Bowling Green State University Athletics
Putting the Wraps on the 2004-05 Season, part two
June 29, 2005 | Women's Basketball
June 28, 2005
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
THE FALCONS VS. THE MAC
The Falcons have a proud history in the MAC ... BGSU leads the all-time series with 11 of the 12 MAC opponents (including outgoing MAC member Marshall), and the Falcons have evened the series with that 12th team, as the 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 ... and, BGSU currently has a winning streak of at least one game against every one of the other institutions.
BG GOES TO WASHINGTON (STATE)
The Kansas State game marked the Falcons' first-ever game in the city of Seattle, but BGSU had played four prior games in the state of Washington ... on two occasions, the Falcons have headed to Pullman, Wash., to play in tournaments hosted by Washington State ... BGSU is 3-2 in the state, including a tourney title after wins over Baylor (78-63) and host WSU (83-73, OT) on Dec. 11-12, 1987 ... nearly 11 years later (Dec. 4-5, 1998), the Falcons lost to the host school at the Cougar Shootout (71-63) before bouncing back for a 90-77 win over American.
SECOND-HALF SUCCESS
The Falcons never trailed in the second half of the Miami and Kent State games at Gund Arena, and BGSU took the lead for good with 17:36 left in the game against EMU ... the Falcons shot 56.5% in the second half of the championship game, including a 58.3% rate (7-for-12) from three-point range ... BG outscored the opponents, 132-103, in the second half of the three tourney contests.
McDEADLY VS. MIAMI
Entering the Kraft MAC Tournament, redshirt junior Casey McDowell's season scoring high was 12 points, and her career high was four three-point field goals made ... in the quarterfinal round vs. Miami, though, McDowell tied a BGSU single-game mark with seven treys, and shattered her career high with 31 points ... she had scored in double digits twice previously in '04-05 ... her three-point total also tied a MAC Tournament record.
MORE ON McDOWELL
Casey McDowell's seven three-pointers against Miami, as mentioned, tied the school record, which was held by Angie Farmer and Kim Griech ... Farmer set the record against Ohio (Jan. 20, 1999), and tied her own mark less than a year later against Mississippi (Nov. 26, 1999) ... Griech hit seven triples in a game vs. UNC-Wilmington (Dec. 7, 2002) ... Griech and her family were in attendance at the Miami game.
THEY CAN GET TO THE LINE
Freshman Kate Achter showed an uncanny ability to get to the free-throw line in her initial season in the Brown and Orange ... and, she was able to convert her charity tosses once she got there ... Achter made 121 free throws in 156 tries, for a 77.6 percent success rate ... her total of 156 free throws attempted placed her fourth in the league, and ranked her 40 FTA ahead of the next highest freshman on that list ... Achter's total of 121 FTM ranked her second in the MAC, and was nearly double the total of the second-ranked freshman (62) ... sophomore Ali Mann displayed the ability to get to the stripe as well, ranking fifth in the league in both FTM and FTA ... the lists follow ...
MAC LEADERS Free Throws Made 1. Lindsay Shearer, KSU 131 2. Kate Achter, BGSU 121 3. Carrie Moore, WMU 110 4. Nikki Knapp, EMU 106 5. Ali Mann, BGSU 102 # Julie DeMuth, BSU 62FIELD-GOAL PCT. IS IMPORTANT, RIGHT?Free Throws Attempted 1. Nikki Knapp, EMU 171 2. Lindsay Shearer, KSU 162 3. Carrie Moore, WMU 157 4. Kate Achter, BGSU 156 5. Ali Mann, BGSU 144 # Heather Turner, UB 116
# next-highest freshman on list
Over the first 24 games of the season, the winning team had a higher field-goal percentage than the opposition ... but, in two of the next three games, BGSU won despite having a lower FG pct. ... the Falcons won at Northern Illinois (March 1), in spite of the Huskies' 50.0 percent rate ... BGSU also downed Marshall (Feb. 23) despite being outshot by the Thundering Herd.
MORE ON FG PCT.
Two times in a four-game span in March, the Falcons won a game in which the opponent shot 50.0% (NIU and Kent State) ... BGSU had been 0-10 in such games in the Curt Miller Era, prior to March of 2005.
DEFENSE DOES IT AGAIN
The Falcons have greatly improved defensively during the Curt Miller Era ... in the 2003-04 season, Miller, 'defensive coordinator' Jennifer Roos and the rest of the Falcons allowed opponents to shoot just 38.8% from the field ... that marked the third-lowest opponent FG pct. in school history, and the lowest since 1977-78 ... the 2004-05 squad nearly matched that success, allowing foes to shoot just 39.1% from the floor ... the 1976-77 team owns the school record, allowing opponents to shoot only 34.8% ... that '76-77 season is the first year that such statistics are available ... since Miller and Roos arrived, the Falcons have posted three of the top-six totals in that category in school history.
BGSU'S TOP DEFENSIVE FG PCT. EFFORTS Year -- Opp. FG% 1976-77 -- 34.8 1977-78 -- 38.0 2003-04 -- 38.8 2004-05 -- 39.1 1992-93 -- 39.9 2001-02 -- 40.0THREE-MENDOUS
The Falcons were a successful three-point shooting team all season, for the most part, as BG averaged a MAC-leading 6.00 treys made per game ... however, the team was unconscious (or at least a little woozy) from beyond the arc in the league tournament ... BGSU made 48.2 percent of its three-point tries, going 27-for-56 in the three games ... junior Casey McDowell led the way with an eye-popping 11-for-16 performance (68.8%), while Liz Honegger was 8-for-16 (50.0%) from long distance ... Carin Horne (four), Ali Mann (three) and Kelly Kapferer (one) each made at least one three-ball in the tourney.
TAKE SOME; THEY'RE FREE
BGSU shot free throws at a respectable 71.1 percent rate this season ... but, the Falcons were nearly automatic at the MAC Tournament, missing only eight of 63 in the three games ... BG shot 87.3% from the stripe, led by freshman Kate Achter's 20-for-20 performance ... junior Casey McDowell (10-for-10) and senior Tene Lewis (6-for-6) also were perfect from the free-throw line at Gund Arena.
FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG *
A few more notes from the MAC Tournament ...
A RUN AT A RECORD
Casey McDowell's 31-point total vs. Miami was the highest by a Falcon this year, and fell just four points shy of the BGSU single-game record ... McDowell's total also tied her for the second-most points in a MAC Tournament game by a BG player ... Lori Albers had 34 points in a 1993 game vs. Kent State, while Stephanie Coe scored 31 vs. the Golden Flashes in 1987.
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 left the MAC at the end of the 2004-05 academic year.
WINNING THE CLOSE ONES (AND THE LOPSIDED ONES)
The Falcons won a total of 11 games by 20 or more points, including five in MAC play ... after a 20-point win on Feb. 8 (69-49 at Ball State), however, none of the next six BG wins were by more than 14 points ... five of those six wins came by nine points or less, with BG's last two regular-season victories by a combined four points ... in the league tourney, though, the Falcons had a 16-point win and a 20-point victory, before winning the championship by six points.
THE KOMEBACK KIDS
The Falcons 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) ... last year 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 the semifinal round of the Kraft MAC Tournament (March 12, 2004) ... in this year's semifinal round, the Falcons trailed Eastern Michigan by as many as seven points in the first half before rallying for the victory.
GOMPERS ABOUND IN NCAA TOURNAMENT
In mid-March, the travel-agent business was booming in the Wheeling, W. Va., area, as two of the Gompers siblings headed to Minneapolis and Seattle, respectively, for the NCAA Championships ... BGSU sophomore Julie Gompers' older sister, Lauren, is a member of the women's basketball team at Saint Francis (Pa.) ... both the Falcons and the Red Flash participated in the national tournament ... Saint Francis, a #14 seed in the Tempe Regional, took on #3 Minnesota in Minneapolis on March 19, with the Falcons facing Kansas State in Seattle the next evening.
MAC TITLES ARE NOTHING NEW FOR HONEGGER
For sophomore Liz Honegger, the MAC championship was her second as a Falcon ... following the conclusion of last basketball season, the Lafayette, Ind., native joined the BGSU track and field squad ... she made her debut on April 3, 2004, and promptly won the discus throw at her first meet, at Bluffton ... just over a month later, Honegger was the Falcons' lone MAC champion in track, winning that event by more than six feet ... the title was BG's first league crown in the discus since 1991, and qualified her for the NCAA Regionals in that event.
MILESTONES FOR MILLER...
Falcon head coach Curt Miller's career record stands at 65-53 through the 2004-05 season ... he was 13 games over .500 for the first time in his tenure, prior to the season-ending loss to Kansas State ... 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, a 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.
Curt Miller - YEAR BY YEAR AT BGSU Season Overall----- MAC-------- 2001-02 9-19 (.311) 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) TOTALS 65-53 (.551) 35-29 (.547)...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 TIED AT THE TOP
Liz Honegger, just a sophomore, is rapidly moving up 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 this season ... she set a school mark with 27 blocks in MAC games a year ago, and matched that record in league games this year ... Honegger is in second place on the career list, and her block in the Kent State game was the 100th of her career ... she is on pace to obliterate the BGSU career record for blocks per game.
BGSU SINGLE-SEASON BLOCKED SHOTS 1. Liz Honegger (2004-05) 50 Liz Honegger (2003-04) 50 Angie Bonner (1989-90) 50 4. Angie Bonner (1988-89) 49ROAD SWEET ROAD?BGSU CAREER BLOCKED SHOTS Player Games Blk. BPG 1. Angie Bonner (1986-90) 122 155 1.27 2. Liz Honegger (2003-SA) 62 100 1.61 3. Megan McGuire (1985-89) 118 98 0.83 4. Joelyn Shoup (1982-86) 90 83 0.92 5. Sue Pokelsek (1979-83) 102 63 0.62
With the win at NIU, the Falcons completed the MAC road schedule with a 6-2 record for the second-straight year ... since the start of last season, the Falcons are 12-4 on the road in conference play, and 17-10 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 this 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 this season, that '93-94 team was the last BG squad to win a MAC championship.
HOME SWEET HOME!
The Falcons' win over Toledo (Feb. 26) enabled BGSU to complete the home schedule with a record of 9-1 this season ... BG outscored the opponents by 15.9 points per game at Anderson Arena this season, and by 18 points per outing (77.1 to 59.1) in the nine wins ... the lone home loss was by three points to defending champion Eastern Michigan.
MAC TOURNAMENT RECORDS CHECK
POINTS (USUALLY) HARD TO COME BY FOR BG FOES
The Falcons had gone two-and-a-half months without allowing over 70 points in a regulation game ... but, Toledo scored 71 points against the Falcons, and NIU totalled 72 points in the final regular-season game ... prior to the UT contest, the Falcon defense had not given up 70 points since an overtime win at Saint Francis (Pa.) Dec. 18 ... BG had not allowed 70 in regulation since a Dec. 10 game at New Mexico ... BG allowed more than 70 points in five of the season's first nine games, but held the opponents under 70 in 16 consecutive games, including the first 14 MAC matches, before the UT game ... still, 12 of the last 20 regular-season foes failed to reach even the 60-point plateau ... the Falcon defense held 15 teams under 60 points this season.
RPI = RATING PERCENTAGE IMPROVEMENT
BG was ranked 59th in the final Rating Percentage Index, according to CollegeRPI.com ... last year's team finished 104th in that web site's rankings ... those numbers represent a vast improvement over the prior four seasons, when the Falcons finished with RPI rankings of 246th, 272nd, 202nd and 199th.
THREE-BALL, SIDE POCKET
The Falcons made a total of 13 three-point field goals in the win at Northern Illinois (March 1) ... that was a season high, and tied for the most treys by a MAC team this year ... it also was BG's most triples in a game since the Falcons also made 13 in a Feb. 19, 2003, game vs. Ball State ... BGSU made 12 treys in the MAC Tournament's championship game, the fourth time this season the Falcons hit double figures in that department.
DOUBLE VISION
Sophomores 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 this year's 31 games ... Mann had 24 double-figure games of her own this winter ... Mann had hit double digits in scoring in 10 consecutive contests prior to the Kent State game ... she has scored 10 points or more 43 times in her 62 career games, while Honegger -- who has also played 62 games -- has had 39 games of 10 points or more in a Falcon uniform.
MANN, HONEGGER ARE DOUBLE TROUBLE
Sophomores Liz Honegger and Ali Mann each recorded a double-double in the win over Marshall, and Honegger added another in the victory at NIU ... Mann finished the season with five double-doubles ... Honegger's 20-point, 12-board game at Northern marked her third double-double in MAC play this season, and her double-double vs. Kansas State was her eighth of the year (tied for second-most in the league) ... Honegger and Mann each now have 12 career double-doubles to tie for the lead among Falcons active in 2004-05.
FALCONS IN THE MAC
The Falcons were well-represented in the final Mid-American Conference statistics ...
WE'RE GLAD YOU'RE HERE
The MAC Tournament game vs. Eastern Michigan marked the 60th BGSU contest since the current sophomore class arrived on campus ... that class includes Amber Flynn, Julie Gompers, Liz Honegger, Carin Horne, Ali Mann and Megan Thorburn ... after going 21-35 in the two years before their arrival, the Falcons have posted a record of 44-18 since.
KAPFERER KAPS KOMEBACK ON SENIOR DAY
On 'Senior Day' at Anderson Arena (Feb. 26), senior co-captain Kelly Kapferer certainly left an impression on the 1,562 fans in attendance ... Kapferer, along with fellow seniors Tene Lewis and Sakima Smith, was recognized in ceremonies prior to the game ... then, Kapferer wowed the crowd by singing the National Anthem ... and, after playing two scoreless minutes in the first half, she had eight points in 12 minutes in the second half, including the game-winning three-point play with just 9.1 seconds left as BGSU downed arch-rival Toledo.
SENIOR LEADERSHIP
In the BGSU women's basketball program, as in many programs, the team's seniors usually are in the starting lineup on 'Senior Day' ... this year's Falcon seniors, however, did not start the game, by their request ... "They approached me and asked me not to change the starting lineup," said Falcon coach Curt Miller. "They said that this game was too important, and that just goes to show you what these seniors are all about. The team, and winning a championship, come over the glory of starting in their last home game."
SENIOR DAY SUCCESS
BGSU has enjoyed great success, for the most part, on 'Senior Day' over the last decade ... the Falcons have won the 'Senior Day' game in each of Curt Miller's four years, with wins over Eastern Michigan in back-to-back seasons before victories over Toledo both last year and this year ... BG has won the 'Senior Day' game in nine of the last 10 seasons.
FIFTY IS NIFTY
BGSU had a field-goal percentage of 51.0% in the win over Kent State ... the game marked the fifth time this season that the Falcons shot at least 50 percent from the floor, matching the total of the previous three seasons combined ... BG is now 10-0 when shooting at least 50 percent in the Curt Miller Era.
THE STREAK IS OVER ... LONG LIVE THE STREAK
The Falcons had made at least one three-point field goal in 193 consecutive games before going 0-for-13 at Akron (Feb. 12) ... but, BGSU wasted little time in starting a new streak, as sophomore Liz Honegger hit a triple with just 11 seconds elapsed in the Central Michigan game (Feb. 15) ... prior to the UA game, the last time the Falcons had been held without a trey was on March 1, 1998, in a loss to Toledo in the semifinal round of the MAC Tournament ... the last time BG had won a game without making a triple came on Dec. 21, 1996, in a 66-64 win over Detroit ... prior to the 193-game streak, the previous school record had been 29-straight games ... through the 2004-05 season, the Falcons' three-point streak stands at nine games.
FEBRUARY FUN
The Falcons finished the month of February with a 7-1 record ... that marked BGSU's most wins in a calendar month in over seven years, since the Brown and Orange went 9-1 in January of 1998.
THE FALCON 500
Sophomore Carin Horne was the most recent Falcon to reach 500 career points ... Horne became the 45th player in school history, and the fourth this season, to surpass that plateau, with her first points of the Marshall game (Feb. 23) ... Horne ended the season with 574 career points ... sophomore Ali Mann surpassed the 500-point mark in a win at Saint Francis (Dec. 18) ... Mann, BGSU's active career scoring leader, has a total of 829 points ... another soph, Liz Honegger, went over 500 points in the win at Western Michigan (Jan. 8), and stands at 767 career points ... in the Falcons' first 2004-05 win over Toledo (Jan. 15), senior Kelly Kapferer reached the milestone, and the co-captain completed her career with a total of 558 points.
THREE-POINT THREATS
Sophomores Liz Honegger and Carin Horne already are ranked on BGSU's career list for three-point field goals made ... Honegger has drained 94 treys in two seasons, and has moved into seventh place on that list ... Horne has made 68 triples, ranking 12th ... this season, Honegger had 59 successful three-pointers, ranking third on that BG list.
FALCON RECORDS CHECK
Several BGSU players are nearing the top of some other single-season lists ... in addition to her status on the lists for blocks and three-point field goals made, soph Liz Honegger is second on the seasonal list for three-pt. FG attempts, with 172 (Angie Farmer, 186, 1999-2000), and Carin Horne is sixth on that list with 150 triple tries ... Horne and junior Casey McDowell made 45 and 44 three-pointers this year, respectively, with Horne tied for ninth and McDowell 11th on that list ... freshman Kate Achter attempted 156 free throws and made 121, ranking seventh on the former list and tying for sixth on the latter.
KATE ON THE FRESHMAN LISTS
Kate Achter is ranked on several BG freshman single-season lists ... she set a new school record for assists by a freshman, with 124 (topping Dee Knoblauch's total of 109 in 1979-80) ... Achter scored 341 points, the third-highest total by a Falcon freshman ... her 11.0 points-per-game average ranks sixth on that list ... with 49 steals, Achter is second on that frosh seasonal chart.
CHECKING CAREER CHARTS
A few Falcons are ranked on the career lists ... Ali Mann, just a sophomore, already has 829 points to rank 26th in school history ... classmate Liz Honegger is 30th with 767 points ... both players are on pace to finish their careers among the top all-time Falcons in scoring, rebounding and several other categories ... Honegger could threaten the school records for blocks and three-point field goals made and attempted ... Mann likely will join the career lists for free throws made and attempted sometime next year ... Carin Horne finished her sophomore season with 574 points, good for 37th place, while Kelly Kapferer ended her career with 558 points, the 39th-highest total in BG annals.
MILLER AGREES TO FIVE-YEAR EXTENSION
BGSU reached an agreement with Falcon women's basketball coach Curt Miller on a five-year contract extension, BGSU Director of Athletics Paul Krebs announced in mid-October ... the contract runs through June 30, 2009 ... Miller, now in his fourth year at the helm of the Falcons, guided the Brown and Orange to a 21-10 record last winter ... Miller and his staff orchestrated an 11-5 mark, a complete reversal of the previous year's league record ... this season, of course, the Falcons won the MAC's West Division and league tournament titles, and Miller was named the league's Coach of the Year.
THE LEADERSHIP YEARS
Several hundred former athletes returned to BG on the first weekend of February ... over 200 female student-athletes, who attended BGSU before women's sports were under the Athletics Department umbrella, were honored on Friday, Feb. 4 ... the athletes attended a banquet and awards ceremony that evening, and were awarded varsity letters by the BGSU Athletics Department ... the group was recognized at the next day's game vs. Ohio as well, a 27-point BG win on Fox Sports Net Ohio.
HOW'S THIS FOR BALANCE?
In the 10 home games this year, the Falcons' top-four scorers all averaged between 13.0 and 14.3 points per game ... Kate Achter scored 27 points vs. Marshall - the most by a BG player in a home game this year - and averaged a team-best 14.3 points in games at Anderson Arena ... Ali Mann (14.2), Liz Honegger (14.1) and Carin Horne (13.0) all finished close behind Achter ... each of the four players scored between 130 and 143 points at Anderson this season.
WHERE ARE WE? A DECEMBER TRAVELOGUE
In 2004-05, Curt Miller wanted his young team to learn to win games away from home ... and, he put together a non-conference schedule designed to test the team (to say the least) in that area ... BG played at home on both Nov. 30 and Dec. 30 ... in between, however, the team certainly kept busy, playing two games each in the states of Rhode Island, New Mexico and Pennsylvania, but none in the state of Ohio ... in December alone, the Falcons logged over 5,202 miles of travel via airplane, bus and van ... that total does not include trips from the airport to the hotel to the arena, etc., as well as each individual's trip home for the holidays when the semester finally came to an end.
KATE KONNECTS
Freshman Kate Achter had 27 points vs. Marshall, the most of her young career and tied for a BGSU season high at the time ... Achter, who missed nearly half of the opening 20 minutes after picking up two fouls, scored 19 of her points in the second half ... she had her 27 points in just 28 minutes of action.
BACK HOME AGAIN IN INDIANA
Sophomore Liz Honegger, a native of Lafayette, Ind., matched her career high with 27 points in the Falcons' 69-49 win at Ball State (Feb. 8) ... her other 27-point game came on BGSU's other trip to her home state this season, in a 115-84 win over IPFW on Nov. 19 ... at BSU, Honegger hit a three-point field goal with 14:27 left in the game, capping a 15-0 run to start the second half and giving BG a 51-23 lead ... at that point, Honegger had 25 points, two more than the entire Ball State team.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, INDEED
The Falcons went 17-4 after Christmas ... since Christmas of 2003, BGSU has posted a record of 40-14, including a 30-9 mark vs. MAC schools ... over the last two years combined, the Falcons are 10-8 prior to Christmas and 34-10 after the holiday.
CAPTAINS KAPFERER AND LEWIS
Seniors Kelly Kapferer and Tene Lewis were the co-captains of the 2004-05 Falcons ... the two were selected in a vote of team members and the coaching staff ... Kapferer, a fifth-year senior from Jefferson, Ohio, was a unanimous choice for captain, the first in head coach Curt Miller's four-year tenure at BG.
NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS
The Falcons' win over Bucknell on Dec. 30 closed the 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 21-12 in regular-season, non-league games, the most wins of any MAC school (list on page 30 of pdf) ... BG's .636 winning pct. in such games also is the MAC's best.
NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS II
For the third consecutive season, BGSU completed the non-conference portion of the schedule at 7-4 ... the Falcons had not had three consecutive winning non-league campaigns in over a decade (1991-92 to 1993-94) ... additionally, the Falcons have recorded 21 non-league victories in 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.
STATE PRIDE
For the second-straight season, the Falcons had the second-most victories among the 13 NCAA Division-I schools in the state of Ohio ... BGSU's 23 wins trailed only Ohio State (30) in 2004-05 ... last year, the Falcons had a 21-10 record, behind only Miami (22-9) ... OSU matched the Falcons' 21-10 record in 2003-04.
EIGHTY-SIXING THE BOBCATS
The Falcons' total of 86 points vs. Ohio was BG's highest in a regulation MAC game in the Curt Miller Era ... in fact, BG had not reached that mark in a league game in almost four years, since a 90-73 win over Marshall on Feb. 17, 2001 ... BG scored 97 points in last season's four-overtime game vs. NIU (Feb. 18, 2004).
MANN NAMED TO PRESEASON ALL-MAC SQUAD
Sophomore Ali Mann was named to the MAC's preseason all-conference team for 2004-05 ... 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 ... a native of Chelsea, Mich., Mann was named the MAC's Freshman of the Year last winter ... she earned honorable mention on the 2003-04 All-MAC Team, and also was named to the MAC's All-Tournament Team.
