Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons in Carolina for UNCG Marriott Classic
November 27, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 27, 2008
GREENSBORO, N.C. (BGSUFalcons.com) -
BGSU vs. WINSTON-SALEM STATE
Friday, November 28, 2008 • 1:00 p.m.Fleming Gym (1,833) • Greensboro, N.C.
UNCG Marriott Classic
RECORDS: BGSU 2-2 (26-8 in 2007-08) // WSSU 0-4 (3-25 in 2007-08)
RADIO: WBGU-FM 88.1 - Mike Castellano
SERIES: First Meeting
Falcon Game Notes in PDF Format
THE GAME
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, coming off a 98-point game, looks to continue that offensive success this weekend ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller head to Greensboro, N.C., for the UNCG Marriott Classic ... BGSU will take on Winston-Salem State University in Friday (Nov. 28) action, with tipoff set for 1:00 p.m. ... then, on Saturday (Nov. 29), the Brown and Orange will take on the host school, UNC Greensboro ... tipoff for the UNCG game is set for 3:00 p.m. ... Florida Gulf Coast University is the fourth team in the tournament ... all games will be held at Fleming Gym (1,833) on the UNCG campus.
(all games at Fleming Gym; Greensboro, N.C.)
Friday, November 28
Bowling Green vs. Winston-Salem State, 1:00
Florida Gulf Coast at UNC Greensboro, 3:00
Saturday, November 29
Florida Gulf Coast vs. Winston-Salem State, 1:00
Bowling Green at UNC-Greensboro, 3:00
THIS PLACE LOOKS FAMILIAR...
The Falcons have never played a game in Fleming Gym, but numerous members of the BGSU travel party have been in the facility before ... roughly one-half of the BG contingent (four players, four coaches and a manager) were part of the 2006-07 'Sweet Sixteen' team ... after dispatching of Oklahoma State and Vanderbilt in the 2007 NCAA Championships in East Lansing, Mich., the Falcons headed to Greensboro for the third round ... the team's game was held at the Greensboro Coliseum, but the Falcons practiced for the game in the auxiliary gym beside Fleming Gym ... that BGSU team, of course, finished with a 31-4 record, with the most wins and the deepest NCAA Tourney run in MAC women's basketball history.
SISTER ACT
The Clapper family of Newark, Ohio, will be celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday in North Carolina ... actually, many BGSU players will have their families in attendance at the UNCG Marriott Classic ... but, the Clappers have not one, but two daughters on the rosters of the participating teams ... Falcon junior Sarah Clapper's younger sister, Amy, is a freshman on the UNC Greensboro squad ... the siblings will not meet on the court, however, as Amy Clapper will miss the 2008-09 campaign after a preseason knee injury ... Sarah has missed BGSU's last two games due to injury ... she has been practicing with the Falcons during the team's current trip, and her status is day to day ... speaking of the trip ...
2008: A TRAVEL ODYSSEY
Seven days. Four hotels. Three games. One heck of a long trip.
The Falcons are currently in the midst of a seven-day trip ... BGSU began the journey with Tuesday's (Nov. 22) 98-74 win at Saint Francis (Pa.), and has seen the team continue on to Greensboro via Morgantown, W.Va. ... the week-long odyssey 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.
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 has the call for all three games on the week-long trip.
• 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 2-2 on the young season ... after opening the year with road losses against Temple (55-70; Nov. 14) and Valparaiso (58-69; Nov. 19), BGSU has won two-straight games heading into the Greensboro tourney ... the Brown and Orange began the home portion of the regular-season schedule with Saturday's (Nov. 22) 71-52 win over Lipscomb, and BG picked up a 98-74 win at Saint Francis (Pa.) Tuesday night (Nov. 25) ... senior Lindsey Goldsberry, redshirt junior Niki McCoy, junior Tara Breske and sophomores Tracy Pontius and Lauren Prochaska each have started all four games this year to date.
• Prochaska leads the team in scoring and rebounding ... the Plain City, Ohio, native has 18.8 points and 6.8 rebounds per contest ... she exploded for a career-high 32 points in Tuesday's (Nov. 22) win at Saint Francis ... McCoy had 20 points in the Lipscomb game ... she is second on the team with 11.3 ppg, and is tied for third with 5.3 rpg ... Pontius and Breske are averaging 9.3 and 8.5 points, respectively ... Pontius leads the Falcons in assists, with 4.0 per game, while Breske has 5.5 rpg to rank second on the team ... Breske paces the Brown and Orange in both blocks (1.3 bpg) and steals (2.3 spg) ... freshman Jessica Slagle has 5.3 ppg, while sophomore Jen Uhl has 4.5 ppg and 5.3 rpg.
• The Falcons are shooting 40.5% from the field over the first four games ... BG has a three-point FG pct. of 32.0%, with an even 6.0 triples made per game ... the Falcons are shooting 78.7% from the free-throw line ... the opponents are shooting 44.6% from the floor, 42.4% from long range and 63.0% from the stripe ... the Falcons have outrebounded the foes by four boards per game (37.8 to 33.8) ... BG has turned the ball over 16.7 times per game, but has forced the opponents into 18.3 per outing.
• The Falcons have made more than twice as many free throws (70) as the opponents (34) ... in fact, BGSU has made 16 more FTs than the foes have attempted (54).
• 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 the three returning starters from the '07-08 club ... Breske and Prochaska are the other two.
• 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 Maribeth 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 152-70, in his eighth year ... since the start of the 2003-04 season, Miller and the Falcons are 131-35 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 four games), Miller has been on the staffs of teams that have combined to go 233-90 (.721).
LAST TIME OUT
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska exploded for a career-high 32 points - just three shy of the school record - as the Falcons rolled to a 98-74 win at Saint Francis (Pa.) ... BGSU scored 55 points in the first half, shooting 61.8 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes ... for the game, the Brown and Orange shot 58.1% ... Prochaska, who had a career-high of 24 points entering the game, had 23 points in the opening half alone ... junior Tara Breske had 15 points for the Falcons, while sophomore Chelsea Albert had 13 points and freshman Jessica Slagle 11 ... Albert and Slagle each had career-high scoring totals ... for the hosts, Brittany Lilley had 21 points to lead three players in double figures ... Prochaska was 13-of-18 from the field, making five of her seven three-point tries ... Albert was efficient, to say the least, going 6-of-6 from the floor and grabbing four offensive rebounds in 13 minutes off the bench ... the first half featured seven ties and six lead changes, before the Falcons went on a 12-0 run to take the lead for good with seven minutes left in the half ... BG had a 12-point lead at the half, and gradually extended the lead in the early going of the second half ... the Falcons had 21 assists on 36 baskets, and had 17 steals in the win ... soph Tracy Pontius had six points and a game-high six assists, junior Niki McCoy scored eight points and had four helpers, and senior Lindsey Goldsberry had four assists and tied for game honors with five steals.
SCOUTING WSSU
Winston-Salem State is 0-4 on the young season, heading into Friday's game vs. BGSU ... the Lady Rams dropped a pair of games at the Elon Tournament to begin the season, losing to the host school (59-62; Nov. 14) and UNC Wilmington (50-65; Nov. 15) ... WSSU lost a close game to Navy in the home opener (49-53; Nov. 19), before losing to Wake Forest by a 76-36 count on Monday (Nov. 24) ... the Lady Rams have shot 33.2% from the field to date, while allowing opponents to shoot only 36.7% from the floor in the first four games ... individually, sophomore guard Rene Rector is averaging a team-high 11.5 points per game ... sophomore forward Vontisha Woods has 9.5 ppg and a team-leading 8.0 rebounds per outing ... sophomore forward Jalesa Byrd (2.8 ppg) and senior guard Keoshia Worthy (6.0 ppg) have started all four games along with Rector and Woods ... sophomore guard Nikki Kee (6.3 ppg) has made three starts and freshman guard Shatara Jackson (4.0 ppg) one ... Kee started the Wake Forest game ... last year, the Lady Rams went 3-25 overall under head coach Dee Stokes ... Stokes welcomed back seven letterwinners, including four starters, from a year ago ... she is in her third season at WSSU and her seventh as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is www.WSSURams.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons have never met Winston-Salem State in women's basketball.
LO IS A HIGH SCORER
• Sophomore Lauren Prochaska scored 32 points in Tuesday night's win at Saint Francis (Pa.) ... Prochaska's prolific scoring output marked the first 30-point game of her collegiate career ... her previous best had been 24 points in the Falcons' WNIT game at Michigan State last March ... Prochaska tied her career best with five three-point field goals made ... she hit five triples on three occasions last year, including in that MSU game.
• Prochaska was just three away from three school single-game records - points, field goals made (13) and three-pointers made (five) - in the SFU game ... a BGSU player has scored 35 points in a game four times, with Francine Miller doing it twice and Jackie Motycka and Jacki Raterman once each ... Raterman has the school record with 16 field goals made, and Whitney Taylor hit a BG-record eight triples in last year's win at Kent State.
HIGH-OCTANE OFFENSE
BGSU's total of 98 points at Saint Francis was the Falcons' highest single-game output in over four years, since a 115-84 blowout at IPFW on Nov. 19, 2004 ... BGSU's 55-point first half marked the team's highest total in a period since the first half of the Feb. 28, 2007, game vs. Miami ... the Falcons went on to a 92-62 win over the RedHawks on "Senior Night" at Anderson Arena.
SETTING CAREER STANDARDS
Several Falcons set new career bests in various categories in Tuesday night's game at Saint Francis ...
• Sophomore Chelsea Albert had 13 points, besting her previous mark of nine points, set vs. Miami last Feb. 23 ... Albert also set a personal best with her six field goals made.
• Freshman Jessica Slagle's 11 points were the most of her brief BGSU career ... she had scored 10 points in the Falcons' first three games.
• Soph Tracy Pontius posted the highest assist total of her career ... in fact, she has set or tied her career best for assists in each of this year's four games ... after recording three assists in both the Temple and Valparaiso games, Pontius had four helpers vs. Lipscomb, before dishing out six at SFU.
• Another sophomore, Jen Uhl, pulled down nine rebounds, the most of her BG career ... Uhl's total of four offensive rebounds was her highest as a Falcon.
A FEW MORE NOTES FROM THE SAINT FRANCIS GAME
• The Falcons now lead the series with Saint Francis by a 3-0 count ... BGSU is now 2-0 at DeGol Arena, with the only previous game having gone to overtime (an 80-74 Falcon win on Dec. 18, 2004).
• All three Falcon freshmen were on the court at the same time during a first-half stretch at SFU ... frosh Maribeth Giese, Victoria McGowan and Jessica Slagle were joined by sophs Lauren Prochaska and Jen Uhl during that time.
• The Falcons were coming off a 71-52 win over Lipscomb on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 22) ... Tuesday night, BG led SFU by that same 71-52 score, but over 14 minutes remained in the second half.
THE FALCONS ARE ...
• 152-70 in the seven years (plus four games) since Curt Miller took the BGSU helm in May of 2001;
• 79-33 in MAC games in that time:
•143-51 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);
• 131-35 over the last five-plus years, with at least 20 wins in five-straight seasons;
• a staggering 110-25 in the past four-plus years, with no fewer than 23 wins in each year and a MAC regular-season title in every season;
• 87-17 overall and 44-4 in the MAC in the last three-plus years, since senior Lindsey Goldsberry ventured to Northwest Ohio;
• 59-14 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;
• 4-4 in games played on November 28, with a four-game winning streak on that date (with the last three such games - all BGSU wins - coming in neutral-site games at Thanksgiving tournaments); and
• 4-4 in November 29 games (with one of those losses coming at the 1997 UCF Turkey Shootout, a 71-67 setback to a Syracuse team featuring an up-and-coming assistant coach named Curt Miller).
CAPTAINS
Senior Lindsey Goldsberry and junior Tara Breske are the co-captains of the 2008-09 women's basketball Falcons.
