Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Meet Flashes in Saturday's Championship
March 10, 2006 | Women's Basketball
March 10, 2006
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CLEVELAND, Ohio -
GAME #30
#22/24 BGSU vs. KENT STATE
Sat., March 11, 2006
1:00 p.m.
Quicken Loans Arena (20,500)
Cleveland, Ohio
RECORDS: BGSU 27-2, 16-0 MAC // Kent State 21-8, 12-4 MAC
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1) - Rob Trautman and Chris Schieman
TELEVISION: MAC/ESPN+ - Jeff Phelps and Debbie Leonard
(Fox Sports Ohio, Comcast [Mich., Chicago], Adelphia 13 [Buffalo])
SERIES: BGSU leads, 34-27
LAST MEETING: at BGSU 62, Kent State 50 (Feb. 22, 2006)
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, for the third consecutive season and the ninth time in school history, has advanced to the Kraft Mid-American Conference Tournament's championship game ... for the second-straight year, the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller will face Kent State University in the final ... BGSU, the top seed in the East Division and the defending MAC Tournament champions, will face the Golden Flashes in Saturday (March 11) action ... tipoff is set for 1:00 p.m. at Quicken Loans Arena (20,500), with the winner earning the MAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.
FALCONS IN THE FINAL
As mentioned above, BGSU has advanced to the Kraft MAC Tournament for the ninth time in school history ... the Falcons have a championship-game record of 7-1 ... the complete list of BG's results in the final ...
Year (BGSU'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 2005 (#1) #2 Kent State W, 81-75 2006 (#1E) #2E Kent State Saturday, 1:00 p.m.
FALCONS JOIN EXCLUSIVE CLUB
The 2005-06 Falcons are just the fifth team in MAC history, and the first in eight years, to complete the league regular-season schedule without a loss ... Curt Miller's club became the third BGSU team to go 16-0 in league play ... the two prior BG teams to turn the trick were coached by Fran Voll, as his 1986-87 and 1988-89 clubs each went 16-0 in league regular-season action ... Central Michigan was the first-ever MAC team to go undefeated in conference action, with a mark of 18-0 in 1983-84 ... the most recent league team to do so was the 18-0 Kent State squad in 1997-98.
FALCON POINTS OF PRIDE
DOUBLE-DIGIT WINNING STREAK
The Falcons' 18-game winning streak is the team's longest in nearly 12 years, since a 20-game streak in the 1993-94 season ... the current run by the 2005-06 team is the fifth double-digit winning streak in school history ... each of the first four double-figure streaks in BG annals took those Falcon teams all the way to the NCAA Tournament.
HOT START
BGSU's 27-2 record ties the school record for best start through 28 games ... only one other Falcon team has begun a season with that mark ... the 1986-87 BG squad also had 27 wins in the first 29 games ... that Falcon team won a school-record 21 consecutive games to enter the NCAA Tournament with a 27-2 record.
HOT STREAK
The Falcons, as mentioned, have won 24 consecutive games against MAC opposition ... BGSU's last loss to a league opponent game on Feb. 19, 2005, at Eastern Michigan ... the Falcons then won three consecutive games to close the regular season and three more at the 2005 Kraft MAC Tournament ... this year, the Brown and Orange reeled off 16 consecutive victories in conference play, and captured a pair of league tourney quarterfinal wins, over Northern Illinois and Toledo.
HEAD COACH Curt Miller
BGSU head coach Curt Miller is in his fifth season with the Falcons ... his career record currently stands at 92-55 ... over the last two-plus seasons, Miller and the Falcons are 71-20 ... BGSU has gone 40-8 in MAC regular-season play in that time, and 48-9 in all games vs. league foes during that span (8-1 in league tourney play).
HERE'S YOUR SIGN
Earning a national ranking is one sign that a team is having a successful season to date ... here's another ... this season, through 29 games, the Falcons have not allowed a single opponent to score 70 points ... meanwhile, BGSU is averaging nearly 70 points per game (69.6 ppg).
NOT BAD, NOT BAD AT ALL
Despite this year's losses to Delaware (by four points) and Kentucky (in overtime), the Falcons have won 33 of the last 36 overall games, dating to Feb. 19, 2005 ... the Falcons' only other loss in that time was to Kansas State in the first round of the NCAA Championships last March.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
THE BGSU-KENT STATE SERIES
The Falcons lead Kent State, 34-27, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU has captured three consecutive meetings, including this year's two regular-season contests ... the Falcons hold a 5-2 advantage in neutral-site games between the schools, and BGSU is 4-2 in MAC Tournament meetings vs. the Golden Flashes ... last season marked the first time since 1994 that the teams had met in the league tourney ... BG has won the last three conference tourney matchups with the Flashes, including both prior championship-game meetings ... the Falcons won this year's two meetings by scores of 61-58 in Kent (Jan. 14, 2006) and 62-50 in Bowling Green (Feb. 22, 2006) ... last year's 81-75 win in the 2005 MAC Tournament championship snapped a 12-game series winning streak for Kent/Kent State ... despite BG's three consecutive victories, the Flashes still have captured 17 of the last 21 meetings.
BGSU-KENT STATE IN THE MAC TOURNAMENT Year Round Site Result 1982 QF Muncie, Ind. L 68-70 1987 SF Savage Hall; Toledo, Ohio W 71-66 1992 SF Cobo Arena; Detroit, Mich. L 103-106 (2-OT) 1993 CG Battelle Hall; Columbus, Ohio W 96-68 1994 SF Battelle Hall; Columbus, Ohio W 70-61 2005 CG Gund Arena*; Cleveland, Ohio W 81-75 * now Quicken Loans ArenaTHE FALCONS VS. THE MAC
The Falcons have a proud history in the MAC, as BGSU leads the all-time series with all 11 MAC opponents ... the win over Northern Illinois on Feb. 8 gave the Brown and Orange the lead in that series, and the Falcons' MAC Tournament quarterfinal over NIU gives BG a 14-12 series advantage with the Huskies ... BG is the only team in the league with a winning series 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 in all 18 games vs. league foes this year to date.
BGSU AT THE Q
The Falcons enter the Kent State game with an all-time record of 7-2 at Quicken Loans (formerly Gund) Arena ... the Falcons' first game there came on March 6, 2001 ... on that date, ninth-seeded BGSU held a three-point halftime lead over #1 seeded Toledo, before the Rockets rallied to post an 81-63 win in the league tourney quarterfinals ... that was the Falcons' final game before the Curt Miller Era began ... two years ago, the Brown and Orange picked up two one-point, last-second wins at then-Gund Arena, topping Western Michigan (63-62) and Miami (75-74) on buzzer-beating jumpers by Lindsay Austin ... that year's BG team fell to Eastern Michigan, 65-56, in the championship game ... last March, the Falcons downed MU, EMU and Kent State in downtown Cleveland, to win the conference tournament for the first time in over a decade ... and the Falcons have picked up wins over Northern Illinois and Toledo at 'The Q' this year.
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 ... fifth-year senior Casey McDowell (Hudson, Ohio) and sophomore Whitney Taylor (Wooster, Ohio) both hail from Northeast 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.
OBI-WAN HAS TAUGHT YOU WELL
Saturday's game matches Falcon head coach Curt Miller against the man he credits for giving him his start in the coaching profession ... Miller spent a year at Kent State as a graduate assistant, and was a volunteer coach on Bob Lindsay's staff during the 1990-91 season ... the Flashes finished 17-12 that year, and enjoyed the second-best turnaround in the nation ... BGSU's win over KSU in the MAC Tournament's championship game last March was the Falcons' first win in the series in over eight seasons ... BG had lost 12 consecutive games, including five in the Miller Era, and had dropped 17 of 18 series meetings prior to last year's title tilt.
