.png&type=webp)
Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons to Face Ball State in MAC Tournament Championship
March 09, 2007 | Women's Basketball
March 9, 2007
CLEVELAND, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) -
#18/20 BGSU vs. BALL STATE
Sat., March 10, 2007 • 1:00 p.m.
Quicken Loans Arena (20,500) • Cleveland, Ohio
RECORDS: BGSU 28-3 [15-1 MAC] // Ball State 24-5 [13-3 MAC]
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1) - Paul Braverman and Brian Scullin
TELEVISION: MAC/ESPN+ - Jeff Phelps and Toni Roesch
(Fox Sports Net Ohio, Comcast [Mich.], Time Warner 13 [Buffalo])
SERIES: BGSU leads, 37-12 // STREAK: BGSU - 4
LAST MEETING: at BGSU 86, Ball State 76 (Feb. 7, 2007)
BGSU Notes in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
THE GAME
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, for the fourth consecutive season and the 10th time in school history, has advanced to the championship game of the Kraft Mid-American Conference Tournament ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller (28-3, 15-1 MAC), the top seed in the East Division and the two-time defending MAC Tournament champions, will face West Division champion Ball State University on Saturday afternoon (March 10) in downtown Cleveland ... tipoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. at Quicken Loans Arena (20,500), with the winner earning the MAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships ... the game will be televised by Fox Sports Net Ohio, with Jeff Phelps and Toni Roesch on the call ... other planned clearances include Comcast Local in Michigan and Time Warner in the Buffalo, N.Y., area ... BGSU is currently ranked 18th in the nation in the USA Today/ESPN poll and 20th by the Associated Press.
FALCONS IN THE MAC TOURNAMENT
The Falcons enter the championship game of the 2007 Kraft MAC Tournament with an all-time record of 32-14 in the league tourney ... BG's win total is second among MAC teams, and the Falcons' .696 winning percentage also is second-best in the conference ... BGSU's total of eight MAC Tournament titles is the highest by any league institution.
FALCONS IN THE FINAL
BGSU has advanced to the championship game of the Kraft MAC Tournament for the 10th time in school history ... the Falcons will enter the game with a record of 8-1 in the championship contest ... the complete list of BG's results in the final ...
Year (BGSU's seed) Opponent Result 1987 (#1) #2 Central Michigan W, 63-62 1988 (#1) #2 Western Michigan W, 70-53 1989 (#1) #2 Toledo W, 90-51 1990 (#3) #1 Miami W, 84-63 1993 (#1) #3 Kent State W, 96-68 1994 (#1) #2 Toledo W, 74-63 2004 (#4) #2 Eastern Michigan L, 56-65 2005 (#1) #2 Kent State W, 81-75 2006 (#1E) #2E Kent State W, 64-39 2007 (#1E) #1W Ball State Sat., 1:00 p.m.
CARIN IS CLUTCH
Senior Carin Horne is playing some of her best basketball at the most important time of the year ... in Tuesday's (March 6) win over Toledo, Horne sparked the Falcons to a 71-62 victory with a game-high 22 points ... that came after a game-best 23-point effort on 'Senior Night' in the Falcons' final regular-season game, a 92-62 win over Miami (Feb. 28) ... that marked the first back-to-back 20-point games of her storied Falcon tenure ... on Friday (March 9), she fell just shy of 20, but still had a game-high 18 points in the win over Eastern Michigan ... Horne has scored in double digits in 66 career games, including 22 this season.
CARIN AT THE Q
Senior Carin Horne, as mentioned, had a game-high 22 points in Tuesday's win over Toledo, and again led all players with 18 points vs. Eastern Michigan ... in her last six games at Gund/Quicken Loans Arena, Horne has averaged 16.2 points and 6.7 rebounds per contest ... the Lima, Ohio, native will be looking to pull off an impressive feat, as she will be the only player on the court with a chance to hit double digits in her fourth-straight league tourney final ... in her first three seasons in the Brown and Orange, she scored 17, 17 and 16 points in her three MAC Tournament championship-game appearances.
A BGSU WIN WOULD ...
• give the Falcons a third consecutive Kraft MAC Tournament title and advance BGSU to the NCAA Championships;
• be only the third MAC Tournament 'three-peat' in league history (BGSU won four-straight titles from 1987-90, and Toledo won three in a row from 1995-97);
• be the Falcons' 29th win of the season, breaking the school and MAC records set by last year's BG team;
• be the 101st victory since the current senior class arrived on campus, which would set a new school record for wins in a four-year span.
• be BGSU's ninth consecutive win at Gund/Quicken Loans Arena.
A BGSU LOSS WOULD ...
• mark the Falcons' first MAC Tournament loss since a championship-game setback to Eastern Michigan in 2004;
• be just the 25th overall loss since the seniors began their BGSU careers;
• give Ball State the MAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships, and leave the Falcons hoping for the conference's first at-large bid since 1996.
CHAMPIONS AGAIN
For the third consecutive year and the eighth time in school history, Bowling Green has captured a MAC regular-season championship ... the Falcons won the East Division and posted the league's best overall regular-season mark, with a 15-1 record against conference competition ... BGSU won league regular-season titles in three consecutive seasons from 1986-87 to 1988-89, and captured back-to-back crowns in the 1992-93 and '93-94 campaigns ... two years ago, the Falcons had the MAC's best overall record at 13-3, and won the West Division ... last season, BGSU posted a perfect 16-0 league ledger, winning the East Division.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons enter Saturday's Kraft MAC Tournament championship game with a 28-3 overall record ... 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, in Tuesday's league tourney quarterfinal round before topping Eastern Michigan, 71-57, in Friday's semifinal round ... the Falcons are 12-1 at home, 11-1 in road games and 5-1 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.
• Four BG players are averaging double digits in scoring, with a fifth falling just short of twin figures ... senior Ali Mann has 15.5 points to lead the way, while senior Carin Horne and junior Kate Achter have 12.0 and 11.8 points per game, respectively ... senior Liz Honegger (10.3) rounds out the Falcons four double-figure scorers, while classmate Amber Flynn has 9.8 points per outing ... Mann leads the Falcons in rebounding, with 5.6 per game, while Honegger has 5.5 rpg, Horne 4.4 and Flynn 4.1 ... Mann has 174 total rebounds on the year, while Honegger has 172 ... Achter has a team-high 4.8 assists per contest, and Mann is second with 2.6 apg ... Horne has 1.9 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 10.8 thefts per game ... Honegger paces BG with 1.0 blocked shots per outing, and also has a team-high 60 three-point field goals made (in 154 attempts) this year.
• Flynn is shooting a team-best 59.7 percent from the field, while Mann is shooting 52.4% and Achter 51.3% ... senior Megan Thorburn has 6.0 ppg and a 42.5% three-point FG rate ... she ranks second on the team in that category, trailing only Mann (43.5%) ... Honegger has shot 39.0% from long range ... Horne (50) and Thorburn (45) give the Falcons three players with at least 45 three-point field goals made this season to date.
• Sophomore Lindsey Goldsberry has seen action in 30 games off the bench this year to date ... Goldsberry has 4.1 points, 2.1 assists and 2.1 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 76.1 points per game, while allowing just 56.7 ... the Falcons are shooting 47.8 percent from the field, and have made 220 three-point field goals - 7.10 per game - in 573 tries (38.4%) ... BG has limited the foes to just a 38.6% field-goal rate and a 28.5% effort from long range (142-for-499 from beyond the arc) ... BGSU has made 78 more triples and 138 more free throws than the opponents ... the Falcons have a 71.3% success rate from the free-throw line, while the opposition is shooting 70.9% 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 21 games and Bugher 18 ... 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 ... 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.
(More information available in the pdf at the top of the page)
