Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host Hartford Sunday Afternoon
December 18, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 18, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) -
BGSU vs. HARTFORD
Sunday, December 21, 2008 • 2:00 p.m.Anderson Arena (4,700) • Bowling Green, Ohio
RECORDS: BGSU 7-2 // Hartford 5-5
RADIO: WBGU-FM 88.1 - Alex Mikos and Jim Gramm
TELEVISION: BCSN - Todd Hostetler and Mark Ehlen
SERIES: First Meeting // STREAK: N/A
BGSU Notes, Stats and Player Bios in PDF Format
THE GAME
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, riding a seven-game winning streak, concludes the pre-holiday schedule with arguably the toughest test of the season to date ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller wrap up a season-long four-game homestand with a Sunday afternoon (Dec. 21) contest vs. the University of Hartford ... tipoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena (4,700) ... the Falcons do not play a game outside the state of Ohio in the entire month of December.
PROCHASKA NAMED MAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK, AGAIN
On Monday (Dec. 15), sophomore Lauren Prochaska was named a MAC Player of the Week, the league office announced ... Prochaska earned the honor for the second time in three weeks ... the Plain City, Ohio, native scored a game-high 24 points as the Falcons downed St. Bonaventure, 77-59, Sunday afternoon (Dec. 14) ... she was 8-of-13 from the field against the Bonnies, including a 4-for-6 effort from three-point land ... Prochaska scored 18 of her points in the first half, as the Falcons opened up a 40-28 lead at the break ... she had a four-point play as part of a 13-0 run in that opening half.
TREY BIEN!
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska's final three-point field goal in the win over St. Bonaventure was the 100th of her Falcon career ... she is only the 10th player in school history to reach the century mark in that category ... Prochaska has amassed her 100 treys in a total of just 43 games, an average of 2.3 per game ... to put Prochaska's prolific totals in perspective, let the record show that Liz Honegger, the school record-holder with 216 three-pointers, averaged 1.69 triples per game ... in fact, quick research shows that Angie Farmer (1.78) currently holds the school record for made three-pointers per game (minimum 50 3-pt. FG made).
LEADERS OF THE MAC
Sure, it is relatively early in the season ... and sure, no MAC team has played a league game just yet ... but, it's worth mentioning that the Falcons are at or near the top of the lists in a number of conference statistical categories ... BGSU leads the MAC in scoring margin (+17.0), field-goal percentage (46.0%), free-throw pct. (77.2), blocked shots (4.33 bpg) and assist/turnover ratio (0.96), and the Falcons are tied for the league lead in steals (11.67 spg) ... BGSU ranks second in four additional categories (scoring defense, three-point FG pct., turnover margin and three-pointers made), and third in two others (scoring offense and assists).
MANY WAYS TO FOLLOW THE FALCONS
Even if you can't make it to the game, there are still a number of ways to follow the women's basketball Falcons ...
• 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 ... Alex Mikos and Jim Gramm will have the call for Sunday's game vs. Hartford.
• 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.
• Additionally, Sunday's game will be televised in the Toledo area by BCSN ... Todd Hostetler and Mark Ehlen are scheduled to call the Falcons' 2008-09 home games ... Ehlen, the former Toledo coach, earned his master's degree from BGSU.
• Live stats for all home games are available through the magic of Gametracker ... to access the GT feature, simply log on to BGSUFalcons.com, click on the women's basketball schedule and choose that day's game.
100 (PLUS ONE) OVER .500
Curt Miller took over the Falcon program prior to the 2001-02 season ... Miller and his staff (which consisted of Jennifer Roos and Brandi Poole at the time) immediately got to work on improving all aspects of the BGSU program, including recruiting ... the new coaching staff hit the ground running, but Miller felt that he took over too late to make an impact with his first recruiting class ... the staff targeted the Class of 2003 as the group that would make a difference ... the first results of the Falcons' true recruiting prowess came when the staff (which now included Kevin Eckert) brought in a class of seven recruits in the fall of '03 ... that group included Amber Flynn, Julie Gompers, Liz Honegger, Carin Horne, Ali Mann and Megan Thorburn ... since that class arrived on campus, the Falcons have won at least 20 games every year ... with the win over St. Bonaventure, BGSU is now 136-35 - 101 games over the .500 mark - since that group made its collective debut ... overall, the Falcons are 157-70 in the Miller Era.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 7-2 on the season ... after opening the year with road losses against Temple and Valparaiso, BGSU has won seven-straight games heading into Sunday's Hartford contest ... the Brown and Orange began the home portion of the regular-season schedule with a 19-point win over Lipscomb (71-52; Nov. 22), and BG picked up a 98-74 win at Saint Francis (Pa.) three days later (Nov. 25) ... then, the Falcons went to Greensboro, N.C., and posted two more double-digit victories at the UNCG Marriott Classic, downing Winston-Salem State (80-43; Nov. 28) and host UNC Greensboro (71-53; Nov. 29) ... BGSU returned home and won two games by a combined 63 points, over Detroit (72-42; Dec. 3) and Youngstown State (94-61; Dec. 6), before beating St. Bonaventure, 77-59, on Sunday (Dec. 14) ... senior Lindsey Goldsberry, juniors Niki McCoy and Tara Breske and sophomores Tracy Pontius and Lauren Prochaska each have started all nine games to date.
• Prochaska leads the team in both scoring and rebounding ... the Plain City, Ohio, native has 16.7 points and 6.0 rebounds per contest ... she had a game-high 24 points vs. SBU, en route to her second MAC Player-of-the-Week honor of the young season ... McCoy is second on the team with 14.6 ppg and 5.3 rpg, and has been to the free-throw line a whopping 57 times, making 47 ... Pontius and Breske are averaging 11.3 and 6.1 points, respectively ... Pontius leads the Falcons in assists, with 4.1 per game, while Breske has 4.2 rpg to rank third on the team ... Breske is tied for the team lead in blocks (1.1 bpg) and is second in steals (1.9 spg) ... freshman Jessica Slagle has 5.6 ppg, while Goldsberry and soph Chelsea Albert have 4.4 and 4.3 ppg, respectively ... Albert is shooting an impressive 69.6% from the field, while Goldsberry leads the Falcons in steals (2.3 spg) and is second in assists (3.0 apg) ... Goldsberry paces the entire conference in assist/turnover ratio (3.86).
• The Falcons are shooting 46.0% from the field over the first nine games ... BG has a three-point FG pct. of 39.6%, with 8.0 triples made per game, and are shooting 77.2% from the free-throw line ... the opponents are shooting 40.6% from the floor, 35.3% from long range and 66.4% from the stripe ... the Falcons have outrebounded the foes by a per-game average of 34.2 to 33.8 ... BG has turned the ball over 17.2 times per game, but has forced the opponents into 21.6 per outing.
• The Falcons have made almost twice as many free throws (146) as the opponents (79) ... in fact, BGSU has made 27 more FTs than the foes have attempted (119).
• 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-straight year, posting a 13-3 conference record ... the Falcons advanced to the semifinals of the MAC Tournament before falling in double OT ... 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 Albert, Pontius 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 Akron.
• Three freshmen joined 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.
SCOUTING HARTFORD
Hartford enters the BGSU game with a record of 5-5 on the season ... the Hawks' victories include a win over Duke, then ranked #5/6, on a neutral floor ... the Hawks downed the Blue Devils, 53-51, at a tourney hosted by DePaul in late November ... HU is 3-0 at home and 2-0 at neutral sites, but 0-5 in true road games to date ... the Hawks have played a difficult road schedule, to say the least, facing DePaul, Ohio State, George Washington, Quinnipiac and Louisville in hostile venues ... individually, junior F/C Diana Delva leads the team in scoring, with 13.6 points per game, and is also averaging 7.5 rebounds per outing ... she is shooting 65.5% from the floor this year (57-of-87) ... senior guard Lisa Etienne and junior forward Erica Beverly are averaging 9.5 and 9.2 ppg, respectively ... Etienne leads the Hawks in assists (2.3 apg) and steals (1.9 spg), while Beverly paces the team in rebounding (8.0 rpg) ... senior guard MaryLynne Schaefer (7.5 ppg) and sophomore G/F Amanda Weaver (4.6 ppg) round out the top-five scorers ... that quintet has started all 10 games this year for head coach Jennifer Rizzotti ... last year, the Hawks finished 28-6 overall, won the America East Conference regular-season and tournament titles and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Championships ... Rizzotti welcomed back 10 letterwinners, including three starters, from a year ago ... she has a record of 177-109 in her 10th season at HU ... the school's athletics web site is www.HartfordHawks.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons have never met Hartford in women's basketball.
TOUGH TESTS ABOUND
The BGSU student-athletes are wrapping up the fall semester in the classroom, and the Falcons are facing some tough tests on the court as well ... Hartford is the second consecutive BGSU opponent to be receiving votes in a national poll at the time of the game ... the Falcons' last opponent, St. Bonaventure, entered Anderson Arena with a record of 6-1 on the year, after a win over then-nationally ranked Michigan State ... SBU received votes in last week's Associated Press poll, for the first time in the program's 36-year history ... Hartford received a vote in the latest ESPN/USA Today poll ... the Hawks have played three nationally-ranked teams, and Hartford's next game will be against #1 Connecticut.
LAST TIME OUT
The Falcons put together double-digit scoring runs in each half en route to a 77-59 win over St. Bonaventure ... sophomore Lauren Prochaska and junior Niki McCoy combined for 43 points, with Prochaska scoring a game-high 24 and McCoy pouring in 19 ... Dana Mitchell led the Bonnies with 12 points on the afternoon, with Katelyn Murray adding 10 ... trailing, 13-12, with just under 12 minutes left in the opening half, the Brown and Orange went on a 13-0 run to take the lead for good ... McCoy began that run with a three-point field goal, and she and Prochaska combined for nine of the 13 points in that run ... soph Tracy Pontius capped that run with a three-pointer of her own, giving the home team a 25-13 lead with 9:02 left in the half ... included in that run was a four-point play by Prochaska, who hit a triple from the right elbow while being knocked to the floor ... the ball found nothing but net, as did the ensuing free throw at the 10:27 mark ... after making just three of 10 shots to begin the day, the home team heated up by going 7-for-8 from the field over a five-minute span. ... McCoy's driving layup with just two seconds left in the half gave the Brown and Orange a 40-28 lead ... Prochaska had 18 points in the first half ... in the second half, the visitors got as close as five points, but a 17-0 BG run would put the game away ... the Falcons had 11 turnovers for the game, while forcing SBU into 22.
A FEW MORE NOTES AFTER THE ST. BONAVENTURE GAME
• On the afternoon, the Falcons shot an even 50.0 percent from the field ... BG has shot at least 50% in four games this season, over half the total for all of last season (seven).
• The Falcons shot 53.6% in the opening half vs. St. Bonaventure, and BG went 12-for-18 (66.7%) from the floor after a 3-for-10 start to the half.
• The Falcons had 11 turnovers for the game, including only three in the second half ... by contrast, the BG defense forced the Bonnies into 11 turnovers in each half, for a total of 22.
• BGSU now leads the all-time series with St. Bonaventure by a 4-1 count, and the Falcons have won three-straight series meetings with the Bonnies.
• BG has yet to play a game decided by single digits this season.
• Junior post player Tara Breske had a career-high four assists in Sunday's win ... Breske had had three assists on three prior occasions, the most recent being last March 1 against Buffalo.
• Sophomore Tracy Pontius was 3-of-6 from three-point land vs. SBU ... Pontius has made 11 triples over the last three games, shooting 57.9% (11-of-19) during that time.
• Soph Lauren Prochaska had a game-high four triples in six long-range attempts on Sunday ... Prochaska had a team-leading 26 three-pointers this year, and has hit at least two in every game.
• Another sophomore, Kelly Zuercher, has 20 points over the last four games, after scoring a total of 13 during all of last season ... this year, Zuercher has gone 8-for-11 from the floor (72.7%).
• The Falcons have made more free throws than the opponent in every game this season ... SBU's 12 FTM marked a season high for a Falcon foe.
RUNNING WITH THE FALCONS
Bowling Green had a pair of double-digit scoring runs in Sunday's (Dec. 14) win over St. Bonaventure, with a 13-0 first-half run and a 17-0 run in the second half ... through this season's first nine games, the Falcons have had nine double-digit scoring runs, to just two by the opponents ... BG has not given up a run of 10-0 or greater since the Valparaiso contest, the second game of the year ... the entire list can be found in the PDF version of these notes, somewhere near the back.
HOME COOKIN'
The Falcons' win over St. Bonaventure gives BGSU a modest six-game winning streak in non-conference home games ... BG, however, has won 18 of the last 19 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.
THE FALCONS ARE ...
• 157-70 in the seven years (plus nine games) since Curt Miller took the BGSU helm in May of 2001;
• 79-33 in MAC games in that time:
• 148-51 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);
• 136-35 over the last five-plus years, with at least 20 wins in five-straight seasons;
• a staggering 115-25 in the past four-plus years, with no fewer than 23 wins in each year and a MAC regular-season title in every season;
• 92-17 overall and 44-4 in the MAC in the last three-plus years, since senior Lindsey Goldsberry ventured to Northwest Ohio;
• 64-14 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;
• 22-2 in non-conference home games since the start of the 2003-04 season;
• 18-1 against non-league opposition at Anderson Arena since November of 2004;
• 3-5 in games played on December 21 in program history;
• 1-1 in Dec. 21 games in the Curt Miller Era, including last season's 64-54 win at Delaware; and
• 0-0 in games at Anderson Arena on that date, with all eight prior Dec. 21 games having been played on the road (including four at Big Ten Conference venues).
FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG (A FEW MORE FALCON NOTES)
The Falcons are shooting over 50 percent from the field during the current seven-game win streak ... BGSU has made 196 shots in 388 attempts (50.5%) in those seven games • BG has outscored opponents by an average of 80.4 to 54.9 in that span • the Falcons are shooting 'only' 47.7% in this year's four home games, but BG is shooting 42.9% from three-point land at Anderson Arena • the Falcons have forced the opponents into 22.8 turnovers per game at "The House That Roars" this season • through just nine games, sophomore Tracy Pontius has matched or surpassed her totals for all of last season in nearly every statistical category, including points, assists, field goals made and three-point FGM • senior Lindsey Goldsberry leads the Falcons, and the entire Mid-American Conference, in assist/turnover ratio ... she has 27 assists and just seven turnovers through nine games, for a ratio of 3.86 • the Falcons have made at least five three-point field goals in every game this season, and BGSU is averaging exactly 8.00 treys per game • over the last five games, the Falcons are averaging 9.60 triples per game, and are shooting 44.9% (48-for-107) from beyond the arc.
CAPTAINS
Senior Lindsey Goldsberry and junior Tara Breske are the co-captains of the 2008-09 women's basketball Falcons.
