RedHawks Come to the Stroh on Senior Day

Saturday, February 27

Bowling Green, Ohio

2:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Miami

Tickets

Senior Day 2016 - Lauren Tibbs (left), Miriam Justinger

Come see Lauren Tibbs (left) & Miriam Justinger play their final regular-season home game

February 26, 2016 | Women's Basketball

BGSU closes the home portion of the schedule, honors Justinger & Tibbs

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team takes the Stroh Center court for one final regular-season contest this weekend. The Falcons of head coach Jennifer Roos close the home portion of the 2015-16 schedule Saturday afternoon (Feb. 27), taking on Miami University in a game scheduled to begin shortly after 2:00 p.m.

LINKS
GAME NOTES: BGSU | Miami
2015-16 Women's Basketball Media Central
BGSU's 2015-16 Notes for All Games
Season Statistics | Career Stats for Current Falcons
Buy Tickets | Join the Falcon Club Today!

#TBT on a Friday: Remember when Austin's buzzer-beater downed No. 1 MU? | Stats

THANKS, SENIORS
Saturday will be 'Senior Day' at the Stroh, with the two seniors in the Falcon program recognized in ceremonies prior to tipoff. Miriam Justinger, the lone fourth-year Falcon on the roster, and Lauren Tibbs, a fifth-year senior in her first year at the school after transferring from Marquette, are those two seniors. The 'Senior Day' festivities are scheduled to begin at approximately 1:45 p.m.

JUSTINGER NEARS 1,000 CAREER POINTS
Senior Miriam Justinger had 10 points at Buffalo on Wednesday night (Feb. 24), and she enters the Miami game with a career total of 988 points at BGSU, good for 27th in school history. Justinger passed Rhonda Moore (966 points from 1982-86) with her first bucket at Kent State, and her next target on the BGSU career scoring list is Lindsay Austin, who had exactly 1,000 career points from 2000-04.

THE FALCONS AND THE MAC TOURNAMENT
• With just three games left in the regular season, the Falcons are ninth in the overall MAC standings. The top-four teams in the final standings will earn first-round byes, with the fifth- through eighth-seeded teams hosting seeds nine through 12 in that opening round on Monday, March 7.

• If the regular season ended today, BGSU would hit the road to face Buffalo in the first round. UB is eighth in the overall standings.

• BGSU currently trails Buffalo by a game, and the Bulls own the tiebreaker with the Falcons by virtue of a sweep in the teams' two regular-season meetings.

• The Falcons are a game ahead of 10th-seeded Northern Illinois, and BG holds that tiebreaker after a win at NIU in the teams' lone matchup this season.

• As it stands at this very moment, BGSU would win a tiebreaker with Miami or Kent State, and the Falcons would lose a tiebreaker with Western Michigan and Akron. BG still faces MU and UA one more time each. For a complete listing of the overall standings and the remaining schedules for all 12 teams, click on the link to the PDF version of these notes, at the top of the page.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
If you can't make it to the Stroh Center for Saturday's game, fear not – you can still follow the Falcons via your radio- or computer-like devices. The BGSU-Miami game, like all of BG's games, 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, the game will be televised by BCSN in the Toledo area as well as Time Warner Cable Sports, and can also be seen via ESPN3. Live stats will be available as well, and in-game updates can be found at @BGSUwbb on your twitter machine. To follow the Falcons, simply 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 page.

TIBBS NAMED MAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
• On Monday afternoon (Feb. 22), Falcon senior Lauren Tibbs was named MAC Player of the Week, earning the honor for the first time in her career. Tibbs, a native of Taylor Mill, Ky. (Scott H.S.), led the Falcons in a plethora of categories as BGSU split a pair of games last week. She averaged 23.0 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3.5 blocked shots against Toledo (Feb. 17) and Kent State (Feb. 20).

• Tibbs shot 66.7 perfect from the field (20-of-30) and a perfect 100% from three-point range (5-for-5) in the two games.

• Tibbs had a season-high 22 points vs. the Rockets, and she topped that total with 24 points at KSU three days later. In the UT game, she had a game-high nine rebounds and tied for game honors with three blocks, and the Falcons' center was a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the arc. Tibbs made 9-of-15 shots from the field in that game, a 68-60 loss.

• At KSU, Tibbs led all players in points (24), rebounds (eight) and blocks (four), and she added a pair of assists and a steal in a 65-55 road win. Tibbs went 11-of-15 from the field and again was perfect (2-for-2) from three-point range. Her total of 11 field goals made in that game is the highest by a Falcon in over four years (since January of 2012).

TIBBS FOR TWO (OR THREE)
As her senior season begins to wind down, Lauren Tibbs has taken her game up a notch. She has led the Falcons in scoring – and rebounding, for that matter – in each of the last four games. Tibbs has averaged 19.8 points per game and has shot 64.8 percent (35-for-54) during that time, including a 6-for-8 (75.0%) performance from three-point range. Tibbs made six-straight shots from beyond the arc during that span.

LAST TIME OUT: BUFFALO HANGS ON FOR 55-52 WIN
• Joanna Smith's jumper with just over a minute to go broke a tie game, and host Buffalo held on for a 55-52 win over the BGSU women's basketball team Wednesday night (Feb. 24) at UB's Alumni Arena.

• Senior Lauren Tibbs scored a game-high 18 points to pace three players in double digits for the Falcons (9-15, 5-10 MAC), while sophomore Rachel Myers had 11 points and senior Miriam Justinger 10.

• For the Bulls (14-12, 6-9 MAC), Stephanie Reid had 14 points, while Smith added 10. Smith went 0-for-7 from long range, marking the first time this season that she was held without a three-pointer.

• The Falcons shot 43 percent from the field for the game, while holding Buffalo to just a 33.3% success rate. The Bulls, however, took 63 shots to the Falcons' 42 on the night. UB had a 43-27 rebounding advantage, and the hosts pulled down 17 offensive boards in the win. Buffalo had 19 second-chance points to BG's two.

• The game featured 12 ties and 13 lead changes. Neither team led by more than four points over the last 35-plus minutes of the contest.

• The Bulls led by two points and forced a BG turnover, as Tibbs was knocked to the ground as she attempted to split two defenders on a layup attempt, and was called for a travel with 54.8 seconds on the clock. Sophomore Haley Puk, however, jumped a passing lane to come up with a steal with 33.6 seconds to go.

• On the ensuing possession, though, a UB defender poked the ball away from freshman Sydney Lambert, and she was ruled to have kicked the ball as she made a diving effort to corral the loose ball near midcourt. The ball went back over to UB with 6.8 seconds on the clock.

• UB nearly threw the resulting inbounds pass away, but a Buffalo player was able to grab the ball and call a timeout with 5.3 seconds to go. After another inbounds pass, a foul – BG's fourth of the period – stopped the clock with 4.7 seconds left. Another inbounds pass and another BG foul later, Reid headed to the line with 4.0 seconds remaining.

• Reid missed her first free-throw try, but made the second, giving the hosts a three-point lead. BGSU used a timeout, and the Falcons then inbounded the ball from just over midcourt. The ball wound up in the hands of Tibbs, who handed it off to Puk with the clock winding down. Puk attempted a three-pointer from the right wing, but the shot was blocked as time ran out.

• BGSU went 7-for-17 from three-point land, with Myers going 3-of-4 from beyond the arc. The Bulls were just 3-for-19 from long distance on the night.

• In addition to her 10 points, Justinger had five rebounds and five assists. Lambert scored seven points and added four assists and two steals.

ABOUT THE FALCONS
• Bowling Green enters Saturday's game with an overall record of 9-15, and the Falcons are 5-10 in MAC play. BGSU snapped a five-game losing streak with a 65-55 win on the road against Kent State Saturday evening (Feb. 20), but the Falcons fell just short on Wednesday (Feb. 24) at Buffalo, losing by a 55-52 count.

• After winning three-straight games in late January, the Falcons dropped the first 'Battle of I-75' of the season, falling to Toledo by a 75-61 count to end the month (Jan. 30). BGSU then gave MAC West Division-leading Central Michigan a scare, before the Chippewas got a buzzer-beating bucket for a 76-75 win in Mount Pleasant (Feb. 6). BG returned home and fell to Western Michigan, Buffalo and UT before heading to Kent and picking up a 10-point victory.

• The Falcons' three-game winning streak in January included a 67-63 triumph over Eastern Michigan, picked to win the MAC's West Division in the preseason coaches poll, on Jan. 27. The EMU game came on the heels of wins over Northern Illinois on the road (58-43; Jan. 20) and KSU at home (71-49; Jan. 23).

• BG opened conference action with a 64-58 win at Miami (Jan. 2), but the Brown and Orange then suffered a road loss to WMU before falling at home to defending MAC champion Ohio, Akron and Ball State.

• BGSU is 5-7 at home, 3-7 on the road and 1-1 in neutral-site games this season. The Falcons are 2-6 at the Stroh in MAC play, and BG is 3-4 on the road in league action after going 0-10 against conference opponents away from Bowling Green last year (0-9 in the regular season, 0-1 in the MAC Tournament).

• BG began the season with a pair of double-digit wins at the Stroh, then left Northwest Ohio and played three games that were decided by a total of 10 points. After beating Illinois State and Bradley to begin the season, the Falcons also posted non-conference wins over Jacksonville and Evansville.

• A pair of BGSU newcomers have posted double-digit scoring averages to date. Fifth-year senior Lauren Tibbs has 12.8 points per game, while freshman Sydney Lambert is scoring 10.0 ppg. Tibbs, in her first season at BGSU after transferring from Marquette, also leads the Falcons with 7.0 rebounds and 1.0 blocked shots per contest. The reigning MAC Player of the Week is averaging 19.8 ppg and shooting nearly 65 percent from the field over the last four games.

• On the year, Tibbs is shooting 57.8 percent from the field to lead the team – and rank second in the MAC – in that category.

• Lambert leads the Falcons in minutes played (31.1) and steals lead (1.2 spg). Lambert is tied for the team assists lead, with 2.2 helpers per game. She paces the team in three-point field goals made, with 52, and leads the entire MAC in three-point percentage, having made 43.3% of her long-distance attempts to rank among the national leaders as well.

• Senior Miriam Justinger and sophomore Rachel Myers have 8.6 and 7.8 ppg, respectively. Justinger has 2.2 apg to tie Lambert for the team lead, and she has 26 steals to Lambert's 28. Justinger has made 29 long-distance shots and pulled down 4.0 rpg, ranking third on the Falcons on both lists. Justinger is shooting 35.4% from three-point land.

• Myers has hit 46 three-pointers this winter to date, including seven triples – just one shy of the school record – at Central. She ranks seventh in the MAC with a three-point field-goal percentage of 36.8%.

• Junior Ashley Tunstall and freshman Carly Santoro have 4.1 and 4.0 ppg, respectively, while redshirt sophomore Kennedy Kirkpatrick has 3.6 ppg. Tunstall is second on the team in rebounds per game (4.1 rpg) while Kirkpatrick is third in assists (1.4 apg). Tunstall has missed the last three-plus games due to injury.

• Sophomore Haley Puk has 3.1 ppg, while juniors Abby Siefker and Rachel Konieczki are averaging 1.7 and 1.4 ppg, respectively. Puk has averaged 2.5 assists per game – good for second on the team – over the last six contests, including a career-high five in the win at Kent State. She has started the last three games. Siefker is second on the team in blocked shots.

• Seven players – Justinger, Kirkpatrick, Lambert, Myers, Santoro, Siefker and Tibbs – each have seen action in all 24 games, while Konieczki and Puk both have played in 22 and Tunstall 19. Sophomore Sarah Baer and freshman Maddie Cole have come off the bench in 13 and 10 games, respectively.

• Cole had a career-high seven points at Kent State, going a perfect 3-for-3 from the field, and now is averaging 1.3 ppg this season. Baer has 1.1 ppg, and Cole and Baer are shooting 62.5% and 60.0% from the floor, respectively.

• Justinger, Lambert, Myers and Tibbs each have started all 24 games for the Brown and Orange this season, while Tunstall has started 11, Siefker four and Puk three.

• The Falcons are shooting 39.4% from the field, 33.8% from three-point land (good for fourth in the MAC) and 68.6% from the free-throw line. The opponents are shooting 39.5% from the floor, 32.5% from the arc and 68.6% from the stripe.

• BGSU is second in the MAC with 7.6 three-pointers made per game.

• In MAC games only, Tibbs is averaging 14.0 points and 6.9 rebounds and is shooting 56.9% from the floor, while Lambert has 10.6 ppg and has hit a team-leading 37 triples. Myers and Justinger have 8.7 and 8.5 ppg, respectively.

• Lambert (44.6%) and Myers (38.4%) rank first and eighth, respectively, in three-point field-goal percentage in MAC games. Tibbs is shooting an otherworldly 46.2% from long distance, having gone 12-of-26 in MAC games, but does not have enough triples made to qualify for the MAC rankings. The Falcons are second in the MAC in long-range accuracy (34.8%) and tied for second in treys per game (8.1) in league contests.

• Head coach Jennifer Roos and the Falcons returned a total of eight letterwinners, all of whom had started at least five games in their BGSU careers entering the season. The returnees were joined by five newcomers, including a pair of transfers (Tibbs and Tunstall) who were eligible to play immediately.

• A total of 10 players on the current roster now have started five or more games in their BGSU careers to date.

• The 2014-15 Falcons went 9-21 overall after four players on the 12-woman preseason roster suffered season- or career-ending injuries, and a fifth missed the bulk of the conference schedule due to injury as well. The returning players entered the season with a combined total of 203 starts in the Brown and Orange.

AMONG THE LEADERS
• Freshman Sydney Lambert leads the MAC and is ranked 10th in the entire nation in three-point field goal percentage. Lambert has hit 52 triples in 120 tries, for a success rate of 43.3 percent.

• Senior Lauren Tibbs is shooting 57.8% from the field this season to date. She is currently second in the MAC, and is up to 14th in the nation, in that category.

• As a team, BGSU is ranked 30th in the nation in three-point field goals made (7.6 per game).

A LOOK AT MIAMI
Miami has an overall record of 9-17, and the RedHawks will enter Saturday's game with a MAC ledger of 3-12. MU is looking to snap a six-game losing streak, including a narrow 65-62 loss in overtime against Akron on Wednesday. The RedHawks are 7-7 at home, 1-10 on the road and 1-0 in neutral-site games this season to date. In MAC games, MU is 3-5 at home and 0-7 at hostile venues. Individually, Sophomore guard Baleigh Reid is averaging a team-high 15.1 points per game, but she is out for the season due to injury. Frshman guard Leah Purvis and sophomore guard Kayla Brown have 10.4 and 8.1 ppg, respectively, and Purvis has hit a team-leading 40 three-pointers this season to date. Four other players are averaging between 5.4 and 7.2 ppg. One of those four, sophomore F/G Molly McDonagh, is averaging a team-high 5.8 rebounds per game, and Purvis and Brown each have 2.1 assists per game this year to date. Last season, the 'Hawks finished with a 7-23 overall mark and a 4-14 MAC record. Coach Cleve Wright and his staff welcomed back eight letterwinners, including four starters, from that 2014-15 team.

THE BGSU-MU SERIES
The Falcons lead Miami, 49-28, in the all-time series between the teams, and BG captured this season's first meeting. In that game (Jan. 2, 2016), the Brown and Orange ralllied from a 14-point deficit to post a 64-58 road win in the MAC opener for both teams. Last season, the Falcons built a 31-9 halftime lead, holding Miami scoreless for over 11 minutes, en route to a 66-53 win over the RedHawks at the Stroh (Jan. 24, 2015). In that game, Kennedy Kirkpatrick singlehandedly outscored MU in the first half. But, in the teams' second meeting, host MU took a 59-51 decision in Oxford (Feb. 25, 2015), snapping a three-game BG series winning streak. BG is 23-12 in home games (3-1 in the Stroh Center), 20-15 in road contests and 6-1 in neutral-site games vs. the Redskins/RedHawks over the years. Jennifer Roos is 4-3 against Miami as a collegiate head coach..

FALCONS VS. THE MAC
The Falcons continue to own the best record in MAC history. Entering Saturday's MU game, BGSU has an all-time record of 397-179 (.689) in MAC regular-season contests, for the most wins and highest winning percentage 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 and highest overall winning pct. of any conference institution.

THREE-MARKABLE
Freshman Maddie Cole stepped out to the left corner and hit a three-point field goal in last Saturday's win at Kent State. It was the first triple of her career. No fewer than 12 different players have made at least one three-pointer for the Falcons this season.

THREE-MENDOUS
• The Falcons exploded for 15 three-point field goals in the first Kent State (Jan. 23) game. BGSU's total tied the Stroh Center record and was just one shy of the school mark. As a team, BG went 15-for-29 from long range, a success rate of 51.7 percent.

• Then, BGSU hit 11 triples in 23 tries (47.8%) en route to a win over Mid-American Conference West Division favorite Eastern Michigan at the Stroh four days later (Jan. 27). BG went 5-for-7 (71.4%) from beyond the arc in the second quarter of that game.

• Two games later, the Falcons went 16-of-27 at Central Michigan (Feb. 6), tying the school record for three-pointers made in a game. BG's success rate of 59.3% from beyond the arc was the program's best in nearly six years (since a 13-for-20 performance in a MAC Tournament win over Miami on March 10, 2010).

THREE-LIGHTFUL
The Falcons have made at least five three-point field goals in 21 of this season's 24 games to date, and BG has hit at least four triples in all 24 contests.

THREE-GION OF BOOM
In fact, BG has hit four or more treys in 56 of the last 57 games, dating to late in the 2013-14 season. The lone exception during that stretch was last year's MAC Tournament first-round game, when BG made three treys at Western Michigan.

THREE- ... UMMM, SOME OTHER PHRASE THAT STARTS WITH 'THREE'
BGSU will be looking to extend an impressive streak in the MU game. The Falcons have hit at least one three-pointer in each of the last 365 games. BG has not been held without a triple in over 10 years – since Feb. 12, 2005, at Akron, when the Falcons won, 61-52, despite going 0-of-13 from long distance.

UP NEXT
Following the Miami game, the Falcons will return to the road for the final two games of the regular season, facing Ohio (March 2) and Akron (March 5). Then, the BGSU will play a MAC Tournament first-round game on Monday, March 7, with the opponent and site to be determined.

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