Arch Rivals Collide at Savage Arena Saturday

THE OPENING TIP
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, holding a two-game lead in the Mid-American Conference's East Division, continues cross-divisional play with a short trip north to face the West Division leader ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller will head to the Glass City to meet the University of Toledo on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 30) ... tipoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at UT's Savage Arena (7,300).

BGSU Notes & Stats - PDF | BGSU 2009-10 Boxscores - PDF | Toledo's Notes - PDF
Miller, Pontius & Prochaska - Thursday press conference
Todd Walker reviews/previews Falcon basketball

ON THE ROAD AGAIN
A large crowd is expected when the Falcons venture to Savage Arena for the matchup of MAC divisional leaders ... games like Saturday's UT contest are the reason Falcon head coach Curt Miller and his staff put together such a difficult non-conference schedule this year ... BGSU enters Saturday's game with seven road wins on the year, including five in non-league play ... the Falcons played a total of nine non-league road games, including seven vs. teams that won at least 20 games and advanced to postseason play last season ... three of them – Ohio State, Marist and Vandy – went to the NCAA Championships last March, while four – Oakland, St. Bonaventure, Canisius and Hartford – advanced to the WNIT ... those seven teams had a total of 177 wins, an average of 25.3 victories per team, in 2008-09.

SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE
As might be expected, both the Falcons and Rockets bring impressive credentials into Saturday's game ...

• Toledo is 8-1 at home this season, including a perfect 4-0 record in MAC games at Savage Arena, and the Rockets had an 11-2 home record a year ago.

• Meanwhile, the Falcons are 2-0 in MAC road games this season, having won those two contests by an average of 31.5 points.

• In fact, BGSU has posted a record of 32-2 in MAC road games over the last four-plus years ... the lone conference road losses during that time came in 2007-08 at Ball State, and in March of 2009 at Miami ... BG has won four consecutive games at Savage Hall/Savage Arena.

PACKING THE HOUSE EVERY SATURDAY
Saturday's contest at Toledo is the Rockets' "Pack the House" game ... each MAC marketing program has earmarked one specific game as a "Pack the House" game, as part of a league- and nation-wide women's basketball initiative with the goal of growing the sport of women's basketball ... three conference schools – Kent State (Jan. 16), UT (Jan. 30) and Ball State (Feb. 6) – chose their game with BGSU ... those dates, combined with BG's own game – last Saturday's (Jan. 23) win over Eastern Michigan – mean that the Falcons will play in front of a "Pack the House" crowd on each of four consecutive Saturdays.

PROCHASKA NOW SEVENTH
Lauren Prochaska, just a junior, has moved into seventh place on the BGSU career scoring list ... Prochaska now has a total of 1,470 points in her collegiate career ... she passed no fewer than four players on that list in the Miami game (Jan. 19), moving ahead of Chris Tuttle (1,420 pts.), Lori Albers (1,424), Charlotta Jones (1,430) and Talita Scott (1,432) in that game ... Prochaska's next target on the list is sixth-place Liz Honegger, who had 1,522 points from 2003-07 ... Prochaska is averaging 16.5 points per game, the second-highest average in BGSU annals, in her storied Falcon career.

MILLER REACHES 100 MAC WINS ...
BGSU's 83-71 win over Eastern Michigan last Saturday (Jan. 23) was the 100th MAC victory in Falcon head coach Curt Miller's career ... after BG's win over Western Michigan, Miller now has a career record of 101-34 in conference games as a head coach ... Miller, who holds the school records for overall and MAC wins, became just the seventh coach in MAC history – and the second fastest – to amass 100 league victories.

... AND APPROACHES 200 OVERALL WINS
BGSU head coach Curt Miller has a 196-77 overall record in his ninth year at the Falcon helm ... he has moved into third place on the MAC list for career wins, and is just four away from the 200 mark ... he trails only Kent State's Bob Lindsay and former Toledo coach Mark Ehlen on the MAC list ... Miller, who became the winningest coach in BGSU history two years ago, is looking to become only the second basketball coach at the school (men's or women's) to reach the 200-win mark ... the legendary Harold Anderson had a 367-193 (.655) record in 21 years at the helm of the BGSU men's program ... the lists of winningest MAC women's basketball coaches can be found on page 10 of these notes.

PONTIUS NAMED MAC PLAYER OF WEEK
Falcon junior Tracy Pontius was named the MAC Player of the Week on Monday (Jan. 25), earning the honor for the first time this season and the second time in her Falcon career ... she averaged 21.5 points per game as the Falcons went 2-0 last week, with wins over Miami and Eastern Michigan ... Pontius had a season-high 27 points in the Miami game (Jan. 19), and led the Brown and Orange with 16 points in Saturday's (Jan. 23) win over EMU ... she shot .519 from the field on the week, going 6-of-14 (.429) from three-point range, and also averaged 3.0 assists and 3.0 steals per game to lead the Falcons in both categories.

LOOKING FOR ANOTHER STRONG START
The Falcons have started MAC play with a 7-0 record for the fourth time in the last five years ... BGSU is looking to begin the conference slate with an 8-0 mark. also for the fourth time in five seasons ... believe it or not, the Brown and Orange has gotten off to at least a 14-0 MAC start in three of the previous four seasons.

FALCONS "PACK THE HOUSE"
Last Saturday's (Jan. 23) Eastern Michigan game was BGSU's "Pack The House" game, and also was the women's basketball program's annual annual Alumnae Day celebration ... a crowd of 2,823 (actual attendance; not inflated) was on hand at venerable Anderson Arena, the seventh-largest home attendance in BGSU women's basketball history and the largest home throng in over two years ... the school attendance record for a home game is 4,408, vs. Florida in the 1993 NCAA Championships.

LAST TIME OUT
The Falcons, after a slow start, used a three-point barrage to take the lead for good in an 18-point win over Western Michigan, 74-56, Wednesday night (Jan. 27) ... junior Lauren Prochaska had a game-high 23 points, while senior Tamika Nurse added 14 points and dished out a game-high six assists ... Ebony Cleary paced the Broncos with 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting ... after scoring just two points in the first four-plus minutes of the game, the Falcons hit four three-point field goals in a span of just 1:48 ... when the smoke had cleared, the home team held a 14-8 lead, and BG never trailed again ... junior Maggie Hennegan began that stretch with a triple, then fed Nurse for another trey ... Prochaska hit back-to-back threes to conclude a 12-2 run ... the Broncos got back within a point on several occasions, but the Falcons scored eight-straight points as part of a larger 16-3 run ... BG led by a 38-24 score at the half, but the visitors got back within eight points in the second half ... a 13-0 run by the Brown and Orange, however, gave the Falcons a 62-41 lead with 8:49 on the clock, and BGSU was never headed ... the Falcons shot .526 from the field in the second half, en route to a .490 field-goal pct. for the game ... the BG defense forced 18 WMU turnovers and allowed the Broncos to shoot only .379 ... the Falcons went 9-of-22 from three-point range, with six different players hitting at least one shot from beyond the arc ... Prochaska led the way with a 4-of-8 long-range performance.

ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 17-4 on the season, and BGSU is 7-0 in MAC play ... BG is 10-0 at home and 7-4 on the road this year to date ... the Falcons have won 16 of the last 18 games, including each of the last eight, heading into Saturday's UT contest ... most recently, BGSU downed Western Michigan, 74-56, at Anderson Arena Wednesday night (Jan. 27).

• BG completed the first swing through the East Division unbeaten, with home victories over Akron (74-62; Jan. 6), Buffalo (78-60; Jan. 13) and Miami, and road victories against Ohio (77-42; Jan. 9) and Kent State (89-61; Jan. 16) ... in the KSU game, the Falcons took a 30-point halftime lead before winning by 28 ... the Brown and Orange downed Eastern Michigan last Saturday (Jan. 23), 83-71, to begin a six-game stretch in which BG will face each West Division team.

• The Falcons opened the 2009-10 campaign with three games in the Preseason WNIT, going 1-2 with road losses vs. third-ranked Ohio State and Marist ... BGSU bounced back with wins in the next five games, with three on the road ... included in that five-game win streak was a trip to Nashville, where head coach Curt Miller's club defeated nationally-ranked Vanderbilt, 66-60 (Dec. 4).

• After a 70-54 loss at St. Bonaventure (Dec. 12), BG bounced back with three wins in a five-day span before Christmas ... the Falcons ended the 2009 calendar year with a 65-60 loss at Hartford (Dec. 30), but topped SIU Edwardsville (Jan. 2) before beginning the MAC portion of the schedule with seven-straight wins.

• BGSU returned 10 letterwinners, including four starters, from last year's team that won the Mid-American Conference's regular-season title for a fifth-straight season ... the Falcons went 29-5 overall, posting the second-highest win total in school and conference history, and had a 15-1 MAC record in 2008-09 ... the Brown and Orange advanced to the third round of the Postseason WNIT.

• The Falcons had just one senior on the roster a year ago ... Lindsey Goldsberry ended her career as the winningest basketball player – man or woman – in MAC history ... BG had a record of 114-20 in her four years, for an average of 28.5 wins.

• Through 21 games this year, junior Lauren Prochaska leads the Falcons in both scoring and rebounding ... Prochaska, the reigning Mid-American Conference Player of the Year, is averaging 18.1 points and 5.1 rebounds per game ... Prochaska has paced BG in scoring 11 times this year ... after averaging 10.3 ppg in the three Preseason WNIT games, she has averaged 19.4 ppg over the last 18 contests ... Prochaska, who has been named the league's Player of the Week three times this season to date, is averaging 19.7 ppg in the Falcons' 10 home games.

• Junior Tracy Pontius and senior Tamika Nurse have 13.1 and 9.4 ppg, respectively ... Pontius has 2.8 rpg, and is second on the team behind Prochaska in three-point field goals made ... Prochaska has hit 53 shots from long range to 44 for Pontius ... Pontius, the reigning MAC Player of the Week, leads the Falcons in steals (1.5 spg), and Pontius and Nurse are tied for the team's assists lead (3.1 apg) ... both players have a total of 66 helpers ... Nurse is third on the team with 22 three-pointers made this season ... Prochaska and Nurse have made 99 and 78 free throws, respectively, this season, while Pontius has hit 50 shots from the stripe ... Pontius and Prochaska each are converting their free-throw tries at a rate of 87 percent or better.

• Senior Tara Breske and junior Jen Uhl have scored 7.9 and 6.6 ppg, respectively ... Breske, who missed two games due to injury in early December, has 4.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocked shots per game, leading the Falcons in the latter category Breske also has 1.3 steals per game to rank second ... Uhl has 5.0 rebounds per game, placing her second on the team ... Uhl and Breske are shooting .500 and .467, respectively, from the field.

• Junior Maggie Hennegan has 4.6 points and 4.2 rebounds per game, ranking third on the team in the latter category ... she has shot .473 from the field this year ... six players are averaging from 1.9 to 3.1 ppg heading into the Toledo game.

• The list of returnees in 2009-10 includes three seniors – Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper – along with five juniors ... Breske started all 34 games in the post last season.

• The returnees in the junior class include a pair of highly-decorated players in Prochaska and Pontius ... Prochaska, a wing, was the 2009 MAC Player of the Year, while Pontius, a point guard, was an honorable-mention selection to the Associated Press All-America Team ... both Pontius and Prochaska earned All-MAC First-Team honors in 2008-09.

• Juniors Uhl, Chelsea Albert and Kelly Zuercher also returned ... Uhl started the final 13 games last year at a forward spot ... sophomores Jessica Slagle and Maribeth Giese round out the returning letterwinners.

• Two other players are in their first playing season at BGSU ... Nurse, a fifth-year senior (Univ. of Oregon), and Hennegan, a redshirt junior (Saint Louis Univ.), participated in practices at BGSU last season, but sat out the year after transferring from other NCAA Division-I schools.

• Five newcomers also joined the program in 2009-10 ... that list includes a quartet of freshmen in Simone Eli, Allison Papenfuss, Chrissy Steffen and Jessie Tamerlano ... Danielle Havel also joins the program, but will sit out this season after transferring from DePaul University ... she will retain three seasons of eligibility.

• Nurse, Pontius and Prochaska each have started all 21 games to date, while Uhl has made 18 starts and Breske 16 ... that quintet has started each of the last 12 games ... Breske, who had started the first four games of the year before suffering her injury, came off the bench for several contests before returning to the starting lineup ... Hennegan has made eight starts this year.

• Prochaska has 18.6 ppg in MAC games to date, while Pontius has averaged 15.3 ppg ... the duo has combined for 35 successful three-pointers in the seven conference contests ... Breske has 8.3 ppg and 4.3 rpg in league play, while Uhl has 7.9 ppg and a team-leading 5.6 rpg ... Uhl is shooting .550 from the field against MAC foes ... four players have averaged between 1.9 and 2.9 assists in conference games.

• Through 21 games, the Falcons are shooting .433 from the field, .376 from three-point land and .787 from the free-throw line ... BG's opponents are shooting .389 overall, .306 from long range and .692 from the stripe ... the Falcons have 37.1 rebounds per game to the opponents' 35.2 ... BGSU has been outrebounded only six times in 21 games this year.

THE FALCONS VS. THE MAC
BGSU enters the Toledo game with an all-time record of 328-140 (.701) in MAC regular-season contests, the most wins and highest winning pct. of all league institutions ... and, BGSU leads the series with all 11 MAC foes, making the Falcons the only team in the league, obviously, with a winning series record against every other school.

SENIORS SURPASS CENTURY MARK
The Falcons' 89-61 win at Kent State (Jan. 16) enabled BGSU's three fourth-year seniors, Tara Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper, to reach a career milestone ... the group became the fifth in school history, and the fourth in a row, to be a part of at least 100 career wins at BGSU ... after the win over WMU, the Falcons now have a 103-21 record since the trio joined the program ... the 2006-07 senior class that kick-started the Falcons' current run of success – Amber Flynn, Julie Gompers, Liz Honegger, Carin Horne, Ali Mann and Megan Thorburn – had a total of 103 wins ... Kate Achter and Whitney Taylor finished their playing careers in '07-08, posting a total of 108 victories ... and, last year's one-woman senior class, Lindsey Goldsberry, finished her career with a total of 114 wins, the most by any player (male or female) in MAC basketball history.

SENIORS HIT HALF-CENTURY MARK IN MAC PLAY
BGSU's fourth-year seniors – Tara Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper – have won 50 MAC games in their careers ... Wednesday's (Jan. 27) win over Western Michigan moved the Falcons to 50-5 in conference regular-season games since that trio came to campus ... the school record for MAC wins in a four-year span is 59, set by the 1986-89 teams and matched by the 2006-09 clubs ... it should be noted that the MAC utilized an 18-game schedule in 1985-86 ... the complete list of BGSU's best MAC records in a four-year span can be found on page 32 of the PDF version of these notes.

SCOUTING UT
Toledo enters Saturday's game with an overall record of 16-4, and the Rockets are 6-1 in MAC play ... UT leads the MAC's West Division, and has won three-straight games and eight of the last nine contests ... the Rockets' most recent game was a 69-67 overtime win at Buffalo on Wednesday night (Jan. 27) ... UT is 8-1 at home, 7-3 in road games and 1-0 in neutral-site contests to date ... in MAC play, the Rockets are 4-0 at Savage Arena and 2-1 away from home ... the team's starting five combined to score 66 of the 69 points at UB Wednesday night ... senior forward Tanika Mays leads the team in scoring and rebounding, with 15.5 points and 7.6 rebounds per game ... she has 20.4 ppg in MAC games only, and had 28 points at Buffalo ... sophomore guard Naama Shafir has 13.0 points. 3.5 rebounds and a team-leading 6.8 assists per game ... she leads the MAC in the latter category by a wide margin ... junior forward Melissa Goodall has 8.2 ppg and 5.7 rpg, while senior forward Allie Clifton has 7.8 ppg and 4.4 rpg ... the Rockets' fifth starter, junior guard Jessica Williams, has 7.3 ppg to date ... Williams has hit a team-leading 40 three-point field goals this year ... off the bench, sophomore guard Clare Aubry leads the MAC in three-point percentage, having shot .441 from long range this season ... Mays and Shafir each have started all 20 games, while Clifton, Goodall and Williams have all made at least 17 starts for head coach Tricia Cullop ... Cullop welcomed back nine letterwinners, including all five starters, from last year's team that finished 18-13 overall and 11-5 in MAC action ... Cullop has a record of 34-17 in her second season at the UT helm ... she is 157-127 in her 10th year as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is utrockets.com.

THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Toledo, 40-25, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU has won 12 consecutive meetings between the arch rivals ... the teams met twice last year, with the Brown and Orange downing the Rockets, 70-53, inside venerable Anderson Arena (Feb. 12, 2009), and capturing a 79-66 decision in the semifinal round of the MAC Tournament in Cleveland (March 14, 2009) ... Tracy Pontius led the Falcons in scoring in both games, including a career-high 32-point output (with a school record-tying eight three-pointers) at Quicken Loans Arena ... the Rockets hold a narrow 15-13 lead in games played at Centennial Hall/Savage Hall/Savage Arena, but BGSU has won four-straight road games vs. the Midnight Blue and Gold, including a 71-41 win in the Glass City two years ago (Feb. 2, 2008) ... Curt Miller has a record of 12-2 against Toledo during his head-coaching tenure.

THE FALCONS ARE ...
• 17-4 this season to date, after going 29-5 in 2008-09;
• 7-0 in the MAC, after finishing 15-1 last year and winning a fifth-straight league regular-season title;
• 196-77 since Curt Miller took the BGSU helm in May of 2001;
• 101-34 in MAC games in that time:
• 187-58 overall in the seven years (plus 21 games) 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);
• 175-42 over the last six-plus years, with 2008-09 marking BG's sixth-straight season of at least 20 wins;
• a staggering 154-32 in the past five-plus years, with no fewer than 23 wins in each year and a MAC regular-season title in every season;
• an eye-popping 131-24 overall and 66-5 in the MAC regular season in the last four-plus years;
• 103-21 in the last three-plus years, including a 50-5 conference ledger, since seniors Tara Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper joined the program;
• 72-17 overall, and 35-4 in MAC regular-season games, since juniors Chelsea Albert, Tracy Pontius, Lauren Prochaska, Jen Uhl and Kelly Zuercher began their respective playing careers at BGSU;
• 46-9 since sophomores Maribeth Giese and Jessica Slagle ventured to NW Ohio;
• 81-7 in the last 88 games vs. MAC opponents (regular-season and tourney games);
• A perfect 46-0 when shooting 50 percent or better from the field in the Miller Era;
• 165-10 when having a better FG pct. than the opposition in Miller's tenure, including a 14-0 mark this year to date;
• 148-23 when making more free throws during Miller's first eight-plus seasons;
• 115-11 when outrebounding the opponent in the Miller Era;
• 54-18 in January games since Miller took the helm, including 37-4 in the last four-plus seasons;
• 41-4 in MAC home games in the last five-plus seasons; and
• 32-2 in MAC road games over the last four-plus years (with the lone losses during that time coming in 2007-08 at Ball State and last March at Miami).

TAKE SOME, THEY'RE FREE
The Falcons are shooting .787 from the free-throw line as a team, not too far off of last year's school-record .794 pace ... four of BGSU's five starters have shot .826 or better from the stripe to date, with the fifth hitting free throws at a .788 rate.

PRODUCTIVE AT THE STRIPE
As mentioned, the Falcons are shooting a MAC-best .787 from the free-throw line this season ... last year, BGSU had a school-record FT percentage of .794, a rate that ranked fourth in the nation and was the 15th-highest figure in NCAA Division-I history ... individually, junior Lauren Prochaska is shooting .908 from the line this season to date, and ranks third in the country (as of Jan. 24) ... last year, Prochaska led the nation with a .933 FT rate.

LEADERS OF THE MAC
The Falcons lead the MAC in a total of seven team categories, including scoring offense, scoring margin, free-throw percentage, field-goal pct., three-point field-goal pct., assist/turnover ratio and three-pointers made per game ... in MAC games only, BGSU leads the league in each of those categories, plus turnover margin.

TAKING CARE OF THE BALL
It's no secret that a big key to offensive success is limiting turnovers ... if you can force your opponent to turn the ball over while keeping your own turnovers to a minimum, that's even better ... the Falcons, after turning the ball over at least 16 times in each of this season's first seven games, have had 15 or fewer turnovers in 11 of the last 13 contests ... the Falcons have a turnover margin of +3.9 overall and +7.6 in MAC games.

PASSING THEIR BOARDS
Last season, the Falcons had more rebounds than the opponent just 13 times in 34 games ... this year, BGSU has outrebounded the opposition 14 times in the first 21 contests, tying the opponent in that category in one additional game (Hartford) ... when outrebounding opponents, BG is 115-11 in the Curt Miller Era, including a 95-4 mark in the last five-plus seasons.

TREY BIEN!
A pair of juniors are moving up the BGSU career list for three-point field goals made ... Lauren Prochaska, who hit four triples vs. Western Michigan, is in sole possession of second place on that list ... she surpassed the 200 mark in that WMU game ... with 202 long-range makes in her career to date, she trails only school record-holder Liz Honegger ... Honegger made 216 triples from 2003-07 ... Tracy Pontius, in just her second year as a starter, ranks ninth on the list ... Pontius now has 133 threes in her career.

#2 SCORES 20 FOR 28TH TIME
Junior Lauren Prochaska scored 23 points vs. Western Michigan, for her ninth game of 20 points or more this year, and the 28th such contest of her Falcon career ... Prochaska has scored in double digits in 81 of her 89 career games at BGSU, including in 20 of this year's 21 games.

THE FALCON SENIORS
Fourth-year Falcons Tara Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper helped the Brown and Orange average 28.7 wins per season in their first three years after arriving on campus ... that trio has been a part of the two winningest teams in program history, as well as four of the five national postseason wins in BG annals ... BGSU has gone 103-21 overall and 50-5 in MAC regular-season action since Breske, Bugher and Clapper came to the school ... Tamika Nurse, a fifth-year senior, is in her first playing season after sitting out last year as a transfer from the Univ. of Oregon.

THE JUNIORS
BGSU has posted a record of 72-17 overall, and the Falcons are 35-4 in MAC regular-season games since Chelsea Albert, Tracy Pontius, Lauren Prochaska, Jen Uhl and Kelly Zuercher set foot on campus ... the team has won an average of 27.5 games per year through their first two seasons ... the Falcons have played national postseason tournament games at Anderson Arena in each year, beating Dayton in the '08 WNIT and facing Syracuse and Indiana in that tourney at home in 2009 ... Maggie Hennegan joined that group for the 2009-10 season ... Hennegan sat out last season as a transfer after playing two years at Saint Louis Univ.

THE SOPHOMORES
Maribeth Giese and Jessica Slagle helped the Brown and Orange to 29 wins – the second-highest total in MAC history – along with a school-record 25-game winning streak in their first year in BG ... the Falcons are 46-9 overall and 22-1 in the MAC since the duo arrived in Northwest Ohio ... Danielle Havel is a member of the sophomore class, but will sit out the 2009-10 season after transferring from DePaul.

THE FRESHMEN
Four freshmen joined the Falcons for the 2009-10 season ... that list includes Simone Eli (Genoa, Ohio/Genoa), Allison Papenfuss (Whitehouse, Ohio/Anthony Wayne), Chrissy Steffen (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) and Jessie Tamerlano (North Royalton, Ohio/North Royalton).

UP NEXT
The Falcons return home for one of just three February games at venerable Anderson Arena, facing Northern Illinois University on Tuesday night (Feb. 2).

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