Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Head to Ypsilanti for Sunday Matchup with EMU
January 26, 2007 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 26, 2007
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) -
BGSU Game Notes, Statistics & Boxscores in PDF Format
Falcon Women's Basketball News Wire (always available on the women's basketball page)
LIVE STATS FOR SUNDAY'S GAME through EMU's web site
#16/16 BGSU at EASTERN MICHIGAN
Sun., January 28, 2007 • 4:35 p.m.
Convocation Center (8,824) • Ypsilanti, Mich.
RECORDS: BGSU 17-2 (7-0 MAC) // Eastern Michigan 11-7 (6-1 MAC)
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1) - Alex Mikos and Brent Petkus
TELEVISION: Comcast Local - Joe Mazeika and Kathleen Offer
SERIES: BGSU leads, 39-14 // STREAK: BGSU - 2
LAST MEETING: at BGSU 76, Eastern Michigan 69 (Feb. 1, 2006)
THE GAME
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, off to a 7-0 start in Mid-American Conference play this season, will put a number of streaks on the line, and also will try to break one streak this weekend ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller (17-2, 7-0 MAC), riding a 10-game winning streak, will head to Ypsilanti for a Sunday (Jan. 28) game vs. Eastern Michigan University ... tipoff is scheduled for 4:35 p.m. at EMU's Convocation Center (8,824), and the game will be televised by Comcast Local, with Joe Mazeika on play-by-play and Kathleen Offer providing color commentary ... BGSU, currently ranked 16th in the nation in both the Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN polls, is in the midst of a six-game stretch in which five games are on the road ... the Falcons, the defending back-to-back MAC champions, have won 51 of the last 57 overall games and the last 32 contests vs. MAC foes.
BG LOOKING TO CONTINUE SEVERAL STREAKS ...
The Falcons, as mentioned, will put several streaks on the line Sunday ... BGSU will head to Ypsilanti riding a 10-game winning streak, and the Falcons have won 32-straight games vs. MAC foes, including 13 consecutive conference road contests.
... AND SNAP ONE STREAK
The Falcons have accomplished a great many things during the Curt Miller Era, but BGSU has not won at Eastern Michigan during that time ... EMU is the last MAC team to beat the Brown and Orange, with a 57-52 triumph on BG's last visit to the Convocation Center, on Feb. 19, 2005.
AND THEN THERE WAS ONE ...
As mentioned, the Falcons have never won at EMU's Convocation Center during the Curt Miller Era ... BG has won at least two games at nine of the other 10 MAC institutions during Miller's tenure, and the Falcons won at Kent State last season (Feb. 14, 2006) for the first time in over a decade ... not only has BGSU not won at EMU in the Miller Era, the Falcons have never won there in five tries since the building opened ... BG's last road win over the Eagles came at Bowen Field House in 1998 ... EMU's first two wins over BG at the Convocation Center each came by over 30 points, and the Falcons have lost by 12, two and five points in the three games there since Miller assumed the helm prior to the 2001-02 season ... more information on the BGSU-EMU series can be found later in these notes.
FALCONS ON THE SMALL SCREEN
Sunday's game at Eastern Michigan marks the first of three consecutive weekend games to be regionally televised ... the EMU game, as mentioned, will air on Comcast Local, which reaches parts of the states of Michigan and Indiana ... next Sunday (Feb. 4), BGSU's home game vs. Toledo is the MAC Game of the Week, and will begin at 4:00 p.m. ... then, on Feb. 10, the Falcons will play in another MAC Game-of-the-Week telecast, at Northern Illinois in a noon ET (11:00 a.m. local) start ... planned clearances for the MAC Games of the Week include Fox Sports Net Ohio, Comcast Local, CSN Chicago and Time Warner in Western New York ... of course, all of BGSU's home games (other than the UT contest) are televised by BCSN in the Toledo area.
SAY YES TO MICHIGAN
For the Falcons, Sunday's EMU game closes a three-game stretch against the MAC's three schools from the state of Michigan ... BGSU posted a 70-50 home win over Central Michigan last weekend (Jan. 20), then headed to Kalamazoo and picked up a midweek win, 90-62 (Jan. 24) ... the Falcons are currently 4-0 in games played against schools from Michigan this year, having won at Detroit and at home against Oakland in non-conference play ... BG has won 10 consecutive games against Michigan-based schools.
HOT START
BGSU's overall record of 17-2 ties the school record for best start through 19 games ... the 1986-87 squad had 17 wins in the first 19 contests ... that Falcon team won 21 consecutive games to enter the NCAA Tournament with a 27-2 record ... last year's edition of the Falcons also began the season at 17-2 ... that club won 19-straight games to head into the NCAA Tournament with a 28-2 mark, before losing to UCLA in the first round.
BGSU SETS MAC RECORD FOR CONSECUTIVE WINS
The Falcons will put an impressive streak on the line Sunday ... BGSU's 90-62 win at Western Michigan Wednesday (Jan. 24) was the Falcons' 32nd consecutive victory against MAC opposition, dating to the 2004-05 season ... that total extends the school and conference records ... 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 ... and, BGSU has opened the 2006-07 conference campaign with seven consecutive wins.
JUST OUT OF CURIOSITY, WHAT WAS THE OLD RECORD?
BGSU, as mentioned on multiple occasions already, has won 32 consecutive games (regular-season and tournament) against MAC foes ... the Falcons have broken the school and conference records for consecutive victories ... the mark was originally set by Fran Voll's Falcon teams which won 27-straight games vs. league opposition from Feb. 18, 1988 to Jan. 3, 1990 ... of the six such streaks over 20 games in league history, four have been compiled by Bowling Green.
HOMECOMING
The Falcons have four Michigan natives on the 2006-07 roster ... the Eastern Michigan game is the closest that BG will play to senior Ali Mann's hometown of Chelsea, Mich., this year ... senior Megan Thorburn is a native of Mason, Mich., while sophomore Jasmine McCall (Detroit) and freshman Tara Breske (Temperance) also will be playing in their home state on Sunday.
MANN MOVES INTO THIRD PLACE ON BGSU SCORING LIST
With a team-high 21 points in Wednesday's win at Western Michigan, senior Ali Mann moved into third place on the BGSU career scoring list ... Mann now has 1,587 points in her illustrious Falcon career ... she moved past Francine Miller (1,574) on Wednesday, and now trails only Jackie Motycka (2,122) and Sara Puthoff (1,678) on that list.
BGSU NOW RANKED 16TH IN NATIONAL POLLS
The Falcons are ranked 16th in the latest editions of both the Associated Press Top-25 poll, which was released Monday afternoon (Jan. 22), and the USA Today/ESPN Top-25 Coaches poll, released Tuesday (Jan. 23) ... those are the highest rankings in BGSU and MAC history ... more information on the polls can be found later in these here game notes.
LEADERS OF THE MAC
The Falcons are at the top of numerous team categories in the latest Mid-American Conference statistics (as of Jan. 26) ... BGSU is first or second in no fewer than 12 categories ... the Falcons lead the league in six categories - scoring defense (54.1), scoring margin (+19.8), field-goal percentage defense (37.1), three-point FG pct. defense (28.4), turnover margin (+6.47) and assist/turnover ratio (1.18) ... BG is second in field-goal pct. (46.9), three-point FG pct. (39.6), blocked shots (3.47 - tied for second), assists (16.42), steals (11.11) and three-pointers made (7.58) ... individually, senior Ali Mann is second in the league in field-goal pct., shooting 54.4% from the floor ... senior Liz Honegger is third in the league in three-point pct. (44.7), fourth in three-pointers made (2.21) and tied for fifth in blocks ... Mann is fifth in scoring (16.0), while junior Kate Achter is tied for fourth in assists (5.00) and ranks fifth in assist/TO ratio (1.64) ... in MAC games only, the Falcons lead the league in six team categories.
I LOVE THE 90S, PART DEUX
BGSU's total of 90 points in the Western Michigan game was the Falcons' second-highest of the season, behind only the 92 points amassed against Robert Morris on New Year's Eve ... the Falcons' total was BG's highest in a road game in over two years, since a 115-84 win at IPFW on Nov. 19, 2004 ... the last time the Brown and Orange hit the 90-point mark on the road vs. a MAC team was Jan. 23, 1999, in a 94-84 win at Miami.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
* The Falcons enter the EMU contest with a 17-2 overall record and a 7-0 MAC mark on the season, and BGSU has won the last 10 games ... BG is coming off wins over Central Michigan (70-50, Jan. 20) and Western Michigan (90-62, Jan. 24) in the first two cross-divisional games of the season ... the Falcons are 8-0 at home, 6-1 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 to Duke by only nine points (55-46, Dec. 19) in Cancun, Mexico ... the loss to Duke (ranked fourth at the time, now the top-ranked team in the nation) snapped a six-game winning streak for head coach Curt Miller's squad ... following that game, BG bounced back with a win over Texas-Arlington, before topping Delaware, Robert Morris and the seven MAC foes to date.
* Three BG players are averaging double digits in scoring, with two others recording over nine points per game ... senior Ali Mann has 16.0 points to lead the way, while classmates Carin Horne (11.2) and Liz Honegger (10.6) are also in double figures ... senior Amber Flynn (9.3) and junior Kate Achter (9.3) are tied for fourth on the team in scoring ... Honegger paces the Falcons in rebounding, with 5.9 per game, while Horne has 88 total boards to Mann's 87 (both players are averaging 4.6 rpg) ... Achter has a team-high 5.0 assists per contest, and Mann is second with 2.8 apg ... Horne (1.8 spg) leads the team in steals, and the Falcons' team defensive play has led to seven total players averaging at least one steal per game ... Honegger paces BG with 1.2 blocked shots per outing, and also has a team-high 42 three-point field goals made (in 94 attempts) this year.
* Flynn is shooting a team-best 60.3 percent from the field, while Mann is shooting 54.4% ... senior Megan Thorburn has 6.5 ppg and a 43.8% three-point field-goal rate ... she ranks third on the team in that category, trailing Mann (48.9%) and Honegger (44.7%).
* In addition to Flynn, sophomore Jasmine McCall has seen action in all 19 games off the bench, while classmate Lindsey Goldsberry has played in 18 ... Goldsberry has 3.4 points and 1.6 steals per outing, while McCall has 3.2 points and 1.5 steals per game ... the two sophomores rank 1-2 on the team in steals in MAC games ... junior Whitney Taylor played in nine of the season's first 10 games, averaging 3.1 ppg, but is likely out for the season due to injury.
* BGSU is averaging 73.9 points per game, while allowing just 54.1 ... the Falcons are shooting 46.9 percent from the field, and have made 144 three-point field goals - 7.58 per game - in 364 tries (39.6%) ... BG has limited the foes to just a 37.1% field-goal rate and a 28.4% effort from long range (84-for-296 from beyond the arc) ... BGSU has made 60 more triples (144 to 84) and 63 more free throws (263 to 200) than the opponents ... the Falcons have a 67.6% success rate from the free-throw line, while the opposition is shooting 68.7% 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 roster ... all three have played in 13 contests, but Clapper is likely sidelined for the remainder of the season due to injury.
* 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.
HEAD COACH Curt Miller
BGSU head coach Curt Miller has turned the Falcon program around, to say the very least, during his time in Northwest Ohio ... Miller has been named the MAC Coach of the Year in each of the last two seasons, and was the 2006 Russell Athletic/WBCA Region Four Coach of the Year as well ... his career record currently stands at 110-58, in his sixth year ... over the last three-plus seasons, Miller and the Falcons are 89-23 ... BGSU has gone 47-8 in MAC regular-season play in that time, and 56-9 in all games vs. league foes during that span (9-1 in league tourney play).
ACHTER IS ON THE ATTACK
It is only appropriate that an anagram for 'Kate Achter' is 'Attacker, Eh?' (question mark added for effect) ... the Falcons are at their best when Achter, their floor general, is leading the attack and pushing the tempo ... the junior had eight points, five rebounds and seven assists in the win over Central Michigan (Jan. 20), then had 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting at Western Michigan Wednesday (Jan. 24) ... she hit her first career three-point field goal in the latter game ... on the year, Achter is averaging 9.3 points, 3.5 boards and 5.0 assists ... she ranks 29th in BGSU history in scoring, and is sixth in career assists ... another anagram for 'Kate Achter' is 'hack at thee,' which is also appropos, as Achter has shown a propensity for getting herself to the foul line during her career ... she is very close to adding her name to the BGSU career lists for both free throws attempted and made, having gone 315-for-418 from the stripe in her 81 games to date.
HARD-WORKING TEAM
Head coach Curt Miller prides his Falcons on being a blue-collar team, and that trait was exemplified during a sequence late in the first half of Wednesday's (Jan. 24) win at Western Michigan ... with the Broncos on offense, senior Carin Horne knocked the ball away from an opponent, and made a headlong dive to save the ball before it went out of bounds ... Horne indeed saved the ball, diving through the BG bench and leaving a chair and two team managers in her wake ... Horne managed to save the ball to a teammate, then climbed back over the chairs and raced downcourt just in time to take a pass from a teammate ... the Lima, Ohio, native completed the sequence by drilling a trailing three-pointer from the left elbow.
SCOUTING EASTERN MICHIGAN
Eastern Michigan will enter Sunday's action with an overall record of 11-7, and the Eagles are 6-1 in MAC play to date ... EMU's lone conference loss came to Ball State (55-46, Jan. 13), and the Eagles trail the Cardinals by one game in the West Division ... Eastern has won three consecutive games since that BSU contest, including a 69-64 win at Kent State last weekend (Jan. 20) and a 69-56 home victory over Buffalo on Wednesday (Jan. 24) ... the Eagles are 6-2 at home this season to date ... individually, senior forward Sarah VanMetre leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, with 17.6 points and 8.7 boards per game ... redshirt junior guard Patrice McKinney has 14.8 points and 8.3 rebounds per contest on the year, while freshman guard Alyssa Pittman rounds out the team's double-figure scorers with 12.7 ppg ... Pittman has made a team-high 52 three-point field goals this season to date ... another freshman, forward Emily Hanley, has 6.4 points per outing ... sophomore guard Kendra Gallert (2.0 ppg, a team-leading 4.1 apg) joins the aforementioned four players in the probable starting lineup for acting head coach Shane Clipfell ... Clipfell has guided the Eagles to an 8-6 record (including all seven MAC games) in the absence of head coach Suzy Merchant, who is on maternity leave ... both Merchant and Clipfell are in their ninth season with the program ... the Eagles welcomed back 11 letterwinners, including three starters, from last year's team that finished 22-8 overall and 15-1 in MAC action and advanced to the WNIT ... the school's athletics web site is www.emueagles.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Eastern Michigan, 39-14, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU has captured each of the last two meetings ... in last season's lone meeting, the Falcons pulled out a narrow 76-69 victory at Anderson Arena (Feb. 1, 2006) ... as mentioned earlier, the Falcons have lost the last five road games to Eastern ... BG's last win in Ypsilanti was a 97-85 track meet in Bowen Field House on Jan. 10, 1998 ... the Falcons are 15-9 in road games in the series ... overall, Eastern has won eight of the last 13 series meetings, after the Falcons took 33-of-34 contests vs. the Hurons/Eagles from 1983 to 1998.
BGSU-EMU TIDBITS
* BGSU and Eastern Michigan have combined to win the last three MAC Tournament titles ... the Eagles downed the Falcons in the championship game of the '04 conference tourney, and BGSU has won the last two MAC Tournament crowns.
* Last year's meeting at Anderson Arena marked the first time in MAC history that a pair of 7-0 teams had met ... BGSU's narrow home win marked the only loss for the Eagles in conference action, as the teams went a combined 31-1 in MAC regular-season play a year ago.
THE FALCONS VS. THE MAC
The Falcons have a proud history in the MAC ... BG enters Sunday's game at Eastern Michigan with an overall league record of 285-135 (.679), the best of all conference institutions ... additionally, 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.
BGSU HAS HIGHEST-EVER RANKING IN BOTH NATIONAL POLLS
The Falcons have reached uncharted waters in terms of national rankings ... BGSU is ranked 16th in the nation in the latest Associated Press Top-25 poll, which was released Monday afternoon (Jan. 22) ... a day later (Tuesday, Jan. 23), the Falcons moved up a spot to 16th in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll ... those are the highest rankings for a MAC team in league history ... the Falcons have been ranked in the USA Today/ESPN poll for a MAC-record nine consecutive weeks, and BGSU has been listed in the AP poll in each of the last six weeks ... a few more facts about BGSU, the MAC and the polls ...
* BGSU's current rankings, as mentioned, are the highest ever by a MAC institution ... prior to this season, the Falcons' highest ranking had been 19th, in the AP poll on March 16, 1993.
* The Falcons' current run of nine consecutive weeks in the USA Today/ESPN poll has shattered the school and MAC longevity records ... the old mark of five weeks was set by last year's BGSU club, which was ranked in the USA Today/ESPN poll from Feb. 14 to March 13, 2006.
* The current runs (in each poll) mark only the fourth and fifth times in MAC history that a league school has had a run of three-straight weeks or more in the top 25 ... three of those instances have been in the USA Today poll, with the other two in the Associated Press poll, but the Falcons have been that MAC team on all five occasions.
* BGSU was ranked in each of the two polls last year, marking the program's first appearance in a national poll in 12 years, and the first appearance for a MAC program in over four years.
* Tuesday's (Jan. 23) USA Today/ESPN poll marked the 21st week in MAC history that a league institution has been listed in that poll, and BGSU has been that team in 18 of the 21 weeks, including 14 weeks under Curt Miller.
* Monday's (Jan. 22) ranking in the Associated Press marked the 18th week that a MAC club has been listed in that poll ... BG has been that team in 14 of those 18 weeks (eight during Miller's tenure).
PLAY THE D
The Falcons have allowed only 49.9 points per game in the seven MAC games ... the Western Michigan game marked the first time a league opponent has scored more than 56 points this year ... overall, the Falcons have held the opponent to fewer than 60 points in 16 of 19 games this year ... BG has limited foes to under 50 points on seven occasions, including two games of fewer than 40 points.
SHE'S THE MANN: ALI IS A MODEL OF CONSISTENCY
For three-and-a-half years now, it seems as if Ali Mann has always been there when the Falcons needed her ... while nothing is a given, head coach Curt Miller and his staff pretty much know what they're going to get when they pencil Mann's name into the starting lineup ... the Chelsea, Mich., native has been a model of consistency for the Falcons, both in 2006-07 and in her career ... most recently, she led the Brown and Orange in both points (21) and assists (five) in the win at Western Michigan ... Mann, who has played in 112 games as a Falcon, now has scored in double digits no fewer than 89 times ... the lone Falcon to score 10 points or more in all 19 games this season, she has hit double figures in 26-straight games dating to last year.
FALCONS HAVE A TRIO OF 1,000-POINT SCORERS ...
In the Buffalo game (Jan. 6), senior Ali Mann became just the fourth player in BGSU history to surpass the 1,500-point mark for her career ... Mann had moved up five spots on the Falcons' career scoring list during the team's trip to Cancun last month ... with her 21-point effort in the Western Michigan game (Jan. 24), Mann moved past Francine Miller into third place on the career list ... she enters the EMU contest with a total of 1,587 points, and now trails only Jackie Motycka and Sara Puthoff on that list ... senior Liz Honegger is also one of the top scorers in BGSU history ... she now has 1,381 points for her BGSU career to rank 10th ... senior Carin Horne surpassed the 1,000-point plateau for her career in the Oakland game (Nov. 29), becoming just the 21st player to add her name to the 1,000-point list ... entering the Eastern game, she ranks 16th in BG history with 1,137 career points.
AND FOUR IN THE ALL-TIME TOP-30
Carin Horne joined an exclusive group that currently includes only 21 players in the history of Falcon women's basketball ... that group - the list of 1,000-point scorers - includes three members of the current team ... in January of 2006, Ali Mann became just the 19th player in school history to reach the millennium mark for her career, and only the sixth to do so prior to her senior year ... three weeks after Mann reached 1,000 points, Liz Honegger became the 20th BG player (seventh prior to her senior year) to do so ... and, don't look now, but junior Kate Achter already has 856 points during her career, giving the 2006-07 Falcons no fewer than four players among the top-30 in career scoring at the University.
HONEGGER, MANN ON REBOUNDING LISTS AS WELL
Seniors Liz Honegger and Ali Mann, each among the top scorers in BGSU history, also are among the leading rebounders in program annals ... Honegger surpassed the 800-rebound plateau in the win at Ohio, and now has a career total of 827 ... she ranks fifth on the BG list ... in the Western Michigan game, Mann moved into sixth place on that list ... she currently has 798 career boards.
SHE CAN DISH IT OUT AND TAKE IT
Junior Kate Achter, as mentioned, has 856 career points, ranking 29th in school history ... the point guard has moved onto the BGSU assists list as well as the scoring chart ... she now has a career total of 369, good for sixth in BG annals, and has her sights on fifth-place Jaymee Wappes (387 from 1996-2000).
RUNNING WITH THE FALCONS
The Falcons had a 17-0 run early in the first half at Western Michigan, and added a 10-0 streak before halftime and an 11-0 run late in the game ... that marked the second-straight game that BGSU had three double-digit runs ... BG had at least one run of 10 points or more during each of the season's first eight games ... the Falcons reeled off 16-straight points in the season opener at Detroit, a run that was larger than any the team had during all of the 2005-06 season ... the Falcons have had 26 double-digit scoring runs this year to date, after having a total of 15 during all of last season.
UP NEXT
Following the Eastern Michigan game, the Falcons will head back home for less than 24 hours, then leave Monday for a Tuesday (Jan. 30) game at Chicago State ... that game closes out the non-conference schedule for the Brown and Orange ... then, the Falcons return home for the next two games, beginning with a Sunday (Feb. 4) game vs. Toledo ... that game, which will be 'Alumnae Day' at Anderson Arena, begins at 4:00 p.m.
