Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Put 12-Game Win Streak on Line Saturday at Ohio
January 09, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 9, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) -
BGSU at OHIO
Saturday, January 10, 2009 • 2:00 p.m.Convocation Center (13,168) • Athens, Ohio
RECORDS: BGSU 12-2 (1-0 MAC) // Ohio 5-8 (1-0 MAC)
RADIO: WBGU-FM 88.1 - Alex Mikos and Tim Pedro
SERIES: BGSU leads, 43-20 // STREAK: Ohio - 1
LAST MEETING: Ohio 68, BGSU 66 (2-OT) (March 14, 2008)
BGSU Game Notes in PDF Format
THE GAME
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after an impressive road win in the Mid-American Conference opener, takes to the road once again this weekend ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller will head to Athens to face Ohio University in Saturday action (Jan. 10), with tipoff scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at the Convocation Center (13,168) ... both teams are 1-0 in the MAC, as BGSU picked up a 77-71 win at Kent State Wednesday (Jan. 7), while Ohio outlasted host Buffalo, 84-81, in overtime.
BOBCATS HAVE ENJOYED SOME SUCCESS VS. THE FALCONS
Obviously, with four MAC regular-season titles and three tournament crowns in the last four years, Bowling Green has had some success vs. the rest of the conference ... the Falcons are 52-5 against MAC opposition (including regular-season and tournament games) since the start of the 2005-06 season ... Ohio is the only league team to defeat the Falcons twice during that time ... the Bobcats, in fact, have posted wins in two of the last four games vs. the Brown and Orange, with both wins carrying some importance ... a 70-67 Ohio win at Anderson Arena two seasons ago was BG's only loss to a MAC team during the Falcons' run to the NCAA's "Sweet Sixteen" in 2006-07, and ended BG's MAC-record streak of 39-straight wins over conference foes ... last season, Ohio knocked the Falcons out of the MAC Tournament - ending a BG run of nine consecutive tourney wins and three-straight titles - with a 68-66, double-overtime victory in the semifinal round at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.
BOMBS AWAY
With just over eight minutes gone in Wednesday's (Jan. 7) game at Kent State, the Falcons faced a 20-7 deficit, and BGSU had gone 0-for-3 from three-point land ... the Falcons began to rally, and senior Lindsey Goldsberry's triple began a six-and-a-half minute stretch in which the Brown and Orange went 7-of-9 from long distance ... the Falcons made five consecutive three-point tries during that time, with sophomores Tracy Pontius and Lauren Prochaska each hitting back-to-back treys less than a minute apart ... freshman Jessica Slagle and sophomore Jen Uhl each connected from beyond the arc as well during that 7-of-9 run.
BOMBS AWAY II
In the second period of the Kent State game, the Falcons were once again quite from the arc at the outset ... BG took four three-pointers, missing them all, over the first 10-plus minutes of the half ... then, however, the Falcons caught fire once again ... a Tracy Pontius three-pointer with 9:30 left began a stretch in which BG made 6-of-7 treys to end the night ... the Falcons made their last four long-distance shots of the night, with Pontius and fellow soph Lauren Prochaska hitting two apiece in that time.
BOMBS AWAY III
The Falcons went 13-of-26 from three-point land in the Kent State game ... the total of 13 made treys was BG's highest since - well, since last year's trip to KSU ... the 2007-08 Falcons went an incredible 16-for-23 from long range in a 90-64 win over the Flashes last season (Jan. 16, 2008) ... in the last two trips to the M.A.C. Center, Bowling Green has made 29 triples in 49 tries, for a success rate of 59.2% and an average of 14.5 three-pointers per game.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 12-2 on the season ... after opening the year with road losses against Temple and Valparaiso, BGSU has won 12-straight games heading into Saturday's Ohio contest ... BG won 11 non-conference games for the third consecutive year, then opened MAC play with Wednesday's (Jan. 7) 77-71 win at Kent State ... the Falcons are 5-0 at home, 5-2 on the road and 2-0 in neutral-site games ... the Brown and Orange 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 win at KSU ... senior Lindsey Goldsberry, juniors Niki McCoy and Tara Breske and sophomores Tracy Pontius and Lauren Prochaska each have started all 14 games this season to date.
• Prochaska leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, with 16.1 points and 6.0 boards per contest ... she has had five games of 20 points or more, and 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 13.8 ppg and 5.4 rpg ... she was limited to just 13 minutes of action in the Kent State game, due to injury ... McCoy has been to the free-throw line 76 times, making 61 ... Pontius and Breske are averaging 12.6 and 6.5 points, respectively ... Pontius leads the Falcons in assists, with 3.7 per game, and she leads the entire MAC in three-point field-goal pct. (51.7%) while ranking third in assist/turnover ratio (1.68) ... Breske has 5.4 rpg to rank third on the team ... she tops the team in blocks (1.2 bpg) and is third in steals (1.4 spg) ... freshman Jessica Slagle has 5.9 ppg, while Goldsberry has 5.3 ... Goldsberry leads the Falcons in steals (1.9 spg) and is second in assists (2.6 apg) ... she paces the team with an impressive assist/TO ratio of 2.57, but is just shy of qualifying for the MAC minimums.
• The Falcons are shooting 44.6% from the field over the first 14 games ... BG has a three-point FG pct. of 37.6%, with 7.3 triples made per game, and is shooting 76.9% from the free-throw line ... the opponents are shooting 38.6% from the floor, 34.2% from long range and 66.0% from the stripe ... the Falcons and the foes are dead even in the rebounding department, each pulling down exactly 507 boards this year (36.2 rpg) ... BG has turned the ball over 15.9 times per game, but has forced the opponents into 19.6 per outing.
• The Falcons have made almost twice as many free throws (243) as the opponents (140) ... in fact, BGSU has made 31 more FTs than the foes have attempted (212).
• 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 rallied from a double-digit deficit and used deadly three-point shooting to record a 77-71 win at Kent State Wednesday night (Jan. 7), in the MAC opener for both teams ... the win was BGSU's 12th in a row, and the Falcons' 10th-straight victory over the Golden Flashes ... sophomore Lauren Prochaska led the Falcons with 20 points in the victory, while classmate Tracy Pontius had 17 ... the two players combined for nine of the Falcons' 13 three-point field goals made, with Pontius going 5-for-7 and Prochaska 4-for-8 from beyond the arc ... freshman Jessica Slagle joined the duo in double digits, with 11 points ... Anna Kowalska had 20 points to lead four KSU players in double figures, and added a game-high 15 rebounds ... BGSU fell behind by a 14-3 score, and the Falcons trailed by as many as 13 points (20-7) midway through the half ... the visitors responded by scoring the game's next 13 points to begin a 22-2 run and take the lead for good ... the Brown and Orange shot 50.0 percent from three-point range, going 13-of-26 from beyond the arc ... the total of 13 successful treys was a season high ... Slagle scored eight points in the final 1:47 of the first half, including a pair of three-point plays ... the Falcons had a 10-point halftime lead, but KSU got as close as a single point, 53-52, in the second period ... BGSU had an answer for each run by the Flashes, however, often in the form of a three-pointer ... a Pontius dagger from long range gave BG an eight-point lead with 2:45 left ... Prochaska hit a key triple with 1:55 on the clock to give the Falcons a seven-point lead, and Pontius hit another trey with 1:18 left.
SCOUTING OHIO
Ohio enters Saturday's Bowling Green game with a record of 5-8 on the year, and the Bobcats, like the Falcons, are 1-0 in MAC play ... Ohio began the conference schedule with an 84-81 win in overtime at Buffalo Wednesday night ... that marked the team's 11th game away from home this season ... the BG contest will be just the third game at the Convocation Center this year ... the 'Cats defeated Cleveland State at home in late December (Dec. 19) before losing to nationally-ranked Florida in the final non-conference game of the year (Jan. 3) ... the Bobcats lead the MAC in rebounding margin (+6.5) and rank second in five other categories ... individually, senior G/F Lauren Hmiel leads the team in scoring, with 14.5 points per game, and is tied for second in rebounding (5.5 rpg) ... junior guard Jenny Poff has 12.3 points and 3.8 boards per game, along with 3.6 assists per outing ... another junior guard, Jennifer Bushby, has 10.7 ppg, and leads the team in both assists (4.7 apg) and steals (2.0 spg) ... senior center Chandra Myers has 8.2 ppg and 4.8 rpg, and leads the entire MAC in field-goal percentage (57.8%) ... sophomore forward Kamille Buckner (5.9 ppg, 5.5 rpg) rounds out the probable starting lineup for first-year head coach Semeka Randall ... that quintet has started all 13 games this season to date ... the Bobcats returned 10 letterwinners, including three starters, from last year's club that finished 20-13 overall and 10-6 in MAC action ... the school's athletics web site is ohiobobcats.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Ohio, 43-20, in the all-time series between the teams, but the teams have split the last four meetings ... BGSU took each of last year's regular-season games by 15 points, before the Bobcats topped the Falcons, 68-66, in double overtime in the semifinal round of the MAC Tournament (March 14, 2008) ... BG has a record of 16-12 in road games vs. the 'Cats, and the Falcons have won four consecutive games at the Convocation Center, including last season's 82-67 decision (Feb. 27, 2008) ... Curt Miller has a record of 9-4 vs. the Bobcats during his head-coaching tenure.
DOUBLE-DIGIT WINNING STREAK
BGSU, as mentioned, has won 12 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 ...
• 162-70 in the seven years (plus 14 games) since Curt Miller took the BGSU helm in May of 2001;
• 80-33 in MAC games in that time:
• 153-51 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);
• 141-35 over the last five-plus years, with at least 20 wins in five-straight seasons;
• a staggering 120-25 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 97-17 overall and 45-4 in the MAC regular season in the last three-plus years, since senior Lindsey Goldsberry ventured to Northwest Ohio;
• 69-14 in the last two-plus years, including a 29-4 conference ledger, since juniors Tara Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper joined the program;
• 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;
• 58-5 in the last 63 games vs. MAC opponents (including regular-season and tourney games);
• 24-1 in MAC road games over the last three-plus years (with the lone loss during that time coming last season at Ball State);
• 28-4 in MAC home games in the last four seasons;
• 7-1 in games played on January 10 in program history, with a five-game win streak;
• 3-0 in road games on that date, with two of those coming in the Curt Miller Era (a 66-58 win at Northern Illinois in 2004 and a 75-48 victory at Buffalo two years later); and
• 3-0 in Jan. 10 games under Miller, with a 74-52 home win over Kent State in 2007, in addition to the aforementioned NIU and UB games.
THE FALCONS VS. THE MAC
The Falcons have a proud history in the MAC ... BG enters Saturday's game at Ohio with an overall league record of 307-139 (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.
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.
TREY BIEN!
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska became 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) ... with four triples on Wednesday night at Kent State, she moved into eighth place on the BGSU list ... Prochaska - again, just a sophomore - now has a career total of 109 made treys ... she has amassed that total in just 48 games, an average of 2.27 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 ... Angie Farmer (1.78) currently holds the school record for made three-pointers 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 ... after going 2-for-3 from beyond the arc in the Kent State game, Goldsberry enters the Ohio game with a total of 104 triples made ... she is just one trey behind 10th-place Ali Mann (2003-07).
SKEET SHOOTING
Sophomore Tracy Pontius was deadly from three-point range in 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 ... she has topped her totals from her freshman year in nearly every category, including points (176 this season, 96 last winter) and assists (52, 29) ... Pontius is averaging 12.6 points and 3.7 assists per game, and leads the entire MAC with a success rate of 51.7% from three-point land (31-of-60).
LO POSTS HIGH TOTALS
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska already has more than 700 career points in a BG uniform ... with a team-high 20 points in the win at Kent State, Prochaska now has 728 points in 48 career games ... she already ranks 35th in scoring in school history, after roughly a year and a half, and her 15.2 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 points; 18.1 ppg from 1985-89).
