Chippewas Come to the Stroh as February Schedule Begins

Wednesday, February 4

Bowling Green, OH

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Central Michigan

Tickets

Haley Puk v Toledo - Jan 31 2015 - Ruben Kappler photo

Haley Puk & the Falcons host CMU Wednesday night

Photo by: Ruben Kappler, BGSU Marketing & Communications

February 03, 2015 | Women's Basketball

BGSU faces the MAC's preseason favorite Wednesday night

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team begins the month of February by concluding a two-game homestand on Wednesday night (Feb. 4). The Falcons of head coach Jennifer Roos face preseason Mid-American Conference favorite Central Michigan University, with tipoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at the Stroh Center.

GAME NOTES
BGSU | Central Michigan

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
If you can't make it to the Stroh Center on Wednesday, 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 Wednesday's game will be available via BGSUFalcons.com, as well as a link to the ESPN3.com video stream. And, in-game twitter updates can be found at @BGSUwbb. Log on to BGSUFalcons.com and click the 'calendar' link on the day of the game, or navigate your way to the women's basketball schedule page and bask in the veritable plethora of links.

LAST TIME OUT: ROCKETS RALLY FOR 64-48 WIN AT THE STROH
• Visiting Toledo, trailing at the half, hit five consecutive three-point attempts to begin the second half Saturday afternoon (Jan. 31), rallying for a 64-48 victory over the Falcons before a record crowd at the Stroh Center.

• Senior Deborah Hoekstra led the Falcons with 15 points, while junior Miriam Justinger added 14 for the Brown and Orange. For the Rockets, Brenae Harris had 17 points to lead three players in double figures. Both Inma Zanoguera and Jay-Ann Bravo-Harriott scored 14 points on Saturday.

• The attendance for Saturday's game was 3,498, the sixth-largest home crowd in BGSU women's basketball history, and the largest gathering to see a BG game at the Stroh Center in the history of the building, now in its fourth season.

• The Falcons led, 25-21, at halftime, holding the Rockets to just a 1-for-9 effort from three-point range in the first 20 minutes. But, each of Toledo's first five long-distance attempts in the second half were on the mark as the visitors took the lead for good.

• Toledo shot better than 60 percent from the field in that second half, hitting 14 of 23 shots in the final 20 minutes. The Rockets were 5-of-8 from three-point range after halftime, hitting 6-of-17 long-distance shots on the day.

• BGSU went 22-for-30 from the free-throw line, but the Brown and Orange hit just 11 total field goals in the game. BG shot 30.6% from the floor, compared to Toledo's 43.1% field-goal rate.

TAKE SOME, THEY'RE FREE: BGSU SECOND IN THE NATION IN FT PCT.
• As of Monday night (Feb. 2), the Falcons were ranked second in the entire nation in free-throw percentage. Heading into Wednesday's CMU game, BGSU is shooting 78.4% (286-of-365) from the charity stripe. The Falcons trail only Iowa State (78.4%; 280-of-357) on the national list. The BGSU single-season record for FT percentage is 79.9% by the 2010-11 team.

• The Falcons' 78.4% overall free-throw rate is impressive, to be sure, but BG is shooting an eye-popping 81.0% as a team in MAC games. Through the first nine conference contests, BGSU has made 124-of-153 shots from the stripe.

• The Falcons have made at least 70% of their free throws in 18 of this year's 20 games, including 12 of the last 13 contests (and eight of the nine MAC games).

• Individually, senior Deborah Hoekstra is second in the MAC and eighth in the entire nation in free-throw percentage. Hoekstra has gone 58-of-64 at the stripe this season, good for a success rate of 90.6%.

YOUTH IS SERVED
• The Falcons have had four players suffer season- or career-ending injuries this season, with a fifth player missing large chunks of time due to injury as well. As a result, many BG freshmen have had an opportunity to gain valuable experience. True freshmen Rachel Myers (25.9), Haley Puk (20.2) and Sarah Baer (11.3) all are averaging double-digit minutes per game, and each member of that trio has started at least three games.

• Additionally, redshirt freshman Kennedy Kirkpatrick, who missed nearly all of last season due to injury, is averaging 16.6 minutes per game this winter.

• The 2014-15 season marks the first time three freshmen have started one or more games since 2007-08 (Lauren Prochaska and Crystal Murdaugh started all 34 games that year, while Chelsea Albert made six starts).

• BGSU has not had four frosh average double-digit minutes since the 2003-04 season, when first-year Falcons Ali Mann, Liz Honegger, Megan Thorburn and Carin Horne each played over 10 minutes per game. That quartet went on to lead BG to 31 wins and a trip to the 'Sweet Sixteen' round of the 2007 NCAA Championships as seniors.

ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons enter the Central Michigan game with an overall record of 9-11, and BGSU is 2-7 in Mid-American Conference play after a 64-48 loss to Toledo on Saturday afternoon/evening (Jan. 31).

• The loss to Toledo snapped a two-game winning streak at the Stroh Center for the Falcons. BGSU is 4-3 at home, 4-6 on the road and 1-1 at neutral-site venues this season.

• After winning four-straight games prior to Christmas, BGSU then dropped five consecutive contests, the program's longest slide since the 2000-01 season. The Falcons snapped that streak with a 65-59 win over NIU at the Stroh on Jan. 14, but then lost at Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan before downing MU.

• That five-game losing streak, not coincidentally, came after 25 percent of the roster – three of the 12 players on the team at that time – were lost for the season due to injury. That figure reached 33.3% as a fourth player suffered a season-ending injury in early January.

• After opening the season with a one-point loss to Bucknell, BGSU bounced back with three-straight wins, beginning with a convincing 80-59 home victory over Iona. The Falcons went on the road and downed Milwaukee, then headed to the left coast and topped UC Irvine before suffering a narrow loss to Loyola Marymount. The latter two games came at the DoubleTree LA Westside Thanksgiving Classic, hosted by LMU.

• The Falcons returned home and posted a 66-55 win over Cincinnati, the team's lone home game in a month-and-a-half span, to begin a four-game winning streak. Road wins over Saint Francis (Pa.), Illinois State and Bradley followed, but two players suffered season-ending injuries in that ISU game.

• The Brown and Orange dropped a pair of games just after the Christmas holiday in Miami, Fla., against Hampton and the host school at the FIU Sun & Fun Classic. BG opened MAC play with a home loss to Ball State and road setbacks at Akron and Kent State. The Falcons had only seven players in uniform for the UA contest on Jan. 7.

• Redshirt junior Erica Donovan and freshman Lauren Webb were injured in that Illinois State game. Both are expected to miss the remainder of the 2014-15 season. Donovan was the Falcons' leading scorer and rebounder at the time of her injury, with 15.3 points and 9.1 rebounds per game. She had 20 points in each of her last two games, vs. SFU and ISU, with a career-high 15 boards in the latter contest.

• Sophomore Abby Siefker and redshirt freshman Leah Bolton also are expected to miss the rest of the season. Bolton saw action in the Falcons' exhibition game on Nov. 7, but did not play in a regular-season game in 2014-15.

• Siefker started the first 12 games of the year, and averaged 5.4 points and 6.3 rebounds. She was second on the team in rebounding behind Donovan, and led the Falcons in blocked shots, with 1.0 rejections per game.

• Of the active Falcons, only two – junior Miriam Justinger and sophomore Rachel Konieczki – have started all 20 games this season to date. Senior Deborah Hoekstra, after coming off the bench for the first 83 games of her BGSU career, has started the last 14 games. Freshman Haley Puk has made nine starts, classmate Rachel Myers eight and senior Jasmine Matthews six this season. Freshman Sarah Baer has started each of the last three games.

• Hoekstra leads the active Falcons in scoring, with 11.3 points per game, while Justinger and Myers have scored 9.9 and 8.1 ppg, respectively. Konieczki has 6.4 points per contest, with Puk averaging 4.8 ppg to date.

• Hoekstra is averaging 6.2 rebounds per game, tops among the members of the active roster, and she has 9.0 rpg in MAC play. Justinger has 5.5 rpg this season to date. Hoekstra has posted four double-doubles – all in conference contests – after Justinger had her first career double-double in the MAC opener vs. Ball State.

• Justinger has 2.2 assists per game to pace the Falcons in that category, while Konieczki has 1.7 assists and Hoekstra 1.4 helpers per contest. Redshirt freshman Kennedy Kirkpatrick has handed out 1.3 assists per game.

• Hoekstra has 1.2 steals per game, leading BGSU in that category, while Koneczki and Justinger each have 1.1 spg. Baer leads the active Falcons with a total of six blocked shots this season.

• BGSU is shooting 36.2 percent from the field, 30.5% from three-point range and 78.4% from the free-throw line through 20 games. The Falcons' opponents have shot 40.1% from the floor, 27.8% from the arc and 65.4% from the stripe.

• The Falcons have averaged 6.4 three-pointers made this year, including a season-high 11 at Eastern Michigan (Jan. 17). Hoekstra has hit 33 triples to lead the way, while Myers has knocked down 29 long-range attempts. Justinger and Puk have connected 17 and 16 times, respectively, from beyond the arc, while Konieczki has made 13 three-point tries.

• Hoekstra, Justinger, Konieczki, Myers and Puk each have seen action in all 20 games, while Kirkpatrick has played in 19 games and Baer 16. Matthews has played in 12 games this season, but has missed seven of the last 14 contests due to injury. After starting the first six games of the year and averaging 22.5 minutes per game, Matthews has averaged just 4.6 minutes per contest since Christmas.

• Senior Erica Fullenkamp joined the team on Jan. 8, and made her BGSU women's basketball debut six days later in the first NIU meeting. She has played in each of the last six games, averaging 0.7 points and 1.2 rebounds in 7.3 minutes per outing. Fullenkamp, who earned four letters on the Falcon volleyball team at BG, played a season-high 13 minutes vs. Toledo.

• In MAC games, Hoekstra leads the team with 12.2 ppg, with Justinger and Myers averaging 11.1 and 10.8 ppg, respectively. Hoekstra, as mentioned, has 9.0 rpg to lead the Falcons in that category, and she also leads BG in steals and blocked shots in MAC games. Justinger has 5.7 rpg and 1.9 apg in conference contests, and Myers has hit a team-leading 17 three-point field goals vs. MAC foes. BGSU is shooting 81.0% from the free-throw line in MAC games, having made 124-of-153 shots from the stripe.

• The Falcons returned six letterwinners, including two starters (Donovan and Justinger), 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 crown, 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 added six players with freshman status on the roster. The 12-player active roster at the start of the 2014-15 season included two seniors, two juniors, two sophomores, two redshirt freshmen and the four true frosh.

THREE-MENDOUS
• The Falcons have made 6.4 three-point field goals per game this year to date, ranking second in the MAC. In conference play, the Falcons have hit 6.9 treys per contest. BGSU has made at least four three-pointers in each of this season's 20 games.

• In fact, the Falcons have hit at least four triples in 31-straight games against MAC foes. The last time BG failed to make four three-pointers against a conference opponent came on March 6, 2013, when the Falcons went 2-of-18 from long distance in a road win over Kent State.

THREE-MARKABLE
BGSU made four three-point field goals in the Toledo game. The Falcons now have hit at least one three-pointer in each of the last 331 games. BG has not been held without a triple in nearly 10 years – since Feb. 12, 2005, at Akron, when the Falcons won, 61-52, despite going 0-of-13 from long distance.

SIXTY POINTS = SUCCESS AT THE STROH CENTER
Heading into the Central Michigan game, the Falcons have a record of 48-11 at the Stroh Center since the building opened prior to the 2011-12 season. While an 81.4% winning percentage is certainly impressive, BGSU's chances of winning at home have increased exponentially when the team scores at least 60 points. The Falcons are 45-1 (97.8%) when reaching the 60-point mark inside the Stroh, and 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.

IT CAN BE TOUGH TO SCORE AT THE STROH
• In 59 games at the Stroh Center, the Falcons have allowed the opponent to reach 70 points just three times. No MAC team has ever scored more than 65 points in the Stroh, and only Akron (twice), Ball State and Toledo (once each) have reached 60 points against the Brown and Orange in 29 trips to the building by MAC foes.

• BG has held 45 of 59 overall 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 CENTRAL MICHIGAN CHIPPEWAS
Central Michigan enters Wednesday's game with an overall record of 10-9, and the Chippewas are 5-3 in MAC play. CMU, picked to win the MAC in the preseason coaches' poll, started the conference schedule with a 4-0 record, but the Chippewas have dropped three of the last four contests, including a 74-66 setback vs. Ohio on Saturday. CMU is 6-4 at home, 2-4 on the road in 2-1 in neutral-site games. Individually, senior guard Crystal Bradford leads the Chippewas – and the entire MAC – in scoring and rebounding, with 20.9 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. Bradford also paces the team in assists (3.6) and steals (2.7), leading the MAC in the latter category. In conference games, Bradford has 21.0 ppg and 10.1 rpg. Senior forward Jas'Mine Bracey and senior guard Kerby Tamm average 9.1 and 8.8 ppg, respectively, this season. Bracey has 8.2 rpg and a team-high 1.8 blocked shots per game, while Tamm leads the team and is third in the conference in three-point field goals made, with 50. Last year, head coach Sue Guevara's team went 20-12 overall and 16-2 in the MAC, winning the West Division and finishing one game behind BGSU in the race for the overall MAC regular-season title. Guevara welcomed back seven letterwinners, including four starters, from the 2013-14 club.

THE SERIES
• The Falcons lead Central Michigan, 47-16, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU captured the most recent meeting.

• The Falcons and Chippewas split a pair of 2013-14 matches, with host Central mounting a comeback late in regulation and going on to an 82-79 overtime win in Mount Pleasant (Jan. 18, 2014). The return match saw the Falcons capture a 67-55 victory just over a month later (Feb. 19, 2014), in a battle of MAC divisional leaders at the Stroh Center.

• BGSU is 25-4 in home games (2-0 at the Stroh Center), 18-8 on the road and 4-4 in neutral-site contests vs. the Chippewas over the years. CMU's last win in Bowling Green came in February of 1995.

• Jennifer Roos is 2-2 against the Chippewas as a collegiate head coach, although she also served as interim head coach of the Falcons for a win at CMU in the 2011-12 season.

FALCONS LIKE THEIR #MACTION
Since Jennifer Roos became head coach prior to the 2012-13 season, the Falcons have a record of 30-13 in MAC regular-season games. BGSU has won those 30 games by an average of 17.1 points per game, and 24 of the 30 wins have been by double digits.

FALCONS VS. THE MAC
The Falcons continue to own the best record in MAC history. Entering the CMU game, BGSU has an all-time record of 392-160 (.710) in MAC regular-season contests, for the most wins and highest winning pct. of all league institutions. And, BG leads the series with all 11 MAC foes, making the Falcons the only team in the league, obviously, with a winning series record against every other school. BG also has the most overall victories (755) and highest overall winning percentage (.651) of any conference school.

THE FALCONS ARE/WERE ...
• 9-11 this season, after posting a 30-5 overall record last winter;
• 2-7 in MAC play. BG was 17-1 in the MAC in 2013-14, winning a division title for the ninth time in a 10-season span;
• 321-119 since Jennifer Roos came to BGSU in the summer of 2001;
• 166-54 in MAC games in that time:
• 300-84 over the last 11-plus years, with 2013-14 marking BG's MAC-record 11th-straight season of at least 20 wins;
• a staggering 279-74 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 256-66 overall, and 130-25 in the MAC regular season, in the last nine-plus years, with at least 24 wins in each of those nine seasons;
• a superb 228-63 in the last eight-plus years, including a 114-25 league ledger;
• a/an (insert your own adjective here) 197-59 overall, and 99-24 in MAC regular-season games, in the last seven-plus seasons, since Monique Rosati came to the BGSU program;
• 171-51 overall and 86-21 in MAC action over the last six-plus winters;
• 142-46, including a 71-20 MAC ledger, in the last five-plus seasons;
• 115-39 overall and 57-18 in the MAC in the last four-plus years;
• 87-34 overall, and 44-15 in MAC action, since seniors Deborah Hoekstra and Jasmine Matthews first put on a BGSU uniform;
• 63-27 overall and 30-13 in league play since Jennifer Roos became head coach, junior Miriam Justinger joined the Falcons' roster, and redshirt junior Erica Donovan transferred to BG;
• 39-16 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;
• 153-30 in the last 183 games vs. MAC foes (regular-season and tournament);
• A perfect 67-0 when shooting 50 percent or better from the field since 2001;
• 256-13 when having a better FG percentage than the opposition in that time, including a 128-3 mark in the last six-plus seasons;
• 245-46 when making more free throws than the opponent in the Roos Assistant-Coach/Associate-Head-Coach/Interim-Head-Coach/Head-Coaching Era;
• 208-26 when outrebounding the opponent in that 13-plus-year span;
• 76-9 in MAC home games in the last 10-plus seasons;
• 61-17 in MAC road games over the last nine-plus 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;
• 52-7 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
• 48-11 in the Stroh Center, with seven of those losses coming by a total of 17 points.

MAKE MORE THAN THEY TAKE
So far this season, BG appears to be continuing an impressive program trend of getting to the foul line much more often than the other team. BGSU has made a total of 286 free throws this year to date. That total is more than the opponents have attempted (266), much less made (174). The Falcons' total of free throws made has been at least 100 higher than the opponents' FTM total in each of the last nine seasons, and BG is on pace to accomplish that feat yet again this year. The 2002-03 campaign was the last time the opposition made, or attempted, more free throws than BG.

UP NEXT
Following the CMU game, the Falcons will head to Western New York for a Saturday (Feb. 7) game vs. Buffalo, with tipoff set for 2:00 p.m. Then, the Brown and Orange will return to the Stroh Center to host MAC-leading Ohio on Wednesday, Feb. 11.