Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Davis & Elkins
Falcons Host Davis & Elkins in Friday Exhibition
November 05, 2014 | Women's Basketball
The BGSU men host Notre Dame College in the first half of that DH, at 4:30 p.m. Tickets to Friday's exhibition are just $5, and one ticket is good for both games.
BGSU Women's Basketball Tickets | Live Stats for Friday
Win a $1,000 Gift Card! | Falcons Picked to Finish Second in East Division
VIDEO: An Interview with the Seniors | BGSU Women's BKB Commercial
Roos welcomes back six letterwinners from a year ago, and the roster also includes six players who saw little or no playing time for the Falcons last winter. Four of the latter six are true freshmen.
The Falcons finished 30-5 overall and 17-1 in Mid-American Conference play last season. BGSU's overall win total was the second highest in both school and MAC history. The Falcons won over 20 games for the 11th consecutive year and advanced to a national postseason tournament for the 10th-straight season, extending the school and MAC records in both cases.
Last year's edition of the Falcons won a MAC regular-season divisional title for the ninth time in the last 10 seasons. BGSU has captured the overall conference crown eight times in that span.
BGSU has two starters returning from last season, including redshirt junior Erica Donovan and true junior Miriam Justinger. Seniors Deborah Hoekstra and Jasmine Matthews also return after playing in all 35 games a year ago.
Donovan is the team's top returning scorer after averaging 10.9 points per game in 2013-14, her first playing season with the Falcons. A transfer from North Carolina State University, she also averaged 5.6 rebounds per contest last season, tops among the returnees. Donovan was named to the 2014-15 Preseason All-MAC Team by the conference's head coaches.
Justinger, Hoekstra and Matthews all averaged between 6.4 and 8.4 ppg a year ago, and each of the three made at least 28 three-point field goals. Justinger was fourth on the Falcons with 8.4 points per outing, and was second on the team in assists, with 2.4 per game.
Justinger shot 33.3 percent from three-point range, hitting a total of 28 treys. Matthews and Hoekstra were second and third, respectively, in three-pointers made a year ago. Matthews hit 45 triples and shot 33.1% from long distance. She averaged 6.4 ppg while playing in all 35 games, starting nine.
Hoekstra, one of the league's top sixth players, came off the bench in all 35 games and averaged 6.9 ppg. She shot 36.3% from three-point land, ranking second on the team, and knocked down 41 treys on the year. Donovan made 36 three-pointers last season, as no fewer than six Falcons (including four returnees) sank 27 or more shots from beyond the arc.
Sophomores Rachel Konieczki and Abby Siefker round out the returning letterwinners. Konieczki played in 34 games and Siefker 31 last winter. Konieczki averaged 1.8 ppg and Siefker 1.7 ppg, with both players averaging between eight and nine minutes per game.
Redshirt freshmen Leah Bolton and Kennedy Kirkpatrick are back after seeing their respective 2013-14 seasons curtailed by injuries. Kirkpatrick saw action in five games, playing a total of 16 minutes, while Bolton was on the floor for a total of eight minutes over two games.
Four true freshmen – Sarah Baer (Perrysburg, Ohio), Rachel Myers (Findlay, Ohio), Haley Puk (Waterloo, Iowa) and Lauren Webb (Vernon Hills, Ill.) – have joined the roster for the '14-15 campaign.
Jesse Fleming is in his third year on the BGSU coaching staff, and is joined by second-year Falcon assistant coaches Jacey Brooks and Sahar Nusseibeh on the staff. Director of operations Monique Rosati is in her eighth season with the program.
Friday'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.
Davis & Elkins finished with a 15-14 record last season, including a 12-4 mark against Great Midwest Athletic Conference competition. D&E finished fourth in the G-MAC standings a year ago, and the Senators were picked fifth in the conference this year. Coach Jason Asbell returns three of his top-four scorers from last season, including G-MAC Second-Team selection Stephanie Wooten, who averaged 12.9 points and 3.8 assists during her freshman year. Seniors Ashley Bowles (10.5 ppg) and Sharmaine Baker (10.0 ppg, 5.3 rpg) also return for the Senators.
For BGSU, the regular season begins with a pair of home games, including a contest vs. Bucknell a week from Friday (Nov. 14). The Brown and Orange will face Iona at the Stroh on Tuesday, Nov. 18, then will play eight of the next nine games away from home in the remainder of the 2014 calendar year.
