Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Head to Buffalo for Midweek Matchup
February 24, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 24, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) -
BGSU at BUFFALO
Wednesday, February 25, 2009 • 7:00 p.m.Alumni Arena (6,100) • Buffalo, N.Y.
RECORDS: BGSU 23-2 (12-0 MAC) // Buffalo 5-20 (1-11 MAC)
RADIO: WBGU-FM 88.1 - Mike Castellano and Everett Fitzhugh
SERIES: BGSU leads, 13-5 // STREAK: BGSU - 8
LAST MEETING: at BGSU 75, Buffalo 52 (Jan. 21, 2009)
BGSU Notes, Stats and Bios (46 big pages) in PDF Format
Audio - Coach Miller Previews the Buffalo game
THE GAME
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, leading the Mid-American Conference race at the three-quarter mark, heads into the homestretch ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller travel to New York for a Wednesday (Feb. 25) tilt against the University at Buffalo ... tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at Alumni Arena (6,100) ... following the UB contest, the Brown and Orange will continue the second round-robin swing through the MAC's East Division with a Saturday (Feb. 28) game vs. Kent State University at venerable Anderson Arena ... BGSU already has clinched the East Division title, the school's fifth consecutive divisional crown.
GOLDEN NUGGET: FALCON SENIOR TIES RECORD WIN TOTAL
Lindsey Goldsberry, the lone senior on the 2008-09 Falcon squad, has experienced success - a lot of success - since her arrival on campus ... Saturday's win at Akron gives BG an overall record of 108-17 since the start of Goldsberry's freshman year ... the total of 108 wins is tied for the most in a four-year period - in men's or women's basketball - in MAC history ... one more BG win would give 'Golds' that record outright ... currently, she shares the distinction with last year's BGSU women's basketball senior class, which consisted of Kate Achter and Whitney Taylor ... that duo helped the Falcons go 108-23 during their stellar careers ... the Falcons had at least 26 wins in each of Goldsberry's first three seasons, and have 23 more this year ... BG is now 56-4 in MAC regular-season play since Goldsberry ventured to Northwest Ohio.
LAUREN'S RECORD COLLECTION CONTINUES TO GROW
It seems that some sort of record is set every time the Falcons take the floor, and Saturday (Feb. 21) was no exception ... in BGSU's 81-70 win at Akron, sophomore Lauren Prochaska tied the school single-game record for free-throw percentage, going a perfect 12-for-12 from the stripe ... she matched the record set by Talita Scott, and equalled by Sara Puthoff and Kate Achter ... Prochaska is not far away from joining that trio on another list, the list of 1,000-point scorers at BGSU (more about that in a minute) ... the FT list, like so many other lists, can be found in the PDF version of these notes ... the PDF is at the top of this page, just a click away...
LO SCORING AT A HIGH RATE
• Sophomore Lauren Prochaska, after a 43-point explosion vs. Central Michigan, added 25 more points at Akron ... she has scored 961 career points in a BG uniform ... she moved up five spots on the BGSU career scoring list in a two-game span, and now ranks 24th ... her next target is 23rd-place Rhonda Moore, who had 966 points at BG.
• Prochaska has amassed her 961-point total through just 59 career games ... the Plain City, Ohio, native is averaging 16.3 points per game in her career, a ppg average which would rank her second in school history, behind only the legendary Jackie Motycka (18.1 ppg from 1985-89).
• Prochaska is looking to become the 23rd player in school history to reach 1,000 points, but only the second to do so as a sophomore ... Motycka currently is the only player to reach the millennium mark as a soph, on her way to a school-record 2,122 career points.
• Should Prochaska continue to score at her career average of 16.3 ppg - or at her season average of 18.4 ppg - she would reach 1,000 points in the Miami game on March 4 ... Motycka reached the 1,000-point mark in her 54th career game ... no other player in school history has gotten to that plateau in fewer than 72 games, meaning that, if Prochaska can score a total of 39 points over her next 12 games, she would be the second-fastest in school history to get to 1,000 points.
• Prochaska's 43 points in the CMU game of Feb. 15 set a new school record ... the next time out, at Akron Saturday (Feb. 21), she added 25 more points ... Prochaska's total of 68 points over the last two games sets a new school record for points in a two-game span.
DRIVE FOR FIVE
On Feb. 15, the Falcons clinched the MAC's East Division title ... BGSU's 94-79 win over Central Michigan that afternoon, combined with losses by Kent State and Miami that weekend, put the Brown and Orange six games ahead of both the Golden Flashes and RedHawks, with five games remaining ... the Falcons remain six games ahead of the Flashes with four to play ... BG's title is the program's fifth consecutive regular-season conference crown, setting a school record and tying the league mark ... KSU won five-straight titles from 1997-98 through 2001-02.
WE'RE GOING STREAKING: FALCONS SET SCHOOL RECORD FOR CONSECUTIVE WINS
The Falcons have won 23 consecutive contests, the longest streak in school history, heading into Wednesday's Buffalo game ... the win over Central Michigan (Feb. 15) broke the old school mark of 21-straight wins, set by Fran Voll's 1986-87 team ... the current run marks the eighth double-digit win streak in BG annals, and the fourth in as many years.
FALCONS ARE STREAKY
BGSU enters Wednesday's game at Buffalo riding several lengthy streaks ... the Falcons have won ...
• 23 consecutive overall games since a Nov. 19 loss at Valparaiso;
• 17-straight games at Anderson Arena (obviously, this streak will not be affected by the Buffalo game);
• 11 consecutive MAC road games;
• 21-straight overall MAC regular-season games;
• 14 consecutive contests in the month of February; and
• nine games in a row in the series with Buffalo.
FALCONS ARE STREAKY II
• The Falcons are on a lengthy winning streak, having won 23 consecutive games ... BGSU also has win streaks against all 11 of the other MAC schools.
• The Falcons lost a total of four games to league foes last year, with three regular-season losses (Miami, Ball State and Western Michigan), and a loss 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 32 of 34 regular-season games, including 21-straight contests in MAC play.
PUTTING THOSE STREAKS IN CONTEXT...
• According to the MAC women's basketball media guide, the Falcons' current 23-game winning streak is the second-longest in conference history ... Central Michigan holds the MAC record, with 26-straight wins during the 1983-84 season.
• BGSU has now won 21 consecutive MAC regular-season games ... that is the fourth-longest such streak in school history, and the sixth-longest streak in MAC annals ... the Falcons hold the record with 33 consecutive conference wins, from February of 2005 to February of 2007 ... BG holds the top-two spots and four of the top-six places on that list.
A WINNING MAC RECORD
With a 12-0 MAC record, the Falcons have clinched a winning league record 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.
STREAK IS ONE OF LONGEST IN NATION
The Falcons' 23-game winning streak is the second-longest active streak in the nation ... only Connecticut is ahead of the Falcons on that list.
HOME STREAK IS PRETTY LENGTHY, TOO
BGSU has a 16-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 11-straight wins at 'The House That Roars' ... BGSU's home win streak is currently tied for sixth in the nation.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 23-2 on the season ... after opening the year with road losses against Temple and Valparaiso, BGSU has won a school record 23-straight games heading into Wednesday's Buffalo 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 and 6-0 against the West ... the Falcons closed cross-divisional play with a pair of home wins, a 70-53 victory over arch-rival Toledo (Feb. 12) and a 94-79 decision against Central Michigan (Feb. 15), before beginning the second trip through the East with Saturday's (Feb. 21) 81-70 win at Akron.
• The Falcons are 11-0 at home, 10-2 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 25 games this season to date ... junior Niki McCoy started the first 21 games of the year, and sophomore Jen Uhl has been in the starting lineup for each of the last four.
• Prochaska leads the team in scoring, with 18.4 points per game, and is second in rebounding, with 5.9 boards per contest ... she has had 10 games of 20 points or more, including a school-record 43-point explosion vs. CMU, and has been named MAC Player of the Week five times this season ... Prochaska leads the nation in free-throw percentage (95.3%; 122-of-128), and is averaging 21.1 ppg in MAC games, nearly three full points per game higher than the second-place scorer ... Pontius is second on the team with 14.3 ppg ... the sophomore, named the MAC P-O-W on Feb. 1, leads the Falcons in assists, with 4.4 per game, and is second in steals (1.7 spg) ... Pontius, who had a career-high nine assists vs. CMU, leads the entire MAC in assist/turnover ratio (1.91) ... McCoy, who also has been named a MAC P-O-W once this year (Jan. 5), has 13.1 ppg, and ranks third with 5.5 rpg ... she surpassed the 1,000-point mark for her career in the Northern Illinois game on Jan. 31 ... Breske and freshman Jessica Slagle have 7.6 and 5.6 ppg, respectively ... Breske has taken over the team rebounding lead, with 6.0 rpg ... she has averaged 12.0 points and 8.0 boards over the last four games, including a career-high 14 rebounds at Western Michigan ... Breske also tops BG in blocks (1.2 bpg) and is third in steals ... Goldsberry has 5.3 ppg ... she leads the Falcons in steals (2.0 spg) and is second in assists (2.2 apg) ... she also has an impressive assist/TO ratio of 2.12, but falls shy of the minimum number of assists to qualify for the league leaders.
• The Falcons are shooting 44.4% from the field over the first 25 games ... BG has a three-point FG pct. of 37.0%, with 7.1 triples made per game, and is shooting 79.3% from the free-throw line ... the opponents are shooting 38.8% from the floor, 33.0% from long range and 67.3% from the stripe ... the Falcons have 35.4 rebounds per game to the opponents' 37.3 ... BG has turned the ball over 15.4 times per game, but has forced the opponents into 19.4 per outing.
• The Falcons have made almost twice as many free throws (489) as the opponents (266) ... in fact, BGSU has made 94 more FTs than the foes have attempted (395).
• 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 sophomores 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 - 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) are sitting out the season ... Nurse will have one season of eligibility remaining, while Hennegan will have two.
LAST TIME OUT
Sophomores Tracy Pontius and Lauren Prochaska combined for 51 points as the Falcons picked up a road win over Akron ... Pontius scored a game-high 26 points while Prochaska had 25 ... the two players combined to go a perfect 19-for-19 from the free-throw line, including 8-for-8 in the final minute of the game ... junior Tara Breske rounded out BGSU's double-digit scorers with 12 points in the win ... Kyle Baumgartner had 21 points to pace three Zips players in twin digits, while Kara Murphy added 15 and Ayla Guzzardo 10 ... the Falcons never trailed, but BG's lead never reached double figures until the final 17 seconds of the contest, when Prochaska hit a pair of free throws ... as a team, BG went 28-of-33 (84.8%) from the stripe on the afternoon ... it seems that some sort of record is set every time the Falcons take the floor, and the Akron game was no exception. Prochaska was a perfect 12-for-12 at the charity stripe, tying the BG single-game record for free-throw percentage ... additionally, the victory was the 108th since Lindsey Goldsberry joined the program, tying the MAC record (men or women) for wins in a four-year span ... that record was set by last year's BG senior class of Kate Achter and Whitney Taylor ... sophomore Jen Uhl had seven points and a team-high seven rebounds, while Prochaska had six boards ... Baumgartner had a game-high 13 rebounds along with her 21 points.
SCOUTING BUFFALO
Buffalo enters Wednesday's Bowling Green game with a record of 5-20, and the Bulls are 1-11 in MAC play ... UB is looking to snap a five-game losing streak, with the most recent loss being a narrow 80-77 setback at Ohio on Saturday (Feb. 21) ... three of those five losses came by single digits ... UB is 3-8 at home this season, including a 1-5 mark in MAC games at Alumni Arena ... individually, redshirt sophomore forward Kourtney Brown leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, with 15.7 points and 7.3 boards per contest ... she is shooting 55.9 percent from the floor ... another sophomore forward, Jessica Fortman, has 10.1 points and 6.6 boards per game, ranking second on the team in both categories ... Brown and Fortman have combined for a total of 74 blocked shots this season to date ... senior forward Jamie Schiebner and redshirt junior forward Rachelle Matthys are averaging 8.2 and 8.0 ppg, respectively ... Schiebner has 4.4 boards per outing, while Matthys has made a team-leading 50 three-point field goals this year to date, including no fewer than seven in the Ohio game ... Brown has started all 25 games this season, and Fortman, Schiebner and junior guard Dayna Smith (3.5 ppg) have joined her in the starting lineup for all 12 MAC games ... freshman guard Brittany Hedderson (6.4 ppg) rounded out the starting five for head coach Linda Hill-Macdonald Saturday in Athens ... Hill-Macdonald welcomed back nine letterwinners, including three starters, from last year's club that finished 15-15 overall and 8-8 in MAC action ... Hill-Macdonald is 40-72 in her fourth year at UB, and has an overall record of 272-328 in her 21st season as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is www.buffalobulls.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Buffalo, 13-5, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU has won each of the last nine meetings ... the Falcons hold a 6-3 advantage in series games in New York, including a 75-56 win at Alumni Arena last season (Jan. 19, 2008) ... BG won the return meeting last year by a 74-47 count (March 1, 2008), then won this year's first matchup, 75-52, at Anderson Arena on Jan. 21 ... BG has won the last four road games over UB ... overall, the Falcons have won the last eight series meetings by an average of 26.1 points, after seven of the previous eight games had been decided by 10 points or less ... Curt Miller has a record of 11-1 vs. the Bulls during his head-coaching tenure.
THE FALCONS VS. THE MAC
The Falcons have a proud history in the MAC ... BG enters Wednesday's game vs. Buffalo with an overall league record of 318-139 (69.6%), 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, the Falcons now have a current winning streak against each of the other 11 teams as well.
PROCHASKA IS PROLIFIC
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska has had quite a successful season, to say the least ... just over a week ago (Feb. 15), the MAC Player-of-the-Year candidate did something no Falcon had ever done ... Prochaska shattered the school record with 43 points in the Falcons' win over Central Michigan ... she hit a jumper with 11:30 left to reach 36 points, breaking the old school record of 35 ... Prochaska made 14 of her 18 shots from the field, including a 5-for-8 performance from three-point range, and went 10-of-11 from the free-throw line.
PROCHASKA JUST MISSES MAC RECORD
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska's 43-point total vs. Central Michigan (Feb. 15) was just one point shy of the MAC record ... Kent State's Lindsay Shearer holds that mark with 44 points against the Falcons in the 2005 MAC Championship game ... KSU's Ann Forbes scored 43 points vs. BG in a 1992 league tournament game, while Miami's Amanda Jackson had 43 vs. UTEP last season ... Prochaska's total set a new MAC record for points scored in a conference game.
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.
BGSU MOVES TO THE TOP OF THIS LIST
The Falcons have won at least 20 games for the 14th time in school history, the most of any MAC school ... other than BGSU, only Toledo (13) and Kent State (11) have posted 20 or more wins on 10 or more occasions.
ATOP THE MAC: BG IS 12-0
• The Falcons have started MAC play with a record of 12-0 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 12 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.'
• The Kraft MAC Tournament is just a few weeks away, with first-round games scheduled for March 11 in downtown Cleveland ... the Falcons have earned a bye for that first round, and BG's first game in Cleveland will be in the quarterfinals, scheduled for March 13 ... the top-two teams in each division earn byes ... unlike MAC men's basketball, where teams are seeded from #1 through #12, the women's basketball format seeds teams by division (#1 East, #2 East, etc.).
ROAD WARRIORS
The Falcons, heading into the Buffalo game, are 29-1 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 ...
• 173-70 since Curt Miller took the BGSU helm in May of 2001;
• 91-33 in MAC games in that time:
• 164-51 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);
• 152-35 over the last five-plus years, with 2008-09 marking BG's sixth-straight season of at least 20 wins;
• a staggering 131-25 in the past four-plus years, with no fewer than 23 wins in each year (including this year) and a MAC regular-season title in every season;
• an eye-popping 108-17 overall and 56-4 in the MAC regular season in the last three-plus years, since senior Lindsey Goldsberry ventured to Northwest Ohio;
• 80-14 in the last two-plus years, including a 40-4 conference ledger, since juniors Tara Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper joined the program;
• 49-10 overall, and 25-3 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;
• 69-5 in the last 74 games vs. MAC opponents (including regular-season and tourney games);
• 34-4 in MAC home games in the last four-plus seasons;
• 29-1 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;
• 8-2 in games played on February 25 in program history (including eight consecutive wins);
• 6-1 in road games on that date (including a 63-62 win at UB in 2000); and
• 2-0 on Feb. 25 in the Curt Miller Era, with both wins coming on the road (a 77-67 win at Marshall in 2004 and a 65-61 victory at Ohio two years later).
SATURDAY'S KENT STATE GAME TO BE TELEVISED
The Falcons' home game with Kent State on Saturday (Feb. 28) will be televised by Fox Sports Ohio ... tipoff time has been changed to 12:00 p.m.
TAKE SOME, THEY'RE FREE
BGSU shot 84.8 percent from the free-throw line in the win at Akron, going 28-of-33 from the stripe ... on the year, the Falcons are shooting 79.3% (489-617) from the line ... currently, BGSU ranks fifth in the nation in that category ... the Falcons are shooting an impressive 82.2% (258-314) in MAC games.
TAKE SOME MORE, THEY'RE FREE
The Akron game marked the 24th time in 25 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 18 of those games, with those totals being equal in one other game.
