Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Face Flashes in Saturday's Championship Game
March 12, 2005 | Women's Basketball
March 12, 2005
BGSU's Game Notes in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
CLEVELAND, Ohio -
GAME #30
BGSU
vs.
KENT STATE
Kraft MAC Tournament Championship
Saturday, March 12, 2005
1:00 p.m.
Gund Arena (11,000 - lower bowl)
Cleveland, Ohio
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1) - Brian George and Greg Gania
TELEVISION: MAC TV - Dave Weekley and Debbie Leonard
Fox Sports Net Ohio, Comcast Local (Mich.), Comcast SportsNet (Chicago)
SERIES: BGSU leads, 31-27
LAST MEETING: at Kent State 62, BGSU 53 (Jan. 26, 2005)
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after a 20-point win in the semifinal round of the 2005 Kraft Mid-American Conference Tournament, has advanced to the league tourney championship game for the second time in as many years, and the eighth time in school history ... the Falcons (22-7 [13-3 MAC]) of fourth-year head coach Curt Miller, after winning the MAC regular-season championship and earning the tourney's #1 seed, now face #2 seed Kent State University in Saturday's (March 12) final game at Gund Arena (11,000) in downtown Cleveland ... the game is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. ... the BGSU-KSU winner will earn the MAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.
FALCONS IN THE FINAL
BGSU has advanced to the Kraft MAC Tournament championship for the eighth time in school history ... the Falcons are 6-1 in previous finals, with the lone loss coming last season ... the complete list of BG's final-game action ...
Year (BG's seed) Opponent Score 1987 (#1) #2 Central Michigan W, 63-62 1988 (#1) #2 Western Michigan W, 70-53 1989 (#1) #2 Toledo W, 90-51 1990 (#3) #1 Miami W, 84-63 1993 (#1) #3 Kent State W, 96-68 1994 (#1) #2 Toledo W, 74-63 2004 (#4) #2 Eastern Michigan L, 56-65
BGSU'S MAC TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The Falcons are participating in the MAC Tournament for the 21st time in its 24-year history ... after beating Eastern Michigan, BG has posted a 26-14 record since the MAC Tournament was instituted in 1982 ... BGSU's win total ranks the Falcons third among league teams, and the .650 winning percentage is also the third-best of any school (Toledo is 35-14 [.714], Kent State 28-14 [.667]) ... the Falcons' total of six tournament titles trails only UT (seven) ... the Falcons earned a first-round bye for the first time since the league adopted the current 13-team tourney format prior to the 1999-2000 season ... BG is the #1 seed for the first time since the 1993-94 team won both the regular-season and tournament titles.
BGSU'S MAC TOURNAMENT FACTS
AND THEN THERE WAS ONE
The Falcons have won a total of 43 games over the past two seasons, and BGSU is 29-9 against league opposition (regular-season and tournament results combined) since the start of the 2003-04 campaign ... but, there remains one conference school that the Falcons have yet to beat in the Curt Miller Era ... that team, of course, is Kent State (why else would we mention it?) ... the Falcons are 0-5 against the Golden Flashes since Miller took the helm prior to the 2001-02 season.
FAMILIAR FOES
Falcon head coach Curt Miller has ties to Kent State mentor Bob Lindsay and the Golden Flash program ... Miller spent a year at Kent State as a graduate assistant, and was a volunteer coach on Lindsay's staff during the 1990-91 season ... the Flashes finished 17-12 that year, and enjoyed the second-best turnaround in the nation ... Lori Bodnar, the associate head coach on the current KSU staff, also was a part of that '90-91 coaching staff.
POINTS OF PRIDE
MILLER NAMED MAC COACH OF THE YEAR
Fourth-year Falcon head coach Curt Miller has been named the MAC Coach of the Year for 2004-05 ... the announcement was made at the MAC Tournament banquet Tuesday night (March 8) in Cleveland ... the award is the result of balloting by members of the MAC News Media Association ... Miller guided the Falcons, picked to finish third in the West Division, to the league's best overall record, a MAC regular-season championship and the top seed for the Kraft MAC Tournament ... the Falcons finished 13-3 in MAC play, and BG enters Saturday's KSU game with an overall mark of 22-7 ... Miller has an overall head-coaching mark of 64-52 and a MAC record of 35-29 ... BGSU is 43-17 overall and went 24-8 in conference play over the last two seasons ... the 2004-05 season marks the fourth time in school history that a BGSU coach has earned the league's coach-of-the-year award, and the first time in 12 years ... Fran Voll picked up the award in both the 1986-87 and 1988-89 seasons, while Jaci Clark earned MAC C-O-Y honors in 1992-93.
HONEGGER, MANN, HORNE ON ALL-MAC TEAMS
Sophomores Liz Honegger, Ali Mann and Carin Horne were named to the All-MAC Team, the league office announced Monday morning (March 7) ... Honegger and Mann each were named to the second team, while Horne earned honorable mention ... Mann earned all-league honors for the second time, after being honorable mention as a freshman, while Honegger and Horne received the honor for the first time in their respective BGSU careers ... the 2004-05 season marks the second time in as many years that BG has had three all-league selections.
TOPPING LAST YEAR'S WIN TOTAL
The Falcons are 22-7 on the season, surpassing last year's win total by a game ... BGSU has won 20 or more games in back to back seasons for the first time in over a decade (1992-93 and 1993-94 teams) ... BGSU now has 10 seasons of 20 wins or more in the program's history.
ACHTER ON ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
On Monday (March 7), Kate Achter was selected to the MAC's All-Freshman Team ... the team, as is the case with the All-MAC Team, is the result of voting by the league's 13 head coaches ... Achter is the ninth player in school history, and the second in as many years, to be named to the MAC's All-Freshman Team ... she was the runner-up for MAC Freshman of the Year.
ANYTHING BUT A REGULAR SEASON
The Falcons, obviously, have had a successful season to date ... BGSU is 22-7 overall, and finished MAC regular-season play with a 13-3 record, putting this year's team ahead of last year's pace in each case ... last winter, BGSU went 20-9 through the first 29 games, and the Falcons posted an 11-5 conference record ... BG's 2004-05 overall record is the team's best since the 1993-94 squad was 26-3 after 29 games ... the Falcons' MAC record is the best since the 1997-98 team went 15-3 in league play.
FALCONS IN THE RPI
Bowling Green is currently ranked 52nd in one of the latest Rating Percentage Index (RPI) related polls, and the Falcons are in the mid-70s on each of three other lists ... BGSU is the top-ranked team among MAC schools on all four of the lists consulted, the collegerpi.com, Collegiate Basketball News, WBCA/Summerville and RealTimeRPI.com charts.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons take an overall record of 22-7 into Tuesday's game, and BGSU finished with a record of 13-3 in MAC play ... the Falcons won the league's West Division, finished with the MAC's top record and earned the number-one seed for the Kraft MAC Tournament ... BG went 7-1 in the month of February, and the Falcons have gone 3-0 in March to date ... BGSU started March with a come-from-behind win at Northern Illinois (75-72, March 1) to clinch the league titles, before beating Miami, 84-68, in the league tourney's quarterfinal round Wednesday (March 9) ... Friday (March 11), the Brown and Orange topped Eastern Michigan, 77-57, in the semifinals ... the Falcons' only February loss came at EMU, 57-52 (Feb. 19), snapping a streak of five consecutive wins to begin the month ... but, BG has gone 5-0 since, bouncing back with home wins over East Division-leading Marshall (73-62, Feb. 23) and arch-rival Toledo (72-71, Feb. 26) ... BG has won 10 of the last 11 games, 14 of 16 and 19 of 22 contests ... the team's other MAC losses came at Kent State, 62-53 on Jan. 26, and in the first EMU meeting, 51-48 on Jan. 12 ... BGSU finished the non-conference portion of the schedule with a 7-4 mark for the third consecutive season.
BGSU is averaging 71.1 points per game, leading the MAC and ranking 33rd in the country ... the Falcons are 51st in the nation in scoring margin, and currently have four players - three sophomores and a freshman - with double-digit scoring averages ... soph Liz Honegger paces the Brown and Orange in scoring (14.3 ppg), and also leads the team in rebounding (7.9), steals (2.0) and blocks (1.7) ... classmate Ali Mann has 14.2 points and 7.5 boards per game to rank second on the team in each category, while another soph, Carin Horne, has 11.3 points and 4.2 rebounds per outing to rank third in both ... freshman Kate Achter is averaging 10.7 points and a team-high 4.0 assists per game, and is fourth on the team with 4.1 rebounds ... redshirt junior Casey McDowell, who exploded for 31 points vs. Miami, now has 6.7 points per contest, while sophomore Megan Thorburn and senior Kelly Kapferer average 3.5 and 3.3 points, respectively ... Honegger is the only player to have started all 29 games this year, while Mann and McDowell have made 28 starts apiece and Achter 22 ... Horne has started 19 games and Thorburn 10 ... Achter, Horne and McDowell joined Honegger and Mann in the starting lineup for 12 consecutive games, before Kapferer replaced the injured Mann in the starting five at NIU ... Mann has been back in the lineup for each of the two league tourney games to date.
BGSU is shooting 42.3 percent from the field and 71.2% from the free-throw line ... the Falcons have allowed opponents to shoot 38.7% from the floor, and the foes have a 70.0% success rate from the stripe.
In MAC play, Mann led the Falcons with 15.0 points and 7.8 rebounds per game, while Honegger finished close behind, with 14.3 points and 7.4 boards ... Horne and Achter averaged 12.3 and 10.3 points per game, respectively ... BGSU had 69.2 points per game and a scoring margin of +11.0 in league action this winter ... BG shot 41.6% in MAC games, while allowing opponents to shoot just 37.8% from the floor.
BGSU ended the 2003-04 season with a record of 21-10, and the Falcons finished the MAC campaign with an 11-5 slate ... BG tied for second in the West Division, then posted a pair of buzzer-beating wins in the league tourney to advance to the championship game ... head coach Curt Miller welcomed back 11 letterwinners, including three starters, from that team ... the returning starters, all sophomores, are Honegger, Mann and Thorburn ... Miller's team includes three seniors in Kapferer, Tene Lewis and Sakima Smith ... a pair of juniors, Jill Lause and McDowell, also return ... in addition to the three returning starters, the sophomore class consists of Amber Flynn, Julie Gompers and Horne ... Gompers has yet to see action this season due to injury ... two freshmen, guards Achter and Whitney Taylor, round out the Falcon squad.
SCOUTING KENT STATE
Kent State currently has an overall record of 21-8, and the Golden Flashes tied for the MAC East Division regular-season title with a league record of 12-4 ... KSU downed Ohio, 93-74, in the league tourney quarterfinal round, then topped MAC East co-champion Marshall by a 73-57 final in the semifinals ... the Flashes have won nine consecutive games since a loss to the Herd back on Feb. 2 ... individually, senior guard Melissa DeGrate is averaging 16.8 points and 5.5 rebounds, while junior forward Lindsay Shearer has 16.3 points and a team-high 6.9 boards per outing ... junior guard Malika Willoughby has 9.9 points and a team leading 4.8 assists, with sophomore forward La'kia Stewart scoring 6.6 points per game ... sophomore center Mallorie Griffith (4.9 ppg) and junior guard Tiffany Kelly (2.4 ppg) joined DeGrate, Shearer and Willoughby in the probable starting lineup Friday for head coach Bob Lindsay ... a year ago, the Golden Flashes went 19-10 overall, finished second in the East at 12-4 and received an invite to the WNIT ... Lindsay, the winningest coach in MAC history, has a record of 308-160 in his 16th year with the Flashes ... the school's athletics web site is www.kentstatesports.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Kent State, 31-27, in the all-time series between the teams, but the Golden Flashes have owned the series as of late ... Kent State has captured the last 12 games and 17 of the last 18 meetings ... BG's last victory came over eight years ago - when the Flashes still were going by 'Kent' - in an 87-77 decision at Anderson Arena (Feb. 12, 1997) ... in this season's lone matchup, the host Flashes topped the Brown and Orange, 62-53, at the M.A.C. Center (Jan. 26, 2005) ... last year, KSU won the only meeting, 71-62 at Anderson (Feb. 21, 2004) ... the nine-point margin in each of the last two games was the closest in a BGSU-KSU game since January of 1998 ... the Flashes have won the last 11 games by an average of 19.5 points.
THE FALCONS VS. THE MAC
The Falcons lead the all-time series with 11 of the 12 MAC opponents, and BGSU has evened the series with that 12th team, as the Falcons' win at Northern Illinois (75-72, March 1) squared that series at 12-12 ... BG is the only team in the league with at least a .500 mark against every other MAC school.
BGSU VS. KENT STATE IN THE MAC TOURNAMENT
The Falcons are meeting Kent State for the sixth time in the MAC Tournament, and the second time in the championship round ... BGSU holds a slim 3-2 lead in previous tourney matchups ... KSU won a 70-68 quarterfinal in the 1982 tourney in Muncie, Ind. ... BGSU picked up a 71-66 semifinal victory at Centennial (now Savage) Hall in Toledo in 1987 ... the Golden Flashes won an epic double-overtime semifinal contest, 106-103, in 1992 at Detroit's Cobo Arena ... the Falcons gained a measure of revenge with tourney wins over Kent State in each of the next two years at Battelle Hall in Columbus ... in the only previous championship-game matchup, the Falcons won a 96-68 game to take the 1993 title ... the next year, in the semifinal round, the Brown and Orange posted a 70-61 win.
LAST TIME OUT
Trailing by a point at halftime, the Falcons held Eastern Michigan to just 22 second-half points en route to a 77-57 win Friday afternoon (March 11) in Kraft MAC Tournament semifinal-round action at Gund Arena ... sophomore Ali Mann had 19 points to pace three BGSU double-digit scorers ... freshman Kate Achter had 17 points and a game-high six assists, while sophomore Liz Honegger scored 15 points in the win ... EMU got a game-high 20 points from Ryan Coleman, who played all 40 minutes, along with 18 points from Nikki Knapp ... the opening half featured six ties and seven lead changes. The Eagles went up by seven points, 21-14, on a Coleman layup with 11:06 remaining in the half, but jumpers by Mann and junior Casey McDowell were followed by an Achter three-pointer, and the game was tied with 6:46 left in the half ... the next several minutes saw the game tied four more times ... sophomore Carin Horne converted a three-point play to give BG a two-point edge with 1:40 left, but Coleman knotted the score just 18 seconds later ... an Achter layup put BG up, 34-32, with 27 seconds remaining in the half, and EMU's Erika Ford was called for an offensive foul, her third foul of the afternoon, with 4.0 seconds left ... the Falcons seemed to have momentum in their favor, but the half was not over ... a BG turnover gave the ball back to the Eagles with 1.1 seconds left ... Sarah VanMetre made the Falcons pay, taking the inbounds pass and banking home a long, turnaround three-point field goal at the buzzer ... in the second half, Melis Ulker hit a pair of free throws with 17:54 left, giving the Eagles a 42-40 margin, but the Falcons were about to go on a run ... McDowell's three-pointer with 17:36 on the clock gave BG the lead for good, and kicked off an 11-0 run over the next 4:23 ... a Mann free throw was followed by Honegger's straight-on three-ball, off an Achter pass ... Mann hit two charity tosses, and a Horne jumper upped the margin to 51-42 before Coleman finally stopped the BG run with another three-pointer ... the gap was still six points a minute-and-a-half later, but Achter grabbed a rebound and hit a layup from a tough angle, and a steal by soph Megan Thorburn resulted in a Mann three from the right elbow, giving the Falcons a double-digit lead, 58-47 ... the Eagles had cut the lead to single digits, 62-53, at the eight-minute media timeout, but Eastern would score just four more points over the final 7:28 ... when Honegger drained a left-side three after a pass from Achter, the lead was 14 points with 4:41 left, and the margin would get no closer ... Horne and McDowell had nine points apiece, with Horne posting game-high totals of seven rebounds and seven steals ... BGSU had 13 steals off of 21 EMU turnovers ... Mann and Achter had six rebounds apiece, as the Falcons held a 36-26 advantage in that category ... BG grabbed 17 offensive boards, nearly matching the Eagles' total of 18 defensive rebounds ... BGSU shot 46.0 percent from the field in the game, making 29 field goals to Eastern's 19 ... the Falcons held a 36-22 advantage in points in the paint.
PLAYING WITH A LEAD
BGSU led for nearly all of the second half of Friday's game against Eastern Michigan ... that came after the Falcons had held a lead for a total of just 59 seconds in the team's first regular-season meeting and 20 seconds in the return match.
BGSU AT THE GUND
After Friday's win over Eastern Michigan, the Falcons now have a 4-2 record at Gund Arena ... prior to last season, BGSU had played just one game there, in 2001 ... after posting an upset win at Western Michigan in the first round of that year's MAC Tournament, BG 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 rallied to post an 81-63 win ... one member of the current Falcon squad was on the roster at that time, as then-freshman Kelly Kapferer scored four points in 13 minutes off the bench ... that was the Falcons' final game before the Curt Miller Era began ... last year, of course, the Brown and Orange picked up two one-point, last-second wins at Gund Arena, beating Western Michigan (63-62) and Miami (75-74) on buzzer-beating jumpers by Lindsay Austin, before falling to EMU, 65-56, in the championship game.
A FEW MORE BGSU-EMU TIDBITS
