Bowling Green State University Athletics
Monday, December 21
Youngstown, OH
11:00 AM
Bowling Green State University
at
Youngstown State
Redshirt junior Maggie Hennegan and the Falcons are in Youngstown to take on the Penguins
Good Morning Youngstown: Falcons Face Penguins at 11 a.m.
December 20, 2009 | Women's Basketball
THE OPENING TIP
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, coming off an impressive defensive performance, stays out on the road for one more game ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller conclude a season-long five-game road swing with a Monday morning (Dec. 21) game against Youngstown State University ... tipoff is set for 11:00 a.m. at YSU's Beeghly Center (6,300).
BGSU Notes & Stats - PDF (34 pages)
BGSU Cumulative Stats - PDF (1 page)
IT ALL STARTED HERE
BGSU head coach Curt Miller's first collegiate win came at the Beeghly Center, as the Falcons picked up a 71-61 win over Youngstown State in Miller's collegiate head-coaching debut, on Nov. 17, 2001 ... that was one of only nine wins for the Falcons that year ... in a totally unrelated note, two of those nine victories for Miller and assistants Jennifer Roos and Brandi Poole came against a Buffalo team that featured a young assistant coach named Kevin Eckert.
ROAD WARRIORS
The Falcons have posted four wins on the road this year to date ... three of those victories have come against teams – Oakland, Vanderbilt and Canisius – that qualified for national postseason play last year ... the Canisius game marked the seventh road contest for the Falcons this year ... six of those seven opponents are teams that won at least 23 games and advanced to national postseason play last season ... three of those opponents – Ohio State, Marist and Vandy – went to the NCAA Championships last March, while three – OU, St. Bonaventure and CC – advanced to the WNIT ... those six teams had a total of 157 wins, an average of 26.2 victories per team, in 2008-09.
DEFENSE DOES ITS JOB
The BGSU defense held Canisius to less than 30 percent shooting in Saturday's win in Buffalo ... the Golden Griffins made just 14 shots from the field, a season low for a Falcon opponent, and turned the ball over 19 times ... and, BG allowed the Griffs to score just 42 points ... it marked the third time this year, and the second time in the last three games, that the Falcons held the opponent to fewer than 45 points.
PROCHASKA NAMED MAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK, AGAIN
Junior Lauren Prochaska was named the MAC Player of the Week on Monday (Dec. 14) ... she earned the honor for the second consecutive Monday, the second time this year and the seventh time in her Falcon career ... Prochaska averaged 23.0 points and shot over 51 percent from the field as the Brown and Orange split a pair of games last week ... she had a game-high total of 25 points in BGSU's 64-43 win at Detroit (Dec. 9), and also led all scorers at Saint Bonaventure, with 21 points in the Falcons' 70-54 setback (Dec. 12) ... Prochaska is averaging 21.8 points and 5.3 rebounds per game over the last four contests, coinciding with her two P-O-W awards ... she is shooting .569 from the field in that time.
PROCHASKA MOVES INTO 14TH ON BGSU SCORING LIST
With 46 points in last week's two games, junior Lauren Prochaska moved up three spots into 14th place on the BGSU career scoring list ... after scoring 17 more points at Canisius, Prochaska now has a total of 1,262 points in her Falcon tenure ... she passed Jacki Raterman (1,213 points from 1995-99) and Melissa Chase (1,223 points from 1979-83) in the win over Detroit (Dec. 9), and moved ahead of Michelle Shade (1,233 points from 1991-95) in the St. Bonaventure game (Dec. 12) ... Prochaska's next target is 13th-place Carin Horne, who scored 1,341 points from 2003-07 ... she is averaging 16.2 points per game, the second-highest average in BGSU annals, in her career.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 7-3 on the season, having played seven of the first 10 games on the road ... BGSU saw a five-game winning streak snapped with a 70-54 loss at St. Bonaventure last weekend (Dec. 12), but bounced back with a 67-42 win over Canisius on Saturday (Dec. 19), in a return trip to Western New York ... BG is 3-0 at home and 4-3 on the road this year to date ... the Falcons opened the 2009-10 campaign with three games in the Preseason WNIT, starting with a 76-41 win over Chicago State at venerable Anderson Arena ... then, however, the Brown and Orange lost road games against third-ranked Ohio State and Marist ... BGSU bounced back with a win at Oakland, before downing UNC Greensboro and Saint Francis (Pa.) ... head coach Curt Miller's club headed to Nashville and defeated nationally-ranked Vanderbilt, 66-60, two weekends ago (Dec. 4) ... then, BG picked up a 64-43 win at Detroit (Dec. 9) before the SBU and CC games.
• BGSU returns 10 letterwinners, including four starters, from last year's team that won the Mid-American Conference's regular-season title for a fifth-straight season ... the Falcons went 29-5 overall, posting the second-highest win total in school and conference history, and had a 15-1 MAC record in 2008-09 ... the Brown and Orange advanced to the third round of the Postseason WNIT.
• The Falcons had just one senior on the roster a year ago ... Lindsey Goldsberry ended her career as the winningest basketball player – man or woman – in MAC history ... BG had a record of 114-20 in her four years, for an average of 28.5 wins.
• Through 10 games, junior Lauren Prochaska leads the Falcons in both scoring and rebounding ... Prochaska, the reigning Mid-American Conference Player of the Year, is averaging 17.2 points and 5.7 rebounds per game ... she was named the league's Player of the Week on each of the last two Mondays (Dec. 7 and Dec. 14).
• Junior Tracy Pontius and senior Tamika Nurse have 12.4 and 11.0 ppg, respectively ... Pontius has 3.5 rpg, and is tied with Prochaska for the team lead in three-point field goals made ... Pontius is 21-of-54 from beyond the arc, and is second on the Falcons in assists (3.2 apg) ... Nurse has 3.6 assists per game to pace the Brown and Orange in that category ... she is third on the team with 16 three-pointers made, and has shot .410 (16-of-39) from long range.
• Senior Tara Breske and junior Jen Uhl have scored 7.3 and 7.0 ppg, respectively ... Breske, who missed two games (UNC Greensboro and Vanderbilt), came off the bench for the next three contests before returning to the starting lineup at Canisius ... she has 4.3 rebounds and 1.1 blocked shots per game, leading the Falcons in the latter category ... Uhl has 5.0 rebounds per game, good for third on the team ... she has led the Falcons or tied for the team lead in rebounding in four of the last five contests, averaging 7.0 rpg during that time ... Uhl also is shooting a team-best .509 from the field, and has gone 8-of-20 from three-point range.
• Junior Maggie Hennegan and sophomore Jessica Slagle have 5.4 and 3.2 ppg, respectively ... Hennegen has 5.1 rebounds per game to place second on the team ... Slagle is fourth on the Falcons in assists, with 1.3 helpers per game.
• The list of returnees in 2009-10 includes three seniors – Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper – along with five juniors ... Breske started all 34 games in the post last season.
• The returnees in the junior class include a pair of highly-decorated players in Prochaska and Pontius ... Prochaska, a wing, was the 2009 MAC Player of the Year, while Pontius, a point guard, was an honorable-mention selection to the Associated Press All-America Team ... both Pontius and Prochaska earned All-MAC First-Team honors in 2008-09.
• Juniors Uhl, Chelsea Albert and Kelly Zuercher also returned ... Uhl started the final 13 games last year at a forward spot ... sophomores Slagle and Maribeth Giese round out the returning letterwinners.
• Two other players are in their first playing season at BGSU ... Nurse, a fifth-year senior (Univ. of Oregon), and Hennegan, a redshirt junior (Saint Louis Univ.), participated in practices at BGSU last season, but sat out the year after transferring from other NCAA Division-I schools.
• Five newcomers also joined the program in 2009-10 ... that list includes a quartet of freshmen in Simone Eli, Allison Papenfuss, Chrissy Steffen and Jessie Tamerlano ... Danielle Havel also joins the program, but will sit out this season after transferring from DePaul University ... she will retain three seasons of eligibility.
• Nurse, Pontius and Prochaska each have started all 10 games to date, while Hennegan has made eight starts ... Breske has made five starts, including the first four games of the year, while Uhl has been in the starting lineup for each of the last seven games.
• Through 10 games, the Falcons are shooting .444 from the field, .374 from three-point land and .793 from the free-throw line ... BG's opponents are shooting .390 overall, .345 from long range and .727 from the stripe ... the Falcons have 36.0 rebounds per game to the opponents' 33.6.
LAST TIME OUT
The Falcons put the clamps on the Canisius offense, picking up a 25-point road win ... Lauren Prochaska scored a game-high 17 points to pace four double-digit scorers for the Brown and Orange ... BG held the home team to just 29.8 percent shooting from the field en route to the win ... Tamika Nurse and Tracy Pontius scored 11 points apiece, while Maggie Hennegan had 10 ... Jessie Tamerlano scored the first six points of her young career, going a perfect 3-for-3 from the field ... BGSU had advantages of 32-6 in points in the paint, 15-6 in second-chance points and 22-7 in points off turnovers ... the Griffs came out hot, hitting their first three shots of the night to take an 8-3 lead with less than two minutes gone ... after Falcon head coach Curt Miller called an early timeout, however, the BG defense held CC to just 10 points over the final 18:06 of the half ... BG took the lead for good on a pair of Nurse free throws at the 14:14 mark, and Prochaska took a pass from Hennegan and nailed a triple, capping a 10-0 BG run and giving the Falcons a 13-8 lead ... the Brown and Orange slowly extended the advantage, and led by 15 at the half ... Canisius never got the margin under double digits in the second half ... Brittane' Russell was the lone Canisius player in double figures, with 11 points ... BG held CC to a .298 FG pct., including just a .280 success rate after halftime ... the Falcons shot .450, going 15-for-28 (.536) in the second period.
SCOUTING YSU
Youngstown State enters Monday's game with a record of 0-10 ... the Penguins are 0-3 in home games, 0-4 on the road and 0-3 in neutral-site contests ... YSU's last game was a 94-58 loss at Saint Francis (Pa.) on Thursday (Dec. 17) ... the team's home games have come against Kent State, Canisius and Pittsburgh ... a total of just eight players have seen action for the Penguins this year to date ... seven of those eight are averaging at least 18.2 minutes per game ... junior guard Bojana Dimitrov leads the team with 14.3 points per game, and also has 3.3 rebounds per contest ... she has hit nearly half of the team's three-pointers this year, having made 19 of the Penguins' 41 triples ... freshman forward Brandi Brown also is scoring in double digits, with 10.6 ppg, and has a team-leading 9.2 rpg ... Brown is shooting a team-best .462 from the field this year ... sophomore guard Macey Nortey has 9.6 ppg and a team-leading 4.5 assists per outing ... Brown and Nortey have started all 10 games, while sophomore guard Kenya Middlebrooks (8.1 ppg) and senior forward Rachael Manuel (7.4 ppg, 5.2 rpg) each have started nine contests ... Dimitrov has made eight starts, including each of the last two games after missing the prior two due to injury ... head coach Cindy Martin returned five letterwinners, including one starter (Nortey), from last year's team that finished 3-27 overall and 1-17 in Horizon League action ... Martin has a record of 3-37 in her second season in Youngstown, and is 73-60 in her fifth year as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is YSUsports.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Youngstown State, 12-10, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU has won the last two meetings ... both of those games, however, were played at venerable Anderson Arena, including a 94-61 win a year and two weeks ago (Dec. 6, 2008) ... the Penguins won the teams' last matchup at the Beeghly Center, with a 79-67 win six years ago (Nov. 22, 2003) ... the Penguins hold a 5-4 advantage in games played in Youngstown ... as mentioned, Curt Miller's first collegiate head-coaching victory came at the Beeghly Center, a 71-61 triumph on Nov. 17, 2001 ... Miller has a record of 3-2 against the Penguins.
HOLDING THEM UNDER 50
The Falcons held Canisius to just 42 points in Saturday afternoon's win ... that marked the 34th time that a Curt Miller-coached BGSU squad had held the opponent to fewer than 50 points ... Miller has been the Falcons' coach for eight years and 10 games ... prior to his arrival in Northwest Ohio, it had taken 22 seasons to amass 30 such games ... BG teams held the opponents to under 50 points 30 times from 1979-80 to 2000-01.
HOLDING THEM UNDER 50, PART II
Canisius was the third opponent in 2009-10, and the second in a three-game span, to be held to fewer than 50 points by the BGSU defense ... the Falcons held only three teams to under 50 points during all of last season.
WHAT A LONG STRANGE (BUNCH OF) TRIP(S) IT'S BEEN
The Falcons' games this weekend, at Canisius and Youngstown State, conclude a season-long five-game road swing ... BGSU is 3-1 during that stretch, with wins at nationally-ranked Vanderbilt, Detroit and Canisius, and the loss at Saint Bonaventure ... BG will have played eight of the season's first 11 games on the road by the time the Falcons finally return home to prepare for Wednesday's (Dec. 23) game vs. Appalachian State ... currently, the Falcons have played as many games in the state of New York as in venerable Anderson Arena.
THREE-MENDOUS
A pair of juniors are moving up the BGSU career list for three-point field goals made ... Lauren Prochaska hit three triples in the win at Canisius, moving into a tie for fourth on that list ... with 170 long-range makes in her career to date, she is just three shy of second place ... classmate Tracy Pontius, in just her second year as a starter, has moved into 10th place on that list ... Pontius also hit three triples at Canisius, and has made 110 in her career.
A SCHOOL RECORD? WE MAY NEVER KNOW
Falcon head coach Curt Miller has played a total of 15 different players on three occasions this season to date, the wins over UNC Greensboro (Nov. 27), Detroit (Dec. 9) and Canisius (Dec. 19) ... that total is the highest in over 25 years ... none of Miller's first eight teams at BGSU had more than 14 players on the active roster ... the last team to have as many as 15 players see action in a season was the 1985-86 squad ... the '84-85 Falcons also had 15 players, while the 1983-84 team – like the 2009-10 team – had 16 players who saw action in at least one game ... tragically, single-game information from the glorious decade of the 1980s is sketchy at best.
FREE-THROW SHOOTING HAS BEEN A STRENGTH
The Falcons are shooting .793 from the field this season, continuing a trend of success from the stripe ... last year, BGSU had a school-record free-throw percentage of .794, a rate that ranked fourth in the nation and was the 15th-highest figure in NCAA Division-I history.
FREE-THROW SHOOTING, PART II
Junior Lauren Prochaska, slowed by illness in the early stages of the 2009-10 season, still is shooting .860 from the free-throw line this year to date ... last season, Prochaska led the nation with a .933 success rate from the stripe ... that was the 11th-best single-season performance in NCAA Division-I history ... Prochaska was 167-of-179 from the line last year ... none of the 10 players listed above her on that list had attempted more than 118 free throws.
BOARDWORK
Last season, the Falcons had more rebounds than the opponent just 13 times in 34 games ... this year, BGSU has outrebounded the opposition eight times in 10 games, including in seven of the last eight contests ... BG has a +2.4 rebounding margin ... when outrebounding opponents, the Falcons are 109-11 in the Curt Miller Era, including 89-4 in the last five-plus seasons (since the start of 2004-05).
THE DEFENSE NEVER RESTS
The Falcons are allowing opponents to shoot just .390 from the field this year ... BGSU has turned up the heat on the opposition in crunch time in several recent games ... the BG defense forced Vanderbilt to go 0-for-8 from the field in the final minutes of the Falcons' win in Nashville, then pressured Detroit into missing its final nine field-goal attempts ... Vandy took the lead for the first and only time with a layup at the 3:25 mark, but the then-#14/16 Commodores would not make another shot as BG went on a game-ending 8-1 run ... then, after Detroit got within nine points with 6:17 left, the Falcons allowed only three last-minute free throws the rest of the way ... on Saturday, after allowing Canisius to go 3-for-3 from the field to begin the game, the Falcon D held the Griffs to a 4-of-18 performance over the remainder of the first half ... Canisius scored eight points in the game's first 1:54, then had just 10 points over the last 18-plus minutes before halftime ... in fact, the Griffs would score only 28 points in a span of nearly 34-and-a-half minutes ... CC shot just .298 from the floor on the day.
THE FALCON SENIORS
Fourth-year Falcons Tara Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper have helped the Brown and Orange average 28.7 wins per season since arriving on campus ... that trio has been a part of the two winningest teams in program history, as well as four of the five national postseason wins in BG annals ... BGSU has gone 93-20 overall and 43-5 in MAC regular-season action since Breske, Bugher and Clapper came to the school ... Tamika Nurse, a fifth-year senior, is in her first playing season after sitting out last year as a transfer from the Univ. of Oregon.
THE JUNIORS
BGSU has posted a record of 62-16 overall, and the Falcons are 28-4 in MAC regular-season games since Chelsea Albert, Tracy Pontius, Lauren Prochaska, Jen Uhl and Kelly Zuercher set foot on campus ... that is an average of 27.5 wins per year through the first two seasons ... the Falcons have played national postseason tournament games at Anderson Arena in each year, beating Dayton in the '08 WNIT and facing Syracuse and Indiana in that tourney at home in 2009 ... Maggie Hennegan joined that group for the 2009-10 season ... Hennegan sat out last season as a transfer after playing two years at Saint Louis Univ.
THE SOPHOMORES
Maribeth Giese and Jessica Slagle helped the Brown and Orange to 29 wins – the second-highest total in MAC history – along with a school-record 25-game winning streak in their first year in BG ... the Falcons are 36-8 since the duo arrived in Northwest Ohio ... Danielle Havel is a member of the sophomore class, but will sit out the 2009-10 season after transferring from DePaul Univ.
THE FRESHMEN
Four freshmen joined the Falcons for the 2009-10 season ... that list includes Simone Eli (Genoa, Ohio/Genoa), Allison Papenfuss (Whitehouse, Ohio/Anthony Wayne), Chrissy Steffen (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) and Jessie Tamerlano (North Royalton, Ohio/North Royalton).
CAPTAINS
Seniors Tara Breske and Sarah Clapper and redshirt junior Maggie Hennegan are the captains of the 2009-10 Falcons ... Breske is a captain for the second consecutive year ... the captains earned that distinction in a vote of their teammates ... the award is particularly impressive in Hennegan's case, as she was chosen as a captain before ever playing her first game as a Falcon.
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, coming off an impressive defensive performance, stays out on the road for one more game ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller conclude a season-long five-game road swing with a Monday morning (Dec. 21) game against Youngstown State University ... tipoff is set for 11:00 a.m. at YSU's Beeghly Center (6,300).
BGSU Notes & Stats - PDF (34 pages)
BGSU Cumulative Stats - PDF (1 page)
IT ALL STARTED HERE
BGSU head coach Curt Miller's first collegiate win came at the Beeghly Center, as the Falcons picked up a 71-61 win over Youngstown State in Miller's collegiate head-coaching debut, on Nov. 17, 2001 ... that was one of only nine wins for the Falcons that year ... in a totally unrelated note, two of those nine victories for Miller and assistants Jennifer Roos and Brandi Poole came against a Buffalo team that featured a young assistant coach named Kevin Eckert.
ROAD WARRIORS
The Falcons have posted four wins on the road this year to date ... three of those victories have come against teams – Oakland, Vanderbilt and Canisius – that qualified for national postseason play last year ... the Canisius game marked the seventh road contest for the Falcons this year ... six of those seven opponents are teams that won at least 23 games and advanced to national postseason play last season ... three of those opponents – Ohio State, Marist and Vandy – went to the NCAA Championships last March, while three – OU, St. Bonaventure and CC – advanced to the WNIT ... those six teams had a total of 157 wins, an average of 26.2 victories per team, in 2008-09.
DEFENSE DOES ITS JOB
The BGSU defense held Canisius to less than 30 percent shooting in Saturday's win in Buffalo ... the Golden Griffins made just 14 shots from the field, a season low for a Falcon opponent, and turned the ball over 19 times ... and, BG allowed the Griffs to score just 42 points ... it marked the third time this year, and the second time in the last three games, that the Falcons held the opponent to fewer than 45 points.
PROCHASKA NAMED MAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK, AGAIN
Junior Lauren Prochaska was named the MAC Player of the Week on Monday (Dec. 14) ... she earned the honor for the second consecutive Monday, the second time this year and the seventh time in her Falcon career ... Prochaska averaged 23.0 points and shot over 51 percent from the field as the Brown and Orange split a pair of games last week ... she had a game-high total of 25 points in BGSU's 64-43 win at Detroit (Dec. 9), and also led all scorers at Saint Bonaventure, with 21 points in the Falcons' 70-54 setback (Dec. 12) ... Prochaska is averaging 21.8 points and 5.3 rebounds per game over the last four contests, coinciding with her two P-O-W awards ... she is shooting .569 from the field in that time.
PROCHASKA MOVES INTO 14TH ON BGSU SCORING LIST
With 46 points in last week's two games, junior Lauren Prochaska moved up three spots into 14th place on the BGSU career scoring list ... after scoring 17 more points at Canisius, Prochaska now has a total of 1,262 points in her Falcon tenure ... she passed Jacki Raterman (1,213 points from 1995-99) and Melissa Chase (1,223 points from 1979-83) in the win over Detroit (Dec. 9), and moved ahead of Michelle Shade (1,233 points from 1991-95) in the St. Bonaventure game (Dec. 12) ... Prochaska's next target is 13th-place Carin Horne, who scored 1,341 points from 2003-07 ... she is averaging 16.2 points per game, the second-highest average in BGSU annals, in her career.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 7-3 on the season, having played seven of the first 10 games on the road ... BGSU saw a five-game winning streak snapped with a 70-54 loss at St. Bonaventure last weekend (Dec. 12), but bounced back with a 67-42 win over Canisius on Saturday (Dec. 19), in a return trip to Western New York ... BG is 3-0 at home and 4-3 on the road this year to date ... the Falcons opened the 2009-10 campaign with three games in the Preseason WNIT, starting with a 76-41 win over Chicago State at venerable Anderson Arena ... then, however, the Brown and Orange lost road games against third-ranked Ohio State and Marist ... BGSU bounced back with a win at Oakland, before downing UNC Greensboro and Saint Francis (Pa.) ... head coach Curt Miller's club headed to Nashville and defeated nationally-ranked Vanderbilt, 66-60, two weekends ago (Dec. 4) ... then, BG picked up a 64-43 win at Detroit (Dec. 9) before the SBU and CC games.
• BGSU returns 10 letterwinners, including four starters, from last year's team that won the Mid-American Conference's regular-season title for a fifth-straight season ... the Falcons went 29-5 overall, posting the second-highest win total in school and conference history, and had a 15-1 MAC record in 2008-09 ... the Brown and Orange advanced to the third round of the Postseason WNIT.
• The Falcons had just one senior on the roster a year ago ... Lindsey Goldsberry ended her career as the winningest basketball player – man or woman – in MAC history ... BG had a record of 114-20 in her four years, for an average of 28.5 wins.
• Through 10 games, junior Lauren Prochaska leads the Falcons in both scoring and rebounding ... Prochaska, the reigning Mid-American Conference Player of the Year, is averaging 17.2 points and 5.7 rebounds per game ... she was named the league's Player of the Week on each of the last two Mondays (Dec. 7 and Dec. 14).
• Junior Tracy Pontius and senior Tamika Nurse have 12.4 and 11.0 ppg, respectively ... Pontius has 3.5 rpg, and is tied with Prochaska for the team lead in three-point field goals made ... Pontius is 21-of-54 from beyond the arc, and is second on the Falcons in assists (3.2 apg) ... Nurse has 3.6 assists per game to pace the Brown and Orange in that category ... she is third on the team with 16 three-pointers made, and has shot .410 (16-of-39) from long range.
• Senior Tara Breske and junior Jen Uhl have scored 7.3 and 7.0 ppg, respectively ... Breske, who missed two games (UNC Greensboro and Vanderbilt), came off the bench for the next three contests before returning to the starting lineup at Canisius ... she has 4.3 rebounds and 1.1 blocked shots per game, leading the Falcons in the latter category ... Uhl has 5.0 rebounds per game, good for third on the team ... she has led the Falcons or tied for the team lead in rebounding in four of the last five contests, averaging 7.0 rpg during that time ... Uhl also is shooting a team-best .509 from the field, and has gone 8-of-20 from three-point range.
• Junior Maggie Hennegan and sophomore Jessica Slagle have 5.4 and 3.2 ppg, respectively ... Hennegen has 5.1 rebounds per game to place second on the team ... Slagle is fourth on the Falcons in assists, with 1.3 helpers per game.
• The list of returnees in 2009-10 includes three seniors – Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper – along with five juniors ... Breske started all 34 games in the post last season.
• The returnees in the junior class include a pair of highly-decorated players in Prochaska and Pontius ... Prochaska, a wing, was the 2009 MAC Player of the Year, while Pontius, a point guard, was an honorable-mention selection to the Associated Press All-America Team ... both Pontius and Prochaska earned All-MAC First-Team honors in 2008-09.
• Juniors Uhl, Chelsea Albert and Kelly Zuercher also returned ... Uhl started the final 13 games last year at a forward spot ... sophomores Slagle and Maribeth Giese round out the returning letterwinners.
• Two other players are in their first playing season at BGSU ... Nurse, a fifth-year senior (Univ. of Oregon), and Hennegan, a redshirt junior (Saint Louis Univ.), participated in practices at BGSU last season, but sat out the year after transferring from other NCAA Division-I schools.
• Five newcomers also joined the program in 2009-10 ... that list includes a quartet of freshmen in Simone Eli, Allison Papenfuss, Chrissy Steffen and Jessie Tamerlano ... Danielle Havel also joins the program, but will sit out this season after transferring from DePaul University ... she will retain three seasons of eligibility.
• Nurse, Pontius and Prochaska each have started all 10 games to date, while Hennegan has made eight starts ... Breske has made five starts, including the first four games of the year, while Uhl has been in the starting lineup for each of the last seven games.
• Through 10 games, the Falcons are shooting .444 from the field, .374 from three-point land and .793 from the free-throw line ... BG's opponents are shooting .390 overall, .345 from long range and .727 from the stripe ... the Falcons have 36.0 rebounds per game to the opponents' 33.6.
LAST TIME OUT
The Falcons put the clamps on the Canisius offense, picking up a 25-point road win ... Lauren Prochaska scored a game-high 17 points to pace four double-digit scorers for the Brown and Orange ... BG held the home team to just 29.8 percent shooting from the field en route to the win ... Tamika Nurse and Tracy Pontius scored 11 points apiece, while Maggie Hennegan had 10 ... Jessie Tamerlano scored the first six points of her young career, going a perfect 3-for-3 from the field ... BGSU had advantages of 32-6 in points in the paint, 15-6 in second-chance points and 22-7 in points off turnovers ... the Griffs came out hot, hitting their first three shots of the night to take an 8-3 lead with less than two minutes gone ... after Falcon head coach Curt Miller called an early timeout, however, the BG defense held CC to just 10 points over the final 18:06 of the half ... BG took the lead for good on a pair of Nurse free throws at the 14:14 mark, and Prochaska took a pass from Hennegan and nailed a triple, capping a 10-0 BG run and giving the Falcons a 13-8 lead ... the Brown and Orange slowly extended the advantage, and led by 15 at the half ... Canisius never got the margin under double digits in the second half ... Brittane' Russell was the lone Canisius player in double figures, with 11 points ... BG held CC to a .298 FG pct., including just a .280 success rate after halftime ... the Falcons shot .450, going 15-for-28 (.536) in the second period.
SCOUTING YSU
Youngstown State enters Monday's game with a record of 0-10 ... the Penguins are 0-3 in home games, 0-4 on the road and 0-3 in neutral-site contests ... YSU's last game was a 94-58 loss at Saint Francis (Pa.) on Thursday (Dec. 17) ... the team's home games have come against Kent State, Canisius and Pittsburgh ... a total of just eight players have seen action for the Penguins this year to date ... seven of those eight are averaging at least 18.2 minutes per game ... junior guard Bojana Dimitrov leads the team with 14.3 points per game, and also has 3.3 rebounds per contest ... she has hit nearly half of the team's three-pointers this year, having made 19 of the Penguins' 41 triples ... freshman forward Brandi Brown also is scoring in double digits, with 10.6 ppg, and has a team-leading 9.2 rpg ... Brown is shooting a team-best .462 from the field this year ... sophomore guard Macey Nortey has 9.6 ppg and a team-leading 4.5 assists per outing ... Brown and Nortey have started all 10 games, while sophomore guard Kenya Middlebrooks (8.1 ppg) and senior forward Rachael Manuel (7.4 ppg, 5.2 rpg) each have started nine contests ... Dimitrov has made eight starts, including each of the last two games after missing the prior two due to injury ... head coach Cindy Martin returned five letterwinners, including one starter (Nortey), from last year's team that finished 3-27 overall and 1-17 in Horizon League action ... Martin has a record of 3-37 in her second season in Youngstown, and is 73-60 in her fifth year as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is YSUsports.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Youngstown State, 12-10, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU has won the last two meetings ... both of those games, however, were played at venerable Anderson Arena, including a 94-61 win a year and two weeks ago (Dec. 6, 2008) ... the Penguins won the teams' last matchup at the Beeghly Center, with a 79-67 win six years ago (Nov. 22, 2003) ... the Penguins hold a 5-4 advantage in games played in Youngstown ... as mentioned, Curt Miller's first collegiate head-coaching victory came at the Beeghly Center, a 71-61 triumph on Nov. 17, 2001 ... Miller has a record of 3-2 against the Penguins.
HOLDING THEM UNDER 50
The Falcons held Canisius to just 42 points in Saturday afternoon's win ... that marked the 34th time that a Curt Miller-coached BGSU squad had held the opponent to fewer than 50 points ... Miller has been the Falcons' coach for eight years and 10 games ... prior to his arrival in Northwest Ohio, it had taken 22 seasons to amass 30 such games ... BG teams held the opponents to under 50 points 30 times from 1979-80 to 2000-01.
HOLDING THEM UNDER 50, PART II
Canisius was the third opponent in 2009-10, and the second in a three-game span, to be held to fewer than 50 points by the BGSU defense ... the Falcons held only three teams to under 50 points during all of last season.
WHAT A LONG STRANGE (BUNCH OF) TRIP(S) IT'S BEEN
The Falcons' games this weekend, at Canisius and Youngstown State, conclude a season-long five-game road swing ... BGSU is 3-1 during that stretch, with wins at nationally-ranked Vanderbilt, Detroit and Canisius, and the loss at Saint Bonaventure ... BG will have played eight of the season's first 11 games on the road by the time the Falcons finally return home to prepare for Wednesday's (Dec. 23) game vs. Appalachian State ... currently, the Falcons have played as many games in the state of New York as in venerable Anderson Arena.
THREE-MENDOUS
A pair of juniors are moving up the BGSU career list for three-point field goals made ... Lauren Prochaska hit three triples in the win at Canisius, moving into a tie for fourth on that list ... with 170 long-range makes in her career to date, she is just three shy of second place ... classmate Tracy Pontius, in just her second year as a starter, has moved into 10th place on that list ... Pontius also hit three triples at Canisius, and has made 110 in her career.
A SCHOOL RECORD? WE MAY NEVER KNOW
Falcon head coach Curt Miller has played a total of 15 different players on three occasions this season to date, the wins over UNC Greensboro (Nov. 27), Detroit (Dec. 9) and Canisius (Dec. 19) ... that total is the highest in over 25 years ... none of Miller's first eight teams at BGSU had more than 14 players on the active roster ... the last team to have as many as 15 players see action in a season was the 1985-86 squad ... the '84-85 Falcons also had 15 players, while the 1983-84 team – like the 2009-10 team – had 16 players who saw action in at least one game ... tragically, single-game information from the glorious decade of the 1980s is sketchy at best.
FREE-THROW SHOOTING HAS BEEN A STRENGTH
The Falcons are shooting .793 from the field this season, continuing a trend of success from the stripe ... last year, BGSU had a school-record free-throw percentage of .794, a rate that ranked fourth in the nation and was the 15th-highest figure in NCAA Division-I history.
FREE-THROW SHOOTING, PART II
Junior Lauren Prochaska, slowed by illness in the early stages of the 2009-10 season, still is shooting .860 from the free-throw line this year to date ... last season, Prochaska led the nation with a .933 success rate from the stripe ... that was the 11th-best single-season performance in NCAA Division-I history ... Prochaska was 167-of-179 from the line last year ... none of the 10 players listed above her on that list had attempted more than 118 free throws.
BOARDWORK
Last season, the Falcons had more rebounds than the opponent just 13 times in 34 games ... this year, BGSU has outrebounded the opposition eight times in 10 games, including in seven of the last eight contests ... BG has a +2.4 rebounding margin ... when outrebounding opponents, the Falcons are 109-11 in the Curt Miller Era, including 89-4 in the last five-plus seasons (since the start of 2004-05).
THE DEFENSE NEVER RESTS
The Falcons are allowing opponents to shoot just .390 from the field this year ... BGSU has turned up the heat on the opposition in crunch time in several recent games ... the BG defense forced Vanderbilt to go 0-for-8 from the field in the final minutes of the Falcons' win in Nashville, then pressured Detroit into missing its final nine field-goal attempts ... Vandy took the lead for the first and only time with a layup at the 3:25 mark, but the then-#14/16 Commodores would not make another shot as BG went on a game-ending 8-1 run ... then, after Detroit got within nine points with 6:17 left, the Falcons allowed only three last-minute free throws the rest of the way ... on Saturday, after allowing Canisius to go 3-for-3 from the field to begin the game, the Falcon D held the Griffs to a 4-of-18 performance over the remainder of the first half ... Canisius scored eight points in the game's first 1:54, then had just 10 points over the last 18-plus minutes before halftime ... in fact, the Griffs would score only 28 points in a span of nearly 34-and-a-half minutes ... CC shot just .298 from the floor on the day.
THE FALCON SENIORS
Fourth-year Falcons Tara Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper have helped the Brown and Orange average 28.7 wins per season since arriving on campus ... that trio has been a part of the two winningest teams in program history, as well as four of the five national postseason wins in BG annals ... BGSU has gone 93-20 overall and 43-5 in MAC regular-season action since Breske, Bugher and Clapper came to the school ... Tamika Nurse, a fifth-year senior, is in her first playing season after sitting out last year as a transfer from the Univ. of Oregon.
THE JUNIORS
BGSU has posted a record of 62-16 overall, and the Falcons are 28-4 in MAC regular-season games since Chelsea Albert, Tracy Pontius, Lauren Prochaska, Jen Uhl and Kelly Zuercher set foot on campus ... that is an average of 27.5 wins per year through the first two seasons ... the Falcons have played national postseason tournament games at Anderson Arena in each year, beating Dayton in the '08 WNIT and facing Syracuse and Indiana in that tourney at home in 2009 ... Maggie Hennegan joined that group for the 2009-10 season ... Hennegan sat out last season as a transfer after playing two years at Saint Louis Univ.
THE SOPHOMORES
Maribeth Giese and Jessica Slagle helped the Brown and Orange to 29 wins – the second-highest total in MAC history – along with a school-record 25-game winning streak in their first year in BG ... the Falcons are 36-8 since the duo arrived in Northwest Ohio ... Danielle Havel is a member of the sophomore class, but will sit out the 2009-10 season after transferring from DePaul Univ.
THE FRESHMEN
Four freshmen joined the Falcons for the 2009-10 season ... that list includes Simone Eli (Genoa, Ohio/Genoa), Allison Papenfuss (Whitehouse, Ohio/Anthony Wayne), Chrissy Steffen (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) and Jessie Tamerlano (North Royalton, Ohio/North Royalton).
CAPTAINS
Seniors Tara Breske and Sarah Clapper and redshirt junior Maggie Hennegan are the captains of the 2009-10 Falcons ... Breske is a captain for the second consecutive year ... the captains earned that distinction in a vote of their teammates ... the award is particularly impressive in Hennegan's case, as she was chosen as a captain before ever playing her first game as a Falcon.
Amy Velasco, Lexi Fleming, & Coach Chmiel Postgame Interview (Mar. 5, 2025)
Thursday, March 06
Paige Kohler, Coach Chmiel, & Amy Velasco Postgame Interview (Feb. 26, 2025)
Thursday, February 27
In the Paint: Lexxus Graham-Blincoe
Wednesday, February 26
Erika Porter, Amy Velasco, & Coach Chmiel Postgame Interview (Feb. 22, 2025)
Sunday, February 23