Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Face WMU At Cleveland's Gund Arena
March 09, 2004 | Women's Basketball
March 9, 2004
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
Game Notes (pp. 1-22) in PDF Format
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Player bios & stats (pp. 23-47) in PDF FormatDownload Free Acrobat Reader
2003-04 boxscores (pp. 48-54) in PDF FormatDownload Free Acrobat Reader
BGSU (19-9)
vs.
WESTERN MICHIGAN (17-11)
Game #29Wed., March 10, 2004
3:00 p.m.
Gund Arena (11,000)
Cleveland, Ohio
Radio: WBGU-FM (88.1)
2004 KRAFT MAC TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL
Series: BGSU leads, 25-20
Last Meeting: at BGSU 69, WMU 67 (Feb. 7, 2004)
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after earning the fourth seed for the 2004 Kraft Mid-American Conference Tournament, has opened the tourney with a home win ... the Falcons of third-year head coach Curt Miller, for the first time in three years, advance to the tournament's quarterfinal round ... BGSU will meet defending league tourney champion Western Michigan University on Wednesday afternoon (March 10) at Gund Arena (11,000) in downtown Cleveland ... the game, the second of four games at Gund that day, is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. ... the contest will be broadcast on student radio station WBGU-FM (88.1), with Kevin Wernert and Aaron Rund on the call.
The BGSU-WMU winner will play the survivor of Wednsday's opening game, which pits top-seeded Miami University against #9 Ball State University ... that semifinal contest will take place Friday (March 12) at noon at Gund Arena ... the championship game is scheduled for Saturday (March 13) at 1:00 p.m.
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 22-13 record since the MAC Tournament was instituted in 1982 ... BGSU's win total ranks the Falcons third among league teams, and the .629 winning pct. is also the third-best of any school ... BG is participating in 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 now 9-0 all-time in MAC Tournament home games, and the Falcons have improved to 3-2 in the first round since the league adopted the current 13-team tourney format ... BG enters Wednesday's game with a 7-6 record in the quarterfinal round.
MAC TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
The Falcons, as mentioned, are the fourth seed for the MAC Tournament ... BGSU earned a home berth for the first time since 2000, and defeated Central Michigan, 66-54, Saturday afternoon (March 6) ... BGSU now faces fifth-seeded Western Michigan in quarterfinal-round action ... the top-three seeds in the conference tourney earned 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, got the third seed and the final first-round bye ... Saturday's five winners 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 State 80, at #8 Northern Illinois 71 Game 2 - at #5 Western Michigan 89, #12 Akron 67 Game 3 - at #4 Bowling Green 66, #13 Central Michigan 54 Game 4 - at #7 Toledo 68, #10 Ohio 65 Game 5 - at #6 Marshall 69, #11 Buffalo 45QUARTERFINALS (Wednesday, March 10 - Gund Arena, Cleveland) Game 6 - #9 Ball State (13-15, 7-9 MAC) vs. #1 Miami (20-7, 14-2), 1:00 Game 7 - #5 Western Mich. (17-11, 11-5) vs. #4 BGSU (19-9, 11-5), 3:00 Game 8 - #7 Toledo (13-15, 8-8) vs. #2 Eastern Mich. (19-7, 12-4), 5:30 Game 9 - Marshall (17-11, 8-8) vs. #3 Kent State (19-8, 12-4), 7:30
SEMIFINALS (Friday, March 12 - Gund Arena) Game 10 - BSU/Miami winner vs. BGSU/WMU winner, Noon (MAC TV) Game 11 - EMU/UT winner vs. KSU/Marshall winner, 2:30 (MAC TV)
CHAMPIONSHIP (Saturday, March 13 - Gund Arena) Semifinal winners, 1:00 (MAC TV)
MOST-IMPROVED TEAM IN THE MAC?
A case can be made that the Falcons are the MAC's most improved team ... the win over Central Michigan Saturday (March 6) improved BGSU's record to 19-9 overall ... the Falcons finished at 11-5 in MAC play ... BG has topped the overall win total from last season by seven games, the highest improvement in the league ... last year's squad went 12-16 overall and 5-11 in the MAC ... BGSU, six games better than last season in league play, was the only team to improve by more than three games over last season in MAC action ... the Falcons have clinched a winning record for the first time since 1997-98.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU enters the Western Michigan game with an overall record of 19-9, and the Falcons finished with a mark of 11-5 in MAC play ... BG has surpassed last year's overall win total by seven games, and head coach Curt Miller orchestrated a complete reversal of last year's league record (5-11 in 2002-03) ... the Falcons have clinched a winning record for the first time in six years ... BG, 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 posted three consecutive wins to close the regular season, then downed Central Michigan in the first round of the league tournament to run the current winning streak to four, tying a season high ... 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 (Feb. 29) ... on the final night of the regular season (March 2), the Falcons completed a season sweep of arch-rival Toledo with a 71-62 home win ... BG has won 12 of the last 16 games, and the Falcons have captured 15 of 20 contests since Christmas ... the Falcons' total of 11 league wins included six road victories in eight tries.
Senior Stefanie Wenzel leads the Falcons with 14.9 points per game, and is averaging 4.5 rebounds per contest ... four freshmen are ranked among the top-six in the Falcons' balanced scoring attack ... one of those frosh, Ali Mann, has 12.9 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 10.5 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, including a school-record 27 rejections in MAC games.
Senior Lindsay Austin has 9.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and team-leading totals of 5.5 assists and 2.9 steals ... Austin, who in the Ball State game (Feb. 29) 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 7.4 points and 3.3 caroms on the year, while classmate Carin Horne is averaging 7.0 points and 3.3 boards ... junior Kelly Kapferer and sophomore Casey McDowell average 4.4 and 2.3 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 28 games, while frosh Honegger and Mann have started 27 and Thorburn 20 ... Horne has started eight contests, while Kapferer has made a pair of starts this winter.
The Falcons are shooting .410 from the field this season, including a .336 rate from three-point land, and .722 from the free-throw line ... the opponents have shot .386 from the floor, .329 from the arc and .693 from the line to date.
BGSU is 9-4 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 WESTERN MICHIGAN
Western Michigan checks into Wednesday's game with an overall record of 17-11, and the Broncos finished MAC play with an 11-5 league ledger ... Western and BGSU tied for second place in the West Division, a game behind Eastern Michigan ... the Broncos head to Cleveland with a three-game winning streak ... after All-MAC First-Teamer Casey Rost suffered a season-ending injury in a game at Toledo (Feb. 18), the Broncos lost that game and the next contest, to Ohio ... but, Western rebounded to beat Central Michigan and UT to close the regular season, then topped Akron by an 89-67 count in the MAC Tournament opener ... Western went 9-3 at home and 7-8 on the road this year, and the team is 1-0 in neutral-site games to date ... in the MAC, the Broncos finished with records of 6-2 at home and 5-3 on the road ... Rost averaged 19.8 points per game this year ... freshman guard Carrie Moore leads the players on the active roster with 12.8 points, and also has 5.7 rebounds ... junior F/C Kelly Koerber has 11.1 points, while forward Lori Crisman, the team's lone senior, has 9.8 points and a team-high 7.3 rebounds ... junior guard Maria Jilian has 9.6 points and WMU-best averages of 5.8 assists and 3.4 steals ... Moore, Koerber, Crisman and Jilian each have started all 28 games this year, and junior guard Kim Driggett (3.0 ppg) has started three of the four games since Rost went down ... last year, head coach Ron Stewart's team finished 20-12 overall and 10-6 in MAC play ... the 2002-03 Broncos won the 2003 MAC Tournament to advance to the NCAA Championships ... Stewart welcomed back nine letterwinners, including three starters, from that team ... he has a head-coaching record of 106-98 in his seventh season, all in Kalamazoo ... the school's athletics web site is www.wmubroncos.com.
THE BGSU-WMU SERIES
The Falcons lead Western Michigan, 25-20, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU won the lone regular-season meeting this year ... Lindsay Austin's shot at the buzzer gave the host Falcons a 69-67 win (Feb. 7, 2004) ... prior to that win, the Falcons had won seven of the previous eight meetings ... WMU captured the only matchup last season, with a 75-51 win in Kalamzaoo (Jan. 29, 2003) ... the 2003-04 season marked the fifth consecutive year that the Falcons and Broncos had only one regular-season meeting ... the teams are deadlocked, 1-1, in neutral-site meetings.
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. WMU IN THE MAC TOURNAMENT
The Falcons will be meeting Western Michigan for the fifth time in the MAC Tournament, and the teams will be looking to break a 2-2 deadlock in conference tournament play ... BGSU and WMU have had two previous meetings in the quarterfinal round, with one first-round game and one championship game rounding out the teams' league tournament history ... BGSU posted a 70-53 win in the 1988 championship contest ... the Broncos had a 67-64 win over the Brown and Orange in the quarterfinal round of the 1995 tourney ... in 2000, Western posted an 87-63 win in a quarterfinal matchup at Cleveland's Public Hall ... the next year, the ninth-seeded Falcons travelled to Kalamazoo and posted a first-round upset over the eighth-seeded Broncos, 78-75.
BGSU'S MAC TOURNAMENT BREAKDOWN
The Falcons are now 22-13 in MAC Tournament play through the years ... BGSU has a record of 9-0 at Anderson Arena in the tourney, and the Falcons are 2-5 in road games and 11-8 in neutral-site contests ... the win over CMU gives the Falcons a record of 3-2 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.
BGSU AT THE GUND
Wednesday marks only the second-ever game for the Falcons at Gund Arena ... the lone prior meeting came in 2001 ... after posting the upset win at Western Michigan in the first round of the MAC Tournament, BGSU headed to Cleveland to face top-seeded Toledo (March 6, 2001) ... the ninth-seeded Falcons held a 41-38 lead at the half, before the Rockets took the lead for good with 16 minutes left and posted an 81-63 win ... only three members of the current Falcons squad were on the roster at that time, and all were freshmen ... Lindsay Austin drew the start, scoring four points in 19 minutes, while Kelly Kapferer also scored four points, in 13 minutes off the bench ... Stefanie Wenzel did not see action in that contest, the Falcons' final game before the Curt Miller Era began.
CLEVELAND ROCKS
The Falcons do not have any Cleveland natives on the current roster, but there are several BGSU ties to the Rock 'N' Roll capital ... Falcon players Kelly Kapferer (Jefferson, Ohio) and Casey McDowell (Hudson, Ohio) hail from Northeast Ohio ... head coach Curt Miller spent his collegiate years in the area, earning his undergraduate degree at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio ... and, assistant coach Kevin Eckert is a Berea native ... Eckert is the lone member of the current Falcon staff to have been involved in a MAC Tournament game at "The Gund," having worked at Buffalo prior to joining the BGSU staff.
WENZEL, AUSTIN, MANN ON ALL-MAC TEAMS
Seniors Stefanie Wenzel and Lindsay Austin and freshman Ali Mann were named to the All-MAC Team, the league office announced Monday morning (March 8) ... Wenzel picked up second-team honors, while Austin and Mann each earned honorable mention ... all three players earned all-league honors for the first time in their respective BGSU careers ... the 2003-04 season marks the first time BGSU has had more than one all-league selection since the 1997-98 (Charlotta Jones and Sara Puthoff on the first team, Jacki Raterman on the second team) squad that finished 21-8 and advanced to the WNIT.
MANN ON ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
BGSU's Ali Mann was selected to the MAC's All-Freshman Team ... that announcement was made Monday (March 8) ... the team is the result of voting by the league's 13 head coaches ... Mann is the eighth player in school history to be named to the MAC's All-Freshman Team, and the first since Francine Miller in 1998-99.
LAST TIME OUT
The Falcons used hot shooting in the early going, along with a pair of key scoring runs, to post a 66-54 win over visiting Central Michigan Saturday afternoon (March 6) in first-round action in the Kraft Mid-American Conference Tournament ... for the Falcons (19-9), four Falcons hit double digits in the win, led by freshman Ali Mann's 15 points ... Mann had a game-high eight rebounds, while classmate Liz Honegger had 12 points and seven boards ... both junior Kelly Kapferer and senior Lindsay Austin had 11 points, with Kapferer adding five rebounds in only 14 minutes of action ... Austin had game-high totals of five assists and four steals.
ONCE ... TWICE ... THREE TIMES A WINNER
BGSU's win over Central Michigan Saturday (March 6) marked the Falcons' third in as many meetings with the Chippewas this season ... it was the 16th time that the Falcons have met 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 now 13-3 ... the last time the Falcons pulled off the three-game sweep came 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 is now 2-1 against CMU in 'third meetings,' after having swept 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.
MANN, WE STILL OUGHTA GUARD HER
Freshman Ali Mann missed her only three-point field-goal attempt in the Central Michigan game ... that snapped a string of seven consecutive triples made for the Chelsea, Mich., native ... Mann made her final two trey tries at Marshall (Feb. 25), then was a perfect 3-for-3 from long distance at Ball State (Feb. 29) and 2-of-2 against Toledo (March 2) ... 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 .458 from long range (27-of-59), and now 8-of-11 from long range over the last four games.
WENZEL REACHES 100 GAMES, 1,000 POINTS
Falcon senior Stefanie Wenzel played in her 100th career game on Saturday afternoon ... in that game, Wenzel scored eight points, snapping her streak of consecutive double-digit games at 10 ... that had tied a personal career record ... Wenzel still has hit double figures in 24 of this season's 28 contests to date ... Wenzel, who in the Kent State game (Feb. 21) became the 17th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point plateau for her career, now has 1,060 total points, ranking 16th on the BGSU career scoring list ... 1,024 of those points have come since her freshman year, an average of 12.2 points per game since the start of her sophomore season ... 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 ... over the last month, Wenzel has upped her career scoring average into double figures, and she now averages 10.6 ppg through 100 career games.
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.
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 19 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 finished the road portion of the 2003-04 conference season with a 6-2 record, the best since that same '97-98 squad had a 7-2 mark ... this year's Falcons have an overall 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).
