Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host CMU In MAC Tournament's First Round
March 05, 2004 | Women's Basketball
March 5, 2004
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
Complete Notes (24 pages) in PDF Format
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BGSU (18-9)
vs.
CENTRAL MICHIGAN (5-22)
Game #28Sat., March 6, 2004
1:00 p.m.
Anderson Arena (4,700)
Bowling Green, Ohio
Radio: WBGU-FM (88.1)
2004 KRAFT MAC TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND
Series: BGSU leads, 35-12
Last Meeting: BGSU 69, at CMU 51 (Feb. 14, 2004)
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after closing the Mid-American Conference schedule with three consecutive wins, has earned a home berth for the first round of the 2004 Kraft MAC Tournament ... the Falcons of third-year head coach Curt Miller, the fourth seed for the 13-team tourney, will host 13th-seeded Central Michigan University on Saturday afternoon (March 6) ... the game, which is set for a 1:00 p.m. tipoff at venerable Anderson Arena (4,700), will be broadcast on student radio station WBGU-FM (88.1).
BGSU's 71-62 win over Toledo Tuesday (March 2), combined with a Kent State win at Miami, gave the Falcons the fourth seed for the 13-team Kraft MAC Tournament, which begins this weekend ... the winner of the BGSU-CMU game will advance to the MAC Tournament's quarterfinal round Wednesday (March 10) ... the survivor of today's game will face the winner of the Akron-Western Michigan contest, scheduled for later today ... the quarterfinal match is scheduled to begin at approximately 3:00 p.m. at Gund Arena in downtown Cleveland ... the league tournament semifinals (March 12) and championship (March 13) are also held at Gund.
BGSU'S MAC TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The Falcons are participating in the MAC Tournament for the 20th time in its 23-year history ... BG has posted a 21-13 record since the MAC Tournament was instituted in 1982 ... the Falcons' complete game-by-game tourney history can be found in the pdf version of these notes ... BGSU's win total ranks the Falcons third among league teams, and the .618 winning pct. is also the third-best of any school ... BG has made the tourney for the 19th-straight year, the longest current streak among MAC schools ... since all 13 schools make the tourney under the current format, the Falcons' streak is likely to continue ... BGSU is 8-0 all-time in MAC Tournament home games, and the Falcons have a record of 2-2 in the first round since the league adopted the current 13-team tourney format ... the CMU game is BG's first MAC tourney home game since 2000.
MAC TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
The Falcons, as mentioned, are the fourth seed for the MAC Tournament ... BGSU earns a home berth for the first time since 2000, and will meet Central Michigan ... the top-three-three seeds in the conference tourney earn first-round byes, with division winners Miami and Eastern Michigan earning the first and second seeds, respectively ... Kent State, as the team with the best record among the remaining 11 schools, gets the third seed and the final first-round bye ... the fourth through eighth seeds for the tournament 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 ... the complete schedule follows ...
2004 KRAFT MAC TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND (Saturday, March 6 - campus sites) Game 1 - #9 Ball St. (12-15, 7-9 MAC) at #8 Northern Ill. (12-15, 7-9), Noon CT Game 2 - #12 Akron (7-20, 2-14) at #5 Western Mich. (16-11, 11-5), 4:30 Game 3 - #13 Central Michigan (5-22, 1-15) at #4 BGSU (18-9, 11-5), 1:00 Game 4 - #10 Ohio (13-14, 7-9) at #7 Toledo (12-15, 8-8), 7:00 Game 5 - #11 Buffalo (6-20, 4-12) at #6 Marshall (16-11, 8-8), 1:00MOST-IMPROVED TEAM IN THE MAC?QUARTERFINALS (Wednesday, March 10 - Gund Arena, Cleveland) Game 6 - NIU/BSU winner vs. #1 Miami (20-7, 14-2), 1:00 Game 7 - UA/WMU winner vs. CMU/BGSU winner, 3:00 Game 8 - OU/UT winner vs. #2 Eastern Michigan (19-7, 12-4), 5:30 Game 9 - UB/Marshall winner vs. #3 Kent State (19-8, 12-4), 7:30
SEMIFINALS (Friday, March 12 - Gund Arena) Game 10 - Game 6 winner vs. Game 7 winner, Noon (MAC TV) Game 11 - Game 8 winner vs. Game 9 winner, 2:30 (MAC TV)
CHAMPIONSHIP (Saturday, March 13 - Gund Arena) Semifinal winners, 1:00 (MAC TV)
A case can be made that the Falcons are the MAC's most improved team ... the win over Toledo Tuesday (March 2) improved BGSU's records to 18-9 overall and 11-5 in MAC play ... in each case, the Falcons have topped the win totals from last season by six games ... last year's squad went 12-16 overall and 5-11 in the MAC ... BGSU is the only team with more than a three-game MAC improvement over a year ago ... overall to date, the Falcons are one of just two teams (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, +6 1. Bowling Green, +6 2. Miami, +3 Eastern Michigan, +6 Eastern Michigan, +3 3. Akron, +5 4. Kent State, +2 4. Ohio, +4 Ohio, +2 Western Michigan, +4 6. Akron, Marshall, WMU, +1 Marshall, +4
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU enters the Kraft MAC Tournament with an overall record of 18-9, and the Falcons finished with a mark of 11-5 in MAC play ... BG, having surpassed last year's win totals by six games, has clinched a winning record for the first time in six years ... the Falcons, picked to finish sixth in the West Division in the MAC News Media Association's preseason poll, tied for second, a game out of first ... 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 Statethree days later ... BGSU bounced back, however, with three consecutive wins to close the regular season ... the Falcons posted a 77-67 victory at Marshall (Feb. 25), before winning at Ball State, 84-79 in overtime, in a MAC TV game on Sunday (Feb. 29) ... Tuesday (March 2), the Falcons completed a season sweep of arch-rival Toledo with a 71-62 home win ... BG has won 11 of the last 15 games, all in MAC play ... since Christmas, the Falcons have captured 14 of 19 contests ... the Falcons' total of 11 league wins included 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 15.1 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 ... one of those frosh, Ali Mann, has 12.8 points and 7.9 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 10.4 points and is second on the Falcons in rebounding, with 7.6 boards per game ... Honegger leads the Brown and Orange with 1.7 blocked shots per outing.
Senior Lindsay Austin has 9.9 points, 5.2 rebounds and team-leading totals of 5.5 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 Megan Thorburn has 7.7 points and 3.4 caroms on the year, while classmate Carin Horne is averaging 7.2 points ... junior Kelly Kapferer and sophomore Casey McDowell average 4.1 and 2.4 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.
Austin and Wenzel each have started all 27 games, while frosh Honegger and Mann have started 26 and Thorburn 19 ... Horne has started eight contests, while Kapferer has made a pair of starts this winter.
The Falcons are shooting .408 from the field this season, including a .335 rate from three-point land, and .729 from the free-throw line ... the opponents have shot .389 from the floor, .327 from the arc and .695 from the line to date.
BGSU is 8-4 at home, 8-5 in road games and 2-0 in neutral-site contests this year ... in league play, the Falcons finished with a 5-3 mark 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 were 4-4 at home and just 1-7 away from Anderson in 2002-03.
SCOUTING CENTRAL MICHIGAN
Central Michigan checks into Saturday's game with an overall record of 5-22, and the Chippewas finished MAC play with a 1-15 league ledger ... the Chippewas dropped the last four games of the regular season, including an 89-68 home setback to Eastern Michigan Tuesday (March 2) ... Central's MAC win came on the road, a 70-65 overtime victory at Akron on Feb. 18 ... the Chippewas played back-to-back OT games, forcing league champion Miami to an extra session three days after the UA contest ... overall this season, the Chippewas went 2-12 in road games ... CMU may feature the most balanced scoring of any team in the conference ... no player is averaging double digits in points, but no fewer than seven players average anywhere from 5.5 to 9.9 points per game ... individually, sophomore guard Casey Manning leads the team with 9.9 ppg, and also has a CMU-best 5.8 rebounds per contest ... another sophomore, forward Lindsay Mecoli, has 9.0 points, while junior guard Lindy Hatfield and sophomore guard Erin Kuhl have 7.7 and 7.3 points per game, respectively ... Hatfield has made a team-high 37 three-pointers, while Mecoli has hit 34 and Kuhl 28 ... Kuhl leads the Chippewas with 3.0 assists ... no fewer than 11 different players have drawn at least one start for head coach Eileen Kleinfelter ... Hatfield has started all 27 contests, while Kuhl has made 24 starts ... freshmen Ann Skufca (7.0 ppg, 4.5 rpg) and Sharonda Hurd (4.3 ppg) and senior Amanda Elwer (6.3 ppg, 4.5 rpg) join Hatfield and Kuhl in the probable starting lineup ... Kleinfelter welcomed back eight letterwinners, including three starters, from last year's team that went 11-17 overall and tied with the Falcons for sixth place in the West Division at 5-11 ... Kleinfelter has a record of 26-57 in her third season in Mount Pleasant ... she is 248-138 in her 13th year as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is www.cmuchippewas.com.
THE BGSU-CMU SERIES
The Falcons lead Central Michigan, 35-12, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU is 18-4 in home games vs. the Chippewas ... the Falcons swept this year's two regular-season meetings, a 68-60 victory at Anderson (Jan. 17, 2004) and a 69-51 win at Mount Pleasant (Feb. 14, 2004) ... the Falcons have won the last seven home games vs. Central, since a 60-58 CMU win on Feb. 8, 1995 ... last year, the teams split their two games, with the Falcons capturing a 63-45 decision at Anderson (Jan. 18, 2003), and the Chippewas holding BG to a school record-low scoring total in a 42-30 CMU triumph in Michigan (Feb. 5, 2003) ... none of the last seven games, and only one of the last 13 meetings, has been decided by fewer than nine points.
MAC SERIES INFORMATION
The Falcons lead the all-time series with 10 of the 12 MAC opponents, and one other series is tied ... BG's win over Buffalo (Jan. 31) evened that series at 5-5 ... the Falcons trail only one MAC school, as Northern Illinois holds a 12-10 series lead over BGSU.
BGSU VS. CMU IN THE MAC TOURNAMENT
The Falcons will be meeting Central Michigan for the sixth time in the MAC Tournament, making the Chippewas BGSU's second-most common league tourney opponent (BG has met Toledo seven times in the tourney) ... the Brown and Orange holds a 3-2 advantage in conference tournament play vs. Central ... the teams' last tournament meeting was the only previous matchup in Anderson Arena, a 76-65 Falcon win in the quarterfinal round of the 1998 MAC Tournament ... BGSU and Central Michigan have never met in the first round, having played in the championship game once (1987) and the semifinal round three times (1986, 1988 and 1991), in addition to the '98 quarterfinals.
BGSU VS. MAC TOURNAMENT FOES
The Falcons have played nine different schools in the MAC Tournament, with Toledo being the most common opponent ... BGSU has met the Rockets seven times, and the Falcons will be meeting CMU for the sixth time in tourney play ... BGSU has played Kent (State) five times, Ball State, Ohio and Western Michigan four times apiece, three games vs. Eastern Michigan and one contest each against Akron and Miami ... BGSU's record against each team follows:
* Akron 0-1 * Ball State 4-0 * Central Mich. 3-2 * Eastern Mich. 2-1 * Kent (State) 3-2 * Miami 1-0 * Ohio 2-2 * Toledo 4-3 * Western Mich. 2-2
BGSU'S MAC TOURNAMENT BREAKDOWN
The Falcons are 21-13 in MAC Tournament play through the years ... BGSU has a record of 8-0 at Anderson Arena in the tourney, and the Falcons are 2-5 in road games and 11-8 in neutral-site contests ... the Falcons have a record of 2-2 in the first round since the league adopted the current 13-team playoff format ... BG is 7-6 in the quarterfinal round, and the Falcons have a 6-5 mark in semifinal games ... the Falcons have advanced to the championship game six times, and have a perfect 6-0 mark in such contests ... BG's last title came in 1994.
LAST TIME OUT
The Falcons got out to a fast start Tuesday night (March 2), leading from wire to wire in a 71-62 win over arch-rival Toledo at Anderson Arena ... on "Senior Night," senior Stefanie Wenzel had a team-high 19 points, while freshman 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.
YOU THE MANN: FALCON FRESHMAN NAMED MAC P-O-W
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.
NOTES FROM THE TOLEDO GAME
With the 71-62 win over Toledo Tuesday (March 2), the Falcons improve to 18-9 overall ... BG ends MAC play with an 11-5 record, reversing last year's 5-11 league ledger ... the Falcons have swept a pair of regular-season games from UT for the first time since 1997-98 ... 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 ...
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 ... BG now holds a 31-25 lead in the all-time series between the teams.
WENZEL NAMED AN ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICAN
Stefanie Wenzel has been named an Academic All-American, it was announced Thursday (March 4) ... the senior was one of just five student-athletes named to the Academic All-America Women's Basketball University Division First Team presented by CoSIDA ... Wenzel, a native of Sussex, Wis. (Hartland Arrowhead H.S.), becomes only the fifth Falcon to earn Academic All-America honors, and only the third women's basketball student-athlete in school history named to the first team ... on Feb. 19, Wenzel was named to the Academic All-District IV First Team, after earning all-district second-team honors as a junior ... as a first-team selection in 2004, Wenzel automatically had her name placed on the Academic All-America ballot ... to be eligible for Academic All-America honors, a student-athlete must be at least a sophomore, a starter or important reserve, and must carry a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 or higher (on a 4.0 scale) ... at the time of nomination, Wenzel maintained a 3.97 cumulative GPA as an integrated language arts major ... Wenzel is the first Falcon to earn Academic All-America accolades since Jacki Raterman in 1999, and joins Stephanie Coe (1987) and Talita Scott (1994) as the only first-team selections in school history.
MANN, WE SHOULDA GUARDED HER
MAC Freshman-of-the-Year candidate Ali Mann was a perfect 2-of-2 from three-point range in the win over Toledo ... Mann was the MAC leader in three-point field goal percentage, finishing with a .535 pct. (23-of-43) from beyond the arc in MAC play ... on the year, Mann is now shooting .466 from long range (27-of-58), and is a perfect 5-for-5 over the last two games.
THE FALCONS...
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 18 games for the first time since that 1997-98 team went 21-8 en route to a WNIT bid ... BGSU finished 11-5 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).
FALCONS MEETING CMU FOR THIRD TIME
It has been said that it is difficult to beat a team three times in a season ... Saturday's CMU game marks the 16th time that the Falcons will meet a team in the MAC Tournament after winning both regular-season games vs. that team ... when looking to complete the 'triple crown,' the Falcons are 12-3 ... BGSU last had the chance to pull off a three-game sweep in 2000, the last time the Falcons had a home MAC Tournament game ... BG had swept Ohio in the 1999-2000 regular season, and scored the first 11 points of the tourney game en route to an 84-70 win ... BGSU has twice met CMU in the tourney after sweeping the regular-season games ... Central spoiled the Falcons' bid in 1986, winning a 67-64 league tourney semifinal game ... in 1988, however, a Stephanie Coe jumper gave the Falcons a 63-62 win in the MAC Championship and the first NCAA Tournament berth in school history.
HONEGGER BLOCKS HER WAY TO A SCHOOL RECORD
Freshman Liz Honegger had four blocked shots vs. Toledo Tuesday (March 2), 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).
THORBURN ANOTHER FALCON SCORING THREAT
Freshman Megan Thorburn struggled with her shooting touch during MAC play, but has had a solid finish to her initial regular season ... Thorburn returned to the starting lineup for each of the last two games, and scored 17 points in each of those contests ... she had 17 points Sunday (Feb. 29) at Ball State to set a season best for a MAC game ... Thorburn matched that total with 17 more markers vs. the Rockets ... her season-high scoring total 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 ... 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.
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 CMU game, Wenzel now has a career total of 1,052 points, ranking her 16th on the BGSU career scoring list ... 1,016 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 24 of BGSU's 27 games, including in each of the last 10 contests ... that 10-game double-digit scoring streak ties her career best, set earlier in the 2003-04 season ... over the last month, Wenzel has upped her career scoring average into double figures, and she now averages 10.6 ppg through 99 career games.
HOME TO STAY (also titled, PICKED FOR SIXTH, BUT TIED FOR SECOND)
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, picked to finish sixth in the West in the MAC News Media Association's preseason poll, tied for second in the division, a game out of first ... the Falcons are the fourth seed overall for the league tournament.
HOME COOKIN': TRYING TO HOLD SERVE AT HOME ...
The Falcons have a record of 8-4 at home, including a MAC mark of 5-3 at Anderson Arena this year ... BGSU's home win total is the highest since the 1998-99 season, when the Falcons also went 8-4 ... the Falcons posted 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.
