Falcons Close Home Schedule with Saturday's Miami Game

Saturday, February 25

Bowling Green, Ohio

1:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Miami

Buy Tickets

Jessica Slagle & the Falcons host Miami Saturday on 'Senior Day' (photo by Doug Sampson)

February 24, 2012 | Women's Basketball

Giese, Slagle to be recognized in 'Senior Day' ceremonies

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, having clinched at least a share of a Mid-American Conference divisional title, has a chance to capture an outright crown and take another step toward an overall league title this weekend ... but, the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller have no more margin for error ... BGSU closes the home portion of the regular-season schedule with a Saturday (Feb. 25) game vs. Miami University ... tipoff between the first- and second-place teams in the East is set for 1:00 p.m. at the Stroh Center.

LINKS
BGSU (& OPPONENT) NOTES & STATS
LIVE STATS   |   LIVE VIDEO |   LIVE AUDIO   |   TICKETS
BGSU STATS   |   BGSU MEDIA GUIDE
CAREER STATS OF 2011-12 FALCONS

QUICK HITS
• Saturday marks 'Senior Day' for the BGSU women's basketball program, as the Falcons' two fourth-year members, Jessica Slagle and Maribeth Giese, will be recognized in ceremonies prior to tipoff between the Falcons and Miami.

• The Falcons are still at the top of the MAC standings, but BGSU is no longer alone in that spot ... the Brown and Orange suffered a 60-56 loss at Ohio on Wednesday night (Feb. 22), dropping the team to 12-2 in conference play ... Eastern Michigan is also 12-2 in the league, after a 54-33 home win over Toledo on Tuesday (Feb. 21).

• Should the Falcons win each of the last two regular-season games, BGSU would clinch the number-one seed for the MAC Tournament ... even if EMU also goes 2-0, the Falcons win the tiebreaker by virtue of a 70-54 win over the Eagles in the teams' lone regular-season meeting.

• Miami, like the Falcons, has clinched a top-four seed for the MAC Tournament ... the RedHawks are two games behind the Falcons in the East Division race with two games to play ... a BG win on Saturday, obviously, would clinch the outright division title for the Falcons, while a Miami win would keep the RedHawks' hopes of a co-championship alive.

• Whether the Falcons win the East Division crown outright or share it with Miami, 2012 marks the eighth consecutive year – and the 13th time in school history – that BGSU will win some sort of regular-season title.

• Under the new MAC Tournament format, the top-four seeds receive multiple byes in 2012 ... the third and fourth seeds will earn berths in the quarterfinals, with seeds one and two being placed directly into the semifinal round ... put another way, a team seeded first or second will need to win only two MAC Tournament games to capture the title, while the third or fourth seed would need three wins ... any team seeded fifth through 12th will need to reel off five consecutive wins to capture the tourney crown ... seeding is based on conference winning percentage, regardless of division.

• Ohio senior Tenishia Benson scored eight points in the final 2:08 of the game, and came up with a huge rebound in the final seconds to key the Bobcats' 60-56 win over the Falcons on Wednesday night ... with the game tied, Benson hit an 'and-one' layup with just 8.1 seconds remaining ... Benson missed the ensuing free throw, but on the rebound, she went to the floor to tie up a BGSU player for a jump ball, and the possession arrow pointed in the Bobcats' direction ... that led to two Ohio foul shots with 6.8 seconds left to provide the final margin.

• The loss overshadowed a monster game for redshirt sophomore Alexis Rogers ... the Duke transfer had 24 points and a career-high 16 rebounds, leading all players in both categories ... her rebound total was the highest by a BGSU player in nearly three years, since Lauren Prochaska had 17 boards vs. Syracuse on March 22, 2009.

• For Rogers, Wednesday night marked her 10th double-digit rebounding game and her eighth double-double, both this season and in her collegiate career ... she is averaging 12.5 points and a team-leading 8.6 rebounds this season ... in MAC games only, Rogers paces the Falcons with 15.8 ppg and 9.7 rpg.

• In MAC games, Rogers is the only player in the league ranked among the top five in both scoring and rebounding.

• Saturday's game features each of the top-two rebounders in the league ... Rogers' rebounding exploits are chronicled above ... MU's Kirsten Olowinski leads the conference in boards, both overall (9.9 rpg) and in MAC games (also 9.9 rpg).

• The Falcons have allowed the opponent to score as many as 70 points just three times in the last 60 games (since the start of 2010-11) ... and, BG won all three of those games ... BGSU has yet to allow as many as 70 points in a regulation game this season ... last year, the Falcons allowed 72 points at home vs. Akron (a 90-72 BG win) and vs. Central Michigan in the MAC Tournament (an 80-72 Falcon win).

• This season, CMU is the only team to reach 70 points against the Brown and Orange, and the Chippewas needed overtime to do so ... the teams were tied at 64-64 at the end of regulation (Jan. 28), before the Falcons went on to a 77-72 victory.

• BGSU has held the opponent to fewer than 60 points in 21 of this season's first 27 games, including in 12 of the 14 MAC games to date ... the Falcons have held the foes under 50 points on six occasions this year.

• At the other end of the court, BGSU is 12-0 this season when scoring at least 70 points ... the Falcons are 31-0 since the start of last season when reaching the 70-point mark, and BG is 76-1 when scoring 70 over the last three-plus years.

• The results have been good even if the Falcons can get to just 57 points this season ... BG is 22-0 when scoring at least 57 points, and the Falcons are 0-5 when the offense is held under that total ... BGSU is averaging 69.5 points per game in the 22 wins, and just 48.8 ppg in the five losses.

• The Falcons have an overall record of 50-10 since the start of the 2010-11 season ... one of those 10 losses came to Georgia Tech in the NCAA Championships ... of the nine regular-season setbacks, six have come by one or two points ... BGSU is 28-5 against MAC teams since the beginning of last season ... three of those five losses have been by a combined four points.

• Miller and his staff are performing one of their top coaching jobs in their decade-plus at BGSU, having orchestrated this season's success with a very youthful squad ... nine players on the roster are either freshmen or sophomores ... the Falcons lost six players, including four starters, from a year ago ... that group of graduates combined for nearly 5,500 points, 2,400 rebounds and 1,000 assists in their BGSU careers.

• Miller and the Falcons went 11-21 in MAC play in his first two seasons at BGSU ... in the eight-plus seasons since that time, BGSU has gone 122-20 in MAC regular-season games.

• The Falcons have won 20 games in a season for the 17th time, the highest total of any MAC program ... BG has won at least 20 games in each of the last nine years, extending the program's MAC record for sustained success over so many straight seasons.

• Next month, the Stroh Center will host the first and second rounds of the 2012 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship ... the first-round games are set for Sunday, March 18, with the second-round contest scheduled for Tuesday, March 20 ... for much more information, or to order tickets, log on to the web at BGSUFalcons.com.

IF THE MAC TOURNAMENT STARTED TODAY ...
According to the MAC office, the seedings for the MAC Tournament would be as follows ...
1   Bowling Green   12-2 (wins tiebreaker over EMU)
2   Eastern Michigan   12-2
3   Toledo   11-3
4   Miami   10-4
5   Central Michigan   6-8 (see below for tiebreaker) *
6   Northern Illinois   6-8
7   Akron   6-8
8   Ohio   6-8
9   Western Michigan   4-10 (see below for tiebreaker) ^
10   Kent State   4-10
11   Ball State   4-10
12   Buffalo   3-11
* CMU wins with a .750 winning percentage vs. the other three tied teams (3-1), while NIU and Akron each went .500 (2-2) and Ohio .250 (1-3) // NIU defeated Akron in the teams' head-to-head meeting
^ WMU wins the tiebreaker with a .667 winning pct. (2-1) vs. the other two tied teams, while KSU went .500 (1-1) and BSU .333 (1-2)

WAYS TO FOLLOW BGSU-MIAMI
The best way to follow BGSU women's basketball, of course, is to be at the Stroh Center on Saturday afternoon when the Falcons host Miami ... but, fans who can't make it to a BG game can follow the Falcons all year long in a variety of ways ...

• 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.

• TELEVISION: Seven of the Falcons' home games – including the Miami game – are scheduled to be televised in the Toledo area on BCSN ... two additional games at the Stroh Center, along with one road contest, will be aired as the MAC Game of the Week by SportsTime Ohio ... the televised games can be found in the schedule on page 1 of these notes.

• VIDEO STREAMING: All home games will be available via live video stream, through B2/America One, for a small fee ... fans can watch the action on their computers by visiting BGSUFalcons.com and clicking on the America One logo on the right-hand side of the page ... a number of the Falcons' road games also will have live video, at the jurisdiction of the host school, and the link(s) will be available at BGSUFalcons.com ... the video production for home games is courtesy of the campus television station, WBGU-TV.

• LIVE STATS: Links are also available at BGSUFalcons.com for live stats for all home games (and all road games in which the host team provides live stats [which should be all road games]).

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
The Falcons close the regular season with a Tuesday (Feb. 28) game at Kent State University ... tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at the M.A.C. Center ... following that game, the Falcons will have over a week off before beginning play in the MAC Tournament, in either the quarterfinal (March 8) or semifinal (March 9) round.