Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Celebrate Yet Another Successful Season
April 11, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Prochaska, Hennegan each earn two awards at Friday's Women's Basketball Awards Banquet
Seniors Maggie Hennegan and Lauren Prochaska each picked up a pair of awards as the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team celebrated another successful season Friday night (April 8). The BGSU Women's Basketball Awards Banquet was held at Olscamp Hall on the BGSU campus.
Prochaska was named the team's Player of the Year for the third consecutive season, in a vote of team members, and also earned the Fran and Marty Voll Senior Achievement Award. Hennegan was voted BGSU's Power Player of the Year, and shared the team's Scholar-Athlete-of-the-Year Award as well.
Senior Tracy Pontius picked up the Playmaker of the Year Award for the third-straight season, while classmate Jen Uhl was selected as the Impact Player of the Year.
Junior Jessica Slagle was the winner of the Falcon Award, given to the person or persons who embody qualities such as dedication, commitment, effort and being the ultimate team player. Sophomore Chrissy Steffen was named the team's Most Improved Player, while redshirt sophomore Maribeth Giese shared the Scholar-Athlete-of-the-Year award with Hennegan.
Prochaska, who set a multitude of BGSU records during her career, averaged a team-leading 17.9 points per game as a senior and finished second on the team in rebounds, assists, steals and blocked shots. She was named to the All-Mid-American Conference First Team for the third time in as many years. She ended her career as BGSU's all-time scoring leader, with 2,290 points, and also finished as the school's career leader in free throws made (626), free-throw percentage (90.6%), three-point field goals made (310), games started (135) and consecutive games started (135). She finished her career ranked second in MAC history in three-pointers made, and is third on the conference list in career scoring. Prochaska, who was named the MAC Tournament MVP for the second consecutive season, was a State Farm Coaches' All-America Team honorable-mention selection for the second-straight season. Among many, many other accomplishments, she set an NCAA Division-I record by making 70 consecutive free-throw attempts early in the season, and she finishes her career ranked among the top-five players in NCAA D-I history in free-throw percentage.
Hennegan, a co-captain along with Prochaska, averaged 8.6 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. She was fifth on the Falcons in scoring and third in rebounding, and she led the team in both blocked shots (36) and field-goal percentage (50.5%). Hennegan scored in double digits a total of 11 times on the year, including eight times in the 16 MAC regular-season games. Hennegan was a team captain for the second-straight year, having been voted a captain by her teammates before ever playing in a game at BGSU. She was named to the Capital One Academic All-District First Team in 2010-11, after earning second-team honors a year ago. Hennegan, a transfer from Saint Louis University, scored a total of 976 points in her four-year career. She started all 33 games for the Falcons in '10-11, and helped BGSU to MAC Tournament titles and NCAA Tournament berths in each of her two playing seasons.
Pontius earned all-conference honors for the third consecutive year, being named to the All-MAC Third Team. She also was named to the MAC's All-Tournament Team as BGSU captured the tourney title in Cleveland. Pontius was second on the Falcons in scoring, with 12.2 points per game in 2010-11, and she led the team in assists (3.5) and three-point field goals made (76). She ended her BGSU career with 1,399 career points, ranking 13th in school history, and she winds up second on the BG career list in three-point field goals made, with 235. Her career total of 387 assists ties her for sixth on that school career chart. Pontius was a member of BGSU's five-person team Leadership Council for the 2010-11 season.
Uhl started all 33 games in her senior season, averaging 9.0 points and a team-leading 6.1 rebounds per game as a senior. In MAC games only, she has 9.8 ppg and 7.1 rpg, again leading the Falcons in boards. She had a pair of 18-point games on the season, including in BGSU's win over Buffalo on "Senior Night" at Anderson Arena, the final women's basketball game in the venerable venue. Uhl, who ended her BGSU career with a total of 932 points and 657 rebounds, also made a career total of 79 three-point field goals, including 31 as a senior. She made 77 career starts for Miller and the Falcons.
Slagle, the only non-senior on the team's Leadership Council, was sixth on the Falcons in scoring in 2010-11, and was the top scorer off the bench. She averaged 3.8 points per game and shot nearly 43 percent from three-point range, going 15-of-35 from long distance. Slagle had a career-high 13 points in the Falcons' regular-season win over Central Michigan, and also hit double digits in BG's home victory vs. Cal State Fullerton.
Steffen, after averaging 3.3 points per game off the bench as a freshman, started all 33 games in her sophomore year, and had 10.4 points per outing. She finished third on the team in scoring, and also wound up third on the Falcons in both assists (2.0 apg) and three-point field goals made (55). Steffen led the team in steals on the season, with 1.6 per contest. She hit double digits in scoring 19 times on the year, including 10 times in MAC regular-season play and three times in the Falcons' four postseason games. Steffen had 22 points in back-to-back home wins against Ohio and Kent State, and scored 16 points vs. Georgia Tech in the NCAA Championships, going 5-of-6 from the field in the latter game.
Giese, after playing a total of just five minutes over two games in 2009-10, saw action in 13 games off the bench in '10-11. She averaged 1.1 points and 0.7 rebounds per game, and shot an even 50 percent from the field, going 5-of-10. Giese made two of her three three-point field-goal tries on the year, making triples in home wins over Fullerton and Miami. In the latter game, she had a season-high six points vs. the RedHawks, going a perfect 2-for-2 from the field.
After the welcome by Master of Ceremonies Larry Weiss and the invocation by freshman Jill Stein on Friday evening, the crowd of roughly 350 banquet-goers was treated to dinner and a spectacular season highlight video, with the latter coming courtesy of Julie Baker of BGSU Classroom Technology Services (formerly Instructional Media Services).
The team's eight seniors – Hennegan, Pontius, Prochaska, Uhl, Chelsea Albert and Kelly Zuercher, along with team managers Kyle Jefferson and Chris Simler – all had the opportunity to speak, sharing their thoughts and memories on their four years at BGSU (three years at BGSU, in Hennegan's case). Additionally, the Falcons' first-year letterwinners – redshirt sophomore Danielle Havel and freshmen Stein, Jillian Halfhill and Noelle Yoder – were presented with their jackets.
Head Coach Curt Miller also recapped the 2010-11 season and looked ahead to the 2011-12 campaign. He quoted liberally from a current song while telling the senior class how amazing they are.
The 2010-11 Falcons won a MAC divisional championship for the seventh-straight season, winning the East Division with a 13-3 league mark. BGSU won three more games vs. conference foes in Cleveland, winning the MAC Tournament for the fifth time in seven seasons and advancing to the NCAA Championships. It marked BG's seventh-straight season with a national postseason appearance.
The team's five fourth-year seniors were part of 110 wins during their time at BGSU, the third-highest win total in a four-year span in school and MAC history. The Falcons went 110-25 during that time, with trips to national postseason play in all four seasons. In Hennegan's two playing seasons at BGSU, the Brown and Orange had a record of 55-12 and advanced to the NCAA Championships in both years.
BGSU WOMEN'S BASKETBALL AWARDS
* Player of the Year: Lauren Prochaska
(Sponsored by Dan & June Long/Long's Cleaners)
* Falcon Award: Jessica Slagle
(Sponsored by Joan Slebos)
* Power Player of the Year: Maggie Hennegan
(Sponsored by George & Susan Lang)
* Playmaker of the Year: Tracy Pontius
(Sponsored by Ron Thompson)
* Impact Player of the Year: Jen Uhl
(Sponsored by Bill Lloyd)
* Most Improved Player: Chrissy Steffen
(Sponsored by Larry & Fran Weiss)
* Scholar-Athletes of the Year: Maribeth Giese & Maggie Hennegan
(Sponsored by Steve & Rhonda Melchi)
* Fran & Marty Voll Senior Achievement Award: Lauren Prochaska
