Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Head to the Zoo for Nationally-Televised Game
February 06, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 6, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) -
BGSU at WESTERN MICHIGAN
Saturday, February 7, 2009 • 12:00 p.m.University Arena (5,421) • Kalamazoo, Mich.
RECORDS: BGSU 19-2 (8-0 MAC) // Western Michigan 5-16 (1-7 MAC)
RADIO: WBGU-FM 88.1 - Mike Castellano and Anthony Bellino
TELEVISION: ESPNU - Jim Barbar and Sedric Toney
SERIES: BGSU leads, 30-21 // STREAK: WMU - 1
LAST MEETING: Western Michigan 79, at BGSU 73 (Jan. 30, 2008)
THE GAME
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, currently leading the Mid-American Conference's East Division by four games, begins the second half of the conference schedule with a nationally-televised game ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller continue cross-divisional play with a Saturday (Feb. 7) tilt at Western Michigan University ... tipoff is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. at WMU's University Arena (5,421) ... the WMU contest is the fourth of six consecutive games against West Division foes for the Brown and Orange.
BGSU Notes, Stats & Player Bios (42 pages!!!) in PDF Format
NATIONAL TV AT THE ZOO
The Falcons get the chance to play in front of a national audience on Saturday (Feb. 7) ... BGSU's game at Western Michigan will be televised nationally by ESPNU, with Jim Barbar and Sedric Toney handling the play-by-play and analysis duties, respectively ... 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.
FALCONS ARE STREAKY
• The Falcons are on a lengthy winning streak, having won 19 consecutive games ... BGSU also has win streaks against 10 of the other 11 MAC schools ... the lone exception? Saturday's opponent, 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 Western Michigan), and a setback in the semifinal round of the Kraft MAC Tournament (to Ohio in double overtime) ... BG has avenged three of those losses, with wins over the Bobcats, the RedHawks and the Cardinals, and the Brown and Orange will look to reverse the result of last season's 79-73 loss to the Broncos (Jan. 30, 2008).
• Since that loss to Western, the Falcons have won 28 of 30 regular-season games, including 17-straight contests in MAC play.
ATOP THE MAC: BG IS 8-0
• The Falcons have started MAC play with an 8-0 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.'
• Entering Saturday's WMU game, the Falcons hold a four-game lead in the MAC's East Division race ... BGSU is 8-0 in league play, followed by Kent State, Miami and Ohio at 4-4 ... in the West, Ball State, Northern Illinois and Toledo all are tied atop the division with identical 6-2 marks ... BGSU has posted narrow wins over two of those teams in the last two games, with an OT victory at NIU (76-70; Jan. 31) and Tuesday's (Feb. 3) 76-67 win against BSU ... 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 ... following the WMU game, the Falcons host the arch-rival Rockets on Thursday (Feb. 12).
BGSU PUTS WINNING STREAK ON THE LINE
The Falcons have won 19 consecutive contests, tied for the fourth-longest streak in school history, heading into Saturday's WMU 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' 19-game winning streak is the second-longest active streak in the nation ... Auburn's loss at Georgia last 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 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' ... the list of current active homecourt winning streaks, as well as the lists of the nation's longest overall win streaks, and the longest streaks in BGSU history, all can be found in the PDF version of this release.
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 ... on the year, the Falcons are shooting 79.4% (404-509) from the free-throw line, including 84.0% (173-206) in MAC games.
TAKE SOME MORE, THEY'RE FREE
The Ball State game marked the 20th time in 21 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. 1), Prochaska led all of Division I with a free-throw percentage of 94.2% ... after going a perfect 5-for-5 vs. Ball State, she is now shooting 94.5%, having made 86 of her 91 shots from the line ... heading into that BSU game, Prochaska also ranked among the nation's leaders in three-point field-goal pct. (23rd), three-pointers per game (35th) and scoring (53rd).
ROAD WARRIORS
The Falcons, after the win over Northern Illinois last Saturday (Jan. 31), 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, BGSU had not lost in a hostile MAC venue since Feb. 19, 2005 (57-52 at EMU).
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) ... after scoring a team-high 15 points vs. BSU, Pontius now has 16 double-digit scoring games this year and 17 in her career.
McCOY SUSPENDED INDEFINITELY
Junior Niki McCoy has been suspended indefinitely for violation of team rules, head coach Curt Miller announced on Wednesday (Feb. 4) ... McCoy has started each of the team's first 21 games this season, and is averaging 13.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 19-2 on the season ... after opening the year with road losses against Temple and Valparaiso, BGSU has won 19-straight games heading into Saturday's Western Michigan 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).
• The Falcons are 9-0 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, 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, juniors Niki McCoy and Tara Breske and sophomores Tracy Pontius and Lauren Prochaska each have started all 21 games this season to date ... McCoy, as mentioned, is suspended indefinitely, and will not travel with the team to WMU.
• Prochaska leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, with 16.7 points and 6.1 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 (94.5%; 86-of-91) ... McCoy, named the MAC P-O-W on Jan. 5, is tied for second on the team with 13.6 ppg, and ranks third with 5.6 rpg ... she surpassed the 1,000-point mark for her career in the NIU game ... Pontius, who exploded for a career-high 31 points at NIU, is also averaging 13.6 ppg, while Breske has 6.7 ppg ... Pontius leads the Falcons in assists, with 4.1 per game, and is second on the team in steals (1.7 spg) ... she leads the entire MAC in assist/turnover ratio (1.76) ... Breske has 5.7 rpg to rank second on the team in that category ... she tops BG in blocks (1.2 bpg) and is third in steals ... freshman Jessica Slagle has 6.0 ppg, while Goldsberry has 5.6 ... Goldsberry 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 2.24, but falls shy of the minimum number of assists to qualify for the league leaders.
• The Falcons are shooting 43.6% from the field over the first 21 games ... BG has a three-point FG pct. of 36.0%, with nearly 7.0 triples made per game, and is shooting 79.4% from the free-throw line ... the opponents are shooting 37.9% from the floor, 33.1% from long range and 67.6% from the stripe ... the Falcons have 35.8 rebounds per game to the opponents' 38.2 ... BG has turned the ball over 15.1 times per game, but has forced the opponents into 19.7 per outing.
• The Falcons have made almost twice as many free throws (404) as the opponents (223) ... in fact, BGSU has made over 70 more FTs than the foes have attempted (330).
• 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
The Falcons overcame a sluggish shooting night from the field with a team effort and lights-out free-throw accuracy ... it all added up to a 76-67 win over Ball State in a battle of MAC division leaders ... the Falcons shot just 33.9 percent from the field, including an 8-for-32 (25.0%) effort in the opening half ... but, BG was a blistering 32-for-34 (94.1%) from the free-throw line, and seven different players scored between seven and 15 points in the win ... sophomore Tracy Pontius led that balanced scoring attack with 15 points, while junior Niki McCoy had 14 ... senior Lindsey Goldsberry and soph Lauren Prochaska scored 11 points apiece ... Emily Maggert and Danielle Gratton had 18 and 17 points, respectively, for the Cardinals ... in addition to scoring, Maggert led all players in rebounding, with 10 boards on the night ... believe it or not, the Falcons went 3-for-3 from the floor to start the game ... Goldsberry hit a three-point field goal, one of her game-high three triples, just five seconds into the game, giving the home team a lead it would never relinquish ... the Falcons led by 11 at the half ... BSU got within two points with 13 minutes left, but the Falcons proceeded to convert no fewer than three conventional three-point plays in a span of just over a minute and a half ... BG scored eight-straight points to begin a 13-2 run ... Prochaska had the first 'and-one,' and freshman Jessica Slagle had the other two, putting BG ahead by 13.
SCOUTING WMU
Western Michigan enters Saturday's Bowling Green game with a record of 5-16, and the Broncos are 1-7 in MAC play ... WMU dropped a narrow 69-63 decision to Miami on Wednesday night (Feb. 4) ... the Broncos have lost three consecutive games, all by relatively narrow scores ... Western is 2-5 at home this season, including a 1-3 mark in MAC games at University Arena ... individually, freshman forward Miame Giden leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, with 13.3 points and 5.9 rebounds per game ... senior guard Tiera DeLaHoussaye has 13.1 points. 4.2 rebounds and a team-leading 4.4 assists per game ... she also paces the Broncos in steals, with 2.4 per contest, and is averaging 17.0 points in MAC games ... sophomore forward Brenna Bankston also is scoring in double digits, witih 10.2 ppg, and she has 4.0 rpg ... another sophomore forward, Ebony Cleary, has 8.1 ppg and 5.1 rpg ... juniors Sara Vest, a forward, and Molly Dwyer, a guard, have 6.2 and 4.7 ppg, respectively ... DeLaHoussaye has started all 21 games this season, while Miame Giden has made 19 starts and Bankston 17 this year to date ... Dwyer and freshman forward Robin Giden (1.2 ppg) joined that trio in the starting lineup for head coach Tasha McDowell ... McDowell inherited 10 letterwinners, including four starters, from last year's club that finished 13-19 overall and 9-7 in MAC action ... McDowell is in her first season as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is www.wmubroncos.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Western Michigan, 30-21, in the all-time series between the teams, but the Broncos won the most recent meeting ... last season, Western picked up a 79-73 win inside venerable Anderson Arena (Jan. 30, 2008), snapping a six-game Falcon series win streak ... BGSU is 13-10 in road games vs. the Broncos, including a 90-62 win two years ago in the team's last trip to Kalamazoo (Jan. 24, 2007) ... the Falcons have won two consecutive road games vs. WMU ... Curt Miller has a record of 6-3 vs. the Broncos during his head-coaching tenure.
THE FALCONS VS. THE MAC
The Falcons have a proud history in the MAC ... BG enters Saturday's game vs. Western Michigan with an overall league record of 314-139 (69.3%), 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.
LO IS A HIGH SCORER
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska has scored 853 career points in a BG uniform ... she has moved into the top-30 in scoring in school history, having moved past Paulette Backstrom (803 points from 1985-89) in the Buffalo game ... Prochaska's next target is 29th-place Traci Gorman (870 points from 1987-91).
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 55 career games, already has 853 points at BGSU ... she is averaging 15.5 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 16.7 ppg overall and 18.1 ppg in MAC games, ranking fourth in the league on both lists.
MAKE THAT TWO HIGH-SCORING SOPHOMORES
In addition to Prochaska, classmate Tracy Pontius has scored her share of points this winter ... Pontius is tied for second on the team in scoring, with 13.6 points per game ... she has averaged 15.8 ppg in the eight MAC games, ranking ninth in the league ... Pontius has a total of 285 points this season after scoring 96 as a freshman.
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 three 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 over Ball State, Miller now has 169 total wins at BGSU, ranking him sixth all time ... Miller now has 87 wins in MAC regular-season play, ranking ninth on that list ... the complete lists can be found in the PDF o' 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.
THE FALCONS ARE ...
• 169-70 since Curt Miller took the BGSU helm in May of 2001;
• 87-33 in MAC games in that time:
• 160-51 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);
• 148-35 over the last five-plus years, needing one victory to post a sixth-straight season of at least 20 wins;
• a staggering 127-25 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 104-17 overall and 52-4 in the MAC regular season in the last three-plus years, since senior Lindsey Goldsberry ventured to Northwest Ohio;
• 76-14 in the last two-plus years, including a 36-4 conference ledger, since juniors Tara Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper joined the program;
• 45-10 overall, and 21-3 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;
• 65-5 in the last 70 games vs. MAC opponents (including regular-season and tourney games);
• 32-4 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;
• 10-1 in games played on February 7 in program history;
• a perfect 6-0 in road games on that date;
• 1-0 vs. Western Michigan on Feb. 7, with a 69-67 home win in 2004 on a buzzer-beating shot by Lindsay Austin; and
• 2-0 on Feb. 7 in the Curt Miller Era, including the '04 win over the Broncos and an 86-76 outcome vs. Ball State two 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 104-17 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.
CAPTAINS
Senior Lindsey Goldsberry and junior Tara Breske are the co-captains of the 2008-09 women's basketball Falcons.
GETTING IT DONE IN THE CLASSROOM, TOO
• In the fall semester, the Falcon women's basketball student-athletes were just as successful in the classroom as they were on the court ... head coach Curt Miller reports that 11 of the 15 current team members had a grade-point average of 3.00 or higher in the fall semester, including five student-athletes with a perfect 4.00 GPA for the term ... entering the spring 2009 semester, no fewer than 10 of the 15 have a cumulative GPA of 3.40 or better.
• "I am proud of our players and the success they achieved in the classroom during the fall semester," said Miller. "It is a credit to their dedication and time management skills to successfully balance their academic workload and the demands of being a Division I athlete. Our program has an excellent academic tradition during our tenure and our current players are only adding to this tradition."
• Every student-athlete who has exhausted her four years of eligibility during Miller's tenure has graduated.
