Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host Temple Friday
November 23, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 23, 2006
BGSU-Temple Notes in PDF Format
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
BGSU vs. TEMPLE
Fri., November 24, 2006 • 7:00 p.m.
Anderson Arena (4,700) • Bowling Green, Ohio
RECORDS: BGSU 3-1 (28-3 in 2005-06) // Temple 2-0 (24-8 in '05-06)
RADIO: WFAL-AM (1610) - Ryan Gasser (radio info on page 3)
SERIES: First Meeting
TV: BCSN - Dave Horger and Fran Voll
THE GAME
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after opening the season with four consecutive games on the road, finally gets to play in front of the hometown fans ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller, the two-time defending Mid-American Conference regular-season and tournament champions, will meet Temple University in Friday (Nov. 24) action, with tipoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena (4,700) ... the contest begins a three-game homestand for the Brown and Orange, who have won 18-straight home games and 37 of the last 42 overall games.
FALCONS WIN A TOURNAMENT TITLE (WE THINK)
There was no all-tournament team named, and no trophy handed out, but it is believed that the Falcons captured the title at the UCF Golden Knights Tournament last weekend ... BGSU downed Albany, 76-40, in Friday's (Nov. 17) first round, then topped Fairleigh Dickinson, 87-56, the next day ... after going 16 years without a regular-season tourney title, the Falcons have won two of the last three in-season tournaments in which they have participated.
THE HOME OPENER
The Falcons are 22-10 all-time in home openers (locations of 1973-74 games are unknown) ... that includes a 3-2 mark since Curt Miller assumed the helm of the BGSU program ... after dropping the home-opening game in each of Miller's first two seasons, the Falcons have won each of the last three ... BGSU has won 15 of the last 18 home openers.
BGSU HAS SHOT WELL BEFORE, BUT THIS IS FAIRLY RIDICULOUS
The Falcons had a solid start to the Fairleigh Dickinson game, to say the least ... BGSU made 11 of the team's first 12 shots from the field, scoring 30 points in the game's first 7:05 ... the Falcons started the game by going 5-for-5 from the floor, including 3-for-3 from three-point range ... BGSU shot 75.0 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes vs. the Knights, a school record for field-goal percentage in a half.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons returned from Florida with a 3-1 record on the young season ... all three BGSU wins have come by over 30 points ... after posting a 68-37 win at Detroit (Nov. 10), head coach Curt Miller's squad suffered a narrow overtime loss at Notre Dame (85-81, Nov. 13) in a matchup of two NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago ... then, however, BGSU picked up the wins over Albany and FDU in the UCF Tournament.
• Through four games, all five BG starters are averaging at least 9.0 points per game, with four scoring in double digits ... senior Ali Mann has 14.3 points to lead the way, while classmates Liz Honegger (11.8 ppg), Carin Horne (11.3) and Megan Thorburn (11.0) all are averaging between 11.0 and 11.8 ppg to date ... junior Kate Achter has 9.0 points and team-high averages of 5.5 assists and 2.3 steals per outing ... senior Amber Flynn has 8.8 ppg off the bench, and she leads the Brown and Orange with 6.5 rebounds per game ... Horne has 6.3 rpg and Honegger 5.5.
• In addition to Flynn, junior Whitney Taylor and sophomore Jasmine McCall each have seen action in all four games off the bench ... Taylor has 5.5 ppg, while McCall is second on the Falcons in both assists (2.3 apg) and steals (2.0 spg) to date.
• Through four games, BGSU is averaging 78.0 points per game, while allowing just 54.5 ... the Falcons are shooting 48.9 percent from the field, and have made 31 three-point field goals in 72 tries (43.1%) ... BG has limited the foes to just a 32.8% field-goal rate and a 25.8% effort from long range (16-for-62 from beyond the arc) ... while BGSU has made nearly as many free throws (65) as the opponents have attempted (73), the Falcons have hit just 66.3% of their charity tosses to date, while the opposition has shot 68.5% from the stripe.
• Miller and Company returned all five starters, and nine total letterwinners, from last year's team that finished 28-3 overall and won the MAC with a perfect 16-0 league ledger ... sophomore Lindsey Goldsberry and freshmen Tara Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper round out the active roster ... all four players have seen action in three of the four games this year.
• Last year's 28-win total set school and conference records for victories in a season ... BGSU, after winning the league's regular-season title for the second year in a row, went on to win the Kraft MAC Tournament for the second-straight March ... the returning players combined for 92.9 percent of the team's scoring and 90.7% of the Falcons' rebounding total.
A VETERAN STARTING LINEUP
BGSU's starting lineup features four seniors - Liz Honegger, Carin Horne, Ali Mann and Megan Thorburn - as well as a junior, Kate Achter ... entering the Temple game, that group has combined to make no fewer than 369 starts in their respective Falcon careers to date.
MORE ON THE START CHART
As mentioned, the five BGSU starters have combined to make a total of 369 starts in the Brown and Orange ... two members of that group, seniors Liz Honegger and Ali Mann, are poised to move onto the individual career list for games started ... Honegger has made 96 career starts, while Mann has started 95 games ... Angie Bonner (1987-90) sits in sixth place on that list, having made a career total of 97 starts ... Jackie Motycka (1985-89) holds the school record with 115 starts, a record that both Honegger and Mann have a chance to break before the year is out.
SIX-SHOOTER: SEXTET OF FALCONS IN DOUBLE DIGITS VS. FDU
No fewer than six Falcons reached double digits in scoring in the win over Fairleigh Dickinson Saturday (Nov. 18) ... senior Ali Mann led BG's balanced scoring attack with 16 points, while Megan Thorburn had 15 ... Amber Flynn scored 12 points off the bench, with Liz Honegger adding 11 and Kate Achter and Carin Horne 10 apiece ... it marked the first time in nearly six years that the Falcons had six players reach double figures ... for those who love lists, the last BGSU group to pull off the feat included Francine Miller (17 points), Angie Farmer (15), Afra Smith (13), Dana Western (13), Kim Griech (10) and Kelly Kapferer (10) in an 82-63 win over Central Michigan on Jan. 9, 2001.
THOR, GODDESS OF THREE-POINTERS
For the second time in less than a week, senior Megan Thorburn had an uber-successful night from beyond the three-point line ... last Monday (Nov. 13), 'Thor' made her first three long-range attempts en route to a career night beyond the arc ... she was 5-of-6 from three-point land, scoring a total of 17 points vs. the Irish ... just five days later, Thorburn went 5-for-7 from long distance, tying her newly-set career best for successful treys ... Thorburn has a team-high 11 triples through just four games this season ... she is 11-for-19 from long range, for a 57.9% rate.
HORNE APPROACHING 1,000-POINT MARK ...
Senior Carin Horne is rapidly moving up the BGSU career scoring list, and is making her bid to be the Falcons' next player to reach the 1,000-point mark ... during the UCF Tournament, Horne moved into 21st place on the school career list, and she currently has 969 points ... simple math would prove that Horne is just 31 points shy of the millennium mark.
... LOOKING TO JOIN MILLENNIUM FALCONS MANN, HONEGGER
Horne is looking to join an exclusive group that includes only 20 players in the history of Falcon women's basketball ... that group includes a pair of Horne's teammates ... Last Jan. 7, Ali Mann became just the 19th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point mark for her career, and only the sixth BGSU player to reach the millennium mark prior to her senior season ... Mann currently has a career total of 1,340 points, ranking 10th on the school list ... three weeks later (Jan. 28), Liz Honegger scored her 1,000th career point, becoming only the 20th player (seventh prior to her senior year) to do so ... Honegger moved up two notches on the list during the trip to Florida, and now has 1,226 points to rank 12th ... and, don't look now, but Kate Achter - after just over two seasons - already has 715 points during her BGSU career.
(Much, much more information can be found in the pdf version of these notes)
