possession.

Honegger hit a three-point field goal during that stretch, and Wenzel followed a triple with a layup. Thorburn also hit a layup, and Honegger converted a three-point play. After a pair of Wenzel free throws, the Falcons had a 19-7 lead at the first media timeout.

BGSU then went cold, however. After starting with that 7-for-8 shooting stretch, the Falcons missed eight consecutive shots before a Thorburn jumper at the 9:57 mark. The Rockets were not having much better luck from the field, however, and Thorburn's shot put the home team ahead by a 24-16 score midway through the period.

After BGSU's quick start to the game, the Rockets cut the lead to six points on several occasions, the last at 26-20. But, Wenzel answered with a three-pointer off an assist from fellow senior Austin. UT got within seven after a Julie Hillis jumper in the final minute of the half, but a pair of Thorburn charity tosses gave the Falcons a 39-30 lead at the intermission.

In that first half, Wenzel had 14 points, while Thorburn added nine.

Toledo began the second half on a 6-2 run to cut the BG lead to five points, at 41-36. From there, however, the Falcons held the visitors scoreless for 5:36. BGSU scored eight consecutive points during that time to take a 49-36 lead.

The Falcons led by double digits until the final 11 seconds, and BG led by as many as 18 after a Thorburn free throw with 5:49 left. The Rockets outscored the hosts by a 13-4 margin thereafter to get within nine points at the final horn.

The Falcons had a narrow edge in field-goal percentage, shooting .400 to the Rockets' .397. BGSU made nine three-pointers in 23 attempts (.391), while holding UT to a 4-of-17 effort (.235) from behind the arc. BGSU made 18 free throws to the Rockets' eight.

BGSU held a 45-37 rebounding advantage in the contest, and had 14 second-chance points to Toledo's six.

Honegger had game-high totals of 10 rebounds and four blocked shots, while Austin led the Falcons with four assists and four steals.

NOTES

The Falcons will host a MAC Tournament game for the first time in four years ... BGSU's last league tourney game at Anderson Arena was an 84-70 win over Ohio on Feb. 28, 2000

Freshman Liz Honegger had four blocked shots vs. the Rockets, in the process setting a school record for blocks in a MAC season ... Honegger had a total of 27 blocks in the 16 league games, breaking the old record of 26, set by Angie Bonner in 1988-89 ... overall this year, Honegger has 46 blocks, just four shy of Bonner's school record of 50 (set in 1989-90).

The Falcons, as mentioned, swept the regular-season series from Toledo for the first time since the 1997-98 season ... BGSU has won three consecutive games over the Rockets for the first time in over a decade, since the Falcons won all three meetings in the 1992-93 season ... BG now holds a 31-25 lead in the all-time series between the teams.

BGSU also has won three-straight games over UT at Anderson Arena, for the first time since the Falcons picked up six consecutive home wins from 1984-89.

MAC Freshman-of-the-Year candidate Ali Mann was a perfect 2-of-2 from three-point range ... Mann is now shooting .466 from long range (27-of-58), and finishes as the MAC's leader in that category in league games ... she was 23-of-43 (.535) from beyond the arc in MAC play, including a perfect 5-for-5 over the last two games.

The Falcons, picked to finish sixth in the MAC's West Division in the MAC News Media Association's preseason poll, ended league play in a second-place tie with Western Michigan, a game behind Eastern Michigan ... BGSU, as mentioned, reversed last season's league mark, going 11-5 in 2003-04 after a 5-11 MAC campaign last winter.

Freshman Megan Thorburn had 17 points Sunday (Feb. 29) at Ball State, setting a season best for a MAC game ... Thorburn matched that total with 17 more markers vs. the Rockets ... she is averaging 7.7 points per game this year -- 9.5 ppg as a starter and 3.4 ppg when coming off the bench.

On Tuesday night, senior Lindsay Austin started the 106th game of her career ... she has tied Susie Cassell for second place on that BGSU list ... the legendary Jackie Motycka holds the BGSU record with 115 games started.