BGSU Meets Miami in Battle of MAC Unbeatens

Thursday, January 19

Oxford, Ohio

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Miami

Buy tickets

Jessica Jess Slagle vs Madonna Dec 21 2011

Sidney native Jessica Slagle & the Falcons head to Oxford for Thursday's game vs. Miami (photo by Doug Sampson)

January 18, 2012 | Women's Basketball

Falcons, RedHawks take 4-0 conference records into Thursday's game

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, off to a 4-0 start in Mid-American Conference play, ventures south to face the league's only other unbeaten team ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller, looking to extend a seven-game overall winning streak, head to Oxford for a Thursday (Jan. 19) game against Miami University ... tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at Millett Hall.

HELPFUL LINKS
BGSU (& MIAMI) NOTES & STATS
CURT MILLER'S TUESDAY PRESS CONFERENCE
LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO | LIVE AUDIO | TICKETS
BGSU STATS | BGSU MEDIA GUIDE
CAREER STATS OF 2011-12 FALCONS

QUICK HITS
• Thursday's game in Oxford, as mentioned, features the last remaining MAC unbeatens ... both the Falcons and the RedHawks are 4-0 in league play and 14-3 overall ... the last time the teams both took undefeated conference records into a game came three years ago, when BGSU and MU each were 2-0 in conference play prior to their meeting on Jan. 14, 2009 ... that game saw the Falcons post an 87-79 win at Anderson Arena.

• The only other such meetings – other than conference openers – came in back to back seasons over two decades ago ... on Jan. 13, 1988, both teams were 2-0 in league play before the Falcons picked up a 77-66 win at home ... the following year (Jan. 18, 1989), the Falcons posted a 65-64 win in Oxford ... BGSU had entered the game with a 3-0 MAC record, while MU was 4-0 heading into that matchup.

• Both teams enter Thursday's game with impressive winning streaks ... BGSU has won seven-straight games, the Falcons' second seven-game win streak of the season ... the RedHawks have captured 10 wins in a row ... MU's current run is only the third double-digit winning streak by a MAC team (other than BGSU) since the beginning of the 2005-06 season ... the Falcons have had six such streaks in that time.

• Thursday's game wraps up the first intradivisional round-robin swing for MAC teams ... the Falcons are looking to go 5-0 in the first foray through the East Division for the fifth time in the seven years since the conference went to the current scheduling format.

• The BGSU-Miami game will feature three of the four winningest coaches in Mid-American Conference history ... BGSU's Curt Miller has 248 overall wins with the Falcons, including 125 in MAC play ... he ranks second in league history in overall wins, and is third on the conference wins list ... Miami head coach Maria Fantanarosa, with 211 overall and 111 league wins at her alma mater, ranks fourth on the former list and fifth on the latter ... Mark Ehlen, in his first year on Fantanarosa's MU staff, had 240 overall wins, including 140 in the MAC, while the head coach at Toledo from 1996-2008 ... Ehlen ranks third on the overall list and second on the conference-only list ... the complete lists can be found on page 11 of the PDF notes.

• The Falcons, as mentioned, are off to a 4-0 start in MAC play ... after posting three home wins – over Kent State (76-57, Jan. 4), Akron (62-58, Jan. 7) and Ohio (61-49, Jan. 12) – the Brown and Orange took to the road and picked up a 79-59 victory at Buffalo on Sunday (Jan. 15).

• BGSU has started MAC play with a 4-0 record for the sixth time in the last seven seasons ... the Falcons are looking to move to 4-0 in conference action for the sixth time in seven seasons ... BG had gotten off to at least a 4-0 league start in five consecutive years, before losing at Kent State in the fourth game of the MAC schedule last January ... over the last six years, the Falcons have started 7-0 or better four times.

• On Monday (Jan 16), redshirt sophomore Alexis Rogers was named MAC Player of the Week, earning that honor for the second time this season ... Rogers averaged 17.0 points and 9.0 rebounds per game as the Falcons downed Ohio and Buffalo last week ... she had a double-double in the first game, with 15 points and a team-leading 11 rebounds, then had a BG-best 19 points in just 21 minutes at UB ... Rogers shot 50 percent from the field in the two wins, and hit both of her three-point attempts on the week.

• The Falcons, after beginning the season with a pair of losses, have won 14 of the last 15 games ... BG reeled off a seven-game win streak, suffered a two-point loss at Creighton (Dec. 18), and have won seven consecutive contests since that setback.

• The 2011-12 campaign marks the third season in a row that the Falcons have had two win streaks of at least seven games ... last season, BG had a 15-game win streak as well as an 11-game streak ... two years ago, the Falcons put together a pair of eight-game streaks ... technically, BGSU did not have two seven-game win streaks in the 2008-09 season ... that's because the Falcons had one streak of 25-straight wins that extended from late November into early March.

• Two Falcons had career-high scoring totals in the Buffalo game ... senior Jessica Slagle scored 18 points and freshman Jasmine Matthews had 14 vs. the Bulls ... Matthews led the Falcons with 11 first-half points, while Slagle and Rogers each scored 13 points after halftime.

• Matthews, who set a career high with 37 minutes played against Ohio, was on the court for 37 more minutes against Buffalo ... in all, she played over 68 consecutive minutes, as she checked out for two-plus minutes in the first half vs. the Bobcats before playing the final 30:28 of that win ... then, at UB, Matthews played the entire game before coming to the bench with 2:34 on the second-half clock and the Falcons up by 20 points.

• BG had 44 rebounds to Buffalo's 34 on Sunday ... it marked the fourth time in as many MAC games that the Falcons had a double-digit margin on the boards ... the UB game marked the 12th-straight time BG has held the advantage on the glass ... the Falcons had been outrebounded in each of the season's first five games ... BGSU is now 11-1 this season and 159-14 in the Miller Era when outrebounding the opponent ... coincidentally (or perhaps not), the Falcons' 12-game rebounding streak has come after freshman Kaila Hulls was unofficially named the team's 'rebounding coach.'

• The Falcons are the winningest team in MAC history, and BGSU has become the first league women's hoops program to post 350 conference victories ... BG is now 352-145 in MAC regular-season games, for a winning percentage of 70.8% – the most wins and highest percentage of any conference team.

• After going with the same starting lineup for the first 10 games of the year, Miller made a change for the Madonna game on Dec. 21 ... Matthews joined redshirt junior Danielle Havel, Slagle, Steffen and Rogers in the starting five ... Matthews now has started each of the last seven games for the Brown and Orange.

WAYS TO FOLLOW BGSU-MIAMI
If you can't make it to Oxford for Thursday evening's game, there are a number of ways to follow the Falcons ...

• RADIO/AUDIO STREAM: The Miami game – like every game on the 2011-12 schedule – can be heard on the radio at WBGU-FM 88.1, and the audio stream will be available, free of charge, at BGSUFalcons.com.

• VIDEO STREAMING: Live video streaming will also be available, through the MU athletics web site, MURedHawks.com, as well as through the conference's site at MAC-Sports.com ... the links can be accessed right here at BGSUFalcons.com.

• LIVE STATS: Live stats will be accessable through BGSUFalcons.com or MURedHawks.com.

The links to the audio, video and stats can be found at BGSUFalcons.com, in the 'schedule' section on the home page, or by accessing the women's basketball schedule and choosing that day's game.

UP NEXT
Following the Miami game, the Falcons will begin cross-divisional play, hosting Eastern Michigan University on Sunday (Jan. 22) ... that game will begin at 2:00 p.m. at the Stroh Center, and it will be Dollar Day, as tickets and selected food items (hot dogs, popcorn and soda) will be just one dollar apiece ... the EMU game also will be BGSU's Alumnae Day, with many former Falcons greats on hand at the Stroh Center ... finally, it will be the MAC TV Game of the Week, and will be aired on SportsTime Ohio.