Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Arkansas-Little Rock
Falcons Head to Emerald City for Weekend Tourney
November 25, 2010 | Women's Basketball
BGSU to take part in Seattle University Thanksgiving Tournament
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after going a perfect 4-0 on the just-completed homestand, heads three time zones West for a pair of weekend games in Seattle ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller will play a pair of games in the Seattle University Thanksgiving Tournament ... BGSU will face UALR on Friday evening (Nov. 26), in a battle of NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago ... tipoff is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. locally (9:00 p.m. Eastern) at Seattle's Connolly Center (1,050) ... host Seattle University takes on Montana State University in Friday's second game ... the tourney concludes on Saturday (Nov. 27), with the consolation game beginning at 6:00 p.m. locally (9:00 p.m. ET) and the championship game tentatively set for 8:00 p.m. local time (11:00 p.m. ET) ... Miller and his staff returned 10 letterwinners, including three starters, from last year's 27-7 team that won the Mid-American Conference regular-season and tournament titles and advanced to the NCAA Championships.
BGSU NOTES & STATS - PDF
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STABILITY BREEDS SUCCESS
Part of the reason for Bowling Green's women's basketball success has been the stability at the top ... the coaching staff – head coach Curt Miller, associate head coach Jennifer Roos, and assistant coaches Brandi Poole and Kevin Eckert – has been intact for nine years ... Miller is in his 10th season at the helm of the Falcons ... Roos and Poole were on board during that 2001-02 season as well, with Eckert joining the staff in time for the 2002-03 campaign ... Bowling Green is one of just three NCAA Division-I women's basketball programs in the entire nation in which all four full-time coaches (head coach and three assistants) are in at least their ninth consecutive year at the school ... the list ...
LONGEST-TENURED NCAA DIVISION-I PROGRAMS
(All four coaches are in at least their ninth year with the school)
MONTANA – (Head Coach Robin Selvig – 33rd season • Asst. Coach Annette Rocheleau – 30th season • Asst. Coach Shannon Schweyen – 19th season • Asst. Coach Trish Duce – 17th season
BOWLING GREEN – (Head Coach Curt Miller – 10th season • Associate H.C. Jennifer Roos – 10th season • Asst. Coach Brandi Poole – 10th season • Asst. Coach Kevin Eckert – ninth season)
NORTH CAROLINA – (Head Coach Sylvia Hatchell – 25th season • Associate H.C. Andrew Calder – 25th season • Asst. Coach Tracey Williams-Johnson – 12 th season • Asst. Coach Charlotte Smith – ninth season)
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons will enter the UALR game with a record of 4-1 ... BGSU is 4-0 at home and 0-1 on the road to date ... the Falcons suffered a 63-62 loss at Evansville in the regular-season opener (Nov. 12) ... but, the Brown and Orange bounced back with four-straight wins, by a combined 131 points ... BG posted a 79-53 win over Creighton in the home opener (Nov. 15), then dismantled Youngstown State, 86-40, two days later (Nov. 17) ... the Falcons topped Oakland by an 80-46 outcome on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 20), before concluding the homestand with Wednesday's (Nov. 24) 88-63 over Detroit.
• Senior Lauren Prochaska, the MAC Player of the Year in each of the last two seasons, is averaging a team-high 19.8 points per game, and also paces the Falcons with 7.6 rebounds per contest ... classmate Tracy Pontius has 15.4 ppg, and has a team-leading 14 three-point field goals made ... Pontius is shooting 41.2 percent from beyond the arc ... another senior, Maggie Hennegan, has 11.0 ppg and 5.8 rpg ... Hennegan had a double-double at UE, with 12 points and 10 boards, and Prochaska had her 10th career double-double vs. YSU, scoring 24 points and pulling down 10 rebounds.
• Head coach Curt Miller's starting lineup for each of the first five games has included four seniors in Hennegan, Pontius, Prochaska and Jen Uhl, along with sophomore Chrissy Steffen.
• Steffen is fourth on the team with 8.4 ppg, and also has 3.8 rpg ... Prochaska paces BGSU in assists (3.4 apg), with Pontius right behind (3.2 apg) ... Prochaska has a team-high average of 2.0 steals per game, while Hennegan leads the Falcons with 1.4 blocked shots per contest.
• BGSU returned 10 letterwinners, including three starters, from last year's team that won 27 games, captured MAC regular-season and tournament titles and advanced to the NCAA Championships ... the Falcons finished the 2009-10 season with an overall record of 27-7, and BGSU went 14-2 in MAC play ... BG won an outright MAC regular-season championship for the sixth-straight season, a conference record ... the Falcons earned the league's East Division title for the fifth consecutive year (after winning the West crown in 2005) ... BGSU won three more games in Cleveland to capture the MAC Tournament title for the fourth time in those six seasons ... the Falcons went 13-0 at home, 11-6 on the road and 3-1 in neutral-site games last year ... the neutral-site games came in the MAC Tournament and in the NCAA Championships.
• The Falcons lost the services of four seniors – Tara Breske, Laura Bugher, Sarah Clapper and Tamika Nurse – from a year ago ... the three fourth-year players were part of 113 wins, the second-highest total in school and MAC annals ... Nurse was in her first playing season in 2009-10 after transferring from the University of Oregon ... Breske, Bugher and Clapper averaged 28.25 wins per season and helped the Falcons go 57-7 in MAC regular-season games after their arrival on campus.
• Miller and his staff have six seniors on the 15-player active roster this year ... that group includes three returning starters in Prochaska, Pontius and Uhl ... Prochaska and Pontius each started all 34 games a year ago, while Uhl made 31 starts ... Prochaska, of course, has been named the MAC Player of the Year in each of the last two seasons, while Pontius earned all-league second-team honors in 2009-10.
• Hennegan, a co-captain along with Prochaska, played in all 34 games last season ... post players Chelsea Albert and Kelly Zuercher round out the senior class ... Zuercher played in 30 games off the bench last winter, while Albert appeared in 28 contests.
• The Falcons' lone junior is Jessica Slagle, who played in every game last season ... BG has a pair of redshirt sophomores in Maribeth Giese and Danielle Havel ... Giese played in two games early last season before suffering an injury and sitting out the rest of the season as a redshirt ... Havel sat out the entire campaign after transferring from DePaul University.
• The roster includes three true sophomores in Simone Eli, Allison Papenfuss and Steffen ... four newcomers join the program in 2010-11 ... that list includes a pair of guards in Jillian Halfhill and Noelle Yoder, along with post player Jill Stein ... additionally, Alexis Rogers joins the program, but will sit out this season after transferring from Duke University ... she will retain three seasons of eligibility.
LAST TIME OUT
The Falcons scored the first 13 points of the game en route to an 88-63 win over Detroit Wednesday night (Nov. 24) at Anderson Arena ... senior Lauren Prochaska had 26 points to lead all players ... Prochaska hit three-pointers to start and end the game-opening run ... seniors Tracy Pontius and Jen Uhl joined Prochaska in double figures ... Pontius scored 18 points and Uhl added 11 in the win ... Uhl had a game-high eight rebounds as the Falcons enjoyed a 33-26 advantage on the glass ... Jalesa Jones led the Titans with 16 points, while Yar Shayok chipped in with 13 ... Prochaska, the BGSU career leader in three-point field goals made, was 4-of-8 from long range vs. the Titans ... she now has 252 triples in her three-plus years ... in addition to her total of 26 points, Prochaska's well-rounded game included seven rebounds, five assists, two steals and two blocked shots ... senior Maggie Hennegan and sophomore Chrissy Steffen each had nine ponts in the win, while junior Jessica Slagle added seven off the bench ... senior Chelsea Albert scored five points in 10 minutes, making both of her field-goal attempts ... BGSU shot an even 50 percent from the field in each half, winding up with the team's highest field-goal percentage of the season ... the Falcons were an otherworldly 27-of-28 from the free-throw line, good for a 96.4% success rate ... BG made 26 consecutive foul shots after a 1-for-2 start ... for their part, the Titans shot 44.6% from the floor, including a 51.6% rate in the second 20 minutes.
A QUICK LOOK AT UALR
UALR will bring a record of 2-1 into Friday's game in Seattle ... the Trojans have picked up home wins over Davidson (76-51; Nov. 12) and Louisiana Tech, sandwiched around a road loss against No. 8 Texas Tech (41-87; Nov. 16) ... UALR received two votes in this week's USA Today ESPN Top 25 Coaches' Poll ... the team's most recent game was the Louisiana Tech contest, a 59-55 win on Friday (Nov. 19) ... the Trojans were third in the latest collegeinsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 (BGSU was ninth) ... senior forward Chastity Reed leads the team in scoring, with 23.0 points per game to date ... she is shooting 53.8 percent from the field, and also has 4.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists and a team-leading 3.0 steals per game ... senior point guard Aariel Rolfe has 9.0 points per game, and leads the team with 7.7 assists per outing ... freshman forward Hannah Fohne has 5.3 points and a team-leading 4.7 rebounds per game ... Fohne and Rolfe are the only two players to have started all three games to date ... a total of nine different players have started at least one game for coach Joe Foley ... Foley, in his eighth season as head coach of the Trojans, welcomed back seven letterwinners, including four starters, from last year's club ... the 2009-10 team went 27-7 overall and won the Sun Belt Conference's West Division with a 17-1 league ledger ... UALR made the first NCAA Championships appearance in school history, and advanced to the second round with a win over Georgia Tech ... the school's athletics web site is www.UALRTrojans.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons have never met UALR ... in fact, BGSU has never faced any of the other three teams in the Seattle University Thanksgiving Tournament field in women's basketball.
THE MONTANA STATE - SEATTLE MATCHUP
Montana State will meet the host school, Seattle, in Friday's other first-round game ... a few quick notes about those two programs ...
• Montana State is 2-2 on the season ... the Bobcats lost to Rice and Baylor to open the season, but have won the last two games, over Florida International and Southern Utah ... Lyn Siedensticker is one of four Bobcats scoring in double digits, with 16.5 points per game ... Katie Bussey has 15.0 ppg, while Sarah Balian has 12.5 ppg and a team-leading 8.0 rebounds per game ... last year, Tricia Binford's team went 18-14 overall and 9-7 in Big Sky Conference play ... seven letterwinners, including four starters, are back from that team.
• Seattle is 0-4 this year to date ... the Redhawks dropped home games to Cal Poly and Cal State Fullerton (a future BGSU opponent), and suffered road setbacks to UC Riverside and San Diego ... Elle Kerfoot has 11.0 points per game, while Tatiana Heck has 10.5 ppg and 4.8 rebounds per outing ... Salena Dickerson has 8.8 ppg and 5.3 rpg ...a year ago, head coach Joan Bonvicini's team went 6-24 ... Bonvicini, in her second season, welcomed back six letterwinners, including three starters.
• The Falcons have never faced Montana State, but BGSU has played in a tournament hosted by MSU ... exactly 11 years ago (Nov. 26-27, 1999), the Brown and Orange split a pair of games in the GranTree Inn Classic in Bozeman, Mont. ... BGSU lost to Mississippi, 80-63, in the first round, and downed Morehead State by an 88-76 count in the consolation game.
• That BGSU-Mississippi game saw the teams combine to set the NCAA records for three-point field goals made (31) and attempted (75) by two teams in a game ... Ole Miss made 17 three-pointers in 41 attempts, while the Falcons hit 14 triples in 34 tries ... both of those two-team records still stand.
• BGSU has never faced Seattle University, but Curt Miller's Falcons have played in the city of Seattle ... the first of Miller's six MAC championship teams played an NCAA Championships first-round game at Hec Edmondson Pavilion on the University of Washington ... the Falcons, seeded 13th in the Kansas City Regional, suffered a 70-60 loss to fourth-seeded Kansas State (March 19, 2005).
• Seattle assistant coach Jamie Angeli has Bowling Green ties ... Angeli spent two seasons on the BGSU men's basketball staff under Jim Larranaga ... he helped the Brown and Orange to an 18-11 overall record in the 1989-90 season, and a 17-13 mark in 1990-91 ... the Falcons posted a win over Michigan State in each of those two years, and BG advanced to the NIT in both seasons.
WE MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE (THAT ROARS)
Wednesday's Detroit game continued an impressive streak for the Falcons ... BGSU has won 33 consecutive regular-season home games at "The House That Roars" ... the Falcons' last regular-season loss at Anderson Arena came vs. Western Michigan on Jan. 30, 2008 ... a few more Anderson Arena-related notes ...
• Overall, BGSU has won 16 home games in a row, and 35 of the last 36 ... the lone loss in that stretch came to Indiana in the third round of the 2009 WNIT ... 30 of the Falcons' 35 wins in that span have come by double digits.
• In 2009-10, the Falcons posted a 13-0 home regular-season record for the second consecutive year ... BGSU has gone undefeated at home in the regular season seven times in program history ... in three of those years, including in 2008-09, the Falcons' lone blemish was a home loss suffered in national tournament play.
HOME COOKIN'
BGSU just completed quite a successful homestand, to say the least ... the Falcons went a perfect 4-0 on the season-long homestand, winning by an average of 32.8 points per game ... BG scored an average of 83.3 points per contest, winning every game by at least 25 points.
TREY BIEN! PROCHASKA, PONTIUS AMONG BGSU'S TOP FOUR
A pair of BGSU seniors are high atop the school's three-point field-goal list ... Lauren Prochaska is the most prolific three-point shooter in BGSU history, and Tracy Pontius has moved into the top four ... through three seasons (plus five games), Prochaska has a total of 252 three-point field goals made ... she broke the BGSU record set by Liz Honegger, who made 216 triples from 2003-07 ... Pontius hit five triples in the win over Oakland, and jumped three spots on the school list ... with another trey in the Detroit game, Pontius now has 173 threes in her career ... she has tied Sara Puthoff (173 from 1994-98) for third place ... Prochaska has a shot at breaking the MAC career record of 323 three-pointers made, set by Ball State's Audrey McDonald.
CLEANING THE GLASS
It is safe to say that the Falcons have been winning the battles on the boards this season to date ... five games in, BG has outrebounded the opponent in every contest, and the Falcons are averaging 42.6 rebounds per game, to the opponents' 30.6 ... a few more rebounding-related notes ...
• BGSU had a rebounding margin of +10 or better in each of the first three games ... it marked the first time the Falcons posted three-straight double-digit rebounding advantages in nearly three years (vs. UT Martin, Chicago State and Akron in the 2007-08 season).
• The Falcons had a double-digit rebounding advantage over the opponent only four times in 34 games last year, and turned the trick just twice in 34 contests in 2008-09 ... BG is 3-for-3 in that area, with a +6 in the other game, in '10-11.
• The Falcons' total of 56 rebounds in the Nov. 17 win over Youngstown State was the team's highest in just under six years, since BGSU pulled down 64 boards in a 115-84 track meet at IPFW (Nov. 19, 2004).
• BGSU had a rebounding margin of +26 vs. YSU ... the Falcons had not enjoyed such a decisive advantage on the boards since March of 1993 ... that season (March 13, 1993), BG pulled down 59 rebounds to Kent's 31, in a 96-68 victory over the Golden Flashes in the championship game of the MAC Tournament in Columbus.
UP NEXT
Following the trip to Seattle, the Falcons will return home for a two-game homestand, beginning with a Wednesday (Dec. 1) game vs. nationally-ranked Vanderbilt ... tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at Anderson Arena.
