Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host Duquesne Tuesday
December 05, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 5, 2005
BGSU Notes & Statistics (17 pages) in PDF Format
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
GAME #6
BGSU vs. DUQUESNE
Tue., December 6, 2005
7:00 p.m.
Anderson Arena (4,700)
Bowling Green, Ohio
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1) - Rob Trautman and Brian Scullin
SERIES: BGSU leads, 2-1
LAST MEETING: at Duquesne 68, BGSU 63 (Nov. 27, 2004)
TELEVISION: BCSN
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team has lost only eight times in the last 36 games ... one of those eight losses, however, came to BG's next opponent, Duquesne University ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller open the month of December with a home game vs. the Dukes Tuesday night (Dec. 6) ... tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at BGSU's venerable Anderson Arena (4,700).
FIVE-AND-OH FALCONS
The Falcons are off to a 5-0 start this season, BG's best in 14 years ... the 1991-92 team also began the year with five consecutive victories en route to a 24-5 record ... the school record for consecutive wins to start a season is six, set in the 1974-75 campaign and matched in 1988-89.
NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS
The Falcons are the only Mid-American Conference school to have posted a winning record in non-conference play in each of the last three seasons ... since the start of the 2002-03 season, BGSU is 26-12 in regular-season, non-league games, for the most wins and highest winning percentage (68.4%) of any MAC school during that time.
A FEW MORE NON-CONFERENCE FALCON FACTS
In 2004-05, BGSU completed the non-conference portion of the schedule with a 7-4 record for the third consecutive season ... the Falcons had not had three consecutive winning non-league campaigns in over a decade (1991-92 to 1993-94) ... additionally, the Falcons' 21 non-league victories tied the school record for a three-year period ... BGSU also had 21 non-conference wins from the 1986-87 through 1988-89 seasons.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
Bowling Green enters the Duquesne game with a 5-0 record on the young season ... the Falcons opened the year with a 78-50 win over IPFW (Nov. 18), and followed that with a 77-55 victory against Saint Francis (Pa.) three days later (Nov. 21) ... then, BG went to Bloomington, Ind., and won the Hampton Inn Classic with wins over IUPUI (66-55; Nov. 25) and host Indiana (68-50; Nov. 26) ... on Wednesday (Nov. 30), the Falcons posted a 78-67 win at Detroit ... head coach Curt Miller and his staff returned 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, 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 ... this season, Honegger is averaging a team-best 15.6 points per game, and also leads the Falcons with eight blocked shots and 10 three-point field goals made ... she has 5.2 rebounds per contest ... Mann is averaging 13.0 points and a BG-best 8.6 rebounds, while Achter and Horne have 12.4 and 10.8 points per game, respectively ... Horne has a team-high 3.0 steals per game, while Achter leads the team with 5.8 assists per outing ... Flynn is averaging 7.4 points and 5.6 boards off the bench ... the Falcons are shooting 43.9 percent from the field, while holding opponents to just a 37.2% success rate to date.
SCOUTING DUQUESNE
Duquesne enters Tuesday's BGSU game with an overall record of 3-3 ... the Dukes are coming off a 72-54 home win over Akron Saturday (Dec. 3), a win in which DU went 10-for-17 from three-point range ... the team's other victories have come over Bradley and East Carolina, with losses against Penn State, Oakland and Pittsburgh ... senior guard Aiga Bautre is averaging a team-high 16.8 points per game, and also leads the Dukes in steals (2.0 spg) and three-point field goals ... Bautre has made 20-of-37 triple tries (54.1%) this year to date, including an eye-popping 5-for-5 performance vs. Akron ... junior forward Loui Hall has 12.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per game, while senior forward Nicole Sinclair has scored 7.0 points and pulled down a team-best 9.3 caroms per outing ... junior guards Carmen Bruce (6.5 ppg, 3.3 apg) and Brittany Warren (4.8 ppg) round out the probable starters for head coach Dan Durkin ... Durkin welcomed back seven letterwinners, including four starters, from last year's team that went 10-18 overall and 5-11 in Atlantic 10 Conference play ... Durkin has a record of 159-183 in his 13th season as a collegiate head coach, all at Duquesne ... the school's athletics web site is www.goduquesne.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Duquesne, 2-1, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU won the lone prior meeting at Anderson Arena ... but, the Dukes picked up a victory in last year's meeting in Pittsburgh, 68-63 (Nov. 27, 2004) ... BGSU's home victory came just over 10 years ago (Dec. 2, 1995), an 88-76 triumph at Anderson ... the following year, the Brown and Orange posted a 74-66 road win over the Dukes (Dec. 11, 1996) ... those two BGSU wins came despite a combined 47 points from DU's Korie Hlede, the school's all-time scoring leader who went on to play five seasons in the WNBA ... the boxscore from the teams' 2004-05 game can be found in the pdf version of these notes.
BGSU/DUQUESNE TIES
Former Falcon Marisa Smith returns to Anderson Arena Tuesday night ... Smith played two seasons for BGSU, averaging 3.3 points per game as a freshman in 2002-03, and scoring 0.8 ppg in 10 contests as a sophomore the following year ... she sat out last season at Duquesne after transferring, and is in her first playing season for the Dukes.
LAST TIME OUT
All five starters hit double digits in scoring as the Falcons rallied from a second-half deficit to down host Detroit, 78-67, Wednesday night (Nov. 30) ... with the win, BGSU improved to 5-0 for the first time since 1991-92 ... the Falcons got 18 points from both junior Liz Honegger and sophomore Kate Achter, while junior Ali Mann added 13 points and a game-high eight rebounds ... senior Casey McDowell and junior Carin Horne scored 10 points apiece ... Achter was a perfect 12-for-12 from the free-throw line, tying the school single-game record ... Lindsey Pasquinzo led the Titans with 14 points, while Kelly Jaskot added 13 off the bench ... BG took the first double-digit lead of the game, 48-38, on a Honegger layup with 13:41 left ... but, the Titans then went on an 18-4 run over the next five-and-a-half minutes ... then, however, BGSU ended the game by outscoring the hosts, 26-11 ... freshman Lindsey Goldsberry's only shot of the game was a big one, a three-pointer that tied the contest at 57-57 with 7:21 left ... that sparked a 10-0 run that put the Falcons up by seven points with under five minutes left ... UDM fought back, getting as close as a single point with 2:35 left, but the Falcons responded with a pair of Honegger layups, and BG went 8-for-8 from the charity stripe in the final minute of play.
ACHTER AUTOMATIC AT THE LINE
Sophomore Kate Achter tied the school single-game record for free-throw percentage in the win at Detroit, going 12-for-12 ... only twice before had a Falcon player been perfect from the stripe when attempting as many as 12 shots ... Talita Scott set the record with a 12-for-12 performance vs. Kent on Jan. 8, 1994, and Sara Puthoff matched that effort against Western Michigan exactly three years later.
BG PRETTY GOOD AS A TEAM, TOO
The Falcons shot nearly 90 percent from the line in the win at UDM, going 26-for-29 (89.7%) ... on the year, the Falcons are shooting 76.1% from the stripe ... in five of the season's first six games, BGSU has made as many or more free throws as the opponents have attempted.
BGSU-DUQUESNE GAME ON BCSN
According to the BCSN web site, the station plans to air the BGSU-Duquesne game live in the Toledo area ... additionally, BCSN will show the game several times on a tape-delay basis ... currently, the scheduled tape-delay air times are Wednesday at noon and 9:30 p.m. and Thursday at 7:30 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. ... for schedule information, or to learn more about BCSN, the station's web address is www.bcsn.tv.
A RARE SECOND-HALF DEFICIT
The Detroit game marked the first time BGSU has trailed in the second half of a game this season ... the Falcons never trailed vs. Saint Francis (Pa.) or IUPUI ... BG fell behind, 2-0, at Indiana, but scored the next nine points and never trailed the rest of the way ... the Falcons trailed by as many as four points in the first half of the season opener vs. IPFW, but led for the entire second half of that game.
MILLER MAKES HIS MARK IN THE MAC
BGSU head coach Curt Miller picked up the 70th victory of his career in Wednesday's game at Detroit ... his career record currently stands at 70-53, in his fifth year ... over the last two-plus seasons, however, Miller and the Falcons have a record of 49-18 ... BGSU has gone 24-8 in MAC regular-season play over the last two seasons, and 30-9 in all games vs. conference foes during that span (6-1 in league tournament play).
Curt Miller - YEAR BY YEAR AT BGSU
Season Overall MAC 2001-02 9-19 (.321) 6-10 (.375) 2002-03 12-16 (.429) 5-11 (.313) 2003-04 21-10 (.677) 11-5 (.688) 2004-05 23-8 (.742) 13-3 (.813) 2005-06 5-0 (1.000) TOTALS 70-53 (.569) 35-29 (.547)
NOT BAD
The Falcons have won 11 of the last 12 games, dating to Feb. 19 ... the only loss in that time was to Kansas State in the NCAA Championships.
THE DEFENSE NEVER RESTS
BGSU held each of the season's first four opponents to 55 points or fewer ... despite allowing 67 points to Detroit, the Falcons have limited the first five foes of the season to a combined field-goal percentage of 37.2 percent and an average of just 55.4 points per game.
50-50
The Falcons shot 50.0% from the field against Detroit, going 12-for-24 from the floor in each half ... that game marked the first time this season that BG had a field-goal percentage of 50.0% or higher ... the Falcons are a perfect 11-0 in such games in the Curt Miller Era.
PACK THOSE BAGS (AND KEEP 'EM PACKED)
The Falcons are in a stretch which will see the team play eight of nine contests away from home ... Tuesday's (Dec. 6) game vs. Duquesne is the Falcons' lone home action of the month of December ... then, the Falcons will be away from the friendly confines of venerable Anderson Arena for over a month, until the MAC opener vs. Akron on Jan. 7, 2006.
THE FALCON 500
The Falcons' win over IPFW (Nov. 18) was the 500th victory in the history of the program ... BGSU enters the Duquesne game with an all-time record of 504-338 (.599) ... among current league schools, the Falcons became just the second to reach the 500-victory plateau (according to the MAC media guide) ... Northern Illinois picked up win number 508 on the same night BG got victory number 500, while Toledo earned the 500th win in that program's history two days after BG ... NIU currently has 509 wins and UT 502 ... the 2005-06 season marks the Falcons' 33rd as a varsity program.
HOME SWEET HOME
The Falcons' win over Saint Francis continued the team's recent success at home ... last season, BGSU posted a record of 9-1 at Anderson Arena ... the Falcons have won 13 of the last 14 home 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 ... this year, BG has outscored foes by an average of 25.0 points through the first two home games.
ROAD SWEET ROAD?
With the win at Indiana, the Falcons opened the road portion of the schedule on a successful note ... BGSU is now 2-0 in road games this year to date, after the victory at Detroit ... last year, BG went 6-2 in MAC road games for the second-straight year ... since the start of the 2003-04 season, the Falcons are 12-4 on the road in conference play, and 19-10 overall ... that comes on the heels of a four-year span in which BG was 15-39 on the road and 8-24 in MAC road games ... overall last season, BGSU went 9-5 in away games, the team's highest road win total since the 1993-94 team went 11-2 on the road ... prior to 2004-05, that '93-94 team was the last BG squad to win a MAC championship.
GET A STOP
The Falcons have played some solid defense in the early portion of the season, as evidenced by opponents' 55.4 points-per-game average through five games ... BG has shown the ability to shut the opposing offense down for long stretches ... in fact, the Falcons have held the opponent to a scoreless stretch of at least four minutes in four of the five games (and, in the other game, held Saint Francis without a point for 3:48 during one segment) ... vs. IUPUI (Nov. 25), the Falcons held the Jaguars scoreless for a span of 5:23 in the first half ... the following night vs. Indiana, BG's defense went 5:17 without allowing a point and 7:09 without surrendering a field goal ... during that time, the Falcons increased their lead from two points (30-28) to double digits (40-29).
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 ... in the early portion of the season, 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, and tied her career best with four rebounds and a steal ... then, she proceeded to grab at least four boards in each of the next three games ... Flynn had seven points and seven caroms in the win over SFU, and nearly had a double-double against Indiana, with nine points and a career-best 10 rebounds ... Flynn is currently averaging 7.4 points and 5.6 rebounds per game.
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 ... each player has been at it again in 2005-06, as both players have hit double digits in scoring in four of the season's first five games ... Mann now has scored 10 points or more 47 times in her 67 career games, while Honegger - who has also played 67 games - has had 43 games of at least 10 points at BG.
BLOCK PARTY
Liz Honegger, in just over two seasons, has placed her name all over the BGSU lists for blocked shots ... she tied two of her own single-season marks in 2004-05, and is moving up the career list ... Honegger, who tied the BG record with 50 blocks as a freshman, had 50 more rejections last season ... she set a school mark with 27 blocks in MAC games as a frosh, and matched that record in league games last winter ... Honegger is in second place on the career list, and is on pace to obliterate the BGSU career record for blocks per game.
MANN, HONEGGER APPROACHING MILLENNIUM MARK
Juniors Ali Mann and Liz Honegger, in just over two seasons, already have added their names to the Falcon career scoring chart ... Mann enters the Duquesne game with a career total of 894 points, while Honegger stands at 845 points ... a total of 18 players have scored 1,000 points at BGSU, with only five (Jackie Motycka, Sara Puthoff, Francine Miller, Lori Albers and Chris Tuttle) reaching that plateau in their junior season ... both Mann (sixth) and Honegger (ninth) currently rank among BGSU's top 10 in career points per game.
