Falcons Mix in a Home Game, Face Cincinnati Sunday

Sunday, December 7

Bowling Green, OH

2:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Cincinnati

Tickets

Haley Puk & the Falcons host Cincinnati Sunday afternoon

Photo by: Bianca Garza, BGSU Marketing and Communications

December 05, 2014 | Women's Basketball

BGSU-UC tilt marks the team's lone contest at the Stroh between Nov. 18 & Jan. 3

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team plays the bulk of the non-conference schedule away from Northwest Ohio, but will mix in a rare home game this weekend. The Falcons of head coach Jennifer Roos face the University of Cincinnati on Sunday afternoon (Dec. 7) at the Stroh Center, with tipoff scheduled for 2:00 p.m. Sunday's game marks the lone home action for the Falcons between Nov. 18 and Jan. 3.

GAME NOTES
BGSU | CINCINNATI

FACULTY/STAFF DAY
Sunday's game will be Faculty/Staff Day at the Stroh Center. Tickets for any faculty/staff member will be only $10 with a valid BGSU faculty/staff ID.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
If you can't make it to the Stroh Center on Sunday, you can still follow the Falcons via your radio or computer machine. The game will be broadcast by WBGU-FM 88.1, the flagship home of Falcon women's basketball, and will be available over the air or on the web.

Additionally, live stats for Sunday's game will be available via BGSUFalcons.com, and a video stream (fee required) will be available as well. And, in-game twitter updates can be found at @BGSUwbb. Log on to BGSUFalcons.com and click the 'calendar' link on the day or the game, or navigate your way to the women's basketball schedule page and bask in the veritable plethora of links.

LAST TIME(S) OUT: FALCONS SPLIT A PAIR IN LOS ANGELES
• The Falcons split a pair of games at last weekend's DoubleTree LA Westside Thanksgiving Classic. BGSU downed UC Irvine, 62-54, on Friday (Nov. 28), before falling to host Loyola Marymount by a narrow 51-48 count in Saturday's (Nov. 29) championship.

• Redshirt junior Erica Donovan led the Falcons in both scoring and rebounding in both games. She had a double-double vs. UC Irvine, with game-high totals of 13 points and 12 rebounds against the Anteaters. Freshman Rachel Myers had the second double-digit game of her young career, with 10 points in the win.

• The Falcons led by seven at the half, but built that lead to as many as 27 points in the second half. A furious rally by UCI got the Anteaters back within single digits, but the lead never fell below the final eight-point margin.

• Junior Miriam Justinger had nine points and six rebounds on Friday, while senior Deborah Hoekstra and freshman Haley Puk scored eight points apiece. The Falcons' 62-point total vs. UC Irvine included 31 points from the starters and 31 from the bench.

• On Saturday, a late LMU rally lifted the Lions to a three-point win in the tourney championship game. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for BGSU.

• The Falcons never trailed in the first half, but Sophie Taylor's free throws with 15:46 left gave the hosts a 29-27 advantage. It marked the first time BGSU had trailed in the tournament.

• Then, however, the Falcons proceeded to score 12-straight points to take a 39-29 lead with 12:09 remaining. Myers scored the last five points during that run. BG's lead reached a game-high 11 points, 42-31, midway through the half, but the Lions' Leslie Lopez-Wood scored six-straight points, with four coming at the free-throw line, to make it a five-point game.

• BG answered with a bucket, and after the teams traded jumpers, a Lopez-Wood three-pointer with 3:04 to go got the Lions within two points. Justinger scored for the Falcons, but back-to-back buckets by Taylor Anderson tied the score at 48-48 with 1:44 remaining.

• A pair of BGSU shots on the next possession would not drop, and the Falcons were called for a foul at the other end with 50.3 seconds left. Deanna Johnson made two free throws to give LMU a 50-48 advantage.

• The next possession saw sophomore Rachel Konieczki's three-point try go long, with Johnson grabbing the rebound. Justinger fouled her with 16.9 seconds left, and the LMU junior missed her first charity toss, but made the second.

• As the clock wound down, the Falcons looked to make a game-tying three-pointer, but freshman Puk's shot caromed off the back rim. Donovan grabbed the rebound, but the clock ran out and the Lions had the victory.

• Donovan led the Falcons with 14 points and nine rebounds on Saturday. Myers and senior Jasmine Matthews scored eight points apiece, and Justinger added seven. Matthews was second on the team with five rebounds, and led BG with three assists.

DONOVAN, MYERS NAMED TO ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
A pair of Falcons were named to the all-tournament team at the DoubleTree LA Westside Thanksgiving Classic. Redshirt junior Erica Donovan and freshman Rachel Myers each earned all-tourney team honors. Donovan had a double-double in the Falcons' win over UC Irvine, and averaged 13.5 points and 10.5 rebounds in the two games. Myers averaged 9.0 points in the tourney, including a 10-point performance in the win over UCI.

DOUBLETREE LA WESTSIDE THANKSGIVING CLASSIC
(all games at Gersten Pavilion; Los Angeles, Calif.)
Friday, Nov. 28
Bowling Green 62, UC Irvine 54
at Loyola Marymount 66, UAB 61

Saturday, Nov. 29
Consolation - UAB 69, UC Irvine 65 (OT)
Championship - at Loyola Marymount 51, Bowling Green 48

JUSTINGER NAMED MAC SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
On Monday (Dec. 1), junior Miriam Justinger was named MAC Scholar-Athlete of the Week, earning that honor for the first time in her BGSU career. Justinger, a native of Sylvania, Ohio (Northview H.S.), earned the honor for the week of Nov. 17-24. She averaged 11.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 3.5 steals per game as the Falcons posted wins over Iona and Milwaukee. Justinger was second on the team in scoring and third in rebounding, and she led BG in assists and steals on the week. In the classroom, Justinger maintains a 3.602 cumulative GPA as an exercise science major.

EVEN STEVEN
Through five games, BGSU is shooting 36.3 percent from the field. And, the Falcon defense has held opponents to a 36.3% success rate as well. In fact, BG has gone 103-for-284 from the floor, while Falcon foes also have made 103 field goals in 284 attempts.

THESE CATEGORIES ARE RELATIVELY EVEN, TOO
Five games into the season, the Falcons have outrebounded the opponents by a narrow 196-194 margin. BG has 64 offensive boards to the foes' 63. The Falcons have 132 defensive rebounds, and the opponents have 131. And, BG has made 28 three-point field goals to the foes' 24.

THIS ONE IS NOT
The Falcons' field-goal, three-point and rebounding stat lines may look similar to those of the opponents, but that is most certainly not the case when it comes to the free-throw categories. BG appears to be continuing a program trend of making more free throws than the opponents attempt. This year to date, BGSU is 68-of-89 from the stripe, for a conversion rate of 76.4 percent. Opponents have gone 37-of-55 (67.3%) from the line through the first five games of the season.

SIX OF ONE, HALF DOZEN OF THE OTHER
Coach Jennifer Roos and the Falcons returned six letterwinners from a year ago. Each of those returnees played in 31 or more games last winter, with three of the six playing in all 35 contests. BGSU's other six players on the 2014-15 roster had combined to play a total of 24 minutes in their collegiate careers entering the season. The latter half-dozen players include a pair of redshirt freshmen as well as four true frosh.

ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons enter the Cincinnati game with a 3-2 record. After opening the season with a 53-52 loss to Bucknell, BGSU bounced back with a convincing 80-59 victory over Iona, then went on the road and picked up a 60-50 triumph over Milwaukee. The Brown and Orange extended the win streak to three games with a 62-54 win over UC Irvine, before suffering a narrow loss, 51-48, to Loyola Marymount. The latter two games came last weekend at the DoubleTree LA Westside Thanksgiving Classic, hosted by LMU.

• BG's starting lineup has been the same in each of the first five games, with senior Jasmine Matthews, redshirt junior Erica Donovan, true junior Miriam Justinger and sophomores Rachel Konieczki and Abby Siefker comprising the starting five. Senior Deborah Hoekstra, one of the top sixth players in the MAC a year ago, has been at the scorer's table the first time BGSU has made a substitution in each of the five games to date.

• The two juniors pace the Falcons' balanced scoring attack. Donovan leads the Falcons with 13.0 points per game, while Justinger also is in double digits with 10.0 ppg. Hoekstra and freshman Rachel Myers have scored 8.8 and 7.0 ppg, respectively, with Konieczki averaging 6.6 points and Siefker an even 5.0 points per outing.

• Donovan leads the Falcons in rebounding as well as scoring, with 8.2 boards per game. Justinger and Siefker have 5.4 and 5.2 rpg, respectively, while Matthews has pulled down 4.0 caroms per contest.

• Justinger has 2.4 assists per game to pace the Falcons in that category, and she and Donovan are tied for the team lead in steals, with 1.6 per game. Donovan is second on the Falcons with 1.8 apg, with Matthews handing out 1.6 apg. Siefker has a team-leading 1.0 blocked shots per contest.

• BGSU is shooting 36.3 percent from the field, 25.5% from three-point range and 76.4% from the free-throw line through five games. The Falcons' opponents have shot 36.3% from the floor, 23.5% from the arc and 67.3% from the stripe.

• The Falcons have averaged 5.6 three-pointers made through the first five contests. Hoekstra and Myers have made six each, while Konieczki has hit five and Donovan and Justinger four apiece.

• Hoekstra, Myers, redshirt freshman Kennedy Kirkpatrick and true frosh Haley Puk each have seen action in all five games off the bench, while freshman Lauren Webb has appeared in four and classmate Sarah Baer three.

• The Falcons returned six letterwinners, including two starters, from a 2013-14 team that won 30 overall games and captured a MAC regular-season title with a 17-1 league ledger. BGSU won the East Division title, and the Falcons had the best overall record in MAC play for the eighth time in the last 10 seasons. The division title was the program's ninth in that 10-year span.

• Last year's edition of the Brown and Orange advanced to national postseason play for the 10th consecutive March, winning three games in the WNIT before falling in the quarterfinal round to eventual tourney champion Rutgers. BGSU won more than 20 games for the 11th consecutive year.

• In addition to the six returnees, head coach Jennifer Roos and her staff – assistant coaches Jesse Fleming, Jacey Brooks and Sahar Nusseibeh and director of operations Monique Rosati – also have six players with freshman status on the roster. That 12-player roster includes two seniors, two juniors, two sophomores, two redshirt freshmen and the four true frosh.

• Donovan is the top returning scorer and rebounder. She averaged 10.9 points and 5.6 rebounds per game a year ago, ranking third on the team in both categories.

• Donovan played in all 35 games, starting 34, last season. The Falcons' other returning starter is Justinger, who made 27 starts last year and avearged 8.4 points and 3.1 rebounds per outing. Justinger also averaged 2.4 assists per contest last winter, good for second on the Falcons and tops among returnees.

• Hoekstra and Matthews scored 6.9 and 6.4 ppg, respectively, last year. Both players saw action off the bench. Hoekstra, one of the league's top sixth players, came off the bench in all 35, while Matthews made nine starts.

• Matthews made 45 three-point field goals last season, while Hoekstra hit 41 long-range shots and made 36.3% of her attempts from beyond the arc. Donovan and Justinger made 36 and 28 treys, respectively.

• The 2013-14 Falcons shot 42.3 percent from the field, 35.2% from three-point range and 74.6% from the foul line. Opponents shooting 37.4% from the floor, 25.7% from the arc and 69.0% from the stripe. The Falcons had a scoring margin of +12.9, a rebounding margin of +6.5 and a turnover margin of +1.1 on the year.

• In MAC games, BGSU shot 43.0% from the field, 36.1% from three-point land and 78.5% from the line. Opponents shot 36.4% overall, 22.0% from long range and 64.8% from the stripe in MAC play.

SIXTY POINTS = SUCCESS AT THE STROH CENTER
Heading into the Cincinnati game, the Falcons have a record of 45-9 at the Stroh Center since the building opened prior to the 2011-12 season. While an 83.3 winning percentage is certainly impressive, BGSU's chances of winning have increased exponentially when the team scores at least 60 points. The Falcons are 42-1 (97.7%) when reaching the 60-point mark inside the Stroh. BG is 28-1 when scoring at least 70 points, 12-0 when hitting the 80-point mark and 3-0 when reaching the 90-point plateau.

THE CINCINNATI BEARCATS
Cincinnati will head north on I-75 with an overall record of 1-5, and the Bearcats are looking to snap a five-game losing streak. UC opened the season with a home win over Arkansas Pine Bluff, but dropped road games to UT Martin and Iowa State before losing three times on a trip to California. Last weekend, the 'Cats faced Creighton and San Jose State in Berkeley, Calif., before losing a 66-58 decision at UCLA on Tuesday night. Individually, junior guard Jasmine Whitfield leads the team in scoring, with 14.8 points per game, and she also has 5.7 rebounds per outing. Freshman guard Ana Owens has 12.7 ppg and 5.3 rpg, and she leads the 'Cats with 3.7 assists per contest. Sophomore forward Marley Hill rounds out the double-figure scorers, with 11.6 ppg, and she has a team-leading 8.8 rpg. Last year, head coach Jamelle Elliott's team finished 13-18 overall and 5-11 in the American Athletic Conference. Elliott and the Bearcats welcomed back eight letterwinners, including two starters, from the 2013-14 squad.

THE SERIES
The Falcons trail Cincinnati, 10-6, in the all-time series between the teams, and the Bearcats won the most recent meeting. The teams have not played in nearly 12 years, since an 88-57 UC win in the Queen City during the 2002-03 season. That game was the 'Cats' most lopsided series win. The previous meeting was BGSU's most lopsided series victory, as the Brown and Orange posted a 105-78 triumph inside Anderson Arena in January of 1993. BGSU is 5-1 at home, 1-7 on the road and 0-2 in neutral-site meetings with UC. Sunday's game will mark the teams' first-ever meeting at the Stroh Center. Jennifer Roos is 0-0 against the Bearcats as a head coach.

NO. WAY. (THIS WEEK'S MIND-BLOWING STORY)
On Sunday night (Nov. 30), just prior to catching a red-eye flight back to Ohio, the BGSU women's basketball traveling party headed to the Staples Center to catch part of the Los Angeles Lakers' game against the Toronto Raptors. Just one section away sat the Cincinnati women's basketball team, as the Bearcats also were in California for a series of games over the Thanksgiving weekend.

HOME COOKIN'
Last year, the Falcons broke the school record for home wins in a season. BGSU was a perfect 16-0 at the Stroh Center before falling to Rutgers in the fourth round of the WNIT. The previous record of 14 home wins was set by the '08-09 team and matched no fewer than three times over the next four years. In fact, BG has won at least 13 home games in each of the last six years.

STROH'ME-COURT ADVANTAGE
• The Falcons have enjoyed a long-standing tradition of success at home. Most of that success came at venerable Anderson Arena, where the Brown and Orange had an outstanding home-court advantage over the years. But, the BG women's basketball program has begun a new tradition of excellence at a new building. The Falcons now own an overall record of 45-9 in the Stroh Center, including a 23-2 ledger vs. MAC opponents in regular-season games.

• After losing by just one point to nationally-ranked Purdue in the first-ever women's basketball game in the building in November of 2011, the Falcons reeled off 14-straight wins at the Stroh, before losing another one-point game to VCU in the WNIT to end that 2011-12 campaign with a 14-2 mark at home.

• Two years ago, the Falcons again won 14 games at home, including 25-point wins over both nationally-ranked Dayton (the Flyers' only regular-season loss all year) and Central Michigan (the Chippewas entered the game with a 7-0 MAC record).

• Last year, the Falcons won 16-straight games at home – by an average of 21.5 points – before losing to Rutgers in the WNIT quarterfinals.

• The 45-9 mark at the Stroh comes after the Falcons went 333-116 (74.2%) in Anderson Arena during the team's tenure there. The record was even better during MAC play, as the Falcons had a league mark of 192-54 (78.0%) at "The House That Roars" through the years.

TOUGH TO SCORE AT THE STROH
• In 54 games at the Stroh Center, the Falcons have allowed the opponent to reach 70 points just three times. Akron is the only MAC foe to surpass the 60-point mark against the Brown and Orange in 26 trips to the building by conference foes, and the Zips have done so twice.

• BG has held 42 of 54 opponents to fewer than 60 points at the Stroh Center. The Falcons have limited 17 of those foes to less than 50 points, and on five occasions, BGSU has kept the opposition under the 40-point mark.

THE FALCONS ARE/WERE ...
• 3-2 this season, after posting a 30-5 overall record last winter;
• 17-1 in MAC play in 2013-14, winning a division title for the ninth time in a 10-season span;
• 315-110 since Jennifer Roos came to BGSU in the summer of 2001;
• 163-47 in MAC games in that time:
• 294-75 over the last 11-plus years, with 2013-14 marking BG's MAC-record 11th-straight season of at least 20 wins;
• a staggering 273-65 in the past 10-plus years, with no fewer than 23 wins in each of the 10 seasons and eight MAC overall regular-season titles (2004-10, 2012 and again in '14, plus an East Division crown in '11);
• an eye-popping 250-57 overall, and 128-18 in the MAC regular season, in the last nine-plus years, with at least 24 wins in each of those nine seasons;
• a superb 222-54 in the last eight-plus years, including a 112-18 league ledger;
• a/an (insert your own adjective here) 191-50 overall, and 97-17 in MAC regular-season games, in the last seven-plus seasons, since Monique Rosati came to the BGSU program;
• 165-42 overall and 84-14 in MAC action over the last six-plus winters;
• 136-37, including a 69-13 MAC ledger, in the last five-plus seasons;
• 109-30 overall and 55-11 in the MAC in the last four-plus years;
• 81-25 overall, and 42-8 in MAC action, since seniors Deborah Hoekstra and Jasmine Matthews first put on a BGSU uniform;
• 57-18 overall and 28-6 in league play since Jennifer Roos became head coach, junior Miriam Justinger joined the Falcons' roster, and redshirt junior Erica Donovan transferred to BG;
• 33-7 since Donovan and sophomores Rachel Konieczki and Abby Siefker began their BGSU playing careers, and redshirt freshmen Leah Bolton and Kennedy Kirkpatrick came to campus;
• 151-23 in the last 174 games vs. MAC foes (regular-season and tournament);
• A perfect 67-0 when shooting 50 percent or better from the field since 2001;
• 251-12 when having a better FG percentage than the opposition in that time, including a 123-2 mark in the last six-plus seasons;
• 241-40 when making more free throws than the opponent in the Roos Assistant-Coach/Associate-Head-Coach/Interim-Head-Coach/Head-Coaching Era;
• 204-25 when outrebounding the opponent in that 13-plus-year span;
• 74-7 in MAC home games in the last 10 seasons;
• 61-12 in MAC road games over the last nine years;
• 20-5 in the MAC Tournament in the last 10 years, with five titles (2005, '06, '07, '10 and '11), an additional championship-game appearance (2009), and trips to the semis in 2008, 2012 and 2014;
• 44-19 overall in the MAC Tournament since it was instituted in 1982;
• 21-7 at Gund/Quicken Loans Arena, the site of the MAC Tournament;
• 51-7 in all non-conference home games since the start of the 2003-04 season;
• 10-17 in 17 national postseason appearances (including a 3-11 record in the NCAA Championships and a 7-6 mark in WNIT trips);
• 9-10 in national postseason action since Roos arrived at BG (including a 2-5 mark in the NCAAs and a 7-5 record in the WNIT); and
• 45-9 in the Stroh Center, with seven losses coming by a combined 17 points.

UP NEXT
Following the Cincinnati game, the Falcons' non-conference travel odyssey resumes with a trip to Johnstown, Pa., for a matchup with Saint Francis (Pa.) on Saturday, Dec. 13. The UC game is the only home contest in a nine-game stretch which sees BG venture to the states of Wisconsin, California, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Florida.