Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU Hosts Saint Francis (Pa.) Monday
November 20, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 20, 2005
BGSU Notes (11 pages) in PDF Format
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
GAME #2
BGSU vs. SAINT FRANCIS (PA.)
Mon., November 21, 2005
7:00 p.m.
Anderson Arena (4,700)
Bowling Green, Ohio
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1) - Brian Scullin and Ryan Gasser
SERIES: BGSU leads, 1-0
LAST MEETING: BGSU 80, at Saint Francis 74 (OT) (Dec. 18, 2004)
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after a home win to open the season, looks to continue that success at venerable Anderson Arena ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller conclude a season-opening two-game homestand with a Monday (Nov. 21) game vs. Saint Francis (Pa.) University ... tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at Anderson (4,700).
BATTLE OF NCAA TOURNAMENT TEAMS
Monday's game is a matchup of two teams that advanced to the 2005 NCAA Championships, as both BGSU and Saint Francis were among the 64 teams to compete in the national tournament in March ... the Falcons, of course, won the MAC regular-season and tournament titles in 2004-05, and appeared in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 11 years ... the Red Flash have won the Northeast Conference Tournament title nine times in the last 10 years.
PACK THOSE BAGS
Monday's game, as mentioned, is the second home game in four days for the Falcons ... following the SFU game, the Brown and Orange will play the next two contests, and seven of the next eight games, away from home ... BGSU's game vs. Duquesne (Dec. 6) is the Falcons' lone home contest of the month of December ... then, the Falcons will be away from home for over a month, until the MAC opener vs. Akron on Jan. 7, 2006.
THE FALCON 500
The Falcons' win over IPFW Friday (Nov. 18) was the 500th victory in the history of the program ... BGSU enters the Saint Francis game with an all-time record of 500-338 (.597) ... among current league schools, the Falcons were just the second to reach the 500-victory plateau (according to the MAC media guide) ... Northern Illinois picked up win number 508 Friday, while Toledo entered Sunday's (Nov. 20) game with a total of 499 wins ... the 2005-06 season marks the Falcons' 33rd season as a varsity program.
BANNER UNVEILING
The Falcons added another banner to the Anderson Arena rafters on Friday night ... prior to the BGSU-IPFW game, head coach Curt Miller and the Falcons took part in a ceremony in which the 2005 NCAA banner was unveiled at the north end of the arena.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
Bowling Green enters Monday's Saint Francis game with a 1-0 record on the young season, after a 78-50 win over IPFW Friday (Nov. 18) ... the Falcons return nine letterwinners, including all five starters, from last year's MAC Championship team ... the 2004-05 Falcons finished 23-8 overall and 13-3 in league play, winning the West Division title and earning the number-one seed for the Kraft MAC Tournament ... then, Curt Miller's team picked up three wins to earn the league tourney title ... senior Casey McDowell, juniors Liz Honegger, Carin Horne and Ali Mann and sophomore Kate Achter are the returning starters ... each of the five earned some sort of MAC honor in 2004-05 ... Honegger and Mann each were named to the All-MAC Second Team, while Horne earned honorable mention and Achter was named to the MAC's All-Freshman Team ... Achter was named the MAC Tournament MVP, with Honegger and McDowell joining her on the all-tournament team ... other returning letterwinners include senior Jill Lause, juniors Amber Flynn and Megan Thorburn and sophomore Whitney Taylor ... the freshman class is comprised of Lindsey Goldsberry, Jasmine McCall, Jessica McKenzie and DePrice Taylor ... Honegger led all scorers with 18 points in the IPFW game, while Mann had 14 points and nine rebounds ... Achter also had nine boards, and had seven points and a career-high 10 assists ... Flynn set a career best with 13 points off the bench.
SCOUTING SAINT FRANCIS
Saint Francis enters the BGSU game with an overall record of 0-3 ... the Red Flash have played three tough opponents, all away from home ... SFU opened the season with a pair of games in the Women's Sports Foundation Challenge, falling to host Oregon (80-30; Nov. 11) and Michigan (80-52; Nov. 12) ... on Saturday (Nov. 19), the team dropped a 74-39 game at Cincinnati ... junior center Beth Halter, after a 20-point game at UC, now leads the team in scoring, with 9.0 points per contest ... senior guard Amber Hein, the team's lone returning starter from last season, averages 6.3 points, with freshman guard Brittney Weaver averaging 6.0 points off the bench ... two more frosh, forward Kanisha Garrett and F/C Whitney Robinson, have 5.3 and 4.7 ppg, respectively, with Robinson having pulled down a team-high 5.3 rebounds per game ... junior guard Christie Ayers (3.3 ppg), sophomore forward Emily Bollinger (3.0 ppg) and senior forward Tracey Jackson (1.0 ppg) join Halter and Hein in the probable starting lineup for head coach Jill Poe ... a total of five letterwinners returned from last year's 21-10 team ... that Red Flash squad went 16-2 in Northeast Conference play and won the league tournament for the fourth consecutive year and the ninth time in 10 seasons ... Poe has a record of 46-19 in her third year as a collegiate head coach, all in Loretto ... the school's web site is www.francis.edu.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Saint Francis, 1-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... the only prior meeting came last year, featured two teams that would advance to the NCAA Championships, and required overtime ... the visiting Falcons rallied from a nine-point second-half deficit for an 80-74 victory in OT (Ded. 18, 2004) ... Ali Mann paced four BG double-digit scorers with 19 points, while Carin Horne scored 18 ... the boxscore from the game can be found in the pdf version of these notes.
A TALE OF TWO TEAMS
The Falcons returned all five starters, and nine letterwinners, from last year's team ... by contrast, Saint Francis has five total letterwinners, and only one starter, back from a season ago ... the returning BGSU players combined to score 78 of the Falcons' 80 points (97.5 percent) in last season's win at SFU ... returning Red Flash players scored just 15 of the team's 74 points (20.3%) in that contest.
LAST TIME OUT
The Falcons opened the 2005-06 season with a 78-50 win over visiting IPFW Friday night (Nov. 18) ... three juniors scored in double figures for the hosts, led by Liz Honegger with 18 ... Ali Mann had 14 points and nine rebounds, while Amber Flynn scored a career-high 13 points off the bench ... sophomore Kate Achter had seven points and career-best totals of nine boards and 10 assists ... the victory was the 500th in the history of the BGSU women's basketball program, making the Falcons just the second Mid-American Conference school to reach that plateau ... the Falcons led by eight points at the half, and scored 11-straight points as part of an 18-2 run to seal the game midway through the second half ... for the Mastodons, Ashley Johnson had 12 points, while Juliane Hohne and Johnna Lewis-Carlisle added 11 apiece ... the Falcons held advantages of 42-28 in rebounding and 38-18 in points in the paint.
HOME SWEET HOME
The Falcons' win over IPFW continued the team's recent success at home ... last season, BGSU posted a record of 9-1 at Anderson Arena ... the Falcons have won 12 of the last 13 games, dating to late in the 2003-04 campaign ... BG outscored the opponents by 15.9 points per game at Anderson last season, and by 18 points per outing (77.1 to 59.1) in the nine wins ... the lone home loss a year ago was by three points to defending champion Eastern Michigan.
THE MIGHTY FLYNN
All during the offseason, Falcon head coach Curt Miller told anyone who would listen that junior Amber Flynn had made perhaps as much improvement as anyone on the team ... yes, the season is only one game old ... but Flynn has shown that maybe, just maybe, her coach knows what he is talking about ... Flynn had a career-high 13 points in BG's win over IPFW ... the Cincinnati native also set career bests in field goals made (five) and attempted (10) and minutes played (17) ... Flynn tied her career standards with four rebounds and a steal.
HONEGGER, MANN HAVE DOUBLE VISION
Juniors Liz Honegger and Ali Mann have been in double digits in the scoring column much more often than not over their careers ... Honegger scored at least 10 points in 25 of last year's 31 games, while Mann had 24 double-figure games of her own ... both players were at it again Friday, as Mann and Honegger each reached double digits in scoring ... Mann now has scored 10 points or more 44 times in her 63 career games, while Honegger - who has also played 63 games - has had 40 games of at least 10 points in a Falcon uniform.
ACHTER A TRIPLE THREAT
It is believed that no Falcon women's basketball player ever has recorded a triple-double in a game ... in the first game of her sophomore season, however, Kate Achter was not too far away from hitting double digits in three categories ... Achter scored seven points, and set career marks with nine rebounds and 10 assists ... she played 28 minutes in the win ... Achter played just 10 minutes of the second half, sitting out the final 8:36 of the contest.
BACK TO THE EAST
The Falcons return to the MAC's East Division in 2005-06 ... BGSU spent five seasons in the East after the MAC instituted divisional play prior to the 1997-98 academic year ... in 2002, BG was moved to the West ... in early February of 2005, the MAC Council of Presidents approved the return of Bowling Green to the league's East Division in all sports, effective in 2005-06 ... the Falcons spent three seasons in the West, winning the divisional title in 2004-05.
FALCONS ON THE RADIO
Nearly all of the Falcons' regular-season games, plus any postseason action, are scheduled to be on the air again in 2005-06 ... student station WBGU-FM (88.1), the flagship station for the women's basketball Falcons, is scheduled to air nearly every regular-season contest, including the entire home schedule ... the 2005-06 academic year marks the fourth season of an agreement between the BGSU department of athletics and the Bowling Green Radio Sports Organization (BGRSO) to have WBGU serve as the flagship station for both hockey and women's basketball ... games produced by BGRSO can be heard on the web, both at bgrso.org and via BGSU Falcons All-Access package available through BGSUFalcons.com.
LAUSE, MANN, McDOWELL NAMED CAPTAINS
Seniors Jill Lause and Casey McDowell and junior Ali Mann have been named tri-captains of the 2005-06 Falcons ... the three were selected in a vote of team members as well as coaching staff ... in the last three seasons, since Lause began her collegiate career and McDowell transferred from Indiana State, the Falcons have averaged almost 19 wins per year ... over the last two seasons (plus one game), since the start of Mann's freshman year, BG has gone 45-18 and twice advanced to the MAC Tournament's championship game.
MANN NAMED TO PRESEASON ALL-MAC SQUAD Juniors Liz Honegger and Ali Mann were named to the MAC's preseason all-conference team for 2005-06 ... the team, a result of voting by members of the MAC News Media Association, consists of five student-athletes from each of the MAC's two divisions ... Mann, a native of Chelsea, Mich., earned the honor for the second consecutive October ... both players earned All-MAC Second-Team honors for their play in the 2004-05 season.
NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS
For the third consecutive season, BGSU completed the non-conference portion of the schedule at 7-4 in 2004-05 ... the Falcons had not had three consecutive winning non-league campaigns in over a decade (1991-92 to 1993-94) ... additionally, the Falcons recorded 21 non-league victories over the last three years, tying a school record for a three-year period (BGSU also had 21 such wins from the 1986-87 through 1988-89 seasons) ... BG is the only MAC school to post winning non-league records in each of the last three seasons ... and, of course, BGSU has started the 2005-06 season with a 1-0 record in non-league play
NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS II
The Falcons' win over Bucknell last Dec. 30 closed the 2004-05 non-conference season, and extended one of the most successful non-league stretches in school history ... since the start of the 2002-03 season, BGSU is 22-12 in regular-season, non-league games, the most wins of any MAC school ... BG's .647 winning pct. in such games also is the MAC's best.
