Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons to Face Oklahoma State in East Lansing, Mich.
March 12, 2007 | Women's Basketball
March 12, 2007
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team will head to East Lansing, Mich., for this weekend's NCAA Championships. The Falcons, a #7 seed in the Greensboro Regional, will meet #10 Oklahoma State in a first-round game Sunday (March 18). The game will begin at approximately 2:30 p.m. EST and will be televised by ESPN.
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The Falcons (29-3) and Cowgirls (20-10) will meet in the second game of the day at Michigan State's Breslin Student Events Center. Vanderbilt (27-5), seeded second in the Greensboro Regional, will take on #15 seed Delaware State (20-12) in the day's first game, beginning at noon. BGSU and OSU will tip off 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game.
The other Sunday session, also part of the Greensboro Regional, will see #5 seed Michigan State (23-8) meet #12 Delaware (26-5) in a 7:00 p.m. tipoff, with #4 Rutgers (22-8) facing #13 East Carolina (19-13) in the nightcap, at approximately 9:30 p.m. (30 minutes after conclusion of MSU-Delaware game).
The Falcons enter Sunday's game, as mentioned, with a record of 29-3. BGSU won the Mid-American Conference's regular-season crown with a 15-1 record, then won three more games at the Kraft MAC Tournament in Cleveland last week, downing Toledo (71-62), Eastern Michigan (71-57) and Ball State (67-53) to earn the league's automatic bid.
Oklahoma State earned an at-large bid out of the Big 12 Conference. The Cowgirls, 20-10 overall, finished 8-8 in Big 12 play. The team finished 6-22 overall and 0-16 in conference action a year ago, and was picked to finish last in this year's league preseason poll, but posted the program's eighth 20-win season en route to a sixth-place finish in the conference.
TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets will not be sold through BGSU's athletics ticket office. Instead, all tickets will be available through the host institution, Michigan State University. Fans can contact MSU's ticket office via phone, at 800/GO-STATE, or online at MSUSpartans.com. (CLICK HERE for ticket information at MSU's athletics web site).
Additionally, Falcon fans are encouraged to order their tickets early, and should request to be seated in the BGSU section.
According to the MSUSpartans.com late Monday night, "All session tickets are still available for $35 for adults in the upper bowl and $40 in the lower bowl. Youth, senior and MSU students can get all session tickets in the upper or lower bowl for $20. Groups of 15 or more can get upper bowl tickets for $15 per person. Single session tickets are available for $20 for adults in the upper bowl and $25 in the lower bowl. Youth, senior and MSU students can get all session tickets in the upper or lower bowl for $15. Groups of 15 or more can get upper bowl tickets for $10 per person."
HEADING HOME
Two of the Falcons' senior starters, Ali Mann (Chelsea, Mich.) and Megan Thorburn (Mason, Mich.), are Michigan natives. Freshman Tara Breske (Temperance, Mich.) also hails from the state of Michigan.
QUOTING THE FALCONS
HEAD COACH CURT MILLER
"It is always very exciting to see your name flash up there on the TV screen. For us, though, this is a dream come true. Being able to go to East Lansing, and for our fans to have a chance to follow us up there, is a dream come true. Of the eight sites where we could have been sent, we are ecstatic to be going to East Lansing."
"After having roughly 800 of our fans follow us to Purdue last year, and the sea of orange that we had all weekend in the MAC Tournament (last weekend in Cleveland), what a great opportunity for our fans to travel up to East Lansing and see us play in the NCAA Tournament."
"The other exciting part for us is that we have two senior starters (Ali Mann and Megan Thorburn) from the state of Michigan. Having them go home for the NCAA Tournament certainly will bring interest from the area, and I am absolutely thrilled for Ali and Megan and their families to be able to play in their home state."
SENIOR ALI MANN
"This is unbelievable. There are a million people who will be talking about this game, calling me and asking me how they can get tickets. There are a lot of people who haven't gotten to see me play very much -- since Bowling Green is in a different state, they think it is five hours from Chelsea -- but they know East Lansing is right up the road, and I bet a lot of them will be there to help cheer us on."
SENIOR MEGAN THORBURN
"I was thrilled to see the words 'East Lansing' pop up on the screen. It is 10 minutes away from my home, and it will be nice to be able to go home and play in front of friends and family for the first time in a long time."
(Have you ever played in the Breslin Center?
"We got to play a tournament in Breslin at the beginning of my senior year. We played against St. Johns, and it was an awesome experience, with a ton of fans there. I also played in a lot of team camps there, some other camps, played in open gyms there ... it is less than 10 minutes from my house, and I couldn't be happier that I will get a chance to play an NCAA Tournament game at Breslin."
THE GAME: #7 seed Bowling Green vs. #10 seed Oklahoma State
DATE: Sunday, March 18, 2007
TIME: Approx. 2:30 p.m. EST
SITE: Breslin Student Events Center; East Lansing, Mich.
TELEVISION: ESPN
RADIO: WBGU-FM 88.1 -- Paul Braverman and Brian Scullin
