Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Tiffin ^
Falcons Host Tiffin in Saturday Exhibition
October 30, 2013 | Women's Basketball
The BGSU men host Malone University in the first half of that DH, at 2:00 p.m. Tickets to Saturday's exhibition are $5, and one ticket is good for both games.
BGSU WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TICKETSÂ Â |Â Â LIVE STATS
PRESEASON QUICK FACTSÂ |Â FALCONS PICKED TO FINISH SECOND IN EAST DIVISION
Roos welcomes back seven letterwinners from a year ago, and also has added seven newcomers – five to the roster and two to the coaching staff.
The Falcons finished 24-11 overall and 11-5 in Mid-American Conference play last season. BGSU won at least 20 games for the 10th consecutive year and advanced to a national postseason tournament for the ninth-straight season, extending the school and MAC records in both cases.
Last year's edition of the Falcons set a school record for fewest points allowed (54.3), breaking the record set the previous year. The 2012-13 team also set new school records for fewest points allowed (51.9) and lowest opponent field-goal percentage (36.1%) in MAC games.
BGSU has three starters returning from last season, including seniors Jillian Halfhill and Alexis Rogers and sophomore Miriam Justinger.
Halfhill started all 35 games a year ago, while Rogers started 34. Justinger moved into the starting lineup in time for the Mid-American Conference opener, and remained there for the final 22 games of the season. Rogers is the team's top returning scorer and rebounder, having averaged 10.9 points and 6.0 rebounds last winter. On Tuesday, she was named to the Preseason All-MAC Team.
Halfhill averaged 8.9 points and a team-leading 3.3 assists per game, and the point guard also pulled down 5.1 rebounds per contest, good for third on the team and second among the returnees. Justinger averaged 5.6 points per game and also had 2.4 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 0.9 steals per outing. She shot 81.0% from the free-throw line to rank second on the team.
Other returnees include seniors Jill Stein and Katrina Salinas and juniors Deborah Hoekstra and Jasmine Matthews. Stein and Salinas each played in all 35 games off the bench, with Stein averaging 5.6 ppg and 4.8 rpg. Stein led the Falcons in blocked shots, and was one of the team's top players down the stretch, averaging 10.0 ppg and 6.4 rpg while shooting 61.7% from the field in the month of March.
Salinas averaged 2.6 ppg in her first season as a Falcon, and scored 3.4 points per contest in MAC games. She also averaged 2.2 three-point field goals made per 40 minutes, tied for first on the team and the highest average among the returning players.
Hoekstra played in 25 games last year, including all 16 conference contests, and averaged 2.3 ppg. Eight of her nine three-point field goals came against MAC opposition. Matthews saw action in 13 games, making nine starts during the non-conference schedule, but played in just one MAC game due to injury. Two years ago, she averaged 7.0 ppg and made 51 three-point field goals – the second-highest total on the team – en route to MAC All-Freshman Team honors.
The Falcons' newcomers to the floor include one player who was on campus all of last season. Redshirt sophomore Erica Donovan practiced with the team in 2012-13, sitting out the season as a transfer from North Carolina State. Donovan averaged 4.9 points and 2.5 rebounds per game for the Wolfpack as a freshman two years ago. A native of Northside, Texas, she attended Notre Dame Academy as a freshman.
Four true freshmen – Leah Bolton (Chicago, Ill.), Kennedy Kirkpatrick (Lawrence, Kansas), Rachel Konieczki (Rockford, Ill.) and Abby Siefker (Ottoville, Ohio) – have joined the roster for the '13-14 campaign.
Assistant coach Jesse Fleming is in his second year under Roos, and they are joined by Jacey Brooks and Sahar Nusseibeh on the staff. Director of operations Monique Rosati is in her seventh season with the program.
Saturday's exhibition is scheduled to be aired on WBGU-FM 88.1, the flagship station for Falcon women's basketball. The audio broadcast also will be available, free of charge, on BGSUFalcons.com. And, as is the case for all home Falcon basketball action, live stats will be available at BGSUFalcons.com as well.
Tiffin went 11-15 last season, and the Dragons had a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference record of 8-14. Head coach Pam Oswald's team tied for fourth in the GLIAC's South Division in 2012-13.
For BGSU, the regular season begins with a trip to New Rochelle, N.Y, for a pair of games in the Iona Tipoff Tournament. The Falcons will face Michigan on Friday, Nov. 8, and will meet either Arizona or the host school, Iona, the following afternoon.
Then, the Falcons will open the home portion of the regular season on Friday, Nov. 15. BG will face Niagara in a 6:00 p.m. start at the Stroh Center, and that game is the first half of another Falcon hoops twinbill which will see the men meet USF at 8:30 p.m. The women's basketball schedule includes 13 regular-season games at the Stroh.
