Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU Heads to Valparaiso
November 18, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 18, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) -
BGSU at VALPARAISO
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 • 7:05 p.m. CT
Athletics-Recreation Center (5,000) • Valparaiso, Ind.
RECORDS: BGSU 0-1 (26-8 in 2007-08) // Valparaiso 0-0 (14-16 in 2007-08)
RADIO: WBGU-FM 88.1 - Tim Baughman and Brian Ferrar
TELEVISION: Horizon League Network (video streaming on web)
SERIES: BGSU leads, 3-0 // STREAK: BGSU - 3
LAST MEETING: at BGSU 81, Valparaiso 56 (Nov. 9, 2007)
Falcon Game Notes in PDF Format 
THE GAME
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after opening the season with a game in Southeast Pennsylvania, now will head to Northwest Indiana ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller meet Valparaiso University in Wednesday (Nov. 19) action ... tipoff is set for 7:05 p.m. locally - 8:05 p.m. Eastern - at the Athletics-Recreation Center (5,000) ... following the Valparaiso game, the Brown and Orange will prepare for Saturday's (Nov. 22) home opener vs. Lipscomb ... that game will begin at 2:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena (4,700).
MIDWEEK MULTIMEDIA
• All BGSU women's basketball games are aired on student station WBGU-FM 88.1, the flagship station for Falcon hockey and women's hoops ... Tim Baughman and Brian Ferrar will have the call for Wednesday's Valpo game.
• In addition to being aired on the FM dial, the games are also available free of charge on the web at BGSUFalcons.com ... to access the broadcasts online, simply click on the 'Stretch Internet' button on the BGSUFalcons.com main page and choose that night's game.
• Wednesday's game at Valpo will be video streamed live on the Horizon League Network at www.horizonleaguenetwork.tv ... registration is required, but all events are free.
GIESE MAKES IT LOOK EASY
Freshman Maribeth Giese had an impressive start to her BGSU career, scoring seven points off the bench in the Temple game ... she hit her a three-point field goal and had two rebounds, a block and a steal in 14 minutes of action ... Giese's performance is made all the more impressive by the fact that she missed most of the preseason due to injury ... the Cincinnati native did not see action in either of the Falcons' exhibition games, and had been practicing for only about a week prior to the Temple contest.
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 is the first-ever coach to be named MAC Coach of the Year in four consecutive seasons ... in fact, no coach had captured the award in as many as three-straight years ... additionally, he was named the Russell Athletic/WBCA Region 4 Coach of the Year in both the 2005-06 and '06-07 seasons ... his career record currently stands at 150-69, in his eighth year ... since the start of the 2003-04 season, Miller and the Falcons are 129-34 overall, 68-12 in MAC regular-season play, and 81-14 in all games vs. league foes during that span (13-2 in league tourney play) ... the 2007-08 Falcons became the fifth-straight BGSU team to post at least 20 victories, and Miller's 2006-07 club went 31-4, for the most wins in a season by a MAC basketball team, male or female ... that team was the first MAC women's team to advance to the NCAA's "Sweet Sixteen" ... a native of Girard, Pa., Miller began his collegiate coaching career as a volunteer assistant at Kent State, and was an assistant at Cleveland State and Syracuse ... he was the associate head coach at Colorado State under Tom Collen (a BGSU graduate and currently the head coach at Arkansas), helping the Rams to a combined 81-20 mark in his three years there ... in the last decade (plus one game), Miller has been on the staffs of teams that have combined to go 231-89 (.722).
LAST TIME OUT
A slow start put the Falcons in an early hole, and BG was never able to climb out, as host Temple posted a 70-55 victory Friday night (Nov. 14) in Philadelphia ... for the visitors, sophomore Lauren Prochaska scored a team-high 13 points ... classmate Tracy Pontius joined her in double digits, with 10 points on the night ... the Owls got 16 points from LaKeisha Eaddy, who placed four TU players in double figures ... Shaqwedia Wallace had 13 points, Shanea Cotton added 12 and Shenita Landry added 11 points and controlled the boards ... BGSU struggled offensively, particularly in the first half ... the Falcons shot just 17.4 percent before the intermission, making 4-of-23 shots, and BG committed 16 first-half turnovers ... still, the Falcons were within 10 points, 28-18, at the break ... when Pontius picked Eaddy's pocket at midcourt and sailed in for a layup just nine seconds into the second half, the Falcons were within eight points ... but, BG could draw no closer ... a putback by Kristie Watkins-Day began a 6-0 run, and the Falcons could never whittle the lead below 10 points the rest of the night ... for the game, the Owls shot 41.5% to the Falcons' 26.7%.
SETTING (OR MATCHING) CAREER STANDARDS
Several Falcons broke or tied their career bests in various categories in the Temple game ... sophomore Tracy Pontius, who made her first career start, played 34 minutes vs. the Owls, by far the most of her career ... her previous high had been 21 minutes played in last year's UT Martin game ... Pontius tied her career bests in points (10), assists (three) and three-point field goals made (two) in Friday's game ... junior Laura Bugher matched her career best with four rebounds against Temple.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons are 0-1 on the young season, after a 70-55 loss at Temple on Friday night (Nov. 14) ... BG's starting lineup for that game included senior Lindsey Goldsberry, redshirt junior Niki McCoy, junior Tara Breske and sophomores Tracy Pontius and Lauren Prochaska ... the Falcons returned a total of nine letterwinners, including three starters, from last season's team ... the group of returnees combined for 65.9 percent of the scoring and 75.0% of the rebounding from last year's 26-8 team ... BGSU won the MAC's regular-season title for the fourth consecutive year, posting a 13-3 conference record ... the Falcons advanced to the semifinals of the MAC Tournament before falling in double overtime ... Goldsberry, the team's lone senior, is one of three returning starters from the '07-08 club ... Breske and Prochaska are the other two starters back from a year ago ... sophs Pontius, Chelsea Albert, and Jen Uhl each played in all 34 games last year, with Albert making six starts ... the list of returning letterwinners also includes juniors Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper and sophomore Kelly Zuercher ... McCoy begins her first playing season with the Falcons ... she sat out the 2007-08 season after transferring from the University of Akron ... three freshmen join the Brown and Orange this year ... that group includes Maribeth Giese, Victoria McGowan and Jessica Slagle ... two other newcomers have come into the Falcon fold ... transfers Maggie Hennegan (Saint Louis Univ.) and Tamika Nurse (Univ. of Oregon) will sit out this season before joining the active roster in 2009-10 ... Nurse will have one season of eligibility, while Hennegan has two.
SCOUTING VALPARAISO
Valparaiso will open the regular season with Wednesday's (Nov. 19) game vs. BGSU ... the Crusaders have been idle since an exhibition win over Saint Joseph's (Ind.) on Nov. 8 ... Valpo won that game, 89-44 ... the Crusaders were 14-16 overall last season, and finished with a Horizon League record of 9-9, good for sixth place ... six of the top-seven scorers from a year ago return, including seniors Agnieszka Kulaga and Aimee Litka ... Kulaga, a guard, scored a team-high 14.6 points, and also led VU in rebounding, with 5.2 per game ... she was second on the team in assists ... Litka, a forward, had 13.7 ppg and 4.9 rpg to rank second in both categories ... senior guard Launa Hochstetler had 9.9 points and a team-leading 3.8 assists per game last winter ... Keith Freeman enters his 15th season at the Valparaiso helm ... he has a record of 243-168 with the Crusaders, and welcomes back 10 letterwinners, including four starters, from a year ago ... the school's athletics web site is www.valpoathletics.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Valparaiso, 3-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... the most recent meeting came last year, in the season opener for both teams ... the host Falcons posted an 81-56 win at Anderson Arena (Nov. 11, 2007) ... the teams met twice in the early 1990s ... on Jan. 28, 1990, the Brown and Orange picked up a 91-79 home victory over the Crusaders ... two years later (Jan. 5, 1992), the Falcons won the lone prior meeting in Valparaiso, 127-99 ... several school records were set in that game, including points in a game, points by both teams in a game and field goals made (53, tied for school record).
FALCONS PICKED TO WIN DIVISION, TOURNAMENT TITLES
The Falcons were picked to win both the MAC's East Division and the MAC Tournament in 2009, according to the league's preseason poll ... the poll, released on Oct. 30, was the result of voting by members of the MAC News Media Association and the league's 12 head coaches ... BGSU was chosen to win the East ahead of - in order - Miami, Ohio, Kent State, Buffalo and Akron ... Ball State was picked to win the West Division.
MILLER, FALCONS INK THREE
The Falcons signed three student-athletes to National Letters or Intent, head coach Curt Miller announced on Nov. 12 ... Allison Papenfuss (Whitehouse, Ohio), Chrissy Steffen (Carmel, Ind.) and Jessie Tamerlano (North Royalton, Ohio) will join the BGSU program for the 2009-10 academic year ... Papenfuss, Steffen and Tamerlano will join transfers Maggie Hennegan and Tamika Nurse as Falcons in their first playing season in 2009-10 ... Hennegan, from Saint Louis University, and Nurse, from the University of Oregon, are sitting out the 2008-09 campaign due to NCAA transfer rules.
COLD SHOOTING
The Falcons shot just 26.7 percent from the field in the Temple game ... that was BGSU's lowest field-goal percentage in nearly four years, since a 26.2% night at Kent State on Jan. 26, 2005.
THAT'S NOTHING NEW
The Falcons will look to be 'road warriors' in November once again this year ... BGSU starts the 2008-09 season by playing five of the first six games will be played away from home ... the lone November game at Anderson Arena is the Nov. 22 contest vs. Lipscomb.
THAT'S NOTHING NEW, EITHER ... WAIT, WHAT?
Believe it or not, the Falcons will be home for nearly all of December, and will not leave the state of Ohio for the entire month ... well, the coaching staff might allow the players from out of state to visit their families for a few days over the holidays, but you get our point ... beginning with a Dec. 3 game vs. Detroit, the Falcons will play four consecutive contests at "The House That Roars," culminating with a Dec. 21 game against Hartford ... BG played just one December home game a year ago ... the Falcons' total of four non-league home games in the same month is the most since December of 1991, when Fran Voll's final BGSU team played five non-conference contests at Anderson Arena.
THE FALCONS ARE ...
• 150-69 in the seven years (plus one game) since Curt Miller took the BGSU helm in May of 2001;
• 79-33 in MAC games in that time:
•141-50 in the six-plus years since Miller's assistant coaches have all been in place (associate head coach Jennifer Roos and assistant coach Brandi Poole have been on Miller's staff since his first year; assistant Kevin Eckert joined the staff one year later);
• 129-34 over the last five-plus years, with at least 20 wins in five-straight seasons;
• a staggering 108-24 in the past four-plus years, with no fewer than 23 wins in each year and a MAC regular-season title in every season;
• 85-16 overall and 44-4 in the MAC in the last three years, since senior Lindsey Goldsberry ventured to Northwest Ohio;
• 57-13 in the last two years, including a 28-4 conference ledger;
• 13-2 in the MAC Tournament over the last four years, with three titles (2005, '06 and '07) and a trip to the semifinals in 2008; and
• 1-0 in regular-season games played on November 19, with the only other game being a lopsided win in the state of Indiana (a 115-84 victory at IPFW in the 2004-05 season).
NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS
• In 2007-08, the Falcons went 11-3 in non-conference play, posting a winning non-league record for the sixth consecutive year ... BGSU is the only Mid-American Conference school to have turned that trick.
• BGSU had not had as many as three consecutive winning seasons in over a decade, (since 1991-92 to 1993-94), prior to beginning the current streak ... now, of course, the Falcons have posted six-straight winning seasons in non-conference action, for the longest such streak in school history.
• The 2007-08 team was the third in a row to tie or break the school record for non-conference wins in a season ... BGSU's total of nine non-league wins in 2005-06 tied the school record, before the '06-07 team had 11 to set a new mark ... last year's squad had 11 non-league wins as well ... the Falcons have had at least seven non-league victories in each of the last six seasons.
• Since the start of the 2002-03 season, BG is 52-20 in regular-season, non-league games, for the most wins and highest winning percentage (72.2%) of any MAC school in that time ... the Falcons have set school records for non-league wins in a three-year period, with 31 from 2005-06 to '07-08, as well as victories in a four-year span (38 from 2004-05 through last season).
ANOTHER IMPRESSIVE STREAK
BGSU has won 20 games in five consecutive seasons for the first time in school history ... the Falcons have averaged 25.8 wins during that span.
