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Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU Heads West for Saturday Tilt with Huskies
January 29, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 29, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) -
BGSU at NORTHERN ILLINOIS
Saturday, January 31, 2009 • 1:00 p.m. CTConvocation Center (9,100) • DeKalb, Ill.
RECORDS: BGSU 17-2 (6-0 MAC) // Northern Illinois 10-9 (5-1 MAC)
RADIO: WBGU-FM 88.1 - Alex Mikos and Jim Gramm
SERIES: BGSU leads, 16-12 // STREAK: BGSU - 6
LAST MEETING: at BGSU 85, Northern Illinois 65 (Feb. 9, 2008)
BGSU Notes, Stats & Player Bios in PDF Format
THE GAME
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, currently sitting in first place in the Mid-American Conference's East Division, will play three of the next four games against the teams tied atop the MAC West ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller travel to the league's "West Coast" to meet Northern Illinois University in Saturday (Jan. 31) action ... tipoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. locally (2:00 p.m. Eastern) at the Convocation Center (9,100) ... the NIU game is the second of six consecutive cross-divisional games for the Brown and Orange, and - random fact alert - is BGSU's third-straight road game played at a venue named the Convocation Center.
TWO GAMES FOR THE PRICE OF ONE
Falcon fans making the trip to DeKalb this weekend can recoup some of the cost of their gasoline by seeing two BGSU games for the price of one ... the Falcons' game vs. Northern Illinois is the first half of a doubleheader at the Convocation Center, with the BG men taking on Northern at 4:00 p.m. locally (5:00 p.m. Eastern) ... according to the host school's athletics web site, fans with tickets to the women's game will gain admission to the men's game and vice versa ... NIU's athletics web site is www.niuhuskies.com.
LO IS HIGH ATOP THE RANKINGS
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska leads the entire country in free-throw shooting this year to date ... in the latest NCAA statistics (through games of Sunday, Jan. 25), Prochaska led all of Division I with a free-throw percentage of 94.0% ... she has made 79 of her 84 shots from the line ... Prochaska also ranks among the nation's top-50 individuals in three-point field-goal pct. (18th, 43.0%) and three-pointers per game (47th; 2.4), and she is 51st in the country in scoring (17.2 ppg).
BG IS ATOP THE MAC
The Falcons' win at Eastern Michigan (Jan. 24), combined with losses by Ohio and Miami that day, gives BGSU a three-game lead in the East Division race heading into this weekend ... BG's next opponent, Northern Illinois, is one of three teams tied for the West Division lead with 5-1 conference records ... NIU is deadlocked with Toledo and Ball State atop the West ... the Brown and Orange will play all three of those teams over the next four games.
BGSU PUTS WINNING STREAK ON THE LINE
The Falcons have won 17 consecutive contests, tied for the sixth-longest streak in school history, heading into Saturday's NIU game ... the current run marks the eighth double-digit win streak in BG annals, and the fourth in as many years.
STREAK IS ONE OF LONGEST IN NATION
The Falcons' 17-game winning streak is the third-longest active streak in the nation ... currently, only Auburn and Connecticut have longer streaks.
HOME STREAK, TOO
BGSU now has a 13-game home winning streak ... the Falcons won the last five contests of 2007-08 at venerable Anderson Arena, and BGSU has begun the '08-09 campaign with eight-straight wins at 'The House That Roars.'
McCOY EYES 1,000
Junior Niki McCoy is very close to a career milestone ... after scoring a game-high 18 points in the win at Eastern Michigan, she is now just two points away from the 1,000 mark ... McCoy, in her first playing season after transferring from Akron, has a career total of 998 points in 73 games ... she scored 735 points in two seasons with the Zips before coming to BGSU and sitting out last season.
HIGH-SCORING TANDEM
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska and junior Niki McCoy rank 1-2 on the team in scoring this season ... this scoring success is nothing new for either player ... Prochaska, after just 53 career games, already has 829 points at BGSU ... McCoy, in her first playing season after transferring from Akron, has a career total of 998 points in 73 games, as mentioned ... Prochaska has 327 points in 19 games this season, while McCoy has scored 263.
MAKE THAT A HIGH-SCORING TRIO
In addition to Prochaska and McCoy, sophomore Tracy Pontius has scored her share of points this winter ... Pontius gives the Falcons three players in double digits, with 12.6 points per game ... she has a total of 239 points this season after scoring 96 as a freshman.
TAKE SOME, THEY'RE FREE
BGSU shot 'only' 70 percent from the free-throw line in the win at Eastern Michigan, making 21 tosses in 30 tries ... the Falcons had shot a blistering 90.0% from the stripe over the previous three games ... BG is 93-of-110 (94.5%) in the last four contests ... on the year, BGSU is shooting 78.5% (358-456) from the free-throw line, and 83.0% (127-153) in MAC games.
TAKE SOME MORE, THEY'RE FREE
The Eastern Michigan game marked the 18th time in 19 games this year that that Falcons have made more free throws than the opponent ... in fact, BGSU has made more free throws than the opposition has attempted in 14 of those games, with those totals being equal in one other game.
PHASE TWO UNDERWAY
The 2008-09 season is the fourth utilizing the current MAC scheduling format ... each of the 12 schools plays 16 games, opening conference play with five intra-divisional games ... that stretch is followed by six cross-divisional contests, and five more in-division games to close the regular season ... so, BGSU plays five games vs. East Division foes to begin and end the season, with six games vs. the West in the middle of the schedule ... the win over Buffalo gave the Falcons a 5-0 MAC start for the third time in the last four years, and BG started the second phase of conference play with a win over EMU.
MILLER MOVING UP
The Falcons' recent wins have enabled head coach Curt Miller to move up on a pair of lists ... after the win at Eastern Michigan, Miller now has 167 total wins at BGSU, moving him past former Toledo coach Bill Fennelly into sole possession of sixth place on that list ... Fennelly, now at Iowa State, coached at UT from 1989-95 ... Miller now has 85 wins in MAC regular-season play, ranking ninth on that list ... he has surpassed the total of 84 amassed by former Ohio coach Marsha Reall.
FEB. 7 GAME AT WMU TO AIR NATIONALLY ON ESPNU
The Falcons will get the chance to play in front of a national audience on Saturday, Feb. 7 ... BGSU's game at Western Michigan that afternoon will be televised nationally by ESPNU ... tipoff time has been moved to 12:00 p.m. at WMU's University Arena ... this is believed to be the first time a BGSU regular-season women's basketball game will be broadcast to a national audience ... the Falcons have had several NCAA Tournament games aired nationally, with the most recent being the 'Sweet Sixteen' game vs. Arizona State in the 2007 NCAA Championships.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 17-2 on the season ... after opening the year with road losses against Temple and Valparaiso, BGSU has won 17-straight games heading into Saturday's Northern Illinois contest ... BG won 11 non-conference games for the third consecutive year, then went 5-0 in the first round-robin swing through the MAC's East Division ... BG opened MAC play with road wins over Kent State (Jan. 7) and Ohio (Jan. 10), and then swept a three-game homestand, downing Miami (87-79; Jan. 14), Akron (80-51; Jan. 17) and Buffalo (75-52; Jan. 21) ... most recently, the Falcons began cross-divisional play with last Saturday's (Jan. 24) 69-55 win at Eastern Michigan.
• The Falcons are 8-0 at home, 7-2 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 and Hartford to complete the homestand ... at the Dayton tourney, the Falcons topped Gardner-Webb (Dec. 28) and the host Flyers (Dec. 29) to win the title ... BGSU closed the non-league slate and opened the 2009 calendar year with a win at SIU Edwardsville (Jan. 2), prior to the MAC schedule ... senior Lindsey Goldsberry, juniors Niki McCoy and Tara Breske and sophomores Tracy Pontius and Lauren Prochaska each have started all 19 games this season to date.
• Prochaska leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, with 17.2 points and 5.8 boards per contest ... she has had seven games of 20 points or more, including a 32-point game vs. Miami, and has been named MAC Player of the Week four times this season ... Prochaska leads the nation in free-throw percentage (94.0%; 79-of-84) ... McCoy, named the MAC P-O-W on Jan. 5, is second on the team with 13.8 ppg and 5.6 rpg ... McCoy has been to the free-throw line 105 times, making 81, to lead the team in both categories ... Pontius and Breske are averaging 12.6 and 6.6 points, respectively ... Pontius leads the Falcons in assists, with 4.0 per game, and is second on the team in steals (1.7 spg) ... Breske has 5.6 rpg to rank third on the team ... she tops BG in blocks (1.2 bpg) and is third in steals ... freshman Jessica Slagle has 5.9 ppg, while Goldsberry has 5.1 ... Goldsberry leads the Falcons in steals (2.1 spg) and is second in assists (2.3 apg) ... she also has an impressive assist/TO ratio of 2.15.
• The Falcons are shooting 44.2% from the field over the first 19 games ... BG has a three-point FG pct. of 35.5%, with 6.7 triples made per game, and is shooting 78.5% from the free-throw line ... the opponents are shooting 37.4% from the floor, 33.7% from long range and 67.2% from the stripe ... the Falcons have 36.3 rebounds per game to the opponents' 37.2 ... BG has turned the ball over 15.6 times per game, but has forced the opponents into 19.8 per outing.
• The Falcons have made almost twice as many free throws (358) as the opponents (207) ... in fact, BGSU has made 50 more FTs than the foes have attempted (308).
• 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 remaining, while Hennegan will have two.
LAST TIME OUT
The Falcons scored the first nine points of the afternoon, leading from wire to wire in a 69-55 victory at Eastern Michigan Saturday (Jan. 24) ... junior Niki McCoy had a game-high 18 points to pace four Falcons in double digits ... junior Tara Breske and sophomore Lauren Prochaska scored 13 points apiece, while soph Tracy Pontius had 11 points and a career-high eight assists ... Cassie Schrock was the lone player in double digits for Eastern, with 14 points on the afternoon ... the Falcons held EMU to just 25.8 percent shooting in the game, including a 5-for-27 (18.5%) output in the opening half ... the Brown and Orange shot 44.0% in the win ... McCoy had nine points in the first seven-plus minutes of the game, as the Falcons opened up a 16-2 lead ... the Eagles battled back to within 20-13, but senior Lindsey Goldsberry made a three-pointer from well beyond NBA range at the shot-clock buzzer to begin a 7-0 Falcon run ... the Falcons held a 34-18 lead at the intermission after shooting 50.0% in the first half ... a Prochaska steal and layup with 11:06 left in the second half gave BG a 20-point lead, the largest of the game, at 50-30 ... EMU got as close as 13 points, as Mary Lawson's three-pointer cut BG's lead to to 56-43 with 4:40 remaining ... but, the Falcons scored four-straight points at the line, and when Pontius stole the ball from Schrock and fed Breske for a two-on-one layup, BG had a 63-45 lead with just over two minutes remaining.
SCOUTING NIU
Northern Illinois enters Saturday's Bowling Green game with a record of 10-9 on the year, and the Huskies are 5-1 in MAC play ... NIU is tied atop the West Division with Ball State and Toledo, and the Huskies already have matched last year's win total ... after going 3-7 to start the season, the Huskies have won seven of the last nine games, including four in a row ... Northern's lone MAC loss came at UT, 78-66, on Jan. 10 ... each of NIU's last five wins have been decided by single digits, including a pair of overtime contests ... most recently, the Huskies picked up a 67-59 road win over Ohio last Saturday (Jan. 24) ... NIU has a 4-4 record at home this season, but the Huskies are a perfect 3-0 in MAC games in DeKalb ... individually, sophomore center Ebony Ellis leads the team in scoring and rebounding, with 11.2 points and 9.2 rebounds per game ... senior guard Jessie Wilcox, the reigning MAC West Player of the Week, averages 10.9 points and 3.0 assists per outing ... junior guards Kylie York and Marke Freeman have 9.7 and 9.2 ppg, respectively ... York leads the Huskies with 49 three-point field goals made, while Freeman paces NIU in both assists (3.2 apg) and steals (1.5 spg) ... senior G/F Shari' Welton (6.4 ppg) and Ellis each have started all 19 games to date for head coach Carol Owens ... Wilcox, York and sophomore forward Mauvolyene Adams (6.2 ppg) each have joined Welton and Ellis in the starting lineup for all six MAC games ... Owens welcomed back nine letterwinners, including four starters, from last year's club that finished 10-18 overall and 8-8 in MAC action ... Owens has a record of 51-56 in her fourth season as a collegiate head coach, all in DeKalb ... the school's athletics web site is www.niuhuskies.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Northern Illinois, 16-12, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU has captured each of the last six meetings ... the Falcons hold a 10-6 lead in the 16 meetings since the Huskies returned to the MAC, prior to the 1997-98 season ... BGSU won an 85-65 decision in last year's meeting, at Anderson Arena (Feb. 9, 2008) ... in the last trip to DeKalb, the Falcons pulled out an 85-76 win (Feb. 10, 2007) ... the Falcons trail NIU, 7-5, in games played in DeKalb, but BGSU has won three consecutive road games in the series ... Curt Miller has a record of 7-4 vs. the Huskies during his head-coaching tenure.
THE FALCONS VS. THE MAC
The Falcons have a proud history in the MAC ... BG enters Saturday's game vs. Northern Illinois with an overall league record of 312-139 (69.2%), 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 ...
• 167-70 since Curt Miller took the BGSU helm in May of 2001;
• 85-33 in MAC games in that time:
• 158-51 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);
• 146-35 over the last five-plus years, with at least 20 wins in five-straight seasons;
• a staggering 125-25 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 102-17 overall and 50-4 in the MAC regular season in the last three-plus years, since senior Lindsey Goldsberry ventured to Northwest Ohio;
• 74-14 in the last two-plus years, including a 34-4 conference ledger, since juniors Tara Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper joined the program;
• 43-10 overall, and 19-3 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;
• 63-5 in the last 68 games vs. MAC opponents (including regular-season and tourney games);
• 31-4 in MAC home games in the last four-plus seasons;
• 26-1 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;
• 5-0 in the last five games played in the state of Illinois, dating to 2003;
• 6-3 in games played on January 31 in program history, with wins in two of the last three games;
• 1-2 in road games on that date; and
• 1-0 on Jan. 31 in the Curt Miller Era, with the lone such game being a 64-63 home win over Buffalo five years ago.
GOLDEN NUGGET: SENIOR SURPASSES 100-WIN TOTAL AT BG
Lindsey Goldsberry, the lone senior on the 2008-09 Falcon squad, has helped the team to a great deal of success since her arrival on campus ... the Jan. 17 win over Akron was the 100th since the Dayton native joined the program ... BGSU is now 102-17 overall since the start of Goldsberry's freshman year ... the Falcons have won at least 26 games in each of her first three seasons ... 'Golds' has a chance to become the winningest player in school - and MAC - history ... currently, that distinction is shared by last year's senior class, as Kate Achter and Whitney Taylor helped the Falcons to a total of 108 wins (108-23 record) during their careers, the most wins in MAC history in a four-year period.
PROCHASKA IS PROLIFIC
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska scored 'only' 13 points in the win at EMU ... through 53 career games, Prochaska has scored a total of 829 points at BGSU ... she is averaging 15.6 points per game in her career, ranking her second in career ppg in BGSU history.
PROCHASKA PROLIFIC IN MAC PLAY, TOO
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska has scored a total of 121 points over the past six games, coinciding with the start of MAC play ... on the season, the Plain City, Ohio native is averaging 17.2 points per game, ranking her third in the league ... in conference games only, Prochaska leads the MAC with 20.2 ppg.
LO IS A HIGH SCORER
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska already has scored 829 career points in a BG uniform ... she has moved into the top-30 in scoring in school history, having moved past Paulette Backstrom (803 points from 1985-89) in the Buffalo game ... Prochaska's next target is 29th-place Traci Gorman (870 points from 1987-91) ... Prochaska's current scoring average of 15.6 ppg 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).
KENT STATE GAME (FEB. 28) TO BE TELEVISED
The Falcons' home game with Kent State, scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 28, will be televised by Fox Sports Ohio ... tipoff time has been changed to 12:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena.
POLL POSITION
For the third-straight week, the Falcons have been mentioned in a national poll ... BGSU received a vote in the Jan. 12 Associated Press top-25 poll, and was first mentioned in the USA Today ESPN poll the next week ... the Jan. 12 poll was the Falcons' first recognition 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 USA Today ESPN poll ... the latter ranking was the highest in school and MAC history ... this week (Jan. 26-27), BG received four votes from AP and nine votes in the USA Today ESPN poll.
DOUBLE-DIGIT WINNING STREAK
BGSU, as mentioned, has won 17 consecutive games ... believe it or not, the Falcons have had a double-digit winning streak in each of the last four years ... BG had a 19-game streak in the 2005-06 campaign that spanned the entire MAC schedule as well as the conference tournament ... in 2006-07, BGSU won 18-straight games from late December through late February ... then, last year, the Falcons had a 10-game win streak that lasted through all of February and nearly halfway into March.
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 Jim Gramm will have the call for Saturday's NIU 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, with Todd Hostetler and Mark Ehlen at courtside ... Ehlen, the former Toledo coach, earned his master's degree from BGSU.
• Live stats for all home games (and selected road games, including at NIU) 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.
