Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Take on Vanderbilt in NCAA's Second Round
March 19, 2007 | Women's Basketball
March 19, 2007
EAST LANSING, Mich. (BGSUFalcons.com) -
#19/20 BGSU vs. #7/8 VANDERBILT
Tue., March 20, 2007 • 9:30 p.m.
Breslin Center (14,759) • East Lansing, Mich.
RECORDS: BGSU 30-3 [15-1 MAC] // Vanderbilt 28-5 [10-4 SEC]
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1) - Paul Braverman and Brian Scullin
TELEVISION: ESPN2 - Eric Collins, Mary Murphy and Todd Harris
SERIES: Vanderbilt leads, 2-0 // STREAK: Vanderbilt - 2
LAST MEETING: at Vanderbilt 92, Bowling Green 70 (Dec. 11, 1993)
BGSU Notes & Statistics in PDF Format
PHOTO GALLERY FROM MONDAY'S PRACTICE
THE GAME
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after downing Oklahoma State in the first round of the NCAA Championships, moves on to meet Vanderbilt University in the second round ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller (30-3, 15-1 MAC), a #7 seed in the Greensboro regional, will meet the #2-seeded Commodores on Tuesday night (March 20) at the Breslin Student Events Center (14,759), with tipoff at approximately 9:30 p.m. EST ... Michigan State will host Rutgers in the 7:00 p.m. game.
FALCONS IN THE NCAA
BGSU has won a game in the NCAA Championships for the first time in 18 years, and just the second time in the history of the program ... the Falcons are now 2-8 in tourney appearances, with a 1-2 mark in home games and records of 0-4 on the road and 1-2 in neutral-site affairs ...
Year (BGSU's seed) Opponent Score
1987 (#9 Mideast) at #8 Illinois L, 64-80
1988 (#10 Mideast) at #7 St. Joseph's L, 66-68
1989 (#9 West) #8 CINCINNATI W, 69-59
at #1 Maryland L, 65-78
1990 (#12 West) at #5 South Carolina L, 50-93
1993 (#10 East) #7 FLORIDA L, 67-69
1994 (#7 Midwest) #10 CREIGHTON L, 73-84
2005 (#13 Kansas City) vs. #4 Kansas St. ^ L, 60-70
2006 (#12 Cleveland) vs. #5 UCLA % L, 61-74
2007 (#7 Greensboro) vs. #10 Oklahoma St. $ W, 70-66
^ Seattle, Wash.
% West Lafayette, Ind.
$ East Lansing, Mich.
FIRST TO 30
The 2006-07 Falcons have become the first team in Mid-American Conference history to win 30 games in a season ... the 70-66 victory over Oklahoma State on Sunday (March 18) brings BGSU's record to 30-3 entering the Vanderbilt contest ... the Falcons have broken the school and MAC records of 28 wins, set by last year's BGSU squad.
SENIOR CLASS
The Falcons' win against Oklahoma State gives the team a total of 102 wins since the current senior class arrived at BGSU prior to the 2003-04 season ... that extends the school record for wins in a four-year period ... the old mark was 100 wins, amassed from the 1986-87 through 1989-90 seasons ... this year's senior class - Amber Flynn, Julie Gompers, Liz Honegger, Carin Horne, Ali Mann and Megan Thorburn - has helped the Falcons to a 102-24 record during their four years ... they also have led BG to four 20-win seasons (including one 30-win season), four MAC Tournament championship-game appearances, three MAC regular-season titles, three league tourney crowns, three trips to the NCAA Championships and now, a berth in the second round of the national tourney.
A BGSU WIN WOULD ...
• be the Falcons' third-ever victory in the NCAA Championships, and the first second-round win in school and MAC history;
• make the Falcons the first-ever conference school to advance to the 'Sweet 16';
• extend the team's school- and MAC-record seasonwin total to 31 games;
• be the 103rd victory since the current senior class arrived on campus, which would increase the school record for wins in a four-year span.
A BGSU LOSS WOULD ...
• end arguably the most successful season in program and MAC history at 30-4;
• be just the 25th overall loss since the seniors began their BGSU careers;
• give the Falcons a 2-3 record all-time in the Breslin Center.
THE MAC IN THE NCAA
Entering Tuesday's game, Mid-American Conference schools have posted a combined record of 6-27 in NCAA tourney play ... prior to BG's win over Oklahoma State, no MAC school had won an NCAA tournament game since 1996, when both Kent State and Toledo picked up first-round wins.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons enter the second round of the NCAA Championships with a 30-3 overall record, and BGSU is riding a five-game winning streak, with three of those wins having come in the Kraft MAC Tournament and another in the NCAA's first round ... BGSU finished the regular season with a 15-1 MAC slate, and won the conference's overall regular-season title for the third consecutive year ... the Falcons saw an 18-game winning streak snapped with a 70-67 home loss to Ohio on Feb. 24 ... that also broke a string of five consecutive games in which BGSU had scored 85 or more points, including an impressive 89-66 victory at Kent State in the previous game (Feb. 20) ... BGSU got back on track with a 92-62 win over Miami (Feb. 28) to close the regular season, then downed Toledo (71-62; March 6), Eastern Michigan (71-57) and Ball State (67-53) to capture the league tourney crown for the third-straight March ... then, the Brown and Orange opened NCAA Championships action with Sunday's 70-66 win over Oklahoma State ... the Falcons are 12-1 at home, 11-1 in road games and 7-1 in neutral-site contests ... BGSU's only losses have come at Notre Dame in overtime (85-81, Nov. 13); to Duke by only nine points (55-46, Dec. 19) in Cancun, Mexico; and to Ohio ... the loss to Duke (ranked fourth at the time, now the top-ranked team in the nation) snapped a six-game winning streak for Curt Miller's squad ... but, BG bounced back in a big way, as mentioned, with the 18-game win streak prior to the loss to OU, and the Falcons now have won 23 of the last 24 games.
• Four BG players are averaging double digits in scoring, with a fifth falling just short of twin figures ... senior Ali Mann has 15.7 points to lead the way, while junior Kate Achter averages 12.0 points and senior Carin Horne 11.9 ... Achter has 397 total points and Horne 393 this season ... seniors Liz Honegger and Amber Flynn have 10.1 and 9.8 points per outing, respectively ... Mann leads the Falcons in rebounding, with 5.8 per game, while Honegger has 5.4 rpg, Horne 4.5 and Flynn 4.2 ... Achter has a team-high 5.0 assists per contest, and Mann is second with 2.6 apg ... Horne has 1.8 steals per game to rank second on the team, and six of BG's nine active players have at least 1.0 spg, as the Falcons average 10.6 thefts per game ... Honegger paces BG with 1.1 blocked shots per outing, and also has a team-high 63 three-point field goals made (in 163 attempts) this year.
• Flynn is shooting a team-best 60.6 percent from the field, while Mann is shooting 52.7% and Achter 51.3% ... senior Megan Thorburn has 5.9 ppg and a 42.1% three-point FG rate ... she ranks second on the team in that category, trailing only Mann (43.0%) ... Honegger has shot 38.7% from long range ... Horne (52) and Thorburn (48) give the Falcons three players with at least 48 three-point field goals made this season to date.
• Sophomore Lindsey Goldsberry has seen action in 32 games off the bench this year to date ... Goldsberry has 4.0 points, 2.0 assists and 2.0 steals per outing ... she leads the team in steals and is third in assists ... junior Whitney Taylor played in nine of the season's first 10 games, averaging 3.1 ppg, but is out for the season due to injury.
• BGSU is averaging 75.6 points per game, while allowing just 56.9 ... the Falcons are shooting 48.0 percent from the field, and have made 234 three-point field goals - 7.09 per game - in 614 tries (38.1%) ... BG has limited the foes to just a 38.5% field-goal rate and a 28.8% effort from long range (152-for-527 from beyond the arc) ... BGSU has made 82 more triples and 134 more free throws than the opponents ... the Falcons have a 71.3% success rate from the free-throw line, while the opposition is shooting 71.5% from the stripe ... in MAC games, BG averaged 77.4 ppg to the opponents' 56.6, and the Falcons made more free throws (270) than the opposition attempted (236).
• 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 has played in 22 games and Bugher 19 ... Clapper saw action in 13 games, but is 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 (since broken by this year's club) ... BGSU, after winning the league's regular-season title for the second year in a row in 2005-06, 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 a year ago.
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 become the first-ever coach to be named MAC Coach of the Year in three consecutive seasons ... additionally, he has been named the Russell Athletic/WBCA Region 4 Coach of the Year in each of the last two seasons ... his career record currently stands at 123-59, in his sixth year ... over the last three-plus seasons, Miller and the Falcons are 102-24 overall ... BGSU has gone 55-9 in MAC regular-season play in that time, and 67-10 in all games vs. league foes during that span (12-1 in league tourney play) ... the 2006-07 Falcons have posted 20 victories for the fourth consecutive season, and have reached the 30-win plateau for the first time in school history.
SCOUTING VANDERBILT
Vanderbilt enters Tuesday's game with an overall record of 28-5 ... the Commodores, after winning the Southeastern Conference Tournament title, have advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the 20th time, and have won 32 tourney games after Sunday's 62-47 win over Delaware State in the first round at the Breslin Center ... coach Melanie Balcomb's team posted a 10-4 SEC regular-season record to tie for third, then proceeded to defeat Florida, Georgia and LSU in the conference tournament ... senior forward Carla Thomas, senior guard Caroline Williams and sophomore forward Christina Wirth all are averaging double digits in scoring on the season ... Wirth had 17 points and Thomas 16 in the win over Delaware State ... senior guard Dee Davis and sophomore guard Jennifer Risper join the aforementioned three players in the probable starting lineup ... the school's athletics web site is vucommodores.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons trail Vanderbilt, 2-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... the teams met in back-to-back years in Nashville, with the Commodores winning a narrow 69-66 decision on Dec. 10, 1992, and a 92-70 game a year and a day later (Dec. 11, 1993) ... (Useless note alert: the latter meeting came just eight days after BG's lone prior meeting with Oklahoma State, the Falcons' first-round opponent in the 2007 NCAA Championships) ... both of those BGSU teams - the 1992-93 and '93-94 squads - went on to advance to the NCAA Tournament ... those were BGSU's last two NCAA teams prior to the current three-year run.
BGSU VS. THE SEC
The Falcons have an all-time record of 0-11 against Southeastern Conference teams ... BGSU is 0-3 against Georgia, and the Falcons have gone 0-2 vs. both Kentucky and Vanderbilt ... Kentucky is BGSU's most recent SEC foe, as the Falcons took UK to overtime last season before falling, 66-62 (Jan. 2, 2006) ... BGSU is 0-1 all-time against Auburn, Florida, Ole Miss and South Carolina ... the South Carolina and Florida meetings both came in the NCAA Tournament ... Bowling Green has never met Alabama, Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi State or Tennessee in women's basketball.
SHE'S THE MANN
Senior Ali Mann has accomplished a great many things in her BGSU career ... here are the latest ... in Sunday's win over Oklahoma State, Mann became the second player in school history to reach 1,800 career points, and only the third-ever Falcon to surpass the 900-rebound mark ... Mann has exactly 1,800 points and 903 rebounds in her BG tenure.
A FEW MORE NOTES AFTER SUNDAY'S GAME
• Senior Ali Mann had a team-high 16 points and a game-high 13 rebounds in the win over OSU ... Mann now has scored in double digits in 31 of this season's 33 games, and in 101 of her 126 career contests ... the double-double was her fourth of the season and the 20th of her career.
• Senior Liz Honegger had 15 points, including three three-point field goals, and three blocked shots vs. the Cowgirls ... Honegger has surpassed the 1,500-point mark for her career, and has 1,512 entering the Vanderbilt game ... she ranks fifth in BG annals in scoring and fourth in rebounding (892), and holds the school records for three-pointers made (214) and blocks (187).
• Junior Kate Achter had 14 points and nine assists in the win over OSU, playing all 40 minutes ... Achter has played 119 of a possible 120 minutes over the past three games, including each of the last 100 ... Achter `rested' for the final 48 seconds of the first half in the MAC Tournament semifinal win over Eastern Michigan, then played the entire game against both Ball State (MAC Tournament final) and Oklahoma State ... prior to the BSU game, she had never played 40 minutes in a game in her career.
• Achter hit the second three-point field goal of her career in the OSU game Sunday.
• Senior Amber Flynn was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field in Sunday's win over OSU, with 10 points and four rebounds in only 15 minutes of action.
RUNNING WITH THE FALCONS
The Falcons allowed Oklahoma State to make an 11-0 run Sunday, then answered with a 10-0 run of their own ... BGSU has had a total of 36 double-digit scoring runs this year to date, after having 15 during all of last season ... by contrast, the Falcons have allowed opponents just four such runs, including none in the 16 MAC games.
