Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU Heads to Mount Pleasant
January 24, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 24, 2006
BGSU Notes & Statistics in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
GAME #17
BGSU at CENTRAL MICHIGAN
Wed., January 25, 2006
7:00 p.m.
Rose Arena (5,200)
Mount Pleasant, Mich.
RECORDS: BGSU 14-2, 5-0 MAC // Central Michigan 10-6, 1-4 MAC
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1) - Rob Trautman
SERIES: BGSU leads, 37-12
LAST MEETING: at BGSU 72, Central Michigan 58 (Feb. 15, 2005)
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after going a perfect 5-0 in the first round of games against the Mid-American Conference's East Division, now turns its attention to the West ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller will play the first of six consecutive contests vs. MAC West Division foes Wednesday (Jan. 25), heading to Mount Pleasant, Mich., to take on Central Michigan University ... tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m. at Rose Arena (5,200).
HONEGGER EYES 1,000-POINT PLATEAU
Sometime in the near future, junior Liz Honegger should become the 20th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point mark for her career ... Honegger enters the Central Michigan game just 11 points shy of the milestone ... she moved into the BGSU Top-20 in career scoring in last Wednesday's (Jan. 18) win over Ohio ... in that game, Honegger moved past Rhonda Moore on the BG career chart ... then, on Saturday, she scored a game-high 19 points to increase her career total to 989 points ... Honegger is looking to become the 20th player in BGSU history to score 1,000 points, but only the seventh to do so prior to her senior season ... Honegger's classmate, Ali Mann, joined the 1,000-point club earlier this month.
HAND IT OVER
The Falcons forced Miami into a total of 33 turnovers in Saturday's 80-58 BG win ... that turnover total was the highest by a BGSU opponent in almost 12 years, since the Brown and Orange forced Eastern Michigan to commit 36 in a game at Anderson Arena on Feb. 2, 1994 ... the BG defense has forced 124 turnovers (24.8 per game) in the five MAC games to date.
SAY YES TO MICHIGAN
For the Falcons, Wednesday's game begins a three-game stretch against the MAC's three schools from the state of Michigan ... BGSU will play at Central Michigan, then will host Western and Eastern ... the Brown and Orange is currently 2-0 in games played in the state of Michigan this year, having won at Detroit and Oakland in non-conference play.
HOT START
BGSU's 14-2 record ties the school record for best start through 16 games ... only one other Falcon team has begun a season with a 14-2 mark ... the 1986-87 BG squad had 14 wins in the first 16 games ... that Falcon team won 21 consecutive games to enter the NCAA Tournament with a 27-2 record.
HOT START II
BGSU's 5-0 start in conference play is the Falcons' best in eight years, since the 1997-98 team also opened league action with five consecutive wins ... this year's team is the fourth in school history to begin MAC action with five victories ... the '97-98 team lost the sixth MAC game, and finished 15-3 in league action ... two other teams, the 1986-87 and 1988-89 squads, ran the table, going a perfect 16-0 in MAC action.
A RARE DOUBLE
The Falcons currently lead the MAC in both scoring offense (69.6 ppg) and scoring defense (55.2 ppg) ... only once in league history has a team led the MAC in both categories in the same season ... that team was the Falcons in 1987 ... this year's BG team is currently 18th in the nation in scoring defense and 21st in scoring margin (through games of Monday, Jan. 16).
HEAD COACH Curt Miller
BGSU head coach Curt Miller picked up the 70th victory of his career at Detroit on Nov. 30, and garnered win number 75 on Jan. 7 vs. Akron ... his career record currently stands at 79-55, in his fifth year ... over the last two-plus seasons, however, Miller and the Falcons have a record of 58-20 ... BGSU has gone 29-8 in MAC regular-season play over the last two-plus seasons, and 35-9 in all games vs. conference foes during that span (6-1 in league tournament play).
SEASON-HIGH SCORING TOTAL
The Falcons' total of 80 points in the Miami game set a season high ... BGSU also matched a season best with nine three-point field goals made vs. the RedHawks ... the Brown and Orange also hit nine treys in the previous game, last Wednesday's win over Ohio.
MILLENNIUM FALCONS: MANN IS THE LATEST ...
On January 7, junior Ali Mann added another accomplishment to her already-impressive list ... in the Akron game, Mann became just the 19th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point mark for her career ... the Chelsea, Mich., native became only the sixth BGSU player to reach the millennium mark in her junior season ... heading into the Central Michigan game, Mann has a career total of 1,074 points.
... AND HONEGGER'S GOT NEXT
As mentioned, junior Liz Honegger is looking to become just the 20th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point mark for her career ... Honegger enters the CMU game just 11 points shy of the milestone ... Honegger's classmate, Ali Mann, passed Megan McGuire to move into 16th place on the BG career list, and is now just four points shy of 15th-place Judit Lendvay ... only six players (Mann, Jackie Motycka, Sara Puthoff, Francine Miller, Lori Albers and Chris Tuttle) have reached the 1,000-point plateau prior to their senior seasons ... both Mann (fourth) and Honegger (ninth) rank among BGSU's top 10 in career points per game ... and, don't look now, but junior Carin Horne is rapidly moving up the list as well ... Horne currently has 764 points, good for a tie for 31st on the BGSU career scoring list.
THEY'RE FAST, TOO
Junior Ali Mann has reached the 1,000-point plateau, and classmate Liz Honegger is now just 11 points away ... Mann was the fourth-fastest Falcon to amass 1,000 points, and Honegger is on pace to be one of the fastest players to do so as well.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
SCOUTING CMU
Central Michigan enters the BGSU game with an overall record of 10-6 on the season, and the Chippewas are 1-4 in MAC play to date ... Central has matched the team's overall win total for all of last season ... the Chippewas are 4-2 at home to date, but both setbacks at Rose Arena have come in MAC play ... most recently, CMU battled division favorite Eastern Michigan to a halftime standoff, before the Eagles pulled away in the second half for a 58-45 win Saturday (Jan. 21) ... Central's league win came on the road vs. Toledo, 60-48 ... junior forward Ann Skufca leads the team in scoring, with 12.1 points per game, and also paces the Chippewas in rebounding (6.1 rpg) and blocked shots (1.7 bpg) ... senior forward Chasidy Myers has 10.9 points, while senior guard Casey Manning averages 9.9 points per outing ... Manning leads the team in both assists and steals ... junior guard Sharona Hurd has 8.4 points and 5.1 rebounds per outing ... Hurd, Manning Myers and senior guard Erin Kuhl 94.7 ppg) have each started all 16 games for head coach Eileen Kleinfelter this year to date, while Manning has made 14 starts ... sophomore guard Stacey Verhoff (2.9 ppg) replaced Manning in the lineup in each of the last two games ... a total of nine letterwinners, including four starters, returned from last year's 10-18 team that went 4-12 in league action ... Kleinfelter has a record of 46-82 in her fifth year in Mount Pleasant ... she is 268-163 in her 15th year as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is cmuchippewas.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Central Michigan, 37-12, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU has won each of the last four meetings ... the Falcons captured last year's lone regular-season matchup, 72-58, in Anderson Arena (Feb. 15, 2005) ... BG is 15-6 in road matches vs. the Chippewas, and the Falcons won the most recent meeting at Rose Arena, 69-51 on Feb. 14, 2004 ... none of the last nine games, and only one of the last 15 meetings, has been decided by fewer than nine points.
THE FALCONS VS. THE MAC
The Falcons have a proud history in the MAC ... BGSU leads the all-time series with 10 of the 11 MAC opponents, and the Falcons evened the series with that 11th team, with a win at Northern Illinois in the teams' last meeting (March 1, 2005) ... BG is the only team in the league with at least a .500 mark against every other MAC school.
FALCONS VS. THE MAC II
BGSU is the lone Mid-American Conference team to currently hold a winning streak against each of the other 11 league schools ... the Falcons went 13-3 in MAC regular season play last year, with the only losses coming to Eastern Michigan (two) and Kent State ... but, BGSU avenged those setbacks by beating EMU in the Kraft MAC Tournament's semifinal round and KSU in the championship game ... and, BG has wins over all five league foes this year to date.
LAST TIME OUT
The Falcons scored early and often Saturday afternoon (Jan. 21), posting an 80-58 win over visiting Miami at Anderson Arena ... junior Liz Honegger scored a game-high 19 points for the Brown and Orange, with classmate Carin Horne close behind with 17 ... Ali Mann rounded out BG's double-digit juniors with 14 markers ... Sarah Hull led the visitors with 14 points, while Ashley Hawkins scored 10 off the bench ... BGSU used several first-half scoring runs to surge past the visitors, and the Falcon defense forced a total of 33 RedHawk turnovers, a season high for a BG opponent ... the Falcons held a 37-9 advantage in points off turnovers, including a whopping 23-0 margin in that category in the opening half of play ... after spotting the RedHawks three points on the game's opening possession, BGSU would score the next 11 points ... Horne scored seven of BG's first 11 points during that run, but the Falcons were not finished ... the Brown and Orange had runs of 11-0, 12-0 and 7-0 in the first half alone ... Miami battled back to within 14-11, but from then on, it was all BGSU ... the Falcons closed the half on a 33-11 run, taking an insurmountable 47-22 halftime lead ... that run began with BG scoring 12-straight points, including 10 from Honegger ... BGSU shot 54.8 percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes, with that 17-for-31 rate including a 7-for-14 performance from three-point land ... the Falcons tied a season best with nine successful treys on the day, and Horne had six steals as BG had 15 as a team.
TURNOVERS TELL THE TALE
The Falcons have forced a total of 124 turnovers in the first five MAC games, an average of 24.8 per contest ... BGSU hounded Ohio into 27 turnovers on Wednesday (Jan. 18), then forced a whopping 33 Miami turnovers on Saturday (Jan. 21) ... that came after Akron had 27 turnovers and Buffalo 26 in back-to-back games to start league action ... a few related notes ...
STEALING VICTORIES
BGSU had a season-high 17 steals vs. Akron, and followed that performance with 15 thefts at Buffalo ... those marked the team's top-two seasonal totals ... the Falcons had not had back-to-back games of 15 or more steals since early December of 2000 (15 vs. both Detroit and St. Bonaventure) ... the Falcons had 15 more steals in both the Ohio and Miami games, giving BG 68 steals through five league games.
KEEPING THEM DOWN
In last week's two games, the Falcons were uber successful at putting the clamps on the opponents' leading scorer ... the BGSU defense held Ohio's Simone Redd, averaging 14.5 points per game entering last Wednesday's (Jan. 18) contest, to just one point, and Redd was 0-for-10 from the field ... three days later, Miami's Cindi Merrill, averaging 17.3 points per game, was limited to a 2-for-14 shooting performance and six total points.
THE DEFENSE NEVER RESTS
A RARE DEFICIT
Iona's eight-point lead late in the first half of that game (Dec. 29) matched BGSU's largest deficit of the season to date ... Delaware also had an eight-point advantage over the Falcons, late in the second half of the teams' contest the day before.
RARE DEFICIT II
Last Wednesday's (Jan. 18) game marked the first time the Falcons had trailed at halftime of a home game since last Jan. 12 ... that date marked BGSU's last home loss, to Eastern Michigan ... in the interim, the Falcons had been tied at the half once at home, in last year's Toledo game (Feb. 26, 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 ... this year, through 16 games, the BG defense has allowed foes to shoot just 37.9% from the floor.
GET A STOP
The Falcons have played some solid defense in the early portion of the season, as evidenced by opponents' 55.2 points-per-game average through 16 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 14 of the 16 games (and, in the other two games, held the foes - Saint Francis and Kent State - without a point for over three-and-a-half minutes during at least one segment) ... through those 16 games this season, BGSU has ...
SHARE THE WEALTH
In the win over Miami Saturday (Jan. 21), no fewer than 10 Falcons had at least one assist ... three players - Carin Horne, Jasmine McCall and Casey McDowell - led the way with three assists apiece in the win.
NOT BAD, NOT BAD AT ALL
Despite this year's losses to Delaware (by four points) and Kentucky (in overtime), the Falcons have won 20 of the last 23 games, dating to Feb. 19, 2005 ... the only other loss in that time was to Kansas State in the NCAA Championships in March.
FALCONS SIX-AND-OH AT ANDERSON
BGSU's win over Miami moved the Falcons to 6-0 in home games this season, and the Falcons have won 13 consecutive games at Anderson Arena, the ninth-longest current homecourt winning streak in the nation ... the 6-0 start is the best for BG at home in eight years ... the 1997-98 team started the year with an 8-0 home record ... BGSU's best-ever home start was in 1992-93, when the Falcons won the first 13 games of the year at 'The House That Roars' ... the 1974-75 (7-0) and 1975-76 (6-0) teams are the only BG squads to complete the season with an unblemished home record ... both the 1992-93 (13-1) and '93-94 (12-1) squads were undefeated through the regular season at Anderson, before losing an NCAA Tournament game at home.
HOME SWEET HOME
As mentioned, the Falcons' win over Miami moved the team's record to 6-0 at Anderson Arena this winter, and continued the team's recent success at home ... last season, BGSU posted a record of 9-1 at Anderson ... the Falcons have won 13 in a row at home, and have captured 16 of the last 17 at 'The House That Roars,' dating to late in the 2003-04 campaign ... BG has outscored the opponents by an average of 21.3 points in the six home games this season, after posting a +15.9 scoring margin at Anderson last winter.
ROAD SWEET ROAD?
With a win at Indiana, the Falcons opened the road portion of the schedule on a successful note ... BGSU is now 6-1 in road games this year, with wins at Detroit, FIU, Oakland, Buffalo and Kent State and an overtime loss to Kentucky ... last year, BG went 6-2 in MAC road games for the second-straight winter ... since the start of the 2003-04 season, the Falcons are 14-4 on the road in conference play, and 23-10 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.
400 MAC GAMES
The Jan. 14 game at Kent State marked BGSU's 400th Mid-American Conference regular-season contest ... the Falcons now have an all-time MAC record of 267-135, good for a winning percentage of .664, through the first 402 such games.
MANN, HONEGGER HAVE DOUBLE VISION
Juniors Ali Mann and Liz Honegger have been in double digits in the scoring column much more often than not over their careers ... this season, Mann has scored at least 10 points in 15 of the 16 games, including each of the last 13 ... she had 24 double-figure games last year, and has 58 in her 78 career games ... Honegger has 11 double-digit games this winter to date, after 25 such games last season ... she has hit twin figures in 50 of her 78 career contests.
INITIAL PHASE COMPLETE
The 2005-06 season is the first utilizing a new women's basketball format for the MAC ... the schedule can be divided neatly into three phases ... as in each of the last seven years, each MAC team plays 16 league games ... this season, however, each school opened with five intra-divisional games, so BG played five-straight contests vs. the East Division, concluding with Saturday's Miami game ... beginning Wednesday (Jan. 25), the Falcons and the rest of the league will play the first of six cross-divisional games ... finally, schools will return to intra-divisional play for the last five regular-season games.
LAUSE, MANN, McDOWELL NAMED CAPTAINS
Seniors Jill Lause and Casey McDowell and junior Ali Mann are the 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 averaged almost 19 wins per year ... over the last two-plus seasons, since the start of Mann's freshman year, BG has gone 58-20 and twice advanced to the MAC Tournament's championship game.
