Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Akron
Falcons Venture to Akron for Tuesday Tilt
February 21, 2011 | Women's Basketball
BGSU faces Zips to close road portion of regular-season schedule
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team hits the road for the final time in regular-season play ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller will head to Northeast Ohio for a Tuesday (Feb. 22) game vs. the University of Akron ... tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at Rhodes Arena (5,500) ... 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.
PDF LINKS
BGSU NOTES & STATS
AKRON NOTES & STATS
TREY BIEN: PROCHASKA, PONTIUS RACK UP LONG-DISTANCE FEES
The top-two long-distance shooters in BGSU history reside on the current roster ... seniors Lauren Prochaska and Tracy Pontius rank first and second, respectively, on the BGSU list for three-pointers made ... Prochaska broke the school career record last season, and now has hit 298 three-pointers since venturing to Northwest Ohio ... Pontius hit a game-high five triples in Saturday's (Feb. 19) win at Miami, in the process moving past Liz Honegger (216 triples from 2003-07) into second place on the BGSU list ... Pontius now has 217 career threes.
STREAKS COLLIDE ON TUESDAY
The Falcons and Akron each bring a modest winning streak into Tuesday's game in the Rubber City ... BGSU has won five consecutive games, coinciding with the start of February ... the Zips have captured four-straight games, tying a season high ... Akron has climbed into a tie for third place in the MAC's East Division after starting conference play with a 2-7 mark ... the winning streaks by the Falcons and Zips are the two longest current win streaks in the East.
MILLER MOVES UP
Falcon head coach Curt Miller became the winningest coach in program history long ago ... now, Miller has moved up another notch on the Mid-American Conference list ... BGSU's 73-61 win at Miami on Saturday afternoon (Feb. 19) was the 118th MAC victory of Miller's career, moving him into sole possession of third place on the conference list ... Miller moved past former BG and Central Michigan coach Fran Voll, who had 117 MAC victories in his career ... overall, Miller now has 228 career wins, also the third-highest total among MAC coaches ... Kent State's Bob Lindsay tops each list, while former Toledo coach Mark Ehlen is second on both the MAC's overall and league-only wins lists ... those lists are on page 11 of the PDF version of these game notes.
SHOOTING FOR SUCCESS
Obviously, it helps to have a better field-goal percentage than the opponent ... but, the Falcons have had uncommonly good success in such games over the last few years ... BGSU has not lost since the 2007-08 season when having a better field-goal percentage than the foes ... the Falcons are 58-0 in those games over the past two-plus seasons.
START ME UP: PROCHASKA SETS TWO MORE CAREER RECORDS
Senior Lauren Prochaska, who already held four BGSU career records entering the Miami game, set two more when the ball was tipped at 2:05 p.m. (give or take) on Saturday ... the game marked the 128th start of Prochaska's career, breaking the record of 127 set by Liz Honegger (2003-07) ... additionally, it was Prochaska's 128th consecutive start, topping Honegger's record in that category ... Prochaska has started every game since arriving at BG ... Honegger came off the bench to play in her first collegiate game, in November of 2003, then started each of her final 127 contests.
FALCONS TAKE FLIGHT IN FEBRUARY
BGSU has had a great deal of success in the month of February over the last few years ... the Falcons are 58-16 in the second month of the year during the Curt Miller Era ... since the start of the 2004-05 season, the Falcons are 48-3 in February games.
PONTIUS IS BACK IN A BIG WAY
Senior Tracy Pontius shot herself out of a recent slump, with two big games last week ... after scoring a total of 26 points over the previous five games, Pontius went 6-of-7 from the field and had 17 points in Wednesday's (Feb. 16) win over Ohio ... then, she exploded for a game- and season-high 29 points in Saturday's (Feb. 19) victory at Miami ... Pontius, who had hit only four total field goals in the three previous games, went 15-for-25 in last week's two contests ... vs. Ohio and Miami, she was a combined 9-of-16 from three-point land, including a 4-of-5 effort vs. the Bobcats and a 5-of-11 performance against the RedHawks.
LAUREN PROCHASKA: BGSU'S CAREER SCORING LEADER
Earlier this month, senior Lauren Prochaska broke the BGSU career scoring record ... Prochaska scored a game-high 21 points in the Falcons' win over Ball State on Feb. 5, including the record-breaking layup early in the second half ... she posted up to take a pass from classmate Maggie Hennegan and hit a shot over her defender with 16:39 left in the game ... Prochaska had an otherworldly performance in last Saturday's (Feb. 12) win at Eastern Michigan, with 37 points ... she enters the Akron contest with a career total of 2,178 points ... the old BGSU scoring record, set by Jackie Motycka (2,122 points from 1985-89), had stood for over two decades ... Prochaska is averaging 17.0 points per game, the second-highest average in BG annals (behind Motycka's 18.1 ppg), in her storied Falcon career.
PROCHASKA MOVING UP ON MAC LIST
Senior Lauren Prochaska is the leading scorer – male or female – in BGSU history ... she is also moving up the Mid-American Conference list ... with a basket just over eight minutes into the Falcon's Jan. 12 win over Akron, the native of Plain City, Ohio became just the second player in school history, and only the 10th in MAC annals, to reach the 2,000-point milestone ... then, in the Ball State game (Feb. 5), Prochaska moved past Jackie Motycka with a layup early in the second half ... Prochaska now ranks fourth on the MAC list, having passed former Toledo standout Mimi Olson (2,144 points from 1993-97) with a 37-point effort vs. Eastern Michigan (Feb. 12) ... Prochaska's next target on the MAC list is Carrie Moore, who had 2,224 points from 2003-07 at Western Michigan.
PROCHASKA HOLDS A LOT OF CAREER RECORDS
As mentioned (at least twice now), Lauren Prochaska is the BGSU career scoring leader, with 2,178 career points ... she also is the school's all-time leader in three-point field goals made, free throws made and FT pct. ... Prochaska ranks fourth in MAC history in scoring, and is second on the conference list in three-pointers made ... and, she has a chance to finish her career in the top-five in NCAA Division-I history in free-throw percentage ... let's put together a list, in bullet-point form, shall we?
BGSU CAREER RECORDS HELD BY LAUREN PROCHASKA
• Points: 2,178
• Three-Point Field Goals Made: 298
• Free Throws Made: 576
• Free-Throw Percentage: 90.7%
• Games Started: 128
• Consecutive Games Started: 128
FALCONS WIN 20, AGAIN; BGSU SETS A NEW MAC RECORD
BGSU coach Curt Miller has talked about wanting his program to maintain a level of consistency, and avoid being a 'one-hit wonder' ... it is safe to say that mission has been accomplished ... the Falcons' win at Eastern Michigan on Feb. 12 enabled BGSU to reach the 20-victory total ... the Falcons have won at least 20 games in eight consecutive years, extending the school record and setting a new MAC mark ... the old conference record was set by Bob Lindsay's Kent State teams from 1995-96 through 2001-02 ... prior to BG's current run, the longest streak in school history was four-straight seasons, by the Fran Voll-coached teams of the late 1980s.
BGSU WAS ALREADY AT THE TOP OF THIS LIST
The Falcons have won at least 20 games for the 16th time in school history, the most of any MAC school ... other than BGSU, only Toledo (15) and Kent State (12) have posted 20 or more wins on 10 or more occasions.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons will enter the Akron game with an overall record of 22-4, and BGSU is 10-3 in MAC play ... BG is in first place in the MAC's East Division standings, a game ahead of Kent State ... the Falcons are 12-1 at home, 9-3 on the road and 1-0 in neutral-site games to date, and BG has won five consecutive games heading into Tuesday's contest ... most recently, the Falcons downed Miami, 73-61, Saturday afternoon in Oxford (Feb. 19).
• BGSU is 5-0 in the month of February ... the Falcons broke a two-game MAC losing streak – the team's first such streak in three years – with a 67-64 win at Northern Illinois (Feb. 1), then returned home to top Ball State four days later ... the Falcons had entered the NIU game having lost three of the previous five games after winning 15 in a row ... following the BSU game and the 'bye' week, BG defeated Eastern Michigan on the road, 60-55 (Feb. 12) and Ohio at home, 77-63 (Feb. 16) before venturing to Oxford and downing Miami.
• Senior Lauren Prochaska, the MAC Player of the Year in each of the last two seasons, is averaging a team-high 18.4 points per game, and also paces the Falcons with 6.1 rebounds per contest ... Prochaska has scored 20 or more points in 13 games this year, including three games of more than 30 points ... she had 31 points in the win over nationally-ranked Vanderbilt in December and exploded for 37 points and 12 rebounds in the win at Eastern Michigan (Feb. 12) ... classmate Tracy Pontius has 12.0 ppg to date, and leads the team with 3.6 assists per outing ... she had 17 points, tying her season high in MAC games at the time, in the win over Ohio, then exploded for 29 points at Miami on Saturday.
• Pontius has made 58 three-point field goals this year, while Prochaska has hit 57 shots from long range ... Prochaska and Pontius are shooting 38.5 and 35.6 percent from beyond the arc, respectively ... Prochaska is 154-of-168 (91.7%) from the free-throw line on the year, and was fifth in the nation in that category in the latest NCAA rankings (Friday, Feb. 18) ... she was 24th in the country in scoring, while Pontius was ranked 22nd in assist/turnover ratio (1.98) in the most recent NCAA listings.
• Head coach Curt Miller's starting lineup for each of the first 26 games has remained unchanged ... that lineup has included four seniors in Pontius, Prochaska, Maggie Hennegan and Jen Uhl, along with sophomore Chrissy Steffen.
• Steffen, Uhl and Hennegan rank third through fifth on the team in scoring ... Steffen has 10.0 ppg and has hit 41 three-pointers this year to date ... she leads the Falcons in steals, with 1.7 per game (Steffen has 45 steals, Prochaska 39 and Pontius 34 this year), and is shooting 35.7% from three-point land.
• Uhl and Hennegan are averaging 9.1 and 8.8 ppg, respectively ... Uhl has 236 points to Hennegan's 230 this year to date ... Uhl is second on the team with 5.8 rpg, while Hennegan ranks third with 5.4 rpg ... Uhl has led the Falcons in rebounding in five of the last eight contests ... Hennegan is shooting a team-best 52.7% from the field, and also leads the Falcons in blocked shots (1.1 bpg).
• In MAC games, the Falcons are 5-1 at home and 5-2 on the road ... BGSU has gone 6-1 vs. East Division foes and went 4-2 against the West ... all five starters are averaging at least 9.5 points per game in league action ... Prochaska has 16.8 ppg and 5.7 rpg in the 13 conference games to date ... Steffen, who scored a career-high 22 points in last week's win over Ohio, has 10.9 ppg in MAC contests, good for second on the team, while Pontius has 10.6 ppg vs. league foes ... Hennegan and Uhl have 10.0 and 9.5 ppg, respectively, in conference 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.
• BGSU is shooting 41.8% from the field, 36.4% from three-point land and 80.1% from the free-throw line, leading the nation in the latter category ... BG has allowed opponents to shoot 38.8% from the floor and 27.6% from beyond the arc ... Falcon foes are shooting 67.5% from the stripe ... BGSU has made 190 more free throws than the opponents, and the Falcons have made 65 more free throws than the foes have attempted.
LAST TIME OUT
Senior Tracy Pontius exploded for a season-high 29 points to lead the Falcons to a 73-61 victory over Miami in Oxford Saturday afternoon (Feb. 19) ... BGSU took a double-digit lead midway through the first half and weathered several Miami comeback bids ... the home team got as close as four points on multiple occasions, but never could make it a one-possession game ... senior Jen Uhl had 15 points, while sophomore Chrissy Steffen added 13 ... Uhl had seven rebounds and a pair of blocked shots, while Steffen pulled down six rebounds ... senior Maggie Hennegan just missed posting a double-double, with nine points and a game-high 11 rebounds ... the Falcons had a 40-30 advantage on the boards ... Kirsten Olowinski and Courtney Osborn had 14 points apiece for the RedHawks, while Lillian Pitts added 12 ... Pontius scored 10 points within the first five-plus minutes, putting the visitors ahead, 15-6 ... moments later, an 8-0 run gave the Brown and Orange a 25-11 lead ... the 'Hawks, however, scored the next six points, capped by a Pitts layup, to cut BG's lead to just four points late in the half ... MU was still within four points with 6:52 left in the second period, but the Falcons scored the next eight points to take control of the game ... layups by Uhl, Steffen and Hennegan were followed by a pair of Steffen free throws, putting the visitors ahead by a 71-59 count with three minutes left.
A QUICK LOOK AT AKRON
Akron will enter Tuesday's game with an overall record of 13-12, and the Zips are 6-7 in MAC action ... UA is tied with Buffalo for third place in the East Division ... Akron has won four consecutive games heading into the matchup with BGSU ... three of those four wins have come on the road, including victories at Buffalo (71-67; Feb. 16) and Ohio (59-57; Feb. 19) last week ... the Zips are 6-6 at home, 6-6 on the road and 1-0 in neutral-site games to date ... in MAC play, UA is 2-4 at Rhodes Arena and 4-3 away from home ... Akron is the lone team to score more than 70 points against the Falcons this year to date ... individually, sophomore forward Rachel Tecca leads the team in scoring and rebounding, with 16.5 points and 9.1 rebounds per game ... she is shooting 50.4% from the field to pace the Zips in that category as well ... senior forward Kara Murphy and sophomore guard Taylor Ruper have 10.1 and 10.0 ppg, respectively ... Murphy, Akron's all-time leading scorer, has 4.5 rebounds on the year, while Ruper has hit a team-leading 65 three-point field goals this winter ... freshman center Carly Young has 7.8 ppg, and has made 33 triples, while junior forward Jasmine Mushington has 7.2 ppg ... Murphy and Tecca each have started all 25 games on the year, while Ruper has made 24 starts and Young 21 ... junior guard Natasha Williams has joined that quartet in the starting lineup for the last four games, coinciding with UA's winning streak ... head coach Jodi Kest, in her fifth year at Akron, welcomed back eight letterwinners, including one starter, from last year's club ... the 2009-10 team went 18-14 overall and 11-5 in MAC play, setting school records for overall and conference wins in a season ... the school's athletics web site is www.GoZips.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Akron, 45-2, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU has won the last 16 meetings ... last month, in a game that was much closer than the final score indicated, BGSU picked up a 90-72 win at Anderson Arena (Jan. 12) ... last year, the Falcons won three games vs. the Zips, with a 74-62 triumph at home (Jan. 6, 2010), a 66-56 win at Rhodes Arena (Feb. 20, 2010) and an 81-49 victory in Cleveland, in the semifinal round of the MAC Tournament (March 12, 2010) ... overall, the Falcons won the first 26 series meetings before UA's initial win, in the 1999 MAC Tournament's quarterfinal round ... the Zips' other win was an 88-63 blowout in the Rubber City in February of 2001 ... BGSU is 24-0 in home games, 19-2 on the road and 2-0 in neutral-site contests vs. the Zips over the years ... Curt Miller has a record of 16-0 against Akron in his stellar BGSU career.
A FEW MORE BGSU-AKRON NOTES
• As mentioned, Akron is the lone team to score over 70 points against the Falcons in 26 games this season to date ... the Zips had a total of 72 points in last month's game at Anderson Arena.
• Akron made 28 field goals, the most by a BG opponent this season, in that game ... for their part, the Falcons hit 30 total field goals, tied for a season high, and set season-bests in both field-goal percentage (58.8%) and three-point pct. (also 58.8%), going 30-of-51 overall and 10-of-17 from long range.
• Curt Miller and UA head coach Jodi Kest were on the same staff for one season, the 1992-93 campaign, at Cleveland State ... Kest came to Akron after spending four years as the head coach at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi ... Kest and Miller met as head coaches for the first time in the 2003-04 season, as the Islanders posted a 68-59 win in Corpus Christi, in the championship game of the Islander Classic (Nov. 29, 2003) ... Tuesday night will mark the 12th time that Miller and Kest have met in their head-coaching careers, with all but that first meeting coming since Kest took the UA helm.
UHL BE SWELL, UHL BE GREAT
Senior Jen Uhl has stepped up to give Curt Miller and the Falcons another scoring option ... Uhl has averaged 12.1 points and 7.6 rebounds per game over the last seven contests, leading the team in boards and ranking second in scoring ... the Wadsworth, Ohio, native had a season-high 18 points in the Falcons' win at Northern Illinois, then posted a double-double, with 14 points and 12 boards in a career-high 39 minutes against Ball State ... she had 15 points at Miami ... Uhl has gone 9-of-22 from three-point land during that seven-game stretch, hitting a career-high four triples in the NIU game ... Uhl is averaging 9.5 ppg and a team-leading 6.7 rpg in MAC games.
HENNEGAN IS STEPPING UP, TOO
Falcon senior Maggie Hennegan, like fellow senior post player Jen Uhl, has stepped up her game in MAC play ... Hennegan is averaging 8.8 points and 5.4 rebounds per game this year ... in conference games, she has 10.0 ppg and is shooting over 58 percent from the field ... Hennegan had 16 points, matching her BGSU career best, in the win at NIU ... she nearly had a double-double at Miami Saturday (Feb. 19), with nine points and 11 rebounds ... Hennegan has scored in double digits nine times this year, including six in MAC play ... and, she has shot better than 83% from the three-point line in MAC games, having made five of her six attempts from beyond the arc.
STEFFEN CAN SHOOT IT
Sophomore Chrissy Steffen, in her first season as a starter, has given the Falcons another weapon at both ends of the court ... Steffen scored a career-high 22 points in Wednesday's (Feb. 16) win over Ohio, and had 13 more points at Miami three days later ... she is averaging 10.0 points per game and has made 41 three-point field goals, ranking third on the team in both categories ... she is also third in assists (2.1 apg) this year ... in MAC games only, Steffen has 10.9 ppg and has made 22 shots from three-point land ... she ranks third in both categories, and is second in assists (2.7 apg) ... at the defensive end, Steffen leads the Falcons in steals, both overall (1.7 spg) and in MAC games (1.8 spg).
PONTIUS MOVING UP BGSU SCORING LIST
As mentioned earlier in this long, rambling 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 Ohio game, Pontius has a total of 1,310 points as a Falcon ... over 1,200 of those points have come since the start of her sophomore season ... Pontius currently sits in 15th place on the BGSU scoring list, having passed both Melissa Chase (1,223 points from 1979-83) and Michelle Shade (1,233 points from 1991-95) in the Central Michigan game ... for Pontius, her next target on the list is 14th-place Carin Horne, who had 1,341 points from 2003-07.
PROCHASKA, PONTIUS MOVING UP MAC LIST FOR THREE-POINTERS
Falcon 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 has hit a total of 298 shots from beyond the arc, good for second place on the MAC list ... senior Tracy Pontius is moving up that list as well, with 217 career three-pointers made heading into the Akron game.
HOLDING ON TO THE BALL
For the most part, the Falcons have been successful at limiting turnovers this season ... BGSU turned the ball over just 10 times, tying a season low, in the win over Central Michigan, and BG had only 11 turnovers in Wednesday's (Feb. 16) win vs. Ohio ... the Falcons have had 15 or fewer turnovers in a game 20 times this year to date ... as of the last NCAA rankings (Friday, Feb. 18), BG was 10th in the nation in fewest turnovers per game (14.1) ... that number remains 14.1 after the win at Miami ... the Falcons have committed more turnovers than the opponent in only three of this season's 26 games to date (Buffalo, WMU and Saturday's Miami game) ... and, the opponent has had more points off turnovers than BG just four times ... BG has forced 15 or more opponent turnovers in 21 of this year's 25 games, including 19 or more in 13 contests.
THE FALCONS ARE/WERE ...
• 22-4 this season to date; after finishing with a 27-7 record last season;
• 10-3 in MAC play this season; after going 14-2 last winter, in the process winning a sixth-straight league regular-season title;
• 228-84 since Curt Miller took the BGSU helm in May of 2001;
• 118-39 in MAC games in that time:
• 219-65 overall in the eight years (plus 26 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);
• 207-49 over the last seven-plus years, with 2010-11 marking BG's eighth-straight season of at least 20 wins;
• a staggering 186-39 in the past six-plus years, with no fewer than 23 wins and a MAC regular-season title in six-straight seasons;
• an eye-popping 163-31 overall, and 83-10 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) 135-28 in the last four-plus years, including a 67-10 conference ledger;
• 104-24 overall, and 52-9 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;
• 78-16 overall and 39-6 in MAC action since junior Jessica Slagle and redshirt soph Maribeth Giese ventured to NW Ohio;
• 49-11 overall and 24-5 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.);
• 101-12 in the last 113 games vs. MAC foes (regular-season and tournament);
• A perfect 53-0 when shooting 50 percent or better from the field in the Miller Era;
• 186-10 when having a better FG pct. than the opposition in Miller's tenure, including a 58-0 mark in the last two-plus seasons;
• 175-29 when making more free throws during Miller's first nine-plus years;
• 135-13 when outrebounding the opponent in the Miller Era;
• 49-5 in MAC home games in the last six-plus seasons; and
• 41-6 in MAC road games over the last five-plus years.
UP NEXT
The Falcons return home for the final two regular-season women's basketball games in Anderson Arena history ... BGSU will host Kent State on Saturday (Feb. 26), before facing Buffalo on Wednesday, March 2.
