Falcons Host VCU Thursday Night

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, for the eighth consecutive March, has earned a national postseason berth ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller, after winning the league's outright regular-season crown for the seventh time in the last eight years, will host Virginia Commonwealth University in first-round action in the Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) on Thursday night (March 15) ... tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at the Stroh Center.

LINKS
BGSU's 2011-12 GAME NOTES & STATS   |   WNIT BRACKET
LIVE STATS   |   LIVE VIDEO |   LIVE AUDIO   |   TICKETS
BGSU STATS   |   BGSU MEDIA GUIDE
CAREER STATS OF 2011-12 FALCONS

NATIONAL POSTSEASON PLAY FOR THE EIGHTH-STRAIGHT SEASON
The Falcons are participating in national postseason play for the eighth consecutive season ... BGSU has made the WNIT field in three of those seasons, participating in the tourney in 2008 and 2009 as well as this year ... the Falcons have gone to the NCAA Championships five times in that span, making three-straight trips from 2005-07, then returning to the NCAAs in 2010 and '11 ... the school's previous record for consecutive postseason appearances was four, as Fran Voll guided the Falcons to the NCAAs in each year from 1987 through 1990.

BG IN THE WNIT
• The 2011-12 season marks the Falcons' fourth trip to the WNIT ... BGSU has an overall record of 2-3 in the tourney to date ... the Falcons are 2-2 in home games in the WNIT, with all four previous games having been played at venerable Anderson Arena ... and, BGSU has a 2-2 mark in the WNIT during the Miller Era.

• BGSU hosted Butler in WNIT action in 1998, losing a 95-90 decision at Anderson Arena in the team's first appearance in the tourney ... that game would turn out to be the last for Jaci Clark as BG's head coach.

• Four years ago, the Brown and Orange picked up a home win over Dayton, 64-52, before losing at Michigan State by a 74-66 count two days later.

• The following March, the Falcons were awarded a first-round bye in the then 48-team event, and BG played a pair of games at Anderson ... the Falcons downed Syracuse by a 72-69 final in second-round action at "The House That Roars" ... but, BGSU fell to visiting Indiana, 75-67, in the third round.

QUICK HITS
• The Falcons are looking to bounce back after a 69-66 loss to Central Michigan in the semifinal round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament Friday afternoon (March 9) in Cleveland ... redshirt sophomore Alexis Rogers had a double-double in that game, with 14 points and a team-high 11 rebounds ... junior Chrissy Steffen and senior Jessica Slagle had 14 and 12 points, respectively.

• The winner of the BGSU-VCU game will meet either Boston University of Saint Joseph's in the second round of the tournament.

• The Falcons won the MAC regular-season title outright, posting a 91-48 win at Kent State on the last day of the regular season (Feb. 28) ... BGSU, as mentioned, won the outright conference crown for the seventh time in eight years, and the Falcons have won a division title in eight consecutive seasons.

• The 2011-12 season marks the eighth consecutive year BGSU has won at least 13 MAC games, a pretty impressive feat considering that teams play only 16 conference games in a season ... the Falcons are 113-15 (.883) in league regular-season games in that time, while no other MAC team has more than 85 conference victories in that span.

• BGSU is 13-0 this season when scoring at least 70 points ... the Falcons are 32-0 since the start of last season when reaching the 70-point mark, and BG is 77-1 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 24-1 when scoring at least 57 points, and the Falcons are 0-5 when the offense is held under that total ... the lone loss when BG surpasses the 57-point plateau came in Cleveland, in the 69-66 setback to Central Michigan ... BGSU is averaging 70.2 points per game in the 24 wins, and just 51.7 ppg in the six losses.

• At the other end of the court, the Falcons have allowed the opponent to score as many as 70 points just three times in the last 63 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. CMU 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 in the teams' regular-season meeting.

• BGSU has held the opponent to fewer than 60 points in 23 of this season's first 30 games, including in 14 of the 16 MAC regular-season games ... the Falcons have held the foes under 50 points on seven occasions this year.

• This year's two seniors, Slagle and Maribeth Giese, helped the Falcons go a perfect 8-0 in MAC home games this season ... BG went 31-1 in conference home contests during their careers, with the lone loss coming by a single point.

• Overall, the Falcons have a record of 55-3 in home games since Giese and Slagle arrived on campus ... BGSU has gone 14-1 at home in three of those seasons and went a perfect 13-0 in the other.

• The 2008-09 Falcons set the school record for home wins in a season, with 14 victories at venerable Anderson Arena ... last year's team matched that feat with a 14-1 record, and the '11-12 team has tied the school record once again, having won 14 of 15 games at the Stroh Center heading into Thursday's VCU game ... the lone home loss this season was a one-point setback to nationally-ranked Purdue.

• For what it's worth, each of the three teams to defeat BGSU in non-conference play went on to qualify for the NCAA Championships ... Dayton (Atlantic 10), Purdue (Big Ten) and Creighton (Missouri Valley) all won their respective conference tournaments and earned automatic NCAA bids.

• Also for what it's worth, the Falcons are ranked 30th in the nation in scoring margin, and BGSU is ranked second among the 64 WNIT teams.

• The Falcons have an overall record of 52-11 since the start of the 2010-11 season ... one of those 11 losses came to Georgia Tech in the NCAA Championships last March ... of the other 10 setbacks, six have come by one or two points, with another coming by just three points ... BGSU is 30-6 against MAC teams since the beginning of last year ... five of those six losses were by a combined 11 points.

• The 2011-12 season marks the eighth consecutive year – and the 13th time in school history – that BGSU has won some sort of regular-season title ... BG earned six consecutive outright titles from 2005-10 ... last season, the Falcons did not have the league's best overall record, but the Brown and Orange won the East Division.

• 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.

• Last year's team, with those six seniors, went 13-3 in MAC regular-season play ... Miller and his staff guided this year's youthful squad to a 14-2 conference mark ... Miller was named the MAC's Coach of the Year in 2012 (deservedly so), earning that honor for a league-record sixth time.

• Miller and the Falcons went 11-21 in MAC play in his first two seasons at BGSU ... in the nine seasons since that time, BGSU has gone 124-20 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.

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

• RADIO/AUDIO STREAM: The VCU 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: 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 BGSU-VCU winner will advance to the second round of the WNIT, to face the winner of Thursday night's Boston University - Saint Joseph's game.

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