Bowling Green State University Athletics
Top-seeded Falcons Face Miami Wednesday Afternoon
March 08, 2005 | Women's Basketball
March 8, 2005
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CLEVELAND, Ohio -
GAME #28
BGSU
vs.
MIAMI
Kraft MAC Tournament Quarterfinal
Wed., March 9, 2005
1:00 p.m.
Gund Arena (11,000)
Cleveland, Ohio
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1) - Brian George and Greg Gania
SERIES: BGSU leads, 31-23
LAST MEETING: at BGSU 68, Miami 59 (Jan. 19, 2005)
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after winning the Mid-American Conference regular-season championship and earning the number-one seed for the 2005 Kraft MAC Tournament, heads to Cleveland for a quarterfinal-round game ... the Falcons (20-7 [13-3 MAC]) of fourth-year head coach Curt Miller will meet eighth-seeded Miami University on Wednesday afternoon (March 9) at Gund Arena (11,000) in downtown Cleveland ... the game, the first of four contests at Gund that day, is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. ... the BGSU-Miami winner will play the survivor of Wednesday's second game, which pits fourth-seeded Eastern Michigan University against #5 Ball State University ... that semifinal contest will take place Friday (March 11) at noon at Gund Arena ... the championship game is scheduled for Saturday (March 12) at 1:00 p.m.
BGSU'S MAC TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The Falcons are participating in the MAC Tournament for the 21st time in its 24-year history ... BG has posted a 24-14 record since the MAC Tournament was instituted in 1982 ... the Falcons' complete game-by-game tournament history can be found in the pdf version of these notes ... BGSU's win total ranks the Falcons third among league teams, and the .632 winning percentage is also the third-best of any school (Toledo is 35-13 [.729], Kent State 26-14 [.650]) ... the Falcons' total of six tournament titles trails only UT (seven) ... the Falcons have 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, and BG is the #1 seed for the first time since the 1993-94 Falcons won both the regular-season and tournament titles.
BGSU'S MAC TOURNAMENT FACTS
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 Wednesday's Miami game with an overall mark of 20-7 ... Miller has an overall head-coaching mark of 62-52 and a MAC record of 35-29 ... BGSU is 41-17 overall and 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.
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.
POINTS OF PRIDE
ANYTHING BUT A REGULAR SEASON
The Falcons, obviously, have had a successful season to date ... BGSU is 20-7 overall, and finished MAC regular-season play with a 13-3 record, two games ahead of last year's pace in each case ... last winter, BGSU went 18-9 through the first 27 games, and the Falcons posted an 11-5 conference record ... BG's 2004-05 overall record is the team's best since the 1997-98 squad was 21-6 after 27 games ... the Falcons' MAC record is the best since that '97-98 team went 15-3 in league play.
FALCONS IN THE RPI
Bowling Green is currently ranked 62nd in one of the latest Rating Percentage Index (RPI) related polls, and the Falcons are 77th on three other lists ... BGSU is the top-ranked team among MAC schools on all four of the lists consulted, by collegerpi.com, Collegiate Basketball News, WBCA/Summerville and RealTimeRPI.com.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons take an overall record of 20-7 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 started March with a come-from-behind win at Northern Illinois (75-72, March 1) to clinch the league titles ... the Falcons' only February loss came at Eastern Michigan, 57-52 (Feb. 19), snapping a streak of five consecutive wins to begin the month ... but, BG bounced back with home wins over East Division-leading Marshall (73-62, Feb. 23) and arch-rival Toledo (72-71, Feb. 26) ... BG has won 11 of the last 13 games and 17 of 20 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 70.4 points per game, ranking second in the MAC and 38th in the country ... the Falcons are 55th 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 (14.5 ppg), and also leads the team in rebounding (8.0), steals (2.0 - tied for team lead) and blocks (1.8) ... classmate Ali Mann has 14.0 points and 7.6 boards per game to rank second on the team in each category, while another soph, Carin Horne, has 11.6 points per outing ... freshman Kate Achter is averaging 10.3 points and a team-high 3.9 assists per game, and is tied with Horne for third on the team with 4.1 rebounds ... redshirt junior Casey McDowell has 5.7 points per contest, while sophomore Megan Thorburn and senior Kelly Kapferer average 3.7 and 3.4 points, respectively ... Honegger is the only player to have started all 27 games this year, while Mann and McDowell have made 26 starts apiece and Achter 20 ... Horne has started 17 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.
BGSU is shooting 42.0 percent from the field and 69.9% from the free-throw line ... the Falcons have allowed opponents to shoot just 38.4% from the floor, and the foes have a 69.5% 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 conference games, while allowing MAC 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 MIAMI
Miami currently has an overall record of 15-13, and the RedHawks finished the regular season with a MAC record of 8-8 ... MU lost two close games to end the regular season, falling to Kent State (56-60, Feb. 26) and at Ohio (63-65, March 1), but defeated visiting Western Michigan, 74-71, in Saturday's (March 5) Kraft MAC Tournament first round ... MU had won a season-high five consecutive games prior to the KSU game ... the RedHawks played 12 games this season that were decided by five points or fewer, including each of the last three contests ... individually, junior guard Cindi Merrill leads the team in scoring and rebounding, with 16.9 points and 6.1 boards ... sophomore guard Amanda Jackson had 13.0 points and 4.5 rebounds, and leads the RedHawks with 2.2 steals per outing, while senior guard Nikki Motto has 11.0 points and a team-leading 3.3 assists ... freshman forward Laura Markwood has 6.5 points and 5.8 rebounds ... senior guard Hillary Beck (4.2 ppg) and senior forward Kim Smith (4.4 ppg, 6.0 rpg) joined Jackson, Merrill and Motto in the starting five against WMU ... head coach Maria Fantanarosa has a record of 118-83 in her seventh year at her alma mater, and is 125-103 in her eighth season as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is www.MURedHawks.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Miami, 31-23, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU has won each of the last two meetings ... the Falcons captured this year's lone regular-season matchup, 68-59 in Anderson Arena (Jan. 19, 2005) ... Miami won last year's regular-season game, but the Falcons picked up a 75-74 win over the RedHawks in the semifinals of last year's league tournament (March 12, 2004) ... BGSU holds a 4-1 advantage in neutral-site meetings with the Redskins/RedHawks ... this year's earlier meeting marked just the third game in the last 11 contests to be decided by single digits.
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. MIAMI IN THE MAC TOURNAMENT
The Falcons will be meeting Miami for the third time in the MAC Tournament, with BG holding a 2-0 lead ... the Falcons and the then-Redskins met in the 1990 championship game, at Detroit's Cobo Arena, with BG winning by an 84-63 count (March 10, 1990) ... last year, the teams met at Gund Arena in the semifinal round, with the fourth-seeded Falcons knocking off the top-seeded RedHawks, 75-74, on a Lindsay Austin shot at the buzzer (March 12, 2004).
LAST TIME OUT
The Falcons, trailing by seven points with just over four minutes left, rallied for a 75-72 win at Northern Illinois (March 1) to close the regular season ... the win gave BG the MAC regular-season championship and the #1 seed for the league tournament ... sophomores Liz Honegger and Ali Mann tied for BGSU scoring honors to lead four Falcon players in double digits ... Honegger scored 20 points on her 20th birthday, and also had a game-high 12 rebounds and a BG-leading five assists ... Mann, coming off the bench for the first time this season after suffering an injury in the previous game, had her 20 points in just 24 minutes ... redshirt junior Casey McDowell scored 11 points and freshman Kate Achter had 10 ... for the Huskies, Stephanie Raymond had 23 points and seven assists, playing all 40 minutes despite some first-half foul trouble ... Jamie Wilson had 16 points and 11 rebounds, while Keishonda Williamson added 13 points ... the game featured eight ties and a whopping 23 lead changes, with the league changing hands 14 times in the first half alone ... while the second half saw the lead switch back and forth nine times, the final 20 minutes were marked by several runs, as the momentum went from the Falcons to the Huskies and back again ... NIU led by as many as seven points on two second-half occasions, the last at 69-62 after a 13-2 Huskie run ... after NIU took that lead, with 6:11 left, neither team scored for almost two minutes, before a Mann layup with 4:17 on the clock began a game-ending 13-3 Falcon run ... Northern's only points over the final 6:11 came when Raymond banked home a three-pointer with 20.8 seconds left.
BGSU AT THE GUND
The Falcons have a 2-2 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 Eastern Michigan, 65-56, in the championship game.
CLEVELAND ROCKS
The Falcons do not have any natives of the city of Cleveland 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, as does freshman Whitney Taylor (Wooster, 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.
FALCONS TOP LAST YEAR'S MAC WIN TOTAL
BGSU's win at Northern Illinois gave the Falcons a final record of 13-3 in MAC play ... BG surpassed last year's conference win total by two games, as the 2003-04 team went 11-5 and tied for second in the West Division, just a game out of first ... this year, of course, the Falcons won the division by two games ... and, speaking of the West Division, keep reading ...
BACK TO THE EAST
The Falcons picked a good time to win an outright West Division title, as the 2004-05 season was BGSU's last chance to do so ... in early February, the MAC Council of Presidents approved the return of Bowling Green to the league's East Division in all sports, effective next academic year ... when the league began divisional play in 1997, BGSU was a member of the East Division ... in 2002, to accommodate the addition of UCF as a football-playing member of the league, BG was moved to the West ... UCF and Marshall are leaving the MAC at the end of the 2004-05 academic year.
WINNING THE CLOSE ONES (AND THE LOPSIDED ONES)
The Falcons have won a total of 10 games by 20 or more points, including five in MAC play ... since Feb. 8 (a 69-49 at Ball State), however, none of the last six BG wins have been by more than 14 points ... five of those six wins have come by nine points or less, with BG's last two victories by a combined four points.
MILESTONES FOR MILLER... Falcon head coach Curt Miller picked up his 62nd win in the NIU game, and his career record stands at 62-52 heading into the Miami contest ... he is 10 games over .500 for the first time in his tenure ... BGSU's win at Buffalo (Jan. 5) in this year's MAC opener moved Miller's overall mark above the .500 mark for the first time since his head-coaching debut in November of 2001 ... one month later, the win over Ohio (Feb. 5) put the Falcons' MAC record over .500 for the first time since Miller arrived ... Miller, in his fourth year at the BGSU helm, ends '04-05 with a league ledger of 35-29, six wins over the break-even mark for the first time.
...AND FOR THE PROGRAM
BGSU has been one of the most successful teams in MAC history over the years, and Curt Miller and staff are in the process of restoring the Falcons' place among the perennial league contenders ... the win at Buffalo (Jan. 5) was the 250th conference victory in program history ... through the 2004-05 season, BGSU's all-time record in conference games is 262-135 (.660) ... only Toledo (268) has more MAC wins than the Falcons over the years.
BLOCK PARTY: HONEGGER NEAR THE TOP OF EACH LIST
Liz Honegger, just a sophomore, is rapidly moving up the BGSU lists for blocked shots ... she tied one of her own single-season marks, and is just one block away from another ... Honegger, who tied the BG record with 50 blocks as a freshman, has 49 rejections this season to date ... she set a school mark with 27 rejections in MAC games a year ago, and matched that record with 27 more blocks in league games this year ... Honegger had 1.61 blocks per contest last winter, and has swatted shots at a rate of 1.81 per game this year ... she has moved into sole possession of second place on the career list, with 99 blocks, and is on pace to obliterate the BGSU career record for blocks per game.
THE KOMEBACK KIDS
The Falcons have made a habit of coming back from late-game deficits this year ... in the final home game, BGSU trailed Toledo by six points with just 1:22 left, before outscoring the Rockets by a 9-2 count for a 72-71 win (Feb. 26) ... three days later (March 1), the Brown and Orange trailed host Northern Illinois by seven points with just over four minutes left, before rallying for a 75-72 win ... the Falcons had rallied from a number of road deficits earlier in the season, winning at UT after trailing by as many as 14 points in the first half, and coming back from second-half deficits to capture back-to-back road games at Saint Francis (trailed by nine, Dec. 18) and Robert Morris (trailed by 11, Dec. 20) ... and, the Falcons came from behind the last time the team won at Gund Arena ... BG scored the game's last nine points, capped by Lindsay Austin's jumper at the buzzer, for a 75-74 win over Miami in last year's semifinal round of the Kraft MAC Tournament (March 12, 2004).
