Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Begin Thanksgiving Journey with Trip to Saint Francis (Pa.)
November 24, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 24, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) -
BGSU at SAINT FRANCIS (PA.)
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 • 7:00 p.m.Maurice Stokes Athletic Center (3,500) • Loretto, Pa.
RECORDS: BGSU 1-2 (26-8 in 2007-08) // SFU 0-3 (6-23 in 2007-08)
RADIO: WBGU-FM 88.1 - Mike Castellano and Pat Dougherty
SERIES: BGSU leads, 2-0 // STREAK: BGSU - 2
LAST MEETING: at BGSU 77, Saint Francis 55 (Nov. 21, 2005)
Falcon Game Notes in PDF Format
THE GAME
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, coming off a win in a rare November home game, finishes the month with a three-game, week-long travel odyssey ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller head to the state of Pennsylvania for the second time on the young season, taking on Saint Francis University in Tuesday night (Nov. 25) action ... tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m. at DeGol Arena in the Maurice Stokes Athletics Center ... following the Lipscomb game, the Brown and Orange will get back on the bus and start heading in the general direction of Greensboro, N.C., for two games in the UNCG Marriott Classic on Friday and Saturday (Nov. 28-29) ... BG will take on Winston-Salem State and host UNC Greensboro in that tourney.
2008: A TRAVEL ODYSSEY
Seven days. Four hotels. Three games. One heck of a long trip.
The Falcons will embark upon a seven-day trip, heading to SFU, then to Greensboro, N.C. ... the week-long journey completes a season-opening stretch which sees the Brown and Orange play five of the first six games away from home in November ... in December, however, the Falcons play four-straight games at Anderson Arena, "The House That Roars," and BG will not play a December game outside of the state of Ohio.
FIRST STEP TOWARD A TITLE IN '05
It can be argued that the Falcons' only prior trip to Loretto, Pa., was a key step toward the drive for BGSU's first championship in the Curt Miller Era ... BGSU got off to a slow start in the 2004-05 season, going 3-4 out of the gate ... the Brown and Orange had struggled mightily in the Brown Classic in Providence, R.I. (Dec. 4-5, 2004), then showed some improvement in the next weekend's Lobo Shootout in Albuquerque, N.M. ... still, the Falcons had not put together any kind of a winning streak as they headed to Saint Francis ... and, BG fell behind by nine points in the second half ... but, the team rallied for an overtime win, 80-74 (Dec. 18, 2004) ... the Falcons completed that trip with a win at Robert Morris, as part of a streak that would extend to six games ... after that 3-4 start, the Brown and Orange won 20 of the next 23 games, en route to the MAC's regular-season and tournament crowns.
ALL BGSU GAMES ARE ON THE AIR
• 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 ... Mike Castellano will have the call for the next three games, and will be joined by Pat Dougherty for the SFU contest.
• 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.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 1-2 on the young season ... after opening the year with road losses against Temple (55-70; Nov. 14) and Valparaiso (58-69; Nov. 19), BGSU began the home portion of the regular-season schedule with Saturday's (Nov. 22) 71-52 win over Lipscomb ... senior Lindsey Goldsberry, redshirt junior Niki McCoy, junior Tara Breske and sophomores Tracy Pontius and Lauren Prochaska each have started all three games this year to date.
• Prochaska leads the team with 14.3 points per game, and also has a team-high 6.7 rebounds per contest ... McCoy, after a 20-point game vs. LU, is now second in both categories, with 12.3 ppg and 6.3 rpg ... Pontius is also averaging double digits in points, at 10.3 ppg, and has a team-leading 3.3 assists per game ... Breske is averaging 6.3 ppg and 5.3 rpg, and leads the team in blocks (1.3 bpg) and steals (2.7 spg) ... freshmen Maribeth Giese and Jessica Slagle have 4.0 and 3.3 ppg, respectively, while soph Jen Uhl has 3.3 ppg and 4.0 rpg.
• The Falcons are shooting 34.1% from the field over the first three games ... BG has a three-point FG pct. of 31.0%, with an even 6.0 triples made per game ... the Falcons are shooting 78.1% from the free-throw line ... the opponents are shooting 42.4% from the floor, 42.6% from long range and 64.1% from the stripe ... the foes have outrebounded the Falcons by just one total rebound (113 to 112) ... BG has turned the ball over 16.7 times per game, but has forced the opponents into 18.3 per outing.
• 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, Uhl and Chelsea Albert 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, Slagle and Victoria McGowan ... 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.
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 151-70, in his eighth year ... since the start of the 2003-04 season, Miller and the Falcons are 130-35 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 232-90 (.720).
HOME COOKIN'
The Falcons' win over Lipscomb on Saturday (Nov. 22) gives BGSU a modest three-game winning streak in non-conference home games ... BG, however, has won 15 of the last 16 such games, with last year's overtime loss to Notre Dame (86-84; Dec. 5, 2007) the only such setback since mid-December of 2003.
HOME COOKIN' II
The Falcons' win over Lipscomb continued a recent trend ... BGSU now has won six consecutive home openers, and the Brown and Orange has gone 6-2 in home-opening games in the Curt Miller Era ... after losing the first home game of the 2001-02 and '02-03 seasons, the Falcons have downed Detroit, Youngstown State, IPFW, Temple, Valparaiso and LU by an average of 22.8 points, and BGSU has averaged 79.3 ppg in those six contests.
LAST TIME OUT
The BGSU women's basketball program honored the 2007-08 team, then went out and picked up the first win of 2008-09 ... junior Niki McCoy scored a game-high 20 points, and sophomore Lauren Prochaska had a double-double as the Falcons downed Lipscomb, 71-52, Saturday afternoon (Nov. 22) ... Prochaska had 15 points and a game-high 10 rebounds, while junior Tara Breske and soph Tracy Pontius also scored in double digits, with 12 and 10 points, respectively ... Lipscomb got 13 points apiece from Jenna Bartsokas and Katie Rollins ... the Falcons shot 41.7 percent from the field, the team's highest percentage of the young season, and BGSU went 16-of-20 (80.0%) from the free-throw stripe ... McCoy made 10 free throws in 11 tries ... BGSU held LU to a 37.7% success rate from the floor, and the hosts held a 39-32 advantage on the boards ... the game was tight in the early going, and featured several minutes of uninterrupted play, as the first media timeout did not come until 12:58 remained in the half ... at that point, the Falcons led, 13-11, after McCoy's layup six minutes into the game broke a tie ... McCoy's shot would give BG the lead for good ... Lipscomb, after trailing by seven at the half, got as close as four points early in the second period ... but, BG extended the lead out to double digits, and put the game away by scoring 12-straight points (with McCoy and Breske combining for 11) to extend the lead to a game-high 21 points.
A(NOTHER) RING CEREMONY, BANNER UNVEILING
Members of the 2007-08 Mid-American Conference regular-season championship team were recognized prior to Saturday's game ... the players - including last year's seniors, Kate Achter and Whitney Taylor - and coaches were presented with their championship rings, and another banner was unveiled high atop Anderson Arena ... the 2007-08 MAC regular-season championship was the Falcons' fourth in a row ... Achter and Taylor helped BGSU to four regular-season titles, three MAC Tournament championships and four national postseason berths (three NCAA and one WNIT) ... they finished their careers as the winningest class in MAC basketball history - men's or women's - with 108 wins during their four years.
SCOUTING SFU
Saint Francis is 0-3 on the young season, heading into Tuesday's game vs. BGSU ... the Red Flash dropped road games vs. Boston College (68-99; Nov. 14) and Longwood (66-78; Nov. 19) before opening the home schedule with an 82-62 setback to Lehigh on Saturday ... the Red Flash have shot 40.9% from the field to date, while allowing opponents to shoot nearly 54 percent (53.8%) from the floor in the first three games ... individually, sophomore guard Samantha Leach, the only player to start all three games, is averaging a team-leading 11.7 points per game ... freshman F/C Kelsey Caruthers has 10.7 ppg, while sophomore guard Allison Daly has 9.3 ppg and a team-high 2.7 steals per game ... freshman guard Quinessa Johnson and junior center Janie Killian have 8.7 and 8.0 ppg, respectively, with Killian averaging a team-high 5.0 rebounds per game ... nine different players have started at least one game this year to date ... Daly, Johnson, senior F/C Whitney Robinson and senior guard Shawna Scott joined Leach in the starting lineup for the Lehigh game ... last year, the Red Flash went 6-23 overall and finished with a 3-15 Northeast Conference mark ... head coach Susan Robinson Fruchtl welcomed back seven letterwinners, including four starters, from a year ago ... she is in her second season as a collegiate head coach, both in Loretto ... the school's athletics web site is www.goRedFlash.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Saint Francis, 2-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... the Brown and Orange won the only previous meeting in Loretto, Pa., in overtime ... BG rallied from a nine-point second-half deficit for an 80-74 win (Dec. 18, 2004) ... the following season, BG posted a 77-55 win over the Red Flash in Anderson Arena (Nov. 21, 2005) ... the Falcons' lone senior on this year's team, Lindsey Goldsberry, had six points, four rebounds and two steals against SFU, in her second collegiate game.
THE FALCONS ARE ...
• 151-70 in the seven years (plus three games) since Curt Miller took the BGSU helm in May of 2001;
• 79-33 in MAC games in that time:
•142-51 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);
• 130-35 over the last five-plus years, with at least 20 wins in five-straight seasons;
• a staggering 109-25 in the past four-plus years, with no fewer than 23 wins in each year and a MAC regular-season title in every season;
• 86-17 overall and 44-4 in the MAC in the last three-plus years, since senior Lindsey Goldsberry ventured to Northwest Ohio;
• 58-14 in the last two-plus 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
• 5-2 in games played on November 25, including a 3-1 road record (with the only road loss coming to Auburn in 2000) and a 2-0 mark on that date during the Curt Miller Era (a home win over Detroit in 2003, and a neutral-site victory vs. IUPUI in '05).
