Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host Ball State Tuesday Night
February 02, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 2, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) -
BGSU vs. BALL STATE
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 • 7:00 p.m.Anderson Arena (3,500) • Bowling Green, Ohio
RECORDS: BGSU 18-2 (7-0 MAC) // Ball State 14-7 (6-1 MAC)
RADIO: WBGU-FM 88.1 - Alex Mikos and Pat Dougherty
TELEVISION: BCSN - Todd Hostetler and Mark Ehlen
SERIES: BGSU leads, 38-13 // STREAK: Ball State - 1
LAST MEETING: at Ball State 68, BGSU 47 (Jan. 26, 2008)
* BGSU Game Notes in PDF Format
Coach Miller Previews the Ball State game
* BGSU's Pontius Named MAC Player of the Week
THE GAME
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, currently leading the Mid-American Conference's East Division by three games, will begin the month of February with a matchup against the team atop the MAC West ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller are home for three of the next four games, starting with a Tuesday (Feb. 3) tilt vs. Ball State University ... tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena (3,500) ... the BSU contest is the third of six consecutive cross-divisional games for the Brown and Orange.
BGSU-BALL STATE: RANDOM FACTS
• The last BGSU-Ball State meeting in Anderson Arena was also a battle of division leaders ... two years ago, the nationally-ranked Falcons were 9-0 in the MAC when the 8-1 Cardinals came to town (Feb. 7, 2007) ... the teams had a combined overall record of 37-5 ... the #16/18 Falcons posted an 86-76 win that night, and would go on to down the Cards in the championship game of the Kraft MAC Tournament in downtown Cleveland later that season.
• Last season, the Cardinals dealt the Falcons a 68-47 setback in Muncie (Jan. 26, 2008) ... that stands as the team's only loss in a hostile MAC venue in the last three-plus years ... BG is 27-1 in MAC road games in that time.
• That game also is the Falcons' only double-digit loss to a MAC team - home, road or neutral site - in exactly five years, since a 92-81 setback at Miami (Feb. 3, 2004).
McCOY SURPASSES 1,000 POINTS
Junior Niki McCoy has reached a career milestone ... after scoring a game-high 18 points in the win at Eastern Michigan, she had eight points at Northern Illinois Saturday (Jan. 31) ... her first hoop of the NIU game, a three-point field goal with 7:37 remaining in the first half, put her over the 1,000-point mark ... McCoy, in her first playing season after transferring from Akron, now has a career total of 1,006 points in 74 games ... she scored 735 points in two seasons with the Zips before coming to BGSU and sitting out last season.
FALCONS 7-0 IN MAC PLAY
The Falcons have started MAC play with a 7-0 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 seven 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.'
BGSU PUTS WINNING STREAK ON THE LINE
The Falcons have won 18 consecutive contests, tied for the fifth-longest streak in school history, heading into Tuesday's BSU game ... the current run marks the eighth double-digit win streak in BG annals, and the fourth in as many years ...
STREAK IS ONE OF LONGEST IN NATION
The Falcons' 18-game winning streak is the second-longest active streak in the nation ... Auburn's loss at Georgia Thursday night (Jan. 29) snapped the Tigers' streak at 20 wins ... currently, only Connecticut is ahead of the Falcons on that list.
HOME STREAK, TOO
BGSU has a 13-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 eight-straight wins at 'The House That Roars' ... all of the aforementioned lists -- BGSU's winning streaks, nation's active winning streaks, homecourt winning streaks -- can be found in the PDF version of these notes.
ATOP THE MAC
Entering Tuesday night's Ball State game, the Falcons hold a three-game lead in the MAC's East Division race ... BGSU is 7-0 in league play, followed by Kent State at 4-3 ... Miami, Ohio and Akron all have 3-4 conference records ... BG's win over Northern Illinois Saturday knocked the Huskies out of first place in the West ... Toledo also lost on Saturday, while Ball State picked up a win over MU ... the Cardinals are alone in first place in the West, with a 6-1 conference record, with NIU and UT a game back ... the Falcons are in the midst of a four-game stretch in which BG plays all three of those teams at the top of the West.
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. 1), Prochaska led all of Division I with a free-throw percentage of 94.2% ... she has made 81 of her 86 shots from the line ... heading into the NIU game, Prochaska also ranked among the nation's top-50 individuals in three-point field-goal pct. (18th, 43.0%) and three-pointers per game (47th; 2.4), and she was 51st in the country in scoring (17.2 ppg).
HIGH-SCORING TANDEM
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska and junior Niki McCoy rank 1-2 on the team in scoring this season ... this scoring success is nothing new for either player ... Prochaska, after just 54 career games, already has 842 points at BGSU ... McCoy, in her first playing season after transferring from Akron, has a career total of 1,006 points in 74 games, as mentioned ... Prochaska has 340 points in 20 games this season, while McCoy has scored 271.
MAKE THAT A HIGH-SCORING TRIO
In addition to Prochaska and McCoy, sophomore Tracy Pontius has scored her share of points this winter ... Pontius gives the Falcons three players in double digits, with 12.6 points per game ... she has averaged 15.9 ppg in the seven MAC games, and has a total of 270 points this season after scoring 96 as a freshman.
WELCOME HOME
Sophomore Tracy Pontius, a native of Morton, Ill., exploded for 31 points in the Falcons' 76-70 win at Northern Illinois Saturday (Jan. 31) ... Pontius scored BG's last eight points in regulation, including a layup in the final minute and a three-point field goal to give the Falcons a one-point lead with 18.0 seconds left ... the 31-point total was a career high, surpassing her old mark of 22 (vs. Youngstown State; Dec. 6) ... Pontius now has 15 games of double-digit point totals this year and 16 in her career.
WORKING OVERTIME
Saturday's (Jan. 31) Northern Illinois contest marked the Falcons' first overtime game of the year, and the team's first OT contest since the semifinal round of last year's MAC Tournament ... BG lost to Ohio in double-OT in downtown Cleveland (March 14, 2008) ... the NIU game was the Falcons' first overtime win in over four years, snapping a four-game losing streak in such contests ... BGSU's last OT win had come on Jan. 15, 2005, at Toledo.
ROAD WARRIORS
The Falcons, after the win over Northern Illinois, are now 27-1 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, BG had not lost in a hostile MAC venue since Feb. 19, 2005 (57-52 at EMU).
TAKE SOME, THEY'RE FREE
BGSU shot 'only' 73.7 percent from the free-throw line in the win at NIU, making 14 tosses in 19 tries ... on the year, BGSU is shooting 78.3% (372-475) from the free-throw line, and 82.0% (141-172) in MAC games.
TAKE SOME MORE, THEY'RE FREE
The Northern Illinois game marked the 19th time in 20 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 15 of those games, with those totals being equal in one other game.
PHASE TWO UNDERWAY
The 2008-09 season is the fourth utilizing the current MAC scheduling format ... each school plays 16 games, opening conference play with five intra-divisional games ... that stretch is followed by six cross-divisional contests, and five more in-division games to close the regular season ... so, BGSU plays five games vs. East Division foes to begin and end the season, with six games vs. the West in the middle of the schedule ... the Falcons had a 5-0 MAC start for the third time in the last four years, and BG has won two games to begin play vs. the West.
MILLER MOVING UP
The Falcons' recent wins have enabled head coach Curt Miller to move up on a pair of lists ... after the win at Northern Illinois, Miller now has 168 total wins at BGSU, ranking him sixth all time ... Miller now has 86 wins in MAC regular-season play, ranking ninth on that list.
SATURDAY'S GAME AT WMU TO AIR NATIONALLY ON ESPNU
The Falcons will get the chance to play in front of a national audience on Saturday (Feb. 7) ... BGSU's game at Western Michigan that afternoon will be televised nationally by ESPNU ... tipoff time has been moved to 12:00 p.m. at WMU's University Arena ... this is believed to be the first time a BGSU regular-season women's basketball game will be broadcast to a national audience ... the Falcons have had several NCAA Tournament games aired nationally, with the most recent being the 'Sweet Sixteen' game vs. Arizona State in the 2007 NCAA Championships.
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.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 18-2 on the season ... after opening the year with road losses against Temple and Valparaiso, BGSU has won 18-straight games heading into Tuesday's Ball State contest ... BG won 11 non-conference games for the third consecutive year, then went 5-0 in the first round-robin swing through the MAC's East Division ... BG opened MAC play with road wins over Kent State (Jan. 7) and Ohio (Jan. 10), and then swept a three-game homestand, downing Miami (87-79; Jan. 14), Akron (80-51; Jan. 17) and Buffalo (75-52; Jan. 21) ... the Falcons began cross-divisional play with a 69-55 win at Eastern Michigan (Jan. 24), before posting a 76-70 victory in overtime at Northern Illinois Saturday (Jan. 31).
• The Falcons are 8-0 at home, 8-2 on the road and 2-0 in neutral-site games ... BG won two tournaments, the UNCG Marriott Classic and the Dayton Flyer Classic ... in between, the Falcons had a 4-0 homestand, winning the first two games by a combined 63 points, over Detroit and Youngstown State ... then, BG beat St. Bonaventure and Hartford to complete the homestand ... at the Dayton tourney, the Falcons topped Gardner-Webb (Dec. 28) and the host Flyers (Dec. 29) to win the title ... BGSU closed the non-league slate and opened the 2009 calendar year with a win at SIU Edwardsville (Jan. 2), prior to the MAC schedule ... senior Lindsey Goldsberry, juniors Niki McCoy and Tara Breske and sophomores Tracy Pontius and Lauren Prochaska each have started all 20 games this season to date.
• Prochaska leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, with 17.0 points and 6.0 boards per contest ... she has had seven games of 20 points or more, including a 32-point game vs. Miami, and has been named MAC Player of the Week four times this season ... Prochaska leads the nation in free-throw percentage (94.2%; 81-of-86) ... McCoy, named the MAC P-O-W on Jan. 5, is second on the team with 13.6 ppg and 5.7 rpg ... McCoy surpassed the 1,000-point mark for her career in the NIU game ... Pontius, on the strength of a 31-point outburst at NIU, is now averaging 13.5 ppg, while Breske has 6.7 ppg ... Pontius leads the Falcons in assists, with 4.0 per game, and is second on the team in steals (1.8 spg) ... Breske has 5.7 rpg to tie McCoy for second on the team ... she tops BG in blocks (1.2 bpg) and is third in steals ... freshman Jessica Slagle has 5.9 ppg, while Goldsberry has 5.4 ... Goldsberry leads the Falcons in steals (2.0 spg) and is second in assists (2.4 apg) ... she also has an impressive assist/TO ratio of 2.24.
• The Falcons are shooting 44.0% from the field over the first 20 games ... BG has a three-point FG pct. of 36.5%, with 7.0 triples made per game, and is shooting 78.3% from the free-throw line ... the opponents are shooting 37.5% from the floor, 33.2% from long range and 67.3% from the stripe ... the Falcons have 36.1 rebounds per game to the opponents' 38.0 ... BG has turned the ball over 14.6 times per game, but has forced the opponents into 19.6 per outing.
• The Falcons have made almost twice as many free throws (372) as the opponents (216) ... in fact, BGSU has made over 50 more FTs than the foes have attempted (321).
• The Falcons returned a total of nine letterwinners, including three starters, from last season's team ... the group of returnees combined for 65.9 percent of the scoring and 75.0% of the rebounding from last year's 26-8 team ... BGSU won the MAC's regular-season title for the fourth-straight year, posting a 13-3 conference record ... the Falcons advanced to the semifinals of the MAC Tournament before falling in double OT ... Goldsberry, the team's lone senior, is one of the three returning starters from the '07-08 club ... Breske and Prochaska are the other two.
• Sophs Chelsea Albert, Pontius and Jen Uhl each played in all 34 games last year, with Albert making six starts ... the list of returning letterwinners also includes juniors Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper and sophomore Kelly Zuercher ... McCoy is in her first playing season with the Falcons ... she sat out the 2007-08 season after transferring from Akron.
• Three freshmen joined the Brown and Orange this year ... that group includes Maribeth Giese, Slagle and Victoria McGowan ... two other newcomers have come into the Falcon fold ... transfers Maggie Hennegan (Saint Louis Univ.) and Tamika Nurse (Univ. of Oregon) will sit out this season before joining the active roster in 2009-10 ... Nurse will have one season of eligibility remaining, while Hennegan will have two.
LAST TIME OUT
Sophomore Tracy Pontius scored a career-high 31 points, including 24 after halftime, as the Falcons picked up an 76-70 overtime win at Northern Illinois Saturday (Jan. 31) ... soph Lauren Prochaska and senior Lindsey Goldsberry had 13 and 11 points, respectively ... Pontius hit five three-point field goals, while Prochaska and Goldsberry knocked down three apiece, as the Falcons were 12-of-23 from beyond the arc ... Jessie Wilcox had 19 points to pace four NIU players in double figures on the day ... junior Niki McCoy scored eight points, going over the 1,000-point mark for her career ... Pontius scored BGSU's last eight points of regulation, including a layup and a three-point field goal in the final minute of play ... that second half featured five ties and eight lead changes ... Northern led by six points on three second-half occasions, the last with just 2:43 left ... Pontius went to the line for a one-and-one opportunity with exactly two minutes left, and hit both shots to bring BG within four points ... Pontius hit another free throw with just under a minute left ... a Goldsberry steal, however, led to a Pontius layup with 48.0 seconds remaining ... after Aileen Rossouw split two free-throw tries, giving the hosts a two-point lead, Pontius buried a triple try with just 18.6 seconds left to give the Falcons the lead, 63-62 ... NIU hit a free throw with 10 seconds left to send the game to OT ... Goldsberry hit a triple just six seconds into the extra period, giving BG the lead for good.
SCOUTING BSU
Ball State enters Tuesday's Bowling Green game with a record of 14-7, and the Cardinals are 6-1 in MAC play ... BSU currently leads the West Division, a game ahead of Northern Illinois and Toledo ... the Cards have a three-game winning streak, and BSU has captured seven of the last eight games ... last week, after an 88-80 overtime win over North Dakota (Jan. 27), the Cardinals picked up an 81-66 victory over Miami on Saturday (Jan. 31) ... the team is 3-6 in road games this year and 2-1 in MAC road games to date ... individually, sophomore forward Emily Maggert leads the team in scoring, with 14.0 points per game ... she also has 6.0 rebounds per contest to rank third ... senior guard Porchia Green has 13.3 ppg, while junior forward Danielle Gratton averages 12.3 ppg ... Green has 6.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game to place second on the team in both categories ... Gratton paces the team with 7.0 boards per game ... junior guard Audrey McDonald has 11.6 ppg, and leads the Cards with 60 three-point field goals made ... the team's other starter, senior guard Kiley Jarrett, averages 7.9 points and a team-leading 5.6 assists per game ... all five players are averaging double digits in scoring in conference games ... that quintet has started all 21 games this season for head coach Kelly Packard ... Packard inherited seven letterwinners, including three starters, from last year's club that finished 15-15 overall and 11-5 in MAC action ... Packard is in her first season as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is www.ballstatesports.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Ball State, 38-13, in the all-time series between the teams, but the Cardinals won the last meeting, in a big way ... Ball State posted a 68-47 blowout win over the Falcons in Muncie last season (Jan. 26, 2008), BG's only double-digit loss to a MAC team in the last five years ... that snapped a five-game series winning streak for the Brown and Orange ... the last time the teams met in Anderson Arena, the Falcons posted an 86-76 win two seasons ago (Feb. 7, 2007) ... BGSU is now 21-2 in home games vs. BSU, but the Cardinals had won two-straight games in Anderson prior to that meeting two years ago ... Curt Miller has a record of 5-5 vs. the Cardinals during his head-coaching tenure, making Ball State the only MAC team to have a .500 mark against Miller's Falcon squads.
THE FALCONS VS. THE MAC
The Falcons have a proud history in the MAC ... BG enters Tuesday's game vs. Ball State with an overall league record of 313-139 (69.2%), the best of all conference institutions ... additionally, BGSU leads the all-time series with all 11 MAC opponents ... BG, obviously, is the only team in the league with a winning series mark against every other school.
COACHING TIES
If it seems as though Falcon coach Curt Miller knows everyone in the coaching profession, that's only because it's true ... okay, that's a slight exaggeration ... but, Miller and Ball State head coach Kelly Packard worked together at Colorado State ... the two were on head coach Tom Collen's staff together in 1998-99 ... Collen, a BGSU graduate, is now the head coach at Arkansas ... that '98-99 team had a 33-3 record and advanced to the NCAA's "Sweet Sixteen."
WE'RE NOT SURE WHAT THIS MEANS
The last time Ball State came to town, the Falcons had the second-longest active homecourt winning streak, having won 27 consecutive games at "The House That Roars" ... BG's 86-76 win over BSU at Anderson extended a homecourt winning streak that would reach 29 games before a loss to Ohio inside the venerable barn (Feb. 24, 2007) ... now, as Ball State comes to town once again, BGSU is second in the nation on another chart ... BG's overall win streak of 18 games trails only #1 Connecticut ... the Falcons are also ranked on the list of active homecourt winning streaks, having captured 13-straight home games dating to last season.
THE FALCONS ARE ...
• 168-70 since Curt Miller took the BGSU helm in May of 2001;
• 86-33 in MAC games in that time:
• 159-51 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);
• 147-35 over the last five-plus years, with at least 20 wins in five-straight seasons;
• a staggering 126-25 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 103-17 overall and 51-4 in the MAC regular season in the last three-plus years, since senior Lindsey Goldsberry ventured to Northwest Ohio;
• 75-14 in the last two-plus years, including a 35-4 conference ledger, since juniors Tara Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper joined the program;
• 44-10 overall, and 20-3 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;
• 64-5 in the last 69 games vs. MAC opponents (including regular-season and tourney games);
• 31-4 in MAC home games in the last four-plus seasons;
• 27-1 in MAC road games over the last three-plus years (with the lone loss during that time coming last season at Ball State);
• 10-1 in the MAC Tournament over the last four years, with three titles (2005, '06 and '07) and a trip to the semifinals in 2008;
• 22-2 in non-conference home games since the start of the 2003-04 season;
• 18-1 against non-league opposition at Anderson Arena since November of 2004;
• 5-3 in games played on February 3 in program history;
• 4-1 in home games on that date; and
• 0-1 on Feb. 3 in the Curt Miller Era, with the lone such game being a 92-81 loss at Miami five years ago.
GOLDEN NUGGET: SENIOR SURPASSES 100-WIN TOTAL AT BG
Lindsey Goldsberry, the lone senior on the 2008-09 Falcon squad, has helped the team to a great deal of success since her arrival on campus ... the Jan. 17 win over Akron was the 100th since the Dayton native joined the program ... BGSU is now 103-17 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.
DOUBLE-DIGIT WINNING STREAK
BGSU, as mentioned, has won 18 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.
