Bowling Green State University Athletics
Division Leaders Collide in BG Wednesday
February 06, 2007 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 6, 2007
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) -
#16/18 BGSU vs. BALL STATE
Wed., February 7, 2007 • 7:00 p.m.
Anderson Arena (4,700) • Bowling Green, Ohio
RECORDS: BGSU 20-2 (9-0 MAC) // Ball State 17-3 (8-1 MAC)
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1) - Alex Mikos and Mike Castellano
SERIES: BGSU leads, 36-12 // STREAK: BGSU - 3
LAST MEETING: BGSU 72, at Ball State 60 (Feb. 11, 2006)
BGSU Game Notes & Statistics in PDF Format
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THE GAME
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, having reached the 20-win mark for the fourth consecutive season, leads the Mid-American Conference's East Division with an undefeated league mark ... now, the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller (20-2, 9-0 MAC), riding a 13-game winning streak, conclude a two-game homestand by facing the West Division leader ... BGSU will meet Ball State University in Wednesday (Feb. 7) action, with tipoff set for 7:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena (4,700) ... the Falcons, ranked 16th in the nation in the USA Today/ESPN poll and 18th by the Associated Press, are looking to extend several lengthy streaks in Wednesday's game.
AND WHAT STREAKS WOULD THOSE BE?
As mentioned, BGSU enters Wednesday's game vs. Ball State with several lengthy streaks on the line ... the Falcons have won ...
• 13 consecutive overall games since a Dec. 19 loss to #1-ranked Duke;
• 34-straight contests vs. MAC foes (a school and conference record);
• 27 consecutive home games, the second-longest active home winning streak in the nation;
• 48 of 53 games since the beginning of last season; and
• 54 of the last 60 overall games.
FOUR AND TWENTY
The Falcons' 73-62 win over Toledo on Sunday (Feb. 4) was BGSU's 20th victory of the season ... BG now has won at least 20 games in each of the last four seasons, tying for the longest streak in school history ... Falcon squads also posted four-straight 20-win seasons from 1986-87 through 1989-90.
FASTEST TO 20
The Falcons have tied their fastest start to a season, in terms of games ... BGSU has started a season at 20-2 for the third time in school history ... but, this year's edition of the Falcons has reached 20 victories, in terms of calendar days, much more quickly than any other team in program history ... the Falcons picked up win number 20 on February 4 of this year, with the win over Toledo ... previously, the earliest a BG team had reached 20 victories was on Feb. 11, in both the 1986-87 and 2005-06 seasons ... not surprisingly, the '86-87 and '05-06 teams are the other two squads that began the year at 20-2.
MILLER MATCHES MILESTONE
As mentioned, the Falcons have won 20 games for the fourth consecutive year ... BG has had 12 seasons of 20 wins or more in program history ... four of those seasons came under head coach Fran Voll (1986-87 through 1989-90), and four more came with Jaci Clark at the helm (1991-92 through 1993-94, 1997-98) ... now, four have come with Curt Miller at the helm ... only Voll and Miller had four 20-win seasons in their first six years.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons enter the Ball State contest with a 20-2 overall record ... BGSU has a 9-0 MAC mark on the season, and the Falcons have won the last 13 games ... BG began the second half of the league schedule with Sunday's (Feb. 4) 73-62 win over Toledo ... that came after cross-divisional wins over the MAC's three Michigan schools and a non-league victory at Chicago State ... the Falcons are 9-0 at home, 8-1 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 ... but, BG has bounced back in a big way, as mentioned, winning all 13 games since that time.
• Four BG players are averaging double digits in scoring, with a fifth recording over nine points per game ... senior Ali Mann has 16.4 points to lead the way, while classmates Carin Horne (11.0) and Liz Honegger (10.8) are also in double figures ... junior Kate Achter (10.4) rounds out the double-digit scorers, while senior Amber Flynn (9.1) is fifth on the team in scoring ... Honegger paces the Falcons in rebounding, with 6.0 per game, while Mann is averaging 5.0 rpg and Horne 4.5 ... Achter has a team-high 4.9 assists per contest, and Mann is second with 2.8 apg ... Horne has 1.6 steals per game to rank second on the team, and seven total BG players are averaging at least one steal per game ... Honegger paces BG with 1.1 blocked shots per outing, and also has a team-high 48 three-point field goals made (in 113 attempts) this year.
• Flynn is shooting a team-best 59.2 percent from the field, while Mann is shooting 55.5% ... senior Megan Thorburn has 5.9 ppg and a 38.7% three-point FG rate ... she ranks third in that category, trailing Mann (49.1%) and Honegger (42.5%).
• In addition to Flynn, sophomore Jasmine McCall has seen action in all 22 games off the bench, while classmate Lindsey Goldsberry has played in 21 ... Goldsberry has 3.3 points, 2.0 assists and 1.8 steals per outing, while McCall has 3.0 points and 1.7 helpers per game ... Goldsberry leads the team in steals and is third in assists, while McCall is fourth in both categories ... 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 73.7 points per game, while allowing just 54.5 ... the Falcons are shooting 46.9 percent from the field, and have made 160 three-point field goals - 7.27 per game - in 418 tries (38.3%) ... BG has limited the foes to just a 37.8% field-goal rate and a 28.9% effort from long range (98-for-339 from beyond the arc) ... BGSU has made 62 more triples (160 to 98) and 86 more free throws (312 to 226) than the opponents ... the Falcons have a 69.5% success rate from the free-throw line, while the opposition is shooting 67.3% from the stripe ... in MAC games, BG has made more free throws (133) than the opponents have attempted (124).
• 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 ... Breske and Bugher have played in 15 contests apiece ... Clapper saw action in 13 games, but 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 113-58, in his sixth year ... over the last three-plus seasons, Miller and the Falcons are 92-23 overall ... BGSU has gone 49-8 in MAC regular-season play in that time, and 58-9 in all games vs. league foes during that span (9-1 in league tourney play) ... the Falcons have posted 20 victories for the fourth consecutive season.
BGSU EXTENDS MAC RECORD FOR CONSECUTIVE WINS
The Falcons extended an impressive streak Sunday (Feb. 4) ... BGSU's 73-62 win over Toledo was the Falcons' 34th 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 (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 nine-straight wins.
JUST OUT OF CURIOSITY, WHAT WAS THE OLD RECORD?
BGSU, as mentioned on multiple occasions already, has won 34 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.
DOUBLE-DIGIT WINNING STREAK
The Falcons have won the last 13 games, the sixth double-digit winning streak in school history ... each of the first five double-figure streaks in BG annals took those Falcon teams all the way to the NCAA Tournament.
HOT START
As mentioned, BGSU's overall record of 20-2 ties the school record for best start through 22 games ... the 1986-87 squad had 20 wins in the first 22 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 20-2 ... 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.
A FEW NOTES FROM THE TOLEDO GAME
The Falcons now lead the series with Toledo by a 36-25 count, and BGSU has won eight consecutive meetings vs. the Rockets after Sunday's 73-62 victory ... Curt Miller now has a record of 8-2 against UT since assuming the BG helm prior to the 2001-02 season • the Falcons trailed at halftime for just the third time this season, and the three-point margin was BG's largest halftime deficit of the year to date ... the Falcons were behind by two points at the half in both the Duke and Delaware games • BGSU's 15-point deficit in the first half was the team's largest of the season ... the last time the Brown and Orange trailed by 15 in a regular-season game came in last year's UT contest ... in that game, also played on Super Bowl Sunday, the Falcons trailed by 15 in the early moments of the second half, before rallying for a 71-65 win at Savage Hall.
ALUMNAE DAY
Sunday's game was 'Alumnae Day' at Anderson Arena, and a number of former Falcon standouts were on hand for the win over Toledo ... the 1986-87 BGSU team was recognized in pregame ceremonies ... that team won the program's first-ever MAC title 20 years ago ... additionally, women's basketball alumna Kelly Kapferer sang the National Anthem prior to the game.
ALI: ONE OF THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME
No, she did not change her name from Cassius Clay ... and no, her name is not even pronounced the same as a certain boxer who proclaimed himself as 'the greatest of all-time' ... but, senior Ali Mann certainly could make her claim as one of the best players in BGSU history ... in the win at Eastern Michigan (Jan. 28), Mann surpassed both the 1,600-point and 800-rebound plateaus for her career ... she ranks third in BGSU history in career scoring, and is sixth on the rebounding chart ... also in that EMU game, Mann became the BG career leader in free throws made ... she enters the Ball State contest with career totals of 1,644 points and 821 boards ... Mann is the only player in school history with more than 1,600 points and 800 rebounds in her career.
THE FALCONS ARE ...
• 113-58 in the five-plus years since Curt Miller took the helm in May of 2001;
• 60-29 in MAC games in that time;
• 92-23 overall and 49-8 in the MAC over the last three-plus seasons, since the current senior class arrived on campus in the fall of 2003;
• 48-5 since the beginning of last season;
• 54-6 in the last 60 overall games since February of 2005 (with the losses coming to Kansas State [2005 NCAA Tournament], Delaware, Kentucky, UCLA [2006 NCAA Tournament], Notre Dame and Duke);
• 6-0 in games after a loss during that time;
• 18-0 in games decided by double digits this season;
• 6-0 in games decided by over 30 points in 2006-07;
• 34-0 in the last 34 games against MAC opponents (setting new school and conference records), since a loss at Eastern Michigan on Feb. 19, 2005;
• 9-1 in the MAC Tournament in the last three seasons;
• 27-0 in the last 27 home games, the second-longest active home winning streak in the nation;
• 16-1 in the last 17 road games (with the overtime loss at Notre Dame snapping a nine-game road winning streak since an OT setback at Kentucky on Jan. 2, 2006 - BG has since won seven-straight road games);
• 14-0 in the last 14 MAC road games;
• 47-0 when outrebounding the opponent since the start of the 2004-05 season;
• 47-3 when holding the opponent to fewer than 70 points since the beginning of the 2005-06 season (BGSU has only allowed three teams - UCLA, Notre Dame and Robert Morris - to top the 70-point mark in the last 53 games);
• 9-1 in games played on Feb. 7, including 1-0 vs. Ball State (an 81-70 win in Muncie in 1998);
• 3-1 in home games on that date, including three-straight wins at Anderson;
• 7-0 in the last seven games on Feb. 7, including a 69-67, buzzer-beating win over Western Michigan in 2004, in the lone game of the Curt Miller Era on that date.
FALCONS BY CLASS
THE SENIORS
BGSU's senior class is one of the finest in school history ... that group includes four returning starters in Liz Honegger, Carin Horne, Ali Mann and Megan Thorburn ... additionally, Amber Flynn was one of the most improved players in the MAC last season, and has picked up right where she left off ... a sixth senior, Julie Gompers, missed each of the last two seasons due to injury and is again sidelined in 2006-07 ... the class has been an integral part of the Falcons' 92-23 overall mark in the last three-plus years, and BG has advanced to the championship game of the MAC Tournament every year since they arrived.
THE JUNIORS
The Falcons' two juniors, Kate Achter and Whitney Taylor, have helped BGSU win MAC regular-season and tournament titles in each of their first two seasons ... BG has an overall record of 71-13 since the two arrived on campus, and the Falcons are 68-9 when Achter is in the starting lineup ... Taylor has played in nine games this year, but is sidelined due to an injury suffered in practice on Dec. 26 and is likely out for the season.
THE SOPHOMORES
Lindsey Goldsberry and Jasmine McCall have seen their team win over 90 percent of its games (48-5 to date), and the two players have never been a part of a loss to a MAC opponent, as the Falcons are 28-0 against league opposition since the start of last season ... McCall has played in all 53 of BGSU's games in her career to date, while Goldsberry has action in 51 contests, making two starts.
THE FRESHMEN
Tara Breske (Temperance, Mich.), Laura Bugher (Greenwood, Ind.) and Sarah Clapper (Newark, Ohio) are the newest additions to the BG program ... Breske and Bugher each have played in 15 games to date, while Clapper has seen action in 13 ... Clapper, though, is likely out for the season after suffering an injury in practice on Jan. 22 ... the Falcons have yet to lose a game when any of the three frosh see playing time.
SCOUTING BALL STATE
Ball State will enter Wednesday's action with an overall record of 17-3, and the Cardinals lead the MAC's West Division with a league record of 8-1 ... BSU's lone conference loss came at home to Ohio by a 77-66 count on Jan. 27 ... that broke a 10-game winning streak ... the team bounced back for a 59-44 win at Buffalo on Saturday (Feb. 3) ... BSU is 8-2 in road games this season, including a perfect 4-0 in opposing MAC venues ... all five of the Cardinals' starters have double-digit scoring averages, led by junior guard Julie DeMuth ... DeMuth has a team-high 14.8 points per game, and also leads the Cardinals with 8.3 rebounds per contest ... senior guard Kelsey Corbin has 11.2 points and a BSU-best 4.5 assists per outing ... sophomore guard Porchia Green and junior forward Lisa Rusche have 10.6 and 10.5 ppg, respectively ... Green is averaging 6.6 rebounds and 3.8 assists, while Rusche has 6.3 boards and a team-high 1.6 blocks per contest ... freshman guard Audrey McDonald rounds out the double-digit scorers and the starting lineup ... she has 10.2 ppg and has made a team-high 49 three-point field goals this season ... all five players have started every game this season for head coach Tracy Roller ... Roller welcomed back nine letterwinners, including four starters, from last year's team that finished 17-12 overall and 9-7 in MAC action ... the school's athletics web site is www.ballstatesports.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Ball State, 36-12, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU has captured each of the last three meetings ... in last year's lone meeting, the Falcons rallied from a double-digit deficit for a 72-60 victory in Muncie (Feb. 11, 2006) ... the teams have not played at Anderson Arena in over three years ... BGSU is 20-2 in home games vs. BSU, but the Cardinals have won in each of the last two trips to Anderson ... in the most recent meeting in BG, the Cardinals picked up a 72-70 victory (Jan. 7, 2004) ... BG's three wins have come after the Cardinals had had a four-game win streak over the Brown and Orange ... prior to those four BSU wins, the Falcons had won 17 of 18 meetings against the Cards.
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 Toledo, 73-62, Sunday (Feb. 4) - have won 27 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 21 of the last 23 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 25-4 on the road in league action and 37-12 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 ... after the win at Eastern Michigan (Jan. 28), the Falcons have won 14-straight league road contests ... last Tuesday's (Jan. 30) Chicago State game marked BG's seventh overall road win in a row since the loss at Notre Dame.
LEADERS OF THE MAC
The Falcons are at the top of numerous team categories in the latest Mid-American Conference statistics (as of Feb. 6) ... BGSU is first or second in no fewer than 11 categories ... the Falcons lead the league in seven - scoring defense (54.5), scoring margin (+19.2), field-goal percentage (46.9), FG pct. defense (37.8), three-point FG pct. defense (28.9), turnover margin (+6.32) and assist/turnover ratio (1.19) ... BG is second in scoring offense (73.7), three-point FG pct. (38.3), assists (16.23) and three-pointers made (7.27) ... individually, senior Ali Mann is second in the league in field-goal pct., shooting 55.5% from the floor ... senior Liz Honegger is second in the MAC in three-point pct. (42.5) and fourth in three-pointers made (2.18) ... Mann is fifth in scoring (16.4), while junior Kate Achter is fourth in assists (4.91) and fifth in assist/TO ratio (1.71) ... in MAC games only, the Falcons lead the league in seven team categories.
FALCONS ON THE SMALL SCREEN
The Falcons are in the midst of a stretch which sees the team play three regionally televised games in as many weekends ... the Jan. 28 game at Eastern Michigan marked the first of those three games ... the EMU game aired on Comcast Local, which reaches parts of the states of Michigan and Indiana ... Sunday's (Feb. 4) home game vs. Toledo was the MAC Game of the Week, and Saturday's (Feb. 10) game at Northern Illinois is another MAC Game-of-the-Week telecast ... that game supposedly will start at 12:30 ET (11:30 a.m. local) ... 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.
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 ... she led the Brown and Orange in four categories, with 20 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots at Chicago State ... then, she put the team on her back, scoring 10-straight BG points late in the second half in Sunday's win over Toledo ... she scored 18 points in the game ... Mann, who has played in 115 games as a Falcon, now has scored in double digits no fewer than 92 times ... the lone Falcon to score 10 points or more in all 22 games this season, she has hit double figures in 29-straight games dating to last year.
THREE IN THE TOP-15, FOUR IN THE TOP-25
The 2006-07 Falcons have a total of three players who are ranked among the top-15 career scorers in program history ... a fourth player is ranked 25th on that list ... keep reading for more details.
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 just before Christmas ... with her 21-point effort at Western Michigan (Jan. 24), Mann moved past Francine Miller into third place on the career list, and she surpassed the 1,600-point mark in the Eastern Michigan game four days later ... Mann enters the Ball State contest with a total of 1,644 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 1,416 points for her BGSU career, and has moved into ninth place ... Honegger is only 16 points away from fifth place ... 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 BSU game, she has 1,166 career points, and has moved into 15th place all-time.
AND FOUR IN THE ALL-TIME TOP-25
Carin Horne joined an exclusive group that currently includes only 21 players in the history of Falcon women's basketball ... that 1,000-point list 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, 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 surpassed the 900-point mark for her career ... with 15 points in the latest win over Toledo, Achter moved up two spots on the list, and now ranks 24th with 907 career points.
