Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons, Flashes Collide in Kent
January 06, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 6, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) -
BGSU at KENT STATE
Wednesday, January 7, 2009 • 7:00 p.m.M.A.C. Center (6,327) • Kent, Ohio
RECORDS: BGSU 11-2 // Kent State 11-1
RADIO: WBGU-FM 88.1 - Mike Castellano and Anthony Gallina
SERIES: BGSU leads, 40-27 // STREAK: BGSU - 9
LAST MEETING: BGSU 85, Kent State 57 (March 11, 2008)
36 pages worth of Falcon game notes in PDF Format
Coach Miller previews the Kent State game
THE GAME
Mid-American Conference play begins with a bang this week, as the league's two hottest programs collide ... the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, riding an 11-game winning streak, opens the conference schedule with a trip to Northeast Ohio ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller will face Kent State University, winners of eight games in a row, Wednesday night (Jan. 7) ... neither the Falcons nor the Golden Flashes have lost since November ... tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at the M.A.C. Center (6,327) ... Friday's contest is the fourth in a five-game road swing that also sees the Falcons head to Ohio for a Saturday (Jan. 10) matchup.
NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS
The 74-58 win at SIU Edwardsville on Friday (Jan. 2) was the Falcons' 11th win of the season ... BGSU has posted double-digit non-conference victory totals in each of the last three seasons ... the Falcons had never won as many as 10 games in non-conference action in a season prior to the current streak ... BGSU finished with a winning non-league record for the seventh-straight year, the longest such streak in school history ... the '06-07 team, just like this year's club, went 11-2, and last year's edition of the Falcons went 11-3 prior to the start of the MAC schedule ... BGSU is 33-7 in non-league games over the last three years, and 41-9 in the last 50 non-conference contests ... Curt Miller-led teams are 66-29 in the pre-MAC schedule, and - since a 3-8 mark in his first year, 2001-02 - have won 75 percent of their non-league games (63-21).
GETTING IT DONE IN THE CLASSROOM, TOO
The fall semester has come to a close, and the Falcon women's basketball student-athletes were just as successful in the classroom as they have been 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 under Miller's tenure has graduated.
McCOY NAMED MAC PLAYER OF WEEK
Junior Niki McCoy was named the MAC Player of the Week, the league office announced Monday (Jan. 5) ... McCoy earns the honor for the first time as a Falcon, but the third time in her collegiate career ... she was named the league's P-O-W twice during the 2006-07 campaign as a sophomore at Akron ... McCoy earned this week's honor after averaging 18.0 points and 4.0 rebounds as the Falcons won a pair of road games, over Dayton and SIU Edwardsville ... she was named the MVP of the Dayton Flyer Classic after scoring 20 points vs. the Flyers in the championship game ... McCoy then had a game-high 16 points in the win at SIUE on Friday (Jan. 2) ... on the week, McCoy shot 60.9% from the field, going 14-of-23 ... she made 8-of-10 free-throw tries in the two 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 Falcon hockey and women's hoops ... Mike Castellano and Anthony Gallina will have the call for Wednesday's game at KSU.
• 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.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 11-2 on the season ... after opening the year with road losses against Temple and Valparaiso, BGSU has won 11-straight games heading into Wednesday's KSU contest ... it marks the third consecutive year that BG won 11 non-conference contests ... the Falcons are 5-0 at home, 4-2 on the road and 2-0 in neutral-site games ... the Brown and Orange has 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 Friday (Jan. 2) ... senior Lindsey Goldsberry, juniors Niki McCoy and Tara Breske and sophomores Tracy Pontius and Lauren Prochaska each have started all 13 games to date.
• Prochaska leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, with 15.8 points and 6.2 boards per contest ... she has had three games of 24 points or more ... Prochaska has been named MAC Player of the Week twice this season to date ... McCoy, the reigning MAC P-O-W, is second on the team with 14.7 ppg and 5.8 rpg ... she has been to the free-throw line a whopping 76 times, making 61 ... Pontius and Breske are averaging 12.2 and 6.5 points, respectively ... Pontius leads the Falcons in assists, with 3.8 per game, and she leads the entire MAC in three-point field-goal pct. (49.1%) while ranking second in assist/turnover ratio (1.85) ... Breske has 5.4 rpg to rank third on the team ... she is tied for the BG lead in blocks (1.1 bpg) and is second in steals (1.5 spg) ... freshman Jessica Slagle has 5.5 ppg, while Goldsberry has 5.1 ... Goldsberry leads the Falcons in steals (1.8 spg) and is second in assists (2.4 apg) ... Goldsberry paces the team with an impressive assist/TO ratio of 2.82, but is just shy of qualifying for the MAC minimums.
• The Falcons are shooting 44.4% from the field over the first 13 games ... BG has a three-point FG pct. of 36.3%, with 6.8 triples made per game, and are shooting 76.2% from the free-throw line ... the opponents are shooting 38.5% from the floor, 34.3% from long range and 65.1% from the stripe ... the Falcons have outrebounded the foes by a per-game average of 36.6 to 36.0 ... BG has turned the ball over 15.9 times per game, but has forced the opponents into 19.8 per outing.
• The Falcons have made almost twice as many free throws (231) as the opponents (123) ... in fact, BGSU has made 42 more FTs than the foes have attempted (189).
• 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 raced out to an early lead and coasted past host SIUE, 74-58, Friday night (Jan. 2), to close the non-conference schedule with 11 consecutive wins ... BG once again tied the school record for non-conference wins in a season ... BGSU, which had never posted a double-digit win total in such games prior to 2006-07, now has won 11 non-conference games in each of the last three years ... junior Niki McCoy led the Brown and Orange with 16 points, while sophomores Tracy Pontius and Lauren Prochaska added 14 and 10, respectively ... junior Tara Breske had seven points and a game-high nine rebounds ... for the hosts, Jenny Wuest had 15 points to pace three players in double digits ... the Falcons raced out to a 26-2 lead midway through the opening half, settling for a 39-19 halftime advantage ... that BG lead ballooned to a game-high 25 points as BG scored the first five points of the second half, but the Cougars got as close as 14 points on several occasions before the Brown and Orange closed out the win ... the 26-2 start to the game included a run of 18-straight points, as the Falcons held SIUE scoreless for 8:05 ... BGSU shot 53.1 percent from the field in the opening half, holding the hosts to a 9-for-32 effort (32.1%) ... the Falcons shot 44.6% from the field for the game, with SIUE shooting 40.0% in the second half for a game percentage of 36.5% ... BG made more free throws than the opponent for the 13th time in as many games.
SCOUTING KSU
Kent State, like BGSU, completed the non-conference season with a double-digit win total ... the Golden Flashes enter Wednesday's Bowling Green game with a record of 11-1 on the year ... that record includes a mark of 4-0 at home, with the most recent victory at the M.A.C. Center coming Sunday (Jan. 3), 77-47, over Maryland Eastern Shore ... the Flashes have won eight consecutive games, including three in overtime ... KSU's only loss came to Clemson, 68-53, in Seattle, Wash., in late November (Nov. 28) ... the team had matched last year's win total by Dec. 20 ... individually, senior center Anna Kowalska leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, with 18.4 points and 7.9 boards per game ... she is shooting 57.6 percent from the field ... freshman guard Jena Stutzman has 10.6 points per outing, and leads the Flashes with 36 three-point field goals ... she has made six triples in a game three times over her first 12 collegiate games ... sophomore guard Jamilah Humes and junior guard Rachel Bennett are averaging 9.8 and 9.3 ppg, respectively ... Humes leads the team in steals, while Bennett is second on the club in assists (5.0 apg), just one behind sophomore guard Stephanie Gibson ... sophomore forward Chenel Harris has 9.2 ppg and 6.4 rpg, while Gibson has 6.1 ppg and 5.1 apg ... Bennett, Harris and Kowalska have started all 12 games for head coach Bob Lindsay, while Gibson has made 11 starts ... Humes has started eight times this season ... Lindsay, the dean of MAC coaches, is the winningest coach in conference history ... he is 364-205 in his 20th season, all with the Golden Flashes ... Lindsay welcomed back eight letterwinners, including all five starters, from last year's club that finished 9-21 overall and 5-11 in MAC action ... the school's athletics web site is www.kentstatesports.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Kent State, 40-27, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU has captured nine consecutive meetings ... three of those games have come in the MAC Tournament, including a BG win, 85-57, in last year's quarterfinal round at Quicken Loans Arena (March 11, 2008) ... the Falcons took both regular-season meetings last year, with a 90-64 win at the M.A.C. Center (Jan. 16, 2008) and a 76-68 triumph at venerable Anderson Arena (Feb. 20, 2008) ... the teams are deadlocked, 15-15, in games played in Kent, and the Falcons have won the last three games at the M.A.C. Center after a 10-game Golden Flash home winning streak ... overall, KSU had won 12-straight meetings and 17 of 18 games from the Falcons, prior to BG's current series win streak ... the entire list of game-by-game results can be found in the PDF version of these notes.
OBI-WAN HAS TAUGHT YOU WELL
It has been pretty well documented to death by now, but just in case you haven't been reading these notes for the past seven-plus years, here it is once again ... Wednesday's game matches BGSU head coach Curt Miller with the man he credits for giving him his start in thte coaching profession ... Miller spent a year at Kent State as a graduate assistant, and was a volunteer coach on Bob Lindsay's staff during the 1990-91 season ... the Flashes finished 17-12 that year, and enjoyed the second-best turnaround in the nation.
DOUBLE-DIGIT WINNING STREAK
BGSU, as mentioned, has won 11 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.
THE FALCONS ARE ...
• 161-70 in the seven years (plus 13 games) since Curt Miller took the BGSU helm in May of 2001;
• 79-33 in MAC games in that time:
• 152-51 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);
• 140-35 over the last five-plus years, with at least 20 wins in five-straight seasons;
• a staggering 119-25 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 96-17 overall and 44-4 in the MAC in the last three-plus years, since senior Lindsey Goldsberry ventured to Northwest Ohio;
• 68-14 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;
• 57-5 in the last 62 games vs. MAC opponents (including regular-season and tourney games);
• 23-1 in MAC road games over the last three years (with the lone loss during that time coming last season at Ball State);
• 29-4 in MAC home games in the last four seasons;
• 3-3 in games played on January 7 in program history;
• 1-0 in road games on that date, with the only road contest on that date a 77-73 win at Eastern Michigan over two decades ago; and
• 1-1 in Jan. 7 games in the Curt Miller Era, with a two-point loss to Ball State (2004) and a 17-point win over Akron (2006) at Anderson Arena.
THE FALCONS VS. THE MAC
The Falcons have a proud history in the MAC ... BG enters Wednesday's game at Kent State with an overall league record of 306-139 (688), 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.
BRESKE BATTLES ON THE BOARDS
Junior Tara Breske currently ranks third on the team in rebounding, with 5.4 per game ... Breske has controlled the boards since the Falcons returned from the Christmas break ... in the last three games, she has averaged 9.7 rebounds per contest, with a season-high 11 caroms in the win over Dayton (Dec. 29) and nine each in victories against Gardner-Webb (Dec. 28) and SIU Edwardsville (Jan. 2).
CLEANING THE GLASS
The Falcons are 6-0 this year when outrebounding the opponent ... since the start of the 2004-05 season, BGSU has a record of 77-1 when grabbing more rebounds than the opponent.
GOOD AS GOLDS
Lindsey Goldsberry, the Falcons' lone senior and a team co-captain, had a successful return to her hometown ... Goldsberry, a Dayton native, had her best game of the season in the win over Gardner-Webb in the Dayton Flyer Classic ... she scored a game-high 18 points, going a perfect 6-for-6 from the field ... Goldsberry drained all four of her shots from three-point land, and added a pair of free throws, two assists and two steals.
TREY BIEN!
Senior Lindsey Goldsberry's prolific performance in the win over Gardner-Webb included a 4-for-4 effort from three-point land ... 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 ... Goldsberry enters the Kent State game with a total of 102 triples made.
TREY BIEN! PART DEUX
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska made a game-high four three-point field goals in the win over Dayton ... Prochaska, who had become only the 10th player in school history to reach the century mark in three-point field goals made in the St. Bonaventure game (Dec. 14), now has a career total of 105 made treys ... she is tied for ninth on the BGSU career list with Ali Mann (2003-07) ... Prochaska has amassed her 105 treys in a total of just 47 games, an average of 2.23 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).
SKEET SHOOTING
Sophomore Tracy Pontius had 14 points in the Falcons' win at SIUE Friday (Jan. 2) ... she has topped her totals from her freshman year in nearly every category, including points (159 this season, 96 last winter) and assists (50, 29) ... Pontius is averaging 12.2 points and 3.8 assists per game, and is shooting a MAC-best 49.1% from three-point land (26-of-53).
