Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Begin MAC Season at Akron
January 02, 2007 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 2, 2007
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) -
BGSU-Akron Notes in PDF Format
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#21/24 BGSU at AKRON
Wed., January 3, 2007 * 7:00 p.m.
James A. Rhodes Arena (5,500) * Akron, Ohio
RECORDS: BGSU 10-2 (28-3 in 2005-06) // Akron 7-5 (5-23 in 2005-06)
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1) - Paul Braverman
SERIES: BGSU leads, 35-2 // STREAK: BGSU - 6
LAST MEETING: BGSU 80, at Akron 48 (Feb. 15, 2006)
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team has posted a 10-2 non-conference record, the best among Mid-American Conference schools ... but, the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller, like the 11 other league institutions, are 0-0 in the most important standings, as the MAC schedule begins this week ... BGSU, currently ranked 21st in the nation in the USA Today ESPN poll (as of Tuesday morning) and 24th by the Associated Press, will head to Northeast Ohio for a Wednesday (Jan. 3) contest against the University of Akron ... tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at James A. Rhodes Arena (5,500) ... the Falcons, the defending back-to-back MAC champions, have won 44 of the last 50 overall games and nine consecutive league road games.
IT'S A BUSY TIME OF YEAR
The Falcons, after enjoying a few days off for the Christmas holiday, have entered a busy portion of the schedule as the calendar turns to 2007 ... Friday's (Dec. 29) 70-59 win over Delaware began a stretch in which BGSU plays three times in six days, and four games in a nine-day span.
BGSU SETS SCHOOL RECORD FOR NON-CONFERENCE WINS
The Falcons improved to 10-2 with Sunday's (Dec. 31) win over Robert Morris, setting a new school record for non-conference wins in a season ... this year's team is just the third to win as many as nine non-league games since the MAC went to a double round-robin format in 1982-83 ... the 1991-92 team set the mark with a 9-2 non-league ledger, and last year's club also went 9-2 in pre-MAC play ... BG has one more non-league game, at Chicago State (Jan. 30).
EAST-WEST-EAST
The 2006-07 season is the second utilizing the current MAC scheduling format for women's basketball ... each of the 12 schools will play 16 league games, as has been the case in each of the last eight years ... but, in the format that began last January, each team opens conference action with five intra-divisional games, followed by six cross-divisional contests, and five more intra-divisional games to close the regular season ... so, BGSU will play five games vs. East Division schools to begin and end the season, with six games vs. the West Division teams in the middle of the conference schedule.
BG PUTS 25-GAME MAC WINNING STREAK ON THE LINE
The Falcons will put an impressive streak on the line at Akron Wednesday ... BGSU has won 25 consecutive games against MAC opposition, dating to the 2004-05 season ... BG suffered a loss at Eastern Michigan on Feb. 19, 2005, then won three consecutive games to close the regular season ... the Falcons went 3-0 in the 2005 Kraft MAC Tournament to win the tourney title and advance to the NCAA Championships ... the '05-06 edition of the Brown and Orange reeled off 16 consecutive victories in conference play, and captured three more wins vs. league foes in the MAC Tournament.
INJURY UPDATE
Junior Whitney Taylor suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in practice on Dec. 26, and is likely out for the remainder of the season ... Taylor played in nine of BGSU's first 10 games of the year, averaging 3.1 points and 12.2 minutes per game ... a wing player, she also played several minutes at the point-guard position in the UT-Arlington game and did not commit a turnover.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
* The Falcons enter the Akron contest with a 10-2 record on the season, and BGSU has won the last three games ... BG is coming off a pair of 11-point wins at Anderson Arena, having downed Delaware, 70-59, Friday (Dec. 29), and Robert Morris by a 92-81 count on Sunday (Dec. 31) ... the Falcons are 5-0 at home, 2-1 in road games and 3-1 in neutral-site contests ... BGSU's only losses have come at Notre Dame in overtime (85-81, Nov. 13) and against fourth-ranked Duke by only nine points (55-46, Dec. 19) in Cancun, Mexico ... the loss to Duke (now ranked third in the nation) snapped a six-game winning streak for head coach Curt Miller's squad ... following that game, the Brown and Orange bounced back with a 59-48 win over Texas-Arlington, before topping Delaware and RMU.
* Through 12 games, four BG players are averaging double digits in scoring, with a fifth recording over nine points per game ... senior Ali Mann has 15.8 points to lead the way, while classmates Carin Horne (11.8) and Liz Honegger (11.0) are also in double digits ... junior Kate Achter (10.1) and senior Amber Flynn (9.8) are fourth and fifth, respectively, on the team in scoring ... Honegger paces the Falcons in rebounding, with 5.3 per game, while Horne has 5.0 rebounds per outing ... Achter has a team-high 5.3 assists per contest, and Mann is second with 2.8 apg ... Horne (2.0 spg), Achter (1.7 spg) rank 1-2 on the team in steals, and seven total players average over one steal per game ... Honegger leads BG with 1.0 blocked shots per outing, and also has a team-high 30 three-point field goals made (in 61 attempts) this year.
* Flynn is shooting a team-best 67.1 percent from the field and is fourth on the team in rebounding (4.1 rpg; Mann is third at 4.2 rpg) ... senior Megan Thorburn has 5.2 ppg, and has a 41.7% three-point field-goal rate ... she ranks third on the team in that category, trailing Mann (50.0%) and Honegger (49.2%).
* In addition to Flynn, sophomore Jasmine McCall has seen action in all 12 games off the bench, while classmate Lindsey Goldsberry has played in 11 ... McCall has 3.3 points and 2.0 assists per outing, while Goldsberry has 3.1 ppg on the year ... junior Whitney Taylor has played in nine games, averaging 3.1 ppg, but is likely out for the season due to injury.
* BGSU is averaging 75.6 points per game, while allowing just 56.6 ... the Falcons are shooting 48.2 percent from the field, and have made 96 three-point field goals - 8.00 per game - in 234 tries (41.0%) ... BG has limited the foes to just a 37.4% field-goal rate and a 30.0% effort from long range (60-for-200 from beyond the arc) ... BGSU has made 36 more free throws than the opponents (175 to 139) ... the Falcons have a 70.0% success rate from the free-throw line, while the opposition is shooting 70.6% from the stripe.
* Miller and Company returned all five starters, and nine total letterwinners, from last year's team that finished 28-3 and won the MAC with a perfect 16-0 league ledger ... freshmen Tara Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper round out the active roster ... Clapper has played in nine contests and Breske and Bugher eight apiece.
* 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.
THE FALCONS VS. THE MAC
The Falcons have a proud history in the MAC ... BG enters Wednesday's game at Akron with an overall league record of 278-135 (.673), the best of all conference institutions ... additonally, BGSU leads the all-time series with all 11 MAC opponents ... BG, obviously, is the only team in the league with a winning series mark against every other MAC school.
FALCONS VS. THE MAC II
In addition to leading the all-time series with every other MAC school, BGSU is the lone MAC team to currently hold a winning streak against each of the other 11 league institutions ... the Falcons went 13-3 in MAC regular season play in '04-05, 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 2005 championship game ... and, BG picked up wins in all 19 games vs. league foes in 2005-06.
HOME SWEET HOME
BGSU has had a great deal of success at Anderson Arena over the past few seasons ... the Falcons went a perfect 11-0 in home games last season, and - after downing Delaware (70-59, Dec. 29) and Robert Morris (92-81, Dec. 31) over the weekend - have won 23 consecutive games at "The House That Roars" ... BG's homecourt winning streak is the second longest in the nation.
ROAD SWEET ROAD?
The Falcons have achieved a measure of success away from home as well ... BGSU has won 15 of the last 17 road games, dating to late in the 2004-05 season ... BGSU's only two road losses in that span each came in overtime, at Kentucky (66-62; Jan. 2, 2006) and Notre Dame (85-81; Nov. 13, 2006) ... since the start of the 2003-04 season, the Falcons are 20-4 on the road in league action and 31-12 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 ... heading into the Akron game, the Falcons have won nine-straight league road contests.
HONEGGER SETS YET ANOTHER BGSU RECORD
Senior Liz Honegger, already the BGSU career leader in both blocked shots ant three-point field goals made, moved to the top of another list on Sunday (Dec. 31) ... she went 3-for-6 from three-point land vs. Robert Morris, and now is the school's career record holder in three-pointers attempted ... Honegger now has made 181 triples in 495 attempts in her Falcon tenure.
STRONG SHOOTING II
The Falcons shot 56.8 percent from the field in the Delaware game ... it marked the second consecutive game and the fifth time in the first 11 games this year that BG has shot 50% or better ... that tops the total for all of last season (four games) ... BG is now a perfect 19-0 in such games during the Curt Miller Era.
(More notes are available in the pdf version of the BGSU-Akron game notes)
