Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Buffalo
Falcons Close East Division Swing with Tuesday Game at UB
January 17, 2011 | Women's Basketball
BGSU battles the Bulls in Western New York
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, coming off of a loss for the first time in over two months, concludes a two-game Mid-American Conference road swing with a trip to Western New York ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller will face the University at Buffalo in Tuesday (Jan. 18) action ... tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at UB's Alumni Arena (6,100) ... Miller and his staff returned 10 letterwinners, including three starters, from last year's 27-7 team that won the MAC regular-season and tournament titles and advanced to the NCAA Championships.
BGSU NOTES & STATS - PDF | BUFFALO NOTES & STATS - PDF
THE STREAK IS OVER
BGSU's 44-43 loss at Kent State on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 15) snapped the Falcons' winning streak at 15 games ... it was the ninth double-digit winning streak in school history, and the fifth in six seasons ... Curt Miller's teams had a double-figure win streak in each of four-straight seasons, including a school-record 25-game winning streak after an 0-2 start two years ago ... last year, BGSU did not have a win streak reach double digits, but the Brown and Orange had a pair of eight-game streaks.
MORE ON THE STREAK THAT WAS
BGSU's 15-game winning streak had been tied for the longest in the nation as of Thursday afternoon (Jan. 13) ... both Duke and Miami (Fla.) also had 15-game streaks at the time ... the Blue Devils and Hurricanes each extended their respective streaks to 16 games on Friday night (Jan. 14) meaning that the Falcons' streak was the third-longest in the nation when BG began Saturday's game at Kent State.
BEST START IN SCHOOL HISTORY
Despite the loss at KSU, the Falcons' 15-2 record is still tied for the best start in school history ... the 2010-11 team is the fifth in BGSU history – and the fourth under Curt Miller – to begin the year with a 15-2 record ...
• Fran Voll's 1986-87 club began the season with a 6-2 mark, then won 21 consecutive games, a streak that took BGSU all the way to the NCAA Championships.
• The 2005-06 team began the year with a 9-1 record, but lost the season's 11th game, in overtime at Kentucky ... that '05-06 club then proceeded to win the next 19 games to advance to the NCAA Championships.
• The following year (2006-07), BGSU began the season with a 7-2 mark ... after a loss to Duke in Cancun, Mexico, the Brown and Orange won the next 18 games.
• Two years ago (2008-09), the Falcons started the year with an 0-2 record, losing at Temple and Valparaiso ... BG then proceeded to reel off a school-record 25-game winning streak that did not end until early March.
ANOTHER STREAK ENDS
The Falcons saw another streak come to an end on Saturday afternoon ... BGSU had won 13 consecutive games against Kent State ... prior to Saturday, the Golden Flashes had not beaten the Falcons since January 26, 2005 ... BG's 13-game series winning streak came after KSU had won 12-straight matchups against the Falcons.
PROCHASKA JOINS 2,000-POINT CLUB
BGSU senior Lauren Prochaska has joined a very exclusive club ... with her basket just over eight minutes into Wednesday's (Jan. 12) win over Akron, the native of Plain City, Ohio surpassed the 2,000-point mark for her career ... Prochaska became just the second player in school history, and only the 10th in MAC annals, to reach that milestone ... entering the Buffalo game, Prochaska now has a total of 2,035 career points, ranking ninth.
PROCHASKA SECOND ON THE BG LIST
Senior Lauren Prochaska, as was mentioned in the previous note, resides in second place on the BGSU career scoring list, and is now exactly 100 points shy of matching the school record ... after scoring 13 points at Kent State, Prochaska now has a total of 2,035 points in 119 career games ... she trails only Jackie Motycka (2,122 points from 1985-89) on the BG list ... Prochaska is averaging 17.1 points per game, the second-highest average in BGSU annals, in her storied Falcon career.
HOLDING ON TO THE BALL
• The Falcons have been successful at limiting turnovers this season ... as of the last NCAA rankings (last Monday, Jan. 10), BGSU was third in the nation in fewest turnovers per game (13.4) ... that average is now at 13.8 entering the Buffalo game ... in each of the Falcons' 15 wins, BGSU has committed fewer turnovers than the opponents.
• BG and Evansville each coughed the ball up 19 times in the season opener ... then, however, BGSU committed 15 or fewer turnovers in 14 of the next 15 games, before turning the ball over 19 times at KSU.
• During the 15-game win streak, the Falcons forced the opponent into an average of 18.8 turnovers per contest ... overall, BG has forced 15 or more opponent turnovers in 16 of this year's 17 games, including 19 or more in 11 of those contests (see game-by-game list in the PDF version of these notes, available at the top of this page).
• BGSU enjoyed a 77-12 advantage in points off turnovers in last week's two-game homestand ... the Falcons had a whopping 40-3 advantage in points off turnovers in the win over Miami, then had 37 points off turnovers to Akron's nine ... BGSU's +37 margin in the points-off-turnovers category in the MU game was the team's highest since at least the 2001-02 season (records for the specialty categories are incomplete prior to '02-03).
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons will enter the Buffalo game with an overall record of 15-2, and BGSU is 3-1 in MAC play ... the Falcons are 9-0 at home, 5-2 on the road and 1-0 in neutral-site games to date ... BG saw one of the longest streaks in the nation – a 15-game overall winning streak – come to an end on Saturday (Jan. 15) at Kent State ... BGSU still owns one of the longest homecourt winning streaks in the country, having won 22-straight games at venerable Anderson Arena.
• BG received votes in each of the most recent national top-25 polls, last Monday's (Jan. 10) Associated Press poll and Tuesday's (Jan. 11) USA Today ESPN Coaches poll ... the Falcons were ranked 43th in the nation in the most recent NCAA RPI rankings (released Jan. 11), and BGSU was ranked second in the last CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 ... all of these rankings, of course, came prior to the Falcons' 44-43 loss at Kent State.
• The Falcons suffered a 63-62 loss at Evansville in the regular-season opener (Nov. 12), but BG bounced back with 15-straight wins before losing at KSU ... in non-conference play, BGSU's victims included Creighton, Youngstown State, Oakland, Detroit, #23/23 Vanderbilt, Cal State Fullerton and Canisius at Anderson Arena; Seattle, Western Kentucky, Austin Peay and Butler on the road; and UALR at a neutral site ... the Brown and Orange opened MAC play with a 66-54 win at Ohio (Jan. 5), before returning home and scoring 90 points in back-to-back victories ... BG downed Miami, 90-52, on Saturday (Jan. 8), then topped Akron by a 90-72 count on Wednesday (Jan. 12) prior to losing at Kent three days later.
• 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 6.0 rebounds per contest ... Prochaska has scored 20 or more points in 10 games this year, including a season-high 31-point performance in the win over Vanderbilt and 28 more in the Akron game ... classmate Tracy Pontius has 12.8 ppg to date, and leads the team with 4.2 assists per outing.
• Prochaska has made 45 three-point field goals this year, while Pontius has hit 40 shots from long range ... Prochaska and Pontius are shooting 42.9 and 33.7 percent from beyond the arc, respectively ... Prochaska is 99-of-106 (93.4%) from the free-throw line on the year, and was sixth in the nation in that category in the latest NCAA rankings ... she was 20th in the country in scoring, while Pontius was ranked 10th in assist/turnover ratio (2.67) in the most recent NCAA listings.
• Head coach Curt Miller's starting lineup for each of the first 17 games has remained unchanged ... that lineup has included four seniors in Pontius, Prochaska, Maggie Hennegan and Jen Uhl, along with sophomore Chrissy Steffen.
• Steffen, Hennegan and Uhl rank third through fifth on the team in scoring, and all three have scored between 139 and 155 points this season ... Steffen has 9.1 ppg and has hit 25 three-pointers this year to date ... she leads the Falcons in steals, with 1.9 per game (Steffen has 32 steals, Prochaska 31 and Pontius 29 this year) ... Hennegan and Uhl are averaging 8.5 and 8.2 ppg, respectively ... Hennegan is second on the team in rebounding, with 5.5 rpg, while Uhl is third in that category (5.1 rpg) ... Hennegan has averaged 11.0 ppg in the four MAC contests, tied for second on the team, and she leads the Falcons in blocked shots (1.2 bpg) ... Uhl has averaged 10.9 ppg and a team-leading 5.6 rpg over the last 11 contests.
• 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.
• 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.
• Slagle and Papenfuss each have played in all 17 games off the bench to date, and have 3.6 and 3.3 ppg, respectively ... Slagle has hit eight of her 16 three-point attempts this year, while Papenfuss has 2.5 rpg, ranking sixth on the team in that category.
• Havel also has seen action in all 17 games, while Zuercher and Albert and have played in 15 and 14, respectively ... all 15 players on the active roster have played in at least eight contests.
• BGSU is shooting 42.4% from the field, 37.9% from three-point land and 79.4% from the free-throw line ... BG has allowed opponents to shoot 38.1% from the floor and 27.7% from beyond the arc ... Falcon foes are shooting 67.7% from the stripe ... BGSU has made over 100 more free throws than the opponents, and the Falcons have made 39 more free throws than the foes have attempted.
LAST TIME OUT
Kent State snapped a number of BGSU winning streaks with a 44-43 victory over the Falcons at the M.A.C. Center Saturday afternoon (Jan. 15) ... with the win, the Golden Flashes assumed sole possession of first place in the MAC's East Division ... for the Falcons, the loss snapped a 15-game overall winning streak, as well as a 13-game win streak in the series ... senior Lauren Prochaska paced the Falcons with 13 points ... KSU's Jamilah Humes led all players with 16 points, while teammate Taisja Jones had 11 ... after the Falcons recovered from Kent's game-opening 11-2 run, neither team led by more than five points over the remainder of the contest ... the game featured a total of 42 turnovers, and just 33 field goals made ... after the Falcons and Flashes combined to score just 67 points over the first 33-plus minutes, the offenses got clicking in the next few minutes ... senior Jen Uhl hit two free throws with 1:36 left that proved to be the final points for either team ... KSU missed a three-point shot on the next possession, but the Falcons missed a triple try as well ... then, each team turned the ball over, and BG fouled with 14.5 seconds left ... the foul was the Falcons' sixth of the half ... after the ensuing inbounds pass, sophomore Chrissy Steffen tied Humes up in the backcourt, giving the ball back to the Falcons ... Steffen's contested layup would not drop, though, and Humes rebounded the ball and was fouled with 4.9 seconds left ... Humes missed the front end of a one-and-one, and BG rebounded, but a shot by senior Tracy Pontius, from over half the length of the court away, bounced off the rim as the Flashes celebrated.
A QUICK LOOK AT BUFFALO
Buffalo will enter Tuesday's game with an overall record of 9-8, and the Bulls are 2-2 in MAC action ... UB already has surpassed the win total for all of last season, and – just a quarter of the way through the MAC schedule – is just one win shy of last year's conference victory total ... the Bulls are 2-4 at home, 5-2 in road games and 2-2 in neutral-site contests to date ... most recently, the Bulls picked up a 65-51 win at Ohio on Saturday (Jan. 15) ... UB's other MAC win came on the road against Akron ... the Bulls' two losses in league play each came by single digits, at home vs. Kent State and on the road against Miami ... individually, senior forward Kourtney Brown leads the team in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots ... in fact, she leads the entire MAC in all three categories, as well as in field-goal percentage ... Brown is averaging a double-double, with 22.2 points and 11.9 rebounds per game ... she has 2.6 blocks per outing, and is shooting 62.3 percent from the field ... Brown is averaging 27.0 ppg in MAC games, shooting 73.7% in those four contests ... junior guard Brittany Hedderson has 11.5 ppg and 4.8 rpg, while senior forward Jessica Fortman has 6.8 ppg and 5.2 rpg to date ... senior guard Ashley Zuber has scored 6.2 ppg, and leads the Bulls – and the MAC – with 6.2 assists per contest ... Brown, Fortman and Hedderson each have started all 17 games to date ... Zuber and senior forward Bridgette Kendricks (4.3 ppg) have joined that trio in the starting lineup for all four MAC contests for head coach Linda Hill-MacDonald ... Hill-MacDonald, in her sixth season in Western New York, welcomed back 11 letterwinners, including all five starters, from last year's club ... the 2009-10 team went 7-23 overall and 3-13 in MAC play ... the school's athletics web site is www.buffalobulls.com.
SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE
Something has to give when the Falcons meet Buffalo on Tuesday night ... a pretty-much-unstoppable force will go up against an almost-immovable object ... BGSU has not allowed an opposing player to score 20 points in any of this year's 17 games to date ... Buffalo's Kourtney Brown, however, is averaging more than 20 points per game, and has scored over 20 points in 11 of the Bulls' 17 games, including three games of more than 30 points.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Buffalo, 16-5, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU has won the last 12 meetings ... last season, the Falcons captured both regular-season meetings, with a 78-60 win at Anderson Arena (Jan. 13, 2010) and an 81-64 victory in Buffalo (Feb. 24, 2010) ... BGSU is 8-3 in road games vs. the Bulls, and the Falcons have won six-straight games at Alumni Arena ... Curt Miller has a record of 14-1 against Buffalo in his BGSU career.
BGSU-BUFFALO TIES
BGSU assistant coach Kevin Eckert, in his ninth year with the Falcons, spent four seasons on the women's basketball staff at UB before coming to Northwest Ohio.
THE FALCONS ARE/WERE ...
• 15-2 this season to date; after going 27-7 last season;
• 3-1 in MAC play this season; after going 14-2 last winter, in the process winning a sixth-straight league regular-season title;
• 221-82 since Curt Miller took the BGSU helm in May of 2001;
• 111-37 in MAC games in that time:
• 212-63 overall in the eight years (plus 17 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);
• 200-47 over the last seven-plus years, with 2009-10 marking BG's seventh-straight season of at least 20 wins;
• a staggering 179-37 in the past six-plus years, with no fewer than 23 wins and a MAC regular-season title in each of the last six seasons;
• an eye-popping 156-29 overall, and 76-8 in the MAC regular season, in the last five-plus years, with at least 26 wins each year;
• a/an (insert your own adjective here) 128-26 in the last four-plus years, including a 60-8 conference ledger;
• 97-22 overall, and 45-7 in MAC regular-season games, since seniors Chelsea Albert, Tracy Pontius, Lauren Prochaska, Jen Uhl and Kelly Zuercher began their respective playing careers at BGSU;
• 71-14 overall and 32-4 in MAC action since junior Jessica Slagle and redshirt soph Maribeth Giese ventured to NW Ohio;
• 42-9 overall and 17-3 in the MAC in the BGSU playing careers of senior Maggie Hennegan and sophomores Simone Eli, Allison Papenfuss and Chrissy Steffen (2009-10 was Hennegan's first playing season at BGSU, after she sat out the prior year as a transfer from Saint Louis Univ.);
• 94-10 in the last 104 games vs. MAC opponents (regular-season and tournament);
• A perfect 52-0 when shooting 50 percent or better from the field in the Miller Era;
• 182-10 when having a better FG pct. than the opposition in Miller's tenure, including a 54-0 mark in the last two-plus seasons;
• 168-27 when making more free throws during Miller's first nine-plus years;
• 132-12 when outrebounding the opponent in the Miller Era;
• 46-4 in MAC home games in the last six-plus seasons, including three 8-0 marks; and
• 37-5 in MAC road games over the last five-plus years.
PONTIUS ALSO RESIDES IN THE TOP 20 ON BGSU LIST
As mentioned several times in this game-notes packet, Falcon senior Lauren Prochaska has surpassed the 2,000-point mark for her career ... classmate Tracy Pontius, like Prochaska, resides in the BGSU top-20 in career points ... with her first basket this season (in the opener at Evansville on Nov. 12), Pontius surpassed the 1,000-point mark for her career ... Pontius became the 24th player to reach the milestone ... heading into the Buffalo game, Pontius has a total of 1,216 points as a Falcon ... over 1,000 of those points have come since the start of her sophomore season ... Pontius currently sits in 17th place on the BGSU scoring list, having passed Jacki Raterman (1,213 points) in the Kent State game ... for Pontius, her next target on that list is 16th-place Melissa Chase (1,223 pts. from 1979-83), with 15th-place Michelle Shade (1,233 pts. from 1991-95) also in her sights.
TREY BIEN! PROCHASKA, PONTIUS AMONG BGSU'S TOP THREE
A pair of BGSU seniors sit high atop the school's three-point field-goal list ... Lauren Prochaska is the most prolific long-range shooter in school history, and Tracy Pontius has moved into the top three ... entering the Buffalo game, Prochaska has a total of 286 three-point field goals made ... she broke the BGSU record set by Liz Honegger (216 triples from 2003-07) last season ... Pontius now has 199 career threes, ranking third at BGSU ... Prochaska has a shot at breaking the MAC career record of 323 three-pointers made, set by Ball State's Audrey McDonald.
SPEAKING OF THAT RECORD ...
As mentioned (about five seconds ago), senior Lauren Prochaska has an outside chance (no pun intended) to break the Mid-American Conference record for three-point field goals made in a career ... Prochaska hit four triples in the Akron game, moving past former Western Michigan sharpshooter Casey Rost into second place on the MAC list in the process.
THREE-MENDOUS! MANY FALCONS CONNECTING FROM DOWNTOWN
Seniors Lauren Prochaska and Tracy Pontius are certainly not the only Falcons with the capability to score from beyond the arc ... no fewer than 12 different players have hit at least one three-point field goal this season ... and, two of the three players on the active roster who have not made a triple – senior Chelsea Albert and freshman Jill Stein – have not attempted one.
70 IS A MAGIC NUMBER
BGSU has scored 70 or more points in 12 of the season's first 17 games, and the Falcons have posted a perfect 12-0 mark in those contests ... at the other end of the court, the Falcons have held 16 of the 17 foes under 70 points this year to date ... BG is 14-2 in those games ... last week (Jan. 12), Akron scored 72 points to become the first Falcon foe to surpass 70 points this year.
PONTIUS MOVING UP BGSU ASSISTS LIST
Senior Tracy Pontius had a career-high 10 assists in the win over Fullerton (Dec. 4), in the process moving past Judit Lendvay (304 from 1989-93) into eighth place in school history ... heading into the KSU game, Pontius now has a career total of 345 assists ... she is two shy of matching seventh-place Cathy Koch (1988-92).
CLOSING THE DOORS OF THE HOUSE THAT ROARS
The 2010-11 season is the final year that BGSU's teams will call Anderson Arena home, and there are many events planned as part of the year-long celebration ... the All-Anderson teams for men's and women's basketball, announced in October, will be recognized at a home game ... for the BGSU women, the All-Anderson Team recognition is scheduled for the Feb. 5 game vs. Ball State ... the final women's home regular-season game inside "The House That Roars" will be March 2 vs. Buffalo ... on March 5, the festivities culminate with the B!G Event, a final farewell celebration at 8:00 p.m. ... this once-in-a-lifetime event will be attended by hundreds of Falcon faithful, as well as members of all three All-Anderson Teams, other former letterwinners, current players and coaching staff members ... for more information, contact the athletics department at 419-372-2401 or rlynv@bgsu.edu.
CAPTAINS
Seniors Maggie Hennegan and Lauren Prochaska are the captains of the 2010-11 Falcons ... Hennegan is a captain for the second consecutive year ... she was chosen as a captain before ever playing her first game as a Falcon.
UP NEXT
Following the Buffalo game, the Falcons begin cross-divisional play with a pair of home games, starting with a Saturday (Jan. 22) game vs. Central Michigan ... tipoff for that game is 12:07 p.m. at Anderson Arena ... the game will be televised by SportsTime Ohio as part of the MAC's TV Game-of-the-Week package.
