.png&type=webp)
Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Face Lipscomb in Saturday's Home Opener
November 21, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 21, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) -
BGSU vs. LIPSCOMB
Saturday, November 22, 2008 • 2:00 p.m.
Anderson Arena (4,700) • Bowling Green, Ohio
RECORDS: BGSU 0-2 (26-8 in 2007-08) // Lipscomb 1-2 (10-22 in 2007-08)
RADIO: WBGU-FM 88.1 - Kevin Zilch and Nick Reinbold
TELEVISION: BCSN - Todd Hostetler and Mark Ehlen
SERIES: BGSU leads, 1-0 // STREAK: BGSU - 1
LAST MEETING: BGSU 54, at Lipscomb 42 (Nov. 15, 2007)
BGSU Notes and Stats in PDF Format
THE GAME
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, looking to bounce back from the program's first 0-2 start in 12 years, begins the home portion of the regular-season schedule this weekend ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller host Lipscomb University in Saturday (Nov. 22) action, with tipoff set for 2:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena, "The House That Roars" ... following the Lipscomb game, the Brown and Orange will prepare for a seven-day travel odyssey, heading to Saint Francis (Pa.) before traveling to Greensboro, N.C., for the UNCG Marriott Classic.
A(NOTHER) RING CEREMONY, BANNER UNVEILING
The 2007-08 Mid-American Conference regular-season championship team will be recognized prior to Saturday's game ... the players - including last year's seniors, Kate Achter and Whitney Taylor - and coaches will be presented with their championship rings, and another banner will be unveiled high atop Anderson Arena ... the 2007-08 MAC regular-season championship was the Falcons' fourth in a row ... last year's club also advanced to national postseason play for the fourth-straight March, making it to the second round of the WNIT ... Achter and Taylor finished their careers as the winningest class in MAC basketball history - men's or women's - with 108 wins during their four years.
HOME COOKIN'
The Falcons are looking to continue a recent trend ... BGSU has won five consecutive home openers entering Saturday's game ... the Brown and Orange has gone 5-2 in the Curt Miller Era ... after losing the first home game of the 2001-02 and '02-03 seasons, the Falcons have won the last five openers at "The House That Roars" ... BG has downed Detroit, Youngstown State, IPFW, Temple and Valparaiso by an average of 23.6 points, and the Falcons have averaged 81.0 points per game in those five contests.
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 ... Kevin Zilch and Nick Reinbold will have the call for Saturday's Lipscomb 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 day's game.
• Saturday's game also will be televised in the Toledo area by BCSN ... Todd Hostetler and former Toledo coach Mark Ehlen are scheduled to call the Falcons' 2008-09 home games ... Ehlen earned his master's degree from BGSU.
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 150-70, in his eighth year ... since the start of the 2003-04 season, Miller and the Falcons are 129-35 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 231-90 (.720).
LAST TIME OUT
Host Valparaiso shot a blistering percentage from three-point range, and used a 22-5 second-half run to pull away from the Falcons Wednesday night (Nov. 19) ... the Crusaders downed the Falcons by a 69-58 final at the Athletics-Recreation Center ... Valpo's Agnieszka Kulaga had a game-high 22 points, while teammate Aimee Litka had a double-double, with 17 points and a game-best 12 rebounds ... sophomore Lauren Prochaska led the Falcons with 15 points, and junior Niki McCoy and soph Tracy Pontius scored 11 apiece ... the home team went 10-of-19 (52.6 percent) from three-point land, with Litka making five of her seven long-range tries ... the hosts had two 6-0 runs and a 7-0 run in the game's first 10-plus minutes, and took a seven-point halftime lead into the half ... McCoy scored the first four points of the second half, drawing the Falcons were within 35-32 ... a few minutes later, Prochaska took a pass from Pontius on the fastbreak, pulled up behind the arc and drained her shot to cut the hosts' lead to three once again, 45-42 ... BG was able to get a stop, but the Falcons then threw the ball out of bounds at the other end of the court ... again, the Falcons got a stop, forcing a missed jumper, but BG could not convert ... out of a media timeout, Kulaga hit a wide-open three-pointer, and a BG turnover led to a Kulaga layup, a 5-0 run in a 12-second span, and an eight-point lead ... that was the start of the 22-5 run, giving VU a 69-47 lead with 2:39 left ... the Falcons scored the game's last 11 points, but the damage had been done.
A FEW MORE NOTES FROM THE VALPO GAME
• As mentioned, the Falcons scored the last 11 points over the final two-and-a-half minutes of the Valparaiso contest ... sophomores Chelsea Albert and Tracy Pontius hit shots to begin the run, with junior Laura Bugher then going a perfect 4-for-4 from the free-throw line over a 33-second span ... junior Sarah Clapper ended the night's scoring with a three-point field goal ... Pontius, in addition to her basket, had assists on the Albert and Clapper scores.
• For the game, the home team shot 48.1% from the field, holding the Falcons to a 34.0% rate ... VU was 10-of-19 from beyond the arc, while the Brown and Orange went 7-for-19 from long distance ... BG had the advantage at the free-throw line, with a 17-for-22 night compared to Valpo's 7-for-13 effort.
• Each team had seven second-half turnovers for a game total of 18, and each team had seven steals and two blocked shots in the game ... points in the paint were also even, at 20-20.
SETTING (OR MATCHING) CAREER STANDARDS
Several Falcons have matched or surpassed their career bests in various categories over the first two games ...
• Sophomore Tracy Pontius, who made her first career start at Temple, played 34 minutes vs. the Owls, by far the most of her career ... then, she played 38 minutes at Valparaiso ... her previous high had been 21 minutes played in last year's UT Martin game ... Pontius tied her career bests in points (10) at Temple, then surpassed it with an 11-point night at Valpo ... she has also set or tied her career bests in rebounds, assists, FGM, FGA, steals and three-point FG made over the first two games.
• Junior Laura Bugher matched her career best with four rebounds against Temple, and drained a career-high four free throws at Valpo.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons are 0-2 on the young season, after road losses against Temple (55-70; Nov. 14) and Valparaiso (58-69; Nov. 19) ... BG's starting lineup for each of the first two games was comprised of senior Lindsey Goldsberry, redshirt junior Niki McCoy, junior Tara Breske and sophomores Tracy Pontius and Lauren Prochaska.
• Prochaska leads the team with 14.0 points per game, and has 5.0 rebounds per contest ... Pontius is also averaging double digits in points, at 10.5 ppg, and has a team-leading 3.0 assists per game ... McCoy has 8.5 points and a BG-high 5.5 rebounds per outing, while freshman Maribeth Giese has 5.0 ppg after the first two games of her career.
• The Falcons are shooting just 30.0% from the field over the first two games ... BG's three-point FG pct. is actually higher than the team's overall field-goal rate ... the Brown and Orange has shot 31.7% from long range ... BGSU is shooting 77.3% from the free-throw line ... the opponents are shooting 44.5% from the floor, 43.2% from long range and 60.7% from the stripe ... the foes have outrebounded the Falcons, 40.5 to 36.5 ... both BG and the opponents have turned the ball over roughly 18 times per game.
• 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 is in 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 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 LIPSCOMB
Lipscomb will bring a 1-2 record to Anderson Arena ... the Lady Bisons lost games vs. Austin Peay and Tennessee Tech before picking up a 61-56 win over UT-Martin Thursday night (Nov. 20) ... LU is in the midst of a stretch which sees the team play four times in a seven-day span ... the BG game is the third game, and the lone road contest, during that stretch ... the Lady Bisons are 0-1 on the road to date, with the Austin Peay game the lone trip prior to Saturday's game ... individually, sophomore guard Jenna Bartsokas leads the team in scoring, with 14.0 points per game ... she also has 3.3 rebounds and a team-leading 3.3 steals per contest ... senior wing Jilian Partin has 10.7 ppg and a team-high 7.0 rpg, while junior post Miriam McAlister has 8.0 ppg off the bench ... sophomore Miaca Bowman, sophomore post Cree Nix and senior post Katie Rollins have joined Bartsokas and Partin in the starting lineup for each of the first three games ... last year, the Lady Bisons went 10-22 overall and finished with a 7-9 Atlantic Sun Conference mark ... head coach Frank Bennett, in his 29th year at the school, welcomed back eight letterwinners, including three starters, from a year ago ... Bennett has a head-coaching record of 558-347, all at Lipscomb ... the school's athletics web site is www.LipscombSports.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Lipscomb, 1-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... the lone prior meeting came last year in Nashville (Nov. 15, 2007) ... Lauren Prochaska, in just her second collegiate game, scored a game-high 20 points as the Falcons picked up a 54-42 win ... Cree Nix led the home team with 13 points off the bench ... Saturday's game, of course, marks the first time the teams have met in Bowling Green ... the possibility exists of the Falcons and Lady Bisons meeting a second time this year, as both teams will play in the Dayton Flyer Classic just after Christmas (Dec. 28-29, 2008).
CAPTAINS
Senior Lindsey Goldsberry and junior Tara Breske are the co-captains of the 2008-09 women's basketball Falcons.
