Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU Faces Miami to Begin Three-Game Homestand
January 13, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 13, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) -
BGSU vs. MIAMI
Wednesday, January 14, 2009 • 7:00 p.m.Anderson Arena (4,700) • Bowling Green, Ohio
RECORDS: BGSU 13-2 (2-0 MAC) // Miami 10-5 (2-0 MAC)
RADIO: WBGU-FM 88.1 - Alex Mikos and TBA
TELEVISION: BCSN - Todd Hostetler and Mark Ehlen
SERIES: BGSU leads, 37-24 // STREAK: BGSU - 1
LAST MEETING: BGSU 81, at Miami 66 (Feb. 23, 2008)
BGSU Notes, Stats & Player Bios in PDF Format
Coach Miller Audio from Tuesday (Jan. 13)
Prochaska Audio from Tuesday (Jan. 13)
THE GAME
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, off to a 2-0 start in Mid-American Conference play, returns home to face the only other unbeaten team in the MAC's East Division ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller begin a three-game homestand with a Wednesday (Jan. 14) game against Miami University ... tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena (4,700) ... the Falcons then will close the first swing through the East Division with home games vs. Akron (Jan. 17) and Buffalo (Jan. 21).
BGSU PUTS WINNING STREAK ON THE LINE
The Falcons have won 13 consecutive contests, the sixth-longest winning streak in school history ... the current run marks the seventh double-digit win streak in BGSU annals, and the fourth in as many years ... the complete list ...
BGSU'S LONGEST WINNING STREAKS
Season -- Streak -- Notes
1986-87 -- 21 -- Falcons, at 6-2, did not lose again until NCAA Tourney
1988-89 -- 20 -- Final win came vs. Cincinnati in NCAA first round
1993-94 -- 20 -- Falcons lost MAC opener, then won out until NCAAs
2005-06 -- 19 -- Included 16-0 league record and 3 MAC tourney wins
2006-07 -- 18 -- Part of 24-1 run that took BGSU all the way to Sweet Sixteen
1992-93 -- 17 -- BGSU, 8-4, won 14 MAC games, 3 more in conf. tourney
2008-09 -- 13 -- BG's last loss came on Nov. 19 at Valparaiso
2007-08 -- 10 -- Streak spanned all of February and half of March
THANK YOU, SIR OR MADAM
For the first time this season, the Falcons have been mentioned in a national poll ... BGSU received one vote in Monday's (Jan. 12) Associated Press top-25 poll ... the vote was the Falcons' first recognition in a national poll since Dec. 24, 2007, when BG had four votes in the AP poll ... the last time the Brown and Orange cracked the top 25 was at the end of the 2006-07 season, when BGSU was ranked 20th by the AP and 15th in the ESPN/USA Today poll ... the latter ranking was the highest in school and MAC history.
PROCHASKA NAMED MAC PLAYER OF WEEK, AGAIN
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska was named the MAC Player of the Week, the league office announced Monday (Jan. 12) ... Prochaska earned the honor for the third time in her Falcon career, all this season ... she averaged 21.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists as the Falcons won a pair of road games to open the MAC schedule ... Prochaska led the Falcons with 20 points in last Wednesday's (Jan. 7) 77-71 win at Kent State, going 4-for-8 from three-point land ... she also had a career-high six assists, along with four rebounds and three steals ... on Saturday (Jan. 10) at Ohio, she had a career-high 22 points, with five boards ... the Plain City, Ohio native shot 48.0 percent (12-for-25) from the field on the week, including a 5-for-12 (41.7%) effort from three-point range ... Prochaska made 13 of her 14 free-throw tries in the two games.
LO IS A HIGH SCORER
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska already has scored 750 career points in a BG uniform ... with a game-high 22 points in the win at Ohio, Prochaska reached that total in just her 49th career game ... she already ranks 34th in scoring in school history, after roughly a year and a half, and her 15.3 ppg scoring average would place her second on that BGSU career list, behind only the legendary Jackie Motycka, the school's all-time leading scorer (2,122 pts.; 18.1 ppg from 1985-89).
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 13-2 on the season ... after opening the year with road losses against Temple and Valparaiso, BGSU has won 13-straight games heading into Wednesday's Miami contest ... BG won 11 non-conference games for the third consecutive year, then opened MAC play with last Wednesday's (Jan. 7) 77-71 win at Kent State ... most recently, the Brown and Orange picked up a 62-52 win at Ohio Saturday (Jan. 10) ... the Falcons are 5-0 at home, 6-2 on the road and 2-0 in neutral-site games ... BG won two tournaments, the UNCG Marriott Classic and the Dayton Flyer Classic ... in between, the Falcons had a 4-0 homestand, winning the first two games by a combined 63 points, over Detroit and Youngstown State ... then, BG beat St. Bonaventure, 77-59 (Dec. 14), before pulling out a 56-52 win over Hartford (Dec. 21) ... at the Dayton tourney, the Falcons topped Gardner-Webb (79-56; Dec. 28) and the host Flyers (77-68; Dec. 29) to win the title ... then, BGSU closed the non-league slate and opened the 2009 calendar year with a 74-58 win at SIU Edwardsville (Jan. 2), prior to the wins at KSU and Ohio ... senior Lindsey Goldsberry, juniors Niki McCoy and Tara Breske and sophomores Tracy Pontius and Lauren Prochaska each have started all 15 games this season to date.
• Prochaska leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, with 16.5 points and 5.9 boards per contest ... she has had six games of 20 points or more, and has been named MAC Player of the Week three times this season to date, including Monday (Jan. 12) ... McCoy, named the MAC P-O-W last week (Jan. 5), is second on the team with 13.5 ppg, and third with 5.3 rpg ... McCoy has been to the free-throw line 82 times, making 65 ... Pontius and Breske are averaging 12.6 and 6.1 points, respectively ... Pontius leads the Falcons in assists, with 3.6 per game, and she leads the entire MAC in three-point field-goal pct. (48.5%) while ranking fourth in assist/turnover ratio (1.50) ... Breske has 5.5 rpg to rank second on the team ... she tops BG in blocks (1.2 bpg) and is tied for second in steals (1.4 spg) along with Pontius and Prochaska ... freshman Jessica Slagle has 5.8 ppg, while Goldsberry has 5.4 ... Goldsberry leads the Falcons in steals (1.9 spg) and is second in assists (2.5 apg) ... she paces the team with an impressive assist/TO ratio of 2.53, but is just shy of qualifying for the MAC minimums.
• The Falcons are shooting 43.8% from the field over the first 15 games ... BG has a three-point FG pct. of 36.2%, with 7.1 triples made per game, and is shooting 76.6% from the free-throw line ... the opponents are shooting 38.5% from the floor, 34.7% from long range and 65.3% from the stripe ... the Falcons have 36.1 rebounds per game to the opponents' 36.7 ... BG has turned the ball over 15.9 times per game, but has forced the opponents into 20.3 per outing.
• The Falcons have made almost twice as many free throws (265) as the opponents (154) ... in fact, BGSU has made more FTs than the foes have attempted (236).
• 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 Chelsea 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.
LAST TIME OUT
The Falcons forced host Ohio into 30 turnovers en route to a 10-point victory, 62-52, at the Convocation Center Saturday afternoon (Jan. 10), increasing BGSU's win streak to 13 games ... sophomore Lauren Prochaska scored a game-high 22 points, while classmate Tracy Pontius joined her in double digits with 13 points ... Pontius added a game- and career-high six steals as the Falcons had a total of 16 steals on the day ... for the Bobcats, Jennifer Bushby had 13 points and Chandra Myers 10 ... the Falcons shot just 32.7 percent in the game, but forced the Bobcats into 17 turnovers in the first half and 13 more in the second ... Ohio had a 37.8% field-goal rate for the afternoon ... for the second-straight game, the Falcons fell into an early hole on the road ... Ohio scored the first seven points of the day ... but, the Falcons used a 9-0 run to take a 16-11 lead with just over eight minutes left in the half ... BG led, 25-17, before the Bobcats scored the last five points of the period ... the Falcons scored six-straight points to start the second half, and the lead got as high as 12 points when Prochaska made a three-pointer out of the first media timeout of the half ... but, two free throws began a 14-2 Ohio run that enabled the hosts to tie the game ... BG scored six-straight points, however, to take the lead for good ... the home team stayed close, but the Falcons made their free throws down the stretch to close out the win ... BGSU had a 26-14 advantage in points off turnovers.
SCOUTING MIAMI
Miami enters Wednesday's Bowling Green game with a record of 10-5 on the year, and the RedHawks, like the Falcons, are 2-0 in MAC play ... MU began the conference schedule with a win at Akron (83-63; Jan. 7), and picked up a home victory over Kent State, 71-60, on Saturday (Jan. 10) ... the 'Hawks are 4-3 in road games and 6-3 in all games away from Millett Hall this year to date ... individually, senior guard Jenna Schone leads the team in scoring, with 15.3 points per game, and she also has 4.3 assists per game to pace MU in that category ... junior guard Courtney Reed has 12.5 points and a team-leading 2.1 steals per outing, while freshman guard Maggie Boyer averages 9.9 ppg ... senior G/F Jaclyn Leininger has 8.7 points and a team-leading 6.1 rebounds per game ... junior guard Ashleigh Brown has 6.3 ppg and 4.9 rpg ... Leininger, Reed and Schone each have started all 15 games this year ... Boyer and freshman forward Erin Wisner (4.5 ppg, 5.1 rpg) joined that trio in the starting lineup vs. KSU for head coach Maria Fantanarosa ... Fantanarosa welcomed back seven letterwinners, including three starters, from last year's club that finished 23-11 overall and 12-4 in MAC action ... the RedHawks finished second in the MAC's East Division, but won the conference tournament ... Fantanarosa has a record of 171-138 in her 11th year at her alma mater ... the school's athletics web site is www.MURedHawks.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Miami, 37-24, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU has won eight of the last nine meetings ... the RedHawks, however, won the last matchup at Anderson Arena ... the teams split last season's two meetings, with a 63-60 Miami win at Anderson (Jan. 22, 2008) snapping a seven-game series winning streak for the Brown and Orange ... BGSU took the return match, 81-66, at MU's Millett Hall (Feb. 23, 2008) ... the Falcons are 17-11 in home games vs. the Redskins/RedHawks, and BGSU had won three-straight home meetings with MU prior to the 'Hawks' win last season ... Curt Miller has a record of 8-4 vs. the RedHawks during his head-coaching tenure.
THE FALCONS VS. THE MAC
The Falcons have a proud history in the MAC ... BG enters Wednesday's game vs. Miami with an overall league record of 308-139 (68.9%), the best of all conference institutions ... additionally, BGSU leads the all-time series with all 11 MAC opponents ... BG, obviously, is the only team in the league with a winning series mark against every other school.
THE FALCONS ARE ...
• 163-70 since Curt Miller took the BGSU helm in May of 2001;
• 81-33 in MAC games in that time:
• 154-51 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);
• 142-35 over the last five-plus years, with at least 20 wins in five-straight seasons;
• a staggering 121-25 in the past four-plus years, with no fewer than 23 wins in each year and a MAC regular-season title in every season;
• an eye-popping 98-17 overall and 46-4 in the MAC regular season in the last three-plus years, since senior Lindsey Goldsberry ventured to Northwest Ohio;
• 70-14 in the last two-plus years, including a 30-4 conference ledger, since juniors Tara Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper joined the program;
• 39-10 overall, and 15-3 in MAC regular-season games, since sophomores Chelsea Albert, Tracy Pontius, Lauren Prochaska, Jen Uhl and Kelly Zuercher began their respective playing careers at BGSU;
• 59-5 in the last 64 games vs. MAC opponents (including regular-season and tourney games);
• 28-4 in MAC home games in the last four seasons;
• 25-1 in MAC road games over the last three-plus years (with the lone loss during that time coming last season at Ball State);
• 10-1 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;
• 6-4 in games played on January 14 in program history, with a three-game win streak on that date;
• 4-0 in home games on that date, with two of those coming in the Curt Miller Era (wins over Akron, 85-73 in 2002 and 85-48 in '04); and
• 3-0 in all Jan. 14 games under Miller, with a 61-58 win at Kent State in 2006, in addition to the aforementioned Akron games.
TOP-FIVE FALCONS
A pair of Falcons are listed high atop the national leaderboard ... sophomore Lauren Prochaska is third in NCAA Division I in free-throw percentage, having made 48-of-52 throws (92.3%) this season to date ... classmate Tracy Pontius is fifth in the nation in three-point field-goal pct., with a 48.5% rate from long range (32-of-66) ... Prochaska ranks 24th in the latter category.
"PACK THE HOUSE DAY"/SUPER SATURDAY TICKET DEAL
A veritable plethora of BGSU athletic home events are on tap for Saturday (Jan. 17) ... the Falcon women will host Akron at 1:00 p.m., and the hockey team will take on Michigan at 5:05 p.m. at the BGSU Ice Arena ... then, the BG men's basketball team hosts Akron at 8:00 p.m. ... the track team hosts the BGSU Challenge at 11:00 a.m. at Perry Field House ...
• The women's game will be "Pack the House Day," as BG participates in the annual nationwide attendance competition ... last year, the "Pack the House Day" event drew over 3,000 fans for the Falcons' home win over Ohio.
• Additionally, fans showing a ticket stub from either the women's basketball or the hockey game will receive free admission to the men's game Saturday evening ... the men's game vs. UA will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
GETTING IT DONE IN THE CLASSROOM, TOO
In the fall semester, the Falcon women's basketball student-athletes were just as successful in the classroom as they were on the court ... head coach Curt Miller reports that 11 of the 15 current team members had a grade-point average of 3.00 or higher in the fall semester, including five student-athletes with a perfect 4.00 GPA for the term ... entering the spring 2009 semester, no fewer than 10 of the 15 have a cumulative GPA of 3.40 or better.
"I am proud of our players and the success they achieved in the classroom during the fall semester," said Miller. "It is a credit to their dedication and time management skills to successfully balance their academic workload and the demands of being a Division I athlete. Our program has an excellent academic tradition during our tenure and our current players are only adding to this tradition."
Every student-athlete who has exhausted her four years of eligibility during Miller's tenure has graduated.
BRESKE BATTLES ON THE BOARDS
Junior Tara Breske currently ranks second on the team in rebounding, with 5.5 per game ... Breske has controlled the boards since the Falcons returned from the Christmas break ... in the last five games, she has averaged 8.2 rebounds per contest, including a season-high 11 caroms in the win over Dayton (Dec. 29) and nine each against Gardner-Webb (Dec. 28) and SIU Edwardsville (Jan. 2) ... Breske has led BG in boards, or tied for the lead, in four of those five games.
TREY BIEN!
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska already sits in eighth place on the BGSU career list for three-point field goals made ... Prochaska - again, just a sophomore - now has a career total of 110 made treys ... she has amassed that total in just 49 games, an average of 2.24 per game ... to put Prochaska's prolific totals in perspective, Liz Honegger, the school record-holder with 216 three-pointers, averaged 1.69 triples per game ... Angie Farmer (1.78) currently holds the school record for three-point field goals made per game (minimum 50 3-pt. FG made).
TREY BIEN! PART DEUX
Senior Lindsey Goldsberry was a perfect 4-for-4 from three-point range in the win over Gardner-Webb (Dec. 28) ... with those four triples, Goldsberry became just the 11th player in Falcon history to make more than 100 three-point field goals in her career ... she enters the Miami game with a total of 105 triples made, tying her for 10th place on the career list with Ali Mann (2003-07).
SKEET SHOOTING
Sophomore Tracy Pontius was deadly from three-point range in last Wednesday's (Jan. 7) win at Kent State ... Pontius had a career-high five triples in seven attempts en route to 17 points vs. the Flashes, and she had another double-digit scoring game Saturday (Jan. 10), with 13 points at Ohio ... Pontius has topped her totals from her freshman year in nearly every category, including points (189 this season, 96 last winter) and assists (54, 29) ... Pontius is averaging 12.6 points and 3.6 assists per game, and leads the entire MAC with a success rate of 48.5% from three-point land (32-of-66).
SKEET SHOOTING (AND SCORING)
Sophomore Tracy Pontius, as mentioned, has stepped up her scoring output this season ... she currently averages 12.6 points per game, after averaging 2.8 ppg a year ago ... she reached double digits in scoring just once last season, with 10 points in the season opener vs. Valparaiso ... this year, Pontius has scored 10 or more points 11 times, including in each of the last four games.
SPEAKING OF SCORING ...
As mentioned earlier, Lauren Prochaska - only halfway through her sophomore season - already has scored 750 career points at BGSU ... she has scored 20 or more points in a game six times this year, matching her total for all of last season ... Prochaska is averaging 19.5 points over the last four games.
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 both Falcon hockey and women's hoops ... Alex Mikos and an announcer to be named later will have the call for Wednesday's Miami 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.
• Additionally, all home games are 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 (and selected road 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.
CAPTAINS
Senior Lindsey Goldsberry and junior Tara Breske are the co-captains of the 2008-09 women's basketball Falcons.
