Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host Toledo Thursday
February 11, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 11, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) -
BGSU vs. TOLEDO
Thursday, February 12, 2009 • 7:00 p.m.Anderson Arena (3,500) • Bowling Green, Ohio
RECORDS: BGSU 20-2 (9-0 MAC) // Toledo 13-9 (7-2 MAC)
RADIO: WBGU-FM 88.1 - Mike Castellano and Brian Fisher
TELEVISION: BCSN - Todd Hostetler and Mark Ehlen
SERIES: BGSU leads, 38-25 // STREAK: BGSU - 10
LAST MEETING: BGSU 71, at Toledo 41 (Feb. 2, 2008)
BGSU's comprehensive 43-page game-notes extravaganza in PDF Format
THE GAME
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, currently leading the Mid-American Conference's East Division by four games, returns home for the next two games ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller conclude cross-divisional play with this week's two contests, beginning with a Thursday (Feb. 12) tilt against the University of Toledo ... tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena (3,500) ... the UT contest is the fifth of six consecutive games against West Division foes for the Brown and Orange.
FALCONS FACE THE MAC WEST LEADERS, AGAIN
• Thursday marks the third time in four games that the Falcons face a team sitting atop the MAC's West Division ... Toledo is currently 7-2 in conference action, tied with Ball State for the divisional lead.
• Northern Illinois was deadlocked with BSU and UT at the top of the West, before the Falcons ventured to DeKalb and pulled out an overtime win a week ago Saturday (Jan. 31).
• BSU had a one-game lead on the Rockets and Huskies heading into last Tuesday (Feb. 3), before the Brown and Orange downed the Cardinals by a 76-67 count.
• A slightly-related note: through two-thirds of the MAC's cross-divisional games, the East Division holds a slim 13-11 lead over the West ... the Falcons are 4-0 against the West Division this year to date.
20 AGAIN: BG REACHES MILESTONE FOR SIXTH-STRAIGHT YEAR
The Falcons have won 20 games for the sixth consecutive year, a school record ... prior to the current run, the longest such streak was four-straight seasons, by the Fran Voll-coached teams of the late 1980s ... the MAC record is seven consecutive 20-win seasons, set by Kent State from 1995-96 to 2001-02 ...
MOST CONSECUTIVE 20-WIN SEASONS, MAC TEAMS
7 -- Kent State -- 1995-96 to 2001-02
6 -- BOWLING GREEN -- 2003-04 to present
6 -- Toledo -- 1993-94 to 1998-99
4 -- BOWLING GREEN -- 1986-87 to 1989-90
4 -- Toledo -- 1988-89 to 1991-92
BGSU MOVES TO THE TOP OF THIS LIST
The Falcons have won 20 games for the 14th time in school history, the most of any MAC school ... only Toledo (13) and Kent State (11) have posted 20 or more wins, 10 or more times ...
MOST 20-WIN SEASONS, MAC TEAMS
(as a member of the MAC)
14 -- BOWLING GREEN -- 87-88-89-90-92-93-94-98-04-05-06-07-08-09
13 -- Toledo -- 83-89-90-91-92-94-95-96-97-98-99-01-03
11 -- Kent State -- 93-94-96-97-98-99-00-01-02-05-06
5 -- Miami -- 82-83-90-04-08
3 -- Ball State -- 02-03-07
3 -- Central Michigan -- 83-84-91
3 -- Eastern Michigan -- 04-05-06
3 -- Ohio -- 86-95-08
1 -- Western Michigan
FALCONS ARE STREAKY
BGSU enters Thursday's game vs. Toledo with several lengthy streaks on the line ... the Falcons have won ...
• 20 consecutive overall games since a Nov. 19 loss at Valparaiso;
• 15-straight games at Anderson Arena;
• 18 consecutive MAC regular-season games;
• 10 games in a row vs. Toledo; and
• 10 consecutive contests in the month of February.
FALCONS ARE STREAKY II
• The Falcons are on a lengthy winning streak, having won 20 consecutive games ... BGSU also has win streaks against all 11 of the other MAC schools, after Saturday's (Feb. 7) victory at Western Michigan.
• The Falcons lost a total of four games to conference foes last year, with three regular-season losses (to Miami, Ball State and WMU), and a setback in the semifinal round of the Kraft MAC Tournament (to Ohio in double overtime) ... BG has avenged all four of those losses this season, with wins over the Bobcats, RedHawks, Cardinals and Broncos.
• Since last year's loss to Western, the Falcons have won 29 of 31 regular-season games, including 18-straight contests in MAC play.
ATOP THE MAC: BG IS 9-0
• The Falcons have started MAC play with a 9-0 record for the fifth time in school history, and the third time in the last four seasons ... BGSU's 1986-87, 1988-89, 2005-06 and 2006-07 teams all won the first nine MAC games of the year ... the first three teams went a perfect 16-0 in league regular-season play, while the '06-07 team finished 15-1 in the MAC en route to the NCAA's 'Sweet Sixteen.'
• Entering midweek action (there are five MAC games on Wednesday, prior to the BG-UT game the next evening), the Falcons hold a four-game lead in the MAC's East Division race ... BGSU is 9-0 in league play, followed by Kent State and Miami at 5-4 ... in the West, Ball State and Toledo are tied atop the division with identical 7-2 marks.
BGSU PUTS WINNING STREAK ON THE LINE
The Falcons have won 20 consecutive contests, tied for the second-longest streak in school history, heading into Thursday's UT game ... the school record is 21-straight wins ... 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' 20-game winning streak is the second-longest active streak in the nation ... only Connecticut is ahead of the Falcons on that list, which can be found in the PDF version of these notes.
HOME STREAK IS PRETTY LENGTHY, TOO
BGSU has a 14-game home winning streak, which also ranks among the longest in the nation ... the Falcons won the last five contests of 2007-08 at venerable Anderson Arena, and BG has begun the '08-09 campaign with nine-straight wins at 'The House That Roars.'
BG-UT GAMES HAVE HAD THE HOUSE ROARING
The last two BG-UT games at Anderson Arena have been entertaining, to say the least ... in the teams' 2007 meeting, the Rockets entered the game with a 3-5 MAC record, but led undefeated BGSU for exactly 30 of the 40 minutes, before a late run gave the Falcons a 73-62 win (Feb. 4, 2007) ... four years ago (Feb. 26, 2005), the Rockets took the lead with 6:44 left, and BG trailed by six points with just over a minute left ... the Falcons regained the lead for good on a three-point play by Kelly Kapferer with just 9.1 seconds left ... the 72-71 win clinched the MAC's best regular-season record for the Falcons, who went on to win the first of three-straight MAC Tournament titles.
A WINNING MAC RECORD
With a 9-0 MAC record and seven regular-season games to play, the Falcons have clinched a winning record in conference action for the sixth consecutive year ... the school record is nine consecutive winning records in MAC play, from 1985-86 through 1993-94 ... Fran Voll was the head coach for the first six years of that streak, with Jaci Clark at the helm for the latter three.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 20-2 on the season ... after opening the year with road losses against Temple and Valparaiso, BGSU has won 20-straight games heading into Thursday's Toledo 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 downed Kent State and Ohio on the road, and swept a three-game homestand with wins over Miami, Akron and Buffalo ... the Falcons began cross-divisional play with a win at Eastern Michigan (Jan. 24), before posting back-to-back victories against two of the division's co-leaders, Northern Illinois (76-70 in overtime; Jan. 31) and Ball State (76-67; Feb. 3) ... on Saturday (Feb. 7), the Brown and Orange battled through a second OT game in the last three contests, posting a 79-77 win at Western Michigan.
• The Falcons are 9-0 at home, 9-2 on the road and 2-0 in neutral-site games ... BG won two tournaments, the UNCG Marriott Classic and the Dayton Flyer Classic, during the non-league portion of the schedule ... in between, the Falcons had a 4-0 December homestand, winning the first two games by a combined 63 points, over Detroit and Youngstown State, then downing St. Bonaventure and Hartford ... at the Dayton tourney, the Falcons topped Gardner-Webb and the host Flyers to win the title ... BGSU closed the non-league slate and opened the 2009 calendar year with a win at SIU Edwardsville (Jan. 2), just prior to the MAC schedule ... senior Lindsey Goldsberry, junior Tara Breske and sophomores Tracy Pontius and Lauren Prochaska each have started all 22 games this season to date ... junior Niki McCoy started the first 21 games of the year ... McCoy is currently suspended, and sophomore Jen Uhl took her place in the starting lineup at WMU.
• Prochaska leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, with 17.2 points and 6.1 boards per contest ... she has had eight games of 20 points or more, including a 27-point game at WMU, and has been named MAC Player of the Week four times this season ... Prochaska leads the nation in free-throw percentage (95.0%; 95-of-100) ... Pontius, who exploded for a career-high 31 points at NIU, is second on the team with 13.6 ppg ... Pontius, named the MAC P-O-W last week (Feb. 1), leads the Falcons in assists, with 4.0 per game, and is second in steals (1.7 spg) ... she leads the entire MAC in assist/turnover ratio (1.75) ... McCoy, named the MAC P-O-W on Jan. 5, also has 13.6 ppg, and ranks third with 5.6 rpg ... she surpassed the 1,000-point mark for her career in the NIU game ... Breske and freshman Jessica Slagle have 6.9 and 6.0 ppg, respectively ... Breske, after pulling down a career-high 14 rebounds at WMU, has 6.0 rpg to rank second on the team in that category ... she tops BG in blocks (1.2 bpg) and is third in steals ... Goldsberry has 5.6 ppg ... she leads the Falcons in steals (1.9 spg) and is second in assists (2.2 apg) ... she also has an impressive assist/TO ratio of 2.09, but falls shy of the minimum number of assists to qualify for the league leaders.
• The Falcons are shooting 43.5% from the field over the first 22 games ... BG has a three-point FG pct. of 36.2%, with 7.1 triples made per game, and is shooting 79.4% from the free-throw line ... the opponents are shooting 38.2% from the floor, 33.2% from long range and 66.2% from the stripe ... the Falcons have 35.9 rebounds per game to the opponents' 38.5 ... BG has turned the ball over 15.3 times per game, but has forced the opponents into 19.5 per outing.
• The Falcons have made almost twice as many free throws (421) as the opponents (232) ... in fact, BGSU has made over 70 more FTs than the foes have attempted (349).
• 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 Pontius, Uhl and Chelsea Albert 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
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska scored six of BGSU's seven points in overtime as the Falcons rallied for a 79-77 win at Western Michigan Saturday afternoon (Feb. 7) ... before a crowd in excess of 2,000 fans and a national TV viewing audience, Prochaska scored 27 points to pace four BGSU double-digit scorers ... sophomore Tracy Pontius had 14 points, while junior Tara Breske and soph Jen Uhl scored 11 apiece ... Breske had a double-double, with her game- and career-high 14 rebounds including eight at the offensive end ... Tiera DeLaHoussaye had 18 points to lead five WMU players in double figures ... Uhl, making her first collegiate start, tied her season scoring best and matched her career rebounding mark, with nine ... the Falcons trailed by five points with 4:30 remaining in regulation, but rallied to tie the score on a Pontius layup with a minute left ... after Western took the lead, another Pontius layup tied the score at 72-72 ... DeLaHoussaye missed a short jumper in the final seconds, and the Broncos saw several follow-up tries miss the mark as well, sending the game to overtime ... in that OT, Prochaska hit a jumper to give BG the lead, 75-74, with a minute left ... Ebony Cleary split a pair of free throws, and BG turned the ball over ... but, pressure by senior Lindsey Goldsberry led to a Prochaska steal ... the soph was fouled and made both of her FT attempts, giving the Falcons a 77-75 lead wth 15.2 seconds left ... Uhl came up with a steal, and two more Prochaska FTs with 6.3 seconds left sealed the deal.
SCOUTING UT
Toledo enters Thursday's Bowling Green game with a record of 13-9, and the Rockets are 7-2 in MAC play ... UT, tied for first place in the MAC's West Division, already has topped last year's conference win total, and the Rockets are just one win shy of matching last season's overall victory total ... Toledo has won nine of 11 games since Christmas ... UT is 3-7 in road games this year, but 3-2 in MAC contests away from home ... the Rockets are led in scoring by a pair of newcomers ... junior transfer Tanika Mays leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, with 12.5 points and 7.1 rebounds per game ... Mays, a forward, is in her first playing season for the Rockets after coming to NW Ohio from IUPUI ... she is the reigning MAC West Player of the Week ... freshman point guard Naama Shafir has 10.9 points and a team-leading 4.4 assists per game ... sophomore guard Jessica Williams and junior forward Allie Clifton are averaging 9.8 and 9.7 ppg, respectively ... Williams is second on the club with 2.7 assists per outing, while Clifton has 5.9 boards per game to rank second in that category ... junior forward Lisa Johnson and sophomore forward Melissa Goodall have 8.2 and 7.1 ppg, respectively ... Shafir is the lone player to have started all 22 games for head coach Tricia Cullop, while Mays has made 21 starts and Williams 19 ... Clifton has made 16 starts ... Goodall has joined that quartet in the starting lineup in each of the last five games ... Cullop inherited six letterwinners, including two starters, from last year's club that finished 14-16 overall and 5-10 in MAC action ... Cullop, in her first season with the Rockets, has a record of 136-119 in her ninth season as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is www.utrockets.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Toledo, 38-25, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU has won 10 consecutive meetings between the arch rivals ... last season, the Falcons made the short trip north and recorded a 71-41 win over the Rockets at then-Savage Hall (Feb. 2, 2008) ... that lopsided margin has been the exception, not the rule, in the teams' recent games, however ... two years ago (Feb. 4, 2007), in the last meeting at venerable Anderson Arena, the Falcons had to rally from a 15-point deficit before pulling out a 73-62 win ... BG also battled back from 15 points down in the teams' 2005-06 meeting, and the Falcons outscored the Rockets by a point in regulation in the two 2004-05 games, with a 72-71 home win and an overtime triumph at UT ... BGSU is 19-7 in home games vs. the Rockets, and the Falcons have won five consecutive games against the Midnight Blue and Gold at Anderson Arena ... prior to BG's current 10-game overall streak, Toledo had won three-straight meetings and seven-of-eight games over the Falcons ... Curt Miller has a record of 10-2 vs. the Rockets during his head-coaching tenure.
THE FALCONS VS. THE MAC
The Falcons have a proud history in the MAC ... BG enters Thursday's game vs. Toledo with an overall league record of 315-139 (69.4%), 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 ... and, after Saturday's (Feb. 7) win at Western Michigan, BG now has a current winning streak against each of the other 11 teams as well.
McCOY SUSPENDED
Junior Niki McCoy has been suspended for three games for violation of team rules, head coach Curt Miller announced ... McCoy started each of the team's first 21 games this season, and is averaging 13.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game ... she missed Saturday's (Feb. 7) game at Western Michigan, and also will sit out the Toledo (Feb. 12) and Central Michigan (Feb. 15) games.
UHL BE SWELL, UHL BE GREAT... *
Sophomore Jen Uhl made the first start of her collegiate career in Saturday's (Feb. 7) win at Western Michigan, and made the most of the opportunity ... the Wadsworth, Ohio, native just missed recording a double-double, tying her season best with 11 points, and matching her career high with nine rebounds ... for good measure, Uhl led the team in assists, with a career-high four helpers, and also picked up two steals, including one in the final seconds of overtime with the Falcons hanging on to a two-point lead ... Uhl is averaging 4.3 points and 3.5 rebounds this year, and has 5.7 ppg and 3.7 rpg in MAC play.
TAKE SOME, THEY'RE FREE
BGSU shot a season-best 94.1 percent from the free-throw line in the win over Ball State, shredding the nets with 32 makes in 34 attempts ... then, at Western Michigan, the Brown and Orange shot 'only' 81.0%, going 17-of-21 ... on the year, the Falcons are shooting 79.4% (421-530) from the free-throw line, ranking fifth in the nation ... BG is 83.7% (190-227) in MAC games.
TAKE SOME MORE, THEY'RE FREE
The Western Michigan game marked the 21st time in 22 games this year that the Falcons have made more free throws than the opponent ... in fact, BGSU has made more free throws than the opposition has attempted in 16 of those games, with those totals being equal in one other game.
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, Feb. 8), Prochaska leads all of Division I with a free-throw percentage of 95.0% ... after going a perfect 9-for-9 vs. WMU, she has made 95 of her 100 shots from the line, including each of her last 38 ... Prochaska also ranks among the nation's leaders in three-point field-goal pct. (24th), three-pointers per game (40th) and scoring (51st).
ROAD WARRIORS
The Falcons, after the win over Western Michigan Saturday (Feb. 7), are now 28-1 in MAC road games over the last three-plus years ... the only loss during that time came in last season's trip to Ball State (a 68-47 BSU win on Jan. 26, 2008) ... prior to that, BGSU had not lost in a hostile MAC venue since Feb. 19, 2005 (57-52 at EMU).
THE FALCONS ARE ...
• 170-70 since Curt Miller took the BGSU helm in May of 2001;
• 88-33 in MAC games in that time:
• 161-51 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);
• 149-35 over the last five-plus years, with 2008-09 marking BG's sixth-straight season of at least 20 wins;
• a staggering 128-25 in the past four-plus years, with no fewer than 23 wins in each year (20 this year, obviously) and a MAC regular-season title in every season;
• an eye-popping 105-17 overall and 53-4 in the MAC regular season in the last three-plus years, since senior Lindsey Goldsberry ventured to Northwest Ohio;
• 77-14 in the last two-plus years, including a 37-4 conference ledger, since juniors Tara Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper joined the program;
• 46-10 overall, and 22-3 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;
• 66-5 in the last 71 games vs. MAC opponents (including regular-season and tourney games);
• 32-4 in MAC home games in the last four-plus seasons;
• 28-1 in MAC road games over the last three-plus years (with the lone loss during that time coming last season at Ball State);
• 10-1 in the MAC Tournament over the last four years, with three titles (2005, '06 and '07) and a trip to the semifinals in 2008;
• 22-2 in non-conference home games since the start of the 2003-04 season;
• 18-1 against non-league opposition at Anderson Arena since November of 2004;
• 6-6 in games played on February 12 in program history;
• 3-3 in home games on that date; and
• 1-1 on Feb. 12 in the Curt Miller Era, with both games having come on the road (a 72-60 loss at Buffalo in 2003, and a 61-52 victory at Akron two years later).
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 105-17 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.
LO IS A HIGH SCORER
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska has scored 880 career points in a BG uniform ... she has broken into the top-30 in scoring in school history, and moved past Traci Gorman (870 points from 1987-91) into 29th place in the WMU game ... Prochaska's next target is 28th-place Dee Knoblauch (885 points from 1979-83), and she needs only 23 more points to move up four spots into 25th place.
HIGH-SCORING SOPHOMORE
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska leads the team in scoring this season ... this scoring success is nothing new for the Plain City, Ohio, native ... Prochaska, after just 56 career games, already has 880 points at BGSU ... she is averaging 15.7 points per game in her career, ranking her second in career ppg in BGSU history behind only the legendary Jackie Motycka, the school's all-time leading scorer (2,122 pts.; 18.1 ppg from 1985-89) ... on the season, Prochaska has 17.2 ppg overall, ranking her third in the league ... in MAC games only, she leads the entire conference with 19.1 ppg.
MAKE THAT TWO HIGH-SCORING SOPHOMORES
In addition to Prochaska, classmate Tracy Pontius has scored her share of points this winter ... Pontius is second on the team in scoring, with 13.6 points per game ... she has averaged 15.6 ppg in the eight MAC games, ranking ninth in the league ... Pontius has a total of 299 points this season after scoring 96 as a freshman.
MILLER MOVING UP
The Falcons' recent wins have enabled head coach Curt Miller to move up on a pair of lists ... after the win over Western Michigan, Miller now has 170 total wins at BGSU, ranking him sixth all time ... Miller now has 88 wins in MAC regular-season play, ranking ninth on that list ... the complete lists can be found later in this release.
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.
CAPTAINS
Senior Lindsey Goldsberry and junior Tara Breske are the co-captains of the 2008-09 women's basketball Falcons.
