Current Falcons Welcome Former Falcons to Town for Saturday's Ball State Game

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after a road trip that turned out to be much longer than expected, returns home to continue Mid-American Conference cross-divisional play ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller will welcome Ball State University to town for a Saturday (Feb. 5) game ... tipoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena (3,500), but fans are encouraged to arrive early, as a pregame ceremony honoring the All-Anderson Team will begin at 1:40 p.m. ... 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

THE PROCHASKA WATCH
Senior Lauren Prochaska is moving ever closer to the BGSU career scoring record ... Prochaska enters the Ball State game with a career total of 2,106 points at BGSU ... she currently resides in second place on the school's career scoring list, and is just 16 points shy of matching the BGSU record ... that record is held by Jackie Motycka (2,122 points from 1985-89) ... 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 ... should Prochaska score 16 or more points vs. BSU, she has a chance to break Motycka's mark with the former Falcon great in the building.

PROCHASKA MOVING UP ON MAC LIST AS WELL
BGSU senior Lauren Prochaska recently joined a very exclusive club ... with her basket just over eight minutes into the win over Akron (Jan. 12), 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 ... she now ranks sixth in scoring in conference history ... in the Central Michigan game (Jan. 22), Prochaska moved past former Kent State star Tracey Lynn into seventh place on the MAC list, and she passed Tamara Bowie (Ball State) in the Toledo game.

ALL-ANDERSON TEAM TO BE HONORED IN PREGAME CEREMONY
Saturday's game vs. Ball State will be preceded by a ceremony honoring the All-Anderson Team ... the 13-person All-Anderson Team, announced in October in conjunction with a year-long celebration of the final year of Anderson Arena, was selected via nominations through the official web site of BGSU Athletics, BGSUFalcons.com ... a review panel then made the final selections.

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, HERE'S THE ALL-ANDERSON TEAM ...
The 13 BGSU women's basketball players selected to the All-Anderson Team represent ...

• 19 All-MAC First-Team selections,
• 18 Academic All-MAC selections,
• six MAC Player-of-the-Year awards,
• five MAC Freshman-of-the-Year honorees,
• three Academic All-America awards,
• 19 All-MAC Tournament Team selections,
• eight MAC Tournament MVP awards, and
• nine inductees to the BGSU Athletics Hall of Fame.

As a matter of fact, the four All-Anderson Team members who are not in the Hall of Fame completed their careers too recently to be eligible as of yet. One of those four players is a member of the current team.

The All-Anderson women's basketball team consists of Kate Achter, Lori Albers, Paulette Backstrom, Angie Bonner, Stephanie Coe, Liz Honegger, Ali Mann, Megan McGuire, Jackie Motycka, Lauren Prochaska, Sara Puthoff, Talita Scott and Chris Tuttle. Complete biographical information can be found in the PDF version of these notes, just a click away at the top of the page.

A 75-HOUR TRIP
The 2010-11 Falcons spent a little more time in DeKalb, Ill., than originally planned ... BGSU left on Monday (Jan. 31) afternoon for Tuesday's game vs. Northern Illinois ... the plan was to return to Northwest Ohio immediately after Tuesday night's contest, but the 'Blizzard of 2011'* changed those plans ... the Falcons wound up staying in DeKalb until Thursday (Feb. 3), holding a practice at NIU's Convocation Center before returning home ... the team, after leaving Monday at 3:00 p.m., returned to the Anderson Arena parking lot at approximately 6:00 p.m. Thursday evening.
* working title; feel free to insert your own clever nickname or title for the 'Blizzard of 2011'

HENNEGAN GETS IT DONE IN THE CLASSROOM AS WELL
Falcon senior Maggie Hennegan is succeeding in the classroom as well as on the court ... on Thursday (Feb. 3), Hennegan was named to the Capital One Academic All-District Team ... the Cincinnati native was named to the first team after earning second-team honors in 2009-10 ... Hennegan has started every game this season, and is averaging 11.0 points and 5.5 rebounds per game ... she leads the Falcons in blocked shots (25) and field-goal percentage (51.4%) ... in MAC games, Hennegan is second on the team with 11.0 ppg, and is shooting 58.9% from the floor ... in the classroom, Hennegan is in the MBA program after earning her undergraduate degree with a perfect 4.00 GPA as a health care administration major with a minor in business.

ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons will enter the Ball State game with an overall record of 18-4, and BGSU is 6-3 in MAC play ... BG is tied with Kent State for first place in the MAC's East Division standings ... the Falcons are 10-1 at home, 7-3 on the road and 1-0 in neutral-site games to date ... BGSU broke a two-game MAC losing streak – the team's first such streak in three years – with a 67-64 win at Northern Illinois on Tuesday night (Feb. 1) ... prior to that win, the Falcons had lost three of the last five games after winning 15 in a row.

• That 15-game winning streak was one of the longest in the nation at the time it was snapped ... it came to an end with a 44-43 loss at KSU on Jan. 15 ... the Falcons rebounded to win the next two games, before losing to Toledo, 66-65 (Jan. 26) and dropping a 66-55 decision at Western Michigan last Saturday afternoon (Jan. 29).

• BG is receiving votes in one of the national top-25 polls, the USA Today ESPN Coaches poll ... the Falcons, however, dropped out of the Associated Press vote-getters after receiving votes in that poll nearly all season ... the Falcons were ranked 71st in the nation in the most recent NCAA RPI rankings, and BGSU fell from second to sixth in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25.

• Senior Lauren Prochaska, the MAC Player of the Year in each of the last two seasons, is averaging a team-high 18.5 points per game, and also paces the Falcons with 6.0 rebounds per contest ... Prochaska has scored 20 or more points in 11 games this year, including a season-high 31-point performance in the win over Vanderbilt in December ... classmate Tracy Pontius has 11.8 ppg to date, and leads the team with 3.9 assists per outing.

• Prochaska has made 50 three-point field goals this year, while Pontius has hit 48 shots from long range ... Prochaska and Pontius are shooting 39.7 and 34.8 percent from beyond the arc, respectively ... Prochaska is 129-of-140 (92.1%) from the free-throw line on the year, and was second in the nation in that category in the latest NCAA rankings (Friday, Jan. 28) ... she was 20th in the country in scoring and 28th in three-point field-goal percentage, while Pontius was ranked 22nd in assist/turnover ratio (2.08) in the most recent NCAA listings.

• Head coach Curt Miller's starting lineup for each of the first 22 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 ... Steffen has 9.7 ppg and has hit 35 three-pointers this year to date ... she leads the Falcons in steals, with 1.9 per game (Steffen has 41 steals, Prochaska 38 and Pontius 31 this year) ... Hennegan and Uhl are averaging 9.0 and 8.8 ppg, respectively ... Uhl has 5.6 rpg and Hennegan 5.5, as Uhl has pulled down 123 boards to Hennegan's 121 this year ... Hennegan has averaged 11.0 ppg in the nine MAC contests, good for second on the team behind Prochaska (16.3) ... Hennegan leads the Falcons in blocked shots this season (1.1 bpg) ... Uhl has led the Falcons in scoring in two of the last three games, and in rebounding in three of the last four contests ... she had a season-high 18 points in the win at NIU.

• 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 year ... 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 has joined 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 22 games off the bench to date, and have 4.2 and 3.3 ppg, respectively ... Slagle, who had a career-high 13 points in the win over CMU, has hit 11 of her 26 three-point attempts this year (42.3%), while Papenfuss has 2.3 rpg, ranking sixth on the team in that category.

• Havel also has seen action in all 22 games, while Albert has played in 19 games, Stein 17 and Zuercher 16 ... all 15 players on the active roster have played in at least 10 contests.

• BGSU is shooting 41.9% from the field, 36.9% from three-point land and 80.3% from the free-throw line ... BG has allowed opponents to shoot 38.7% from the floor and 28.1% from beyond the arc ... Falcon foes are shooting 67.7% from the stripe ... BGSU has made 158 more free throws than the opponents, and the Falcons have made 50 more free throws than the foes have attempted.

LAST TIME OUT
Senior Lauren Prochaska, held in check for 39-plus minutes, scored the final six points of the game to lift the Falcons to a 67-64 victory at Northern Illinois Tuesday night (Feb. 1) ... four Falcons scored in double digits in the win, with BG's senior post tandem of Jen Uhl and Maggie Hennegan combining for 34 points ... Uhl had team-high totals of 18 points and seven rebounds, hitting a career-high four three-point field goals ... Hennegan scored 16 points, making 6-of-7 shots from the field and all four of her tries from the free-throw line ... she tied for team honors with two blocked shots and three steals ... Marke Freeman paced the Huskies with 26 points ... Prochaska had a total of 10 points in the game ... in the final minute, though, she had six points, two offensive rebounds and a steal ... the game featured 11 lead changes, including four in the final two minutes. Freeman knocked down a shot from just inside the arc with 1:08 remaining, putting the home team ahead ... after an offensive foul on BG, Freeman hit a runner with 47 seconds left for a 64-61 NIU lead ... on BG's next possession, Prochaska came up with an offensive rebound in traffic, and was fouled ... with 29.8 seconds left, the senior hit a pair of free throws to bring the Falcons within a point ... BG fouled Ebony Ellis, who missed two FTs with 28.7 seconds remaining ... the ensuing possession saw Prochaska rebound her own miss and lay the ball back up and in with just 15.3 seconds on the clock ... Freeman missed a jumper on NIU's next possession ... the Huskies' Courtney Shelton came up with the rebound, but Prochaska ripped the ball away from her, and Shelton was forced to foul Prochaska with just 2.8 seconds left ... the senior hit both of her charity tosses for a three-point lead ... the Huskies had one more shot to tie the game, but Brittany Callahan's shot from her own half of the court came up well short as the horn sounded.

A QUICK LOOK AT BSU
Ball State will enter Saturday's game with an overall record of 9-13, and the Cardinals are 4-5 in MAC action ... BSU is looking to reverse a two-game losing streak, including a 68-59 home loss to Ohio on Wednesday (Feb. 2) ... the Cardinals are 7-5 at home, 2-6 on the road and 0-2 in neutral-site games to date ... individually, senior forward Emily Maggert leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, with 16.1 points and 9.1 rebounds per game ... she has gotten to the free-throw line 115 times, and is shooting 83.5 percent from the stripe this year ... senior G/F Ty'Ronda Benning has 13.1 ppg and a team-leading 3.4 assists per game, and has a team-leading total of 38 three-point field goals made ... freshman guard Brandy Woody and junior forward Suzanne Grossnickle have 5.7 and 5.5 ppg, respectively ... both players are averaging roughly four rebounds per outing ... Maggert and Woody each have started all 22 games for head coach Kelly Packard, while Benning has made 20 starts ... freshman forwards Jazmin Hitchens (5.0 ppg) and Katie Murphy (2.8 ppg) join that trio in the probable starting lineup ... Packard, in her third season with the Cardinals, welcomed back seven letterwinners, including three starters, from last year's club ... the 2009-10 team went 14-17 overall and 7-9 in MAC play ... the school's athletics web site is www.ballstatesports.com.

THE SERIES
The Falcons lead Ball State, 40-14, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU captured last year's meeting ... last season's game saw the Falcons erase a double-digit deficit in the second half, battling back for an 80-76 win in Muncie (Feb. 6, 2010) ... Lauren Prochaska scored 23 of her 26 points in the second half of that win ... in the last meeting in Anderson Arena, the Falcons won a 76-67 decision two years ago (Feb. 3, 2009) ... Ball State downed the Brown and Orange, 55-51, in the championship game of that year's MAC Tournament in Cleveland (March 15, 2009) ... BGSU holds a 22-2 advantage in home games vs. the Cardinals ... Ball State's only two wins at Anderson Arena came in back-to-back years, with the most recent being a 72-70 win seven years ago (Jan. 7, 2004) ... overall, BSU did not win back-to-back games in the series for over two decades, before winning four-straight games from 2002 to '04 ... the Falcons then won five consecutive contests from February of 2004 through March of '07, including three games in Muncie, prior to BSU's taking two of the next three contests ... Curt Miller has a record of 7-6 against the Cardinals in his stellar BGSU career.

HOLDING ON TO THE BALL
The Western Michigan game notwithstanding, 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 13 turnovers against Toledo ... as of the last NCAA rankings (Friday, Jan. 28), BG was seventh in the nation in fewest turnovers per game (13.8) ... that average is now at 14.1 heading into the BSU game ... the Falcons have committed more turnovers than the opponent in only two of this season's 22 games to date (Evansville and WMU) ... and, the opponent has had more points off turnovers than BG just three times (UE, WMU and Northern Illinois) ... BG has forced 15 or more opponent turnovers in 18 of this year's 22 games, including 19 or more in 13 contests.

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 BSU game, Pontius has a total of 1,258 points as a Falcon ... over 1,000 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.

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 BSU game, Prochaska has a total of 291 three-point field goals made ... she broke the BGSU record set by Liz Honegger (216 triples from 2003-07) last season ... Pontius now has 207 career threes, ranking third at BGSU ... she became just the 18th player in MAC history to reach the 200-trey milestone ... Prochaska ranks second on the conference career list, and 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 has hit a total of 291 shots from beyond the arc, good for second place on the MAC list ... as mentioned, BSU's Audrey McDonald holds the conference mark.

SENIOR PRIDE
The Falcons' five fourth-year seniors – Chelsea Albert, Tracy Pontius, Lauren Prochaska, Jen Uhl and Kelly Zuercher – have joined a relatively exclusive, and very impressive, group ... with the win at NIU, that quintet has become the sixth class in school history, and the fifth in a row, to be a part of at least 100 career wins at BGSU ... BG's sixth senior in 2010-11, Maggie Hennegan, is in her second playing season after transferring from Saint Louis University.

THE FALCONS ARE/WERE ...
• 18-4 this season to date; after going 27-7 last season;
• 6-3 in MAC play this season; after going 14-2 last winter, in the process winning a sixth-straight league regular-season title;
• 224-84 since Curt Miller took the BGSU helm in May of 2001;
• 114-39 in MAC games in that time:
• 215-65 overall in the eight years (plus 22 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);
• 203-49 over the last seven-plus years, with 2009-10 marking BG's seventh-straight season of at least 20 wins;
• a staggering 182-39 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 159-31 overall, and 79-10 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) 131-28 in the last four-plus years, including a 63-10 conference ledger;
• 100-24 overall, and 48-9 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;
• 74-16 overall and 35-6 in MAC action since junior Jessica Slagle and redshirt soph Maribeth Giese ventured to NW Ohio;
• 45-11 overall and 20-5 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.);
• 97-12 in the last 109 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;
• 184-10 when having a better FG pct. than the opposition in Miller's tenure, including a 56-0 mark in the last two-plus seasons;
• 171-29 when making more free throws during Miller's first nine-plus years;
• 133-13 when outrebounding the opponent in the Miller Era;
• 47-5 in MAC home games in the last six-plus seasons, including three 8-0 marks; and
• 39-6 in MAC road games over the last five-plus years.

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