Falcons Head to Nashville to Face #14/16 Vanderbilt

THE OPENING TIP
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, after opening the month of December with a win at home, now embarks upon a season-long five-game road swing ... the Falcons of head coach Curt Miller will begin that road stretch with a Friday (Dec. 4) game against nationally-ranked Vanderbilt University ... tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m. local time (8:00 p.m. Eastern) at Memorial Gymnasium (14,168) ... the Commodores are currently ranked 14th in the nation in the USA Today ESPN poll and 16th by the Associated Press ... three of the next five opponents, including VU, advanced to national postseason play a year ago ... Miller and his staff returned 10 letterwinners, including four starters, from last year's club that won the Mid-American Conference's regular-season title for a fifth-straight season ... BGSU ended the 2008-09 campaign with an overall record of 29-5 (15-1 MAC) and advanced to the third round of the Postseason WNIT.

BGSU NOTES & STATS - PDF (34 pages)

VU GAME HIGHLIGHTED SWEET SIXTEEN RUN
The Falcons' last meeting against Vanderbilt was quite possibly the biggest win in program history ... BGSU downed the Commodores, 59-56, in the second round of the 2007 NCAA Championships in East Lansing, Mich. (March 20, 2007) ... that win was the Falcons' school- and MAC-record 31st of the season, and made BGSU the first (and so far, the only) conference team to advance to the 'Sweet Sixteen' of the NCAA Championships ... that win was BG's first-ever victory over an SEC team, and was the Falcons' first over a top-10 team in over a decade ... current seniors Tara Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper were members of that 2006-07 team, but did not see action in the Vanderbilt game.

ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 4-2 on the young season, and BGSU is riding a three-game winning streak entering the Vanderbilt contest ... BG is 3-0 at home and 1-2 on the road this year to date ... the Falcons opened the 2009-10 campaign with three games in the Preseason NIT, starting with a 76-41 win over Chicago State at venerable Anderson Arena (Nov. 13) ... that victory gave the Falcons a quarterfinal matchup with Ohio State (Nov. 15), and the third-ranked Buckeyes posted a 91-72 win in Columbus ... then, the Brown and Orange headed to Marist and suffered a 70-65 setback (Nov. 21) ... BGSU bounced back with an 81-66 road win over Oakland (Nov. 24), before downing UNC Greensboro (80-51; Nov. 27) and Saint Francis (Pa.) in back-to-back home games ... the latter win was a narrow 77-72 result on Tuesday night (Dec. 1).

• BGSU returns 10 letterwinners, including four starters, from last year's team that posted the second-highest win total in school and MAC history ... the Falcons went 29-5 overall, including a 15-1 MAC record, in 2008-09 ... the Brown and Orange won a fifth consecutive conference regular-season title and advanced to the third round of the Postseason WNIT.

• The Falcons had just one senior on the roster a year ago, and Lindsey Goldsberry ended her career as the winningest basketball player – man or woman – in MAC history ... BG had a record of 114-20 in her four years, an average of 28.5 wins per season.

• Through six games, junior Lauren Prochaska leads a balanced Falcon scoring attack, with 15.8 points per game ... Prochaska, who has had back-to-back 20-point games, also leads BG in rebounding, with 7.0 boards per game ... she had a double-double vs. Saint Francis, with season-best totals of 27 points and 10 rebounds.

• Junior Tracy Pontius and senior Tamika Nurse have 14.3 and 12.7 ppg, respectively ... Pontius has 3.3 rpg, and leeads the Falcons in assists (4.0 apg) and three-point field goals made ... she is 15-of-35 from beyond the arc ... Nurse has 3.7 assists per game, and is tied with Prochaska for second on the team with 12 three-pointers made.

• Senior Tara Breske has scored 9.0 points per game, while junior Jen Uhl has scored 8.2 ppg ... Breske, who sat out the last two games with an injury suffered at Oakland, has 4.3 rebounds and 1.0 blocks per game, tying her for the lead in the latter category ... she also has 2.0 steals per outing ... Uhl has 4.8 rebounds per game after pulling down 14 boards in the Saint Francis game ... she is shooting a team-best .594 percent from the field, and has gone 7-of-14 (.500) from long range.

• Junior Maggie Hennegan and sophomore Jessica Slagle have 4.7 and 3.7 ppg, respectively ... Hennegen has 5.5 rebounds per game to rank second on the team ... Slagle is fourth on the Falcons in assists, with 1.7 helpers per game.

• The list of returnees in 2009-10 includes three seniors – Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper – along with five juniors ... Breske started all 34 games in the post last season.

• The returnees in the junior class include a pair of highly-decorated players in Prochaska and Pontius ... Prochaska, a wing, was the 2009 MAC Player of the Year, while Pontius, a point guard, was an honorable-mention selection to the Associated Press All-America Team ... both Pontius and Prochaska earned All-MAC First-Team honors in 2008-09.

• Juniors Uhl, Chelsea Albert and Kelly Zuercher also return ... Uhl started the final 13 games last year at a forward spot ... sophomores Slagle and Maribeth Giese round out the returning letterwinners.

• Two other players get to suit up in a BG uniform for the first time this year ... Nurse, a fifth-year senior (Univ. of Oregon), and Hennegan, a redshirt junior (Saint Louis Univ.), participated in practices at BGSU last season, but sat out the year after transferring from other NCAA Division-I schools.

• Five newcomers also joined the program in 2009-10 ... that list includes a quartet of freshmen in Simone Eli, Allison Papenfuss, Chrissy Steffen and Jessie Tamerlano ... Danielle Havel also joins the program, but will sit out this season after transferring from DePaul University ... she will retain three seasons of eligibility.

• Nurse, Pontius and Prochaska each have started all six games to date ... Hennegan has made five starts and Breske four, while Uhl has been in the starting lineup for each of the last three games.

• Through six games, the Falcons are shooting .441 from the field, .403 from three-point land and .771 from the free-throw line ... BG's opponents are shooting .404 overall, .367 from long range and .733 from the stripe ... the Falcons have 37.5 rebounds per game to the opponents' 35.2.

PROCHASKA MOVING UP BGSU SCORING LIST
With 27 points vs. Saint Francis (Pa.) on Tuesday night (Dec. 1), junior Lauren Prochaska moved into 17th place on the BGSU career scoring list ... Prochaska now has a total of 1,185 points in her Falcon tenure ... she has moved past Andrea Nordmann, who had 1,164 points from 1989-93 ... Prochaska's next target on the list is Jacki Raterman, who scored 1,213 points from 1995-99.

THREE-MENDOUS
Yes, it's early – the Falcons have played only six games this season to date ... but, through those six games, BGSU is near an NCAA-record pace for three-point field goals made ... the Falcons have hit 56 treys, an average of 9.3 per game ... the NCAA Division-I record is 9.9 three-point field goals per game, set by Villanova in the 2007-08 season ... heading into Tuesday's SFU game, the Falcons had been averaging 10.4 successful triples per game, but BG attempted only 12 long-range shots, making four, in that game.

THREE-MENDOUS, PART II
BGSU has made at least eight three-point field goals in five of this year's six games, including four games with 10 or more ... the Falcons had a total of nine games with at least 10 triples last season.

THE FALCONS ARE/WERE ...
• 4-2 on the young season;
• 29-5 overall in 2008-09;
• 29-3 in the final 32 games of last year, after an 0-2 start to the season;
• 15-1 in MAC play last year, good for a fifth-straight league regular-season title;
• 5-12 in 12 national postseason appearances (including a 3-9 record in the NCAA Championships and a 2-3 mark in WNIT trips);
• 183-75 since Curt Miller took the BGSU helm in May of 2001;
• 94-34 in MAC games in that time:
• 4-5 in national postseason action under Miller (including a 2-3 mark in the NCAAs and a 2-2 record in the WNIT);
• 174-56 overall in the seven years (plus six games) since Miller's assistant coaches have all been in place (associate head coach Jennifer Roos and assistant coach Brandi Poole have been on Miller's staff since his first year; assistant Kevin Eckert joined the staff one year later);
• 162-40 over the last six-plus years, with 2008-09 marking BG's sixth-straight season of at least 20 wins;
• a staggering 141-30 in the past five-plus years, with no fewer than 23 wins in each year and a MAC regular-season title in every season;
• an eye-popping 118-22 overall and 59-5 in the MAC regular season in the last four-plus years, with the first 114 of those wins coinciding with the career of Lindsey Goldsberry;
• 90-19 in the last three-plus years, including a 43-5 conference ledger, since seniors Tara Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper joined the program;
• 59-15 overall, and 28-4 in MAC regular-season games, since juniors Chelsea Albert, Tracy Pontius, Lauren Prochaska, Jen Uhl and Kelly Zuercher began their respective playing careers at BGSU;
• 74-7 in the last 81 games vs. MAC opponents (including regular-season and tourney games);
• 36-4 in MAC home games in the last five seasons;
• 30-2 in MAC road games over the last four years (with the lone losses during that time coming in 2007-08 at Ball State and last March at Miami);
• 12-2 in the MAC Tournament over the last five years, with three titles (2005, '06 and '07), a championship-game appearance last season, and a trip to the semifinals in 2008;
• 36-16 overall in the MAC Tournament since it was instituted in 1982;
• 24-11 in MAC Tournament contests played at a neutral site;
• 14-4 at Gund/Quicken Loans Arena;
• 15-5 in MAC Tournament games in the Curt Miller Era;
• 14-3 at "The Gund"/"The Q" under Miller;
• 26-3 in non-conference home games since the start of the 2003-04 season (including the WNIT games); and
• 22-2 against non-league foes at Anderson Arena since November of 2004.

HOME COOKIN'
BGSU is now 3-0 at venerable Anderson Arena this season, and the Falcons have won 22 of the last 23 games in the building ... only five of those 22 wins, including Tuesday's game vs. Saint Francis, were by single digits ... the lone loss in that time came to Indiana in the third round of the 2009 Postseason WNIT.

SHOOTING WELL + REBOUNDING WELL = WINNING? MAKES SENSE
At the risk of oversimplifying things, a team that has a better field-goal percentage and more rebounds than the opponent is going to have a good chance to win ... when shooting 50 percent or better from the field, the Falcons are a perfect 45-0 in the Curt Miller Era ... and, BGSU is 106-11 when outrebounding the opponent during Miller's first eight-plus years.

BOARDWORK
BGSU has outrebounded the opponents in five of the first six games this year, inlcuding a +18 margin in the Saint Francis (Pa.) game ... the Falcons pulled down 48 rebounds to 30 for the Red Flash ... it marked BG's first double-digit advantage on the boards this year, and the team's first since a +15 margin vs. Central Michigan in the quarterfinals of the 2009 MAC Tournament ... it was the team's highest margin since another plus-18 performance on Feb. 23, 2008, at Miami.

BOARDWORK, PART II
No Falcon had pulled down more than eight rebounds in any of the season's first five games ... but, no fewer than three BGSU juniors had at least eight boards against Saint Francis ... Jen Uhl tied her career high with 14 rebounds, while Lauren Prochaska had 10 boards as part of a double-double ... Maggie Hennegan had eight rebounds, the highest total of her young Falcon career.

DOUBLE-DOUBLE FOR PROCHASKA
Junior Lauren Prochaska had the Falcons' first double-double of the season, with 27 points and 10 rebounds in Tuesday's (Dec. 1) win over Saint Francis ... for the Plain City, Ohio native, the double-double was the eighth of her career.

FREE-THROW SHOOTING HAS BEEN A STRENGTH
The Falcons are shooting 77.1 percent from the field this season, continuing a trend of success from the stripe ... last year, BGSU had a free-throw percentage of 79.4, a rate that ranked fourth in the nation and was the 15th-highest figure in NCAA Division-I history.

FREE-THROW SHOOTING, PART II
Junior Lauren Prochaska, slowed by illness in the early stages of the 2009-10 season, still is shooting 80.6 percent from the free-throw line this year to date ... last season, Prochaska led the nation with a 93.3 success rate from the stripe ... that was the 11th-best single-season performance in NCAA Division-I history ... Prochaska was 167-of-179 from the line last year ... none of the 10 players listed above her attempted more than 118 free throws.

21 GAMES OF 20
Junior Lauren Prochaska scored a game-high 20 points in the win over UNC Greensboro, then had 27 points against Saint Francis ... the latter game marked her 21st career contest of 20 points or more as a Falcon ... Prochaska has scored in double digits in 66 of her 74 career games to date.

FALCONS LOOKING TO BE ROAD WARRIORS IN DECEMBER
The Falcons' game vs. Saint Francis, as mentioned, concluded a brief two-game homestand ... following Tuesday's game, BGSU will hit the road for five consecutive contests, taking on Vanderbilt, Detroit (Nov. 9), Saint Bonaventure (Dec. 12), Canisius (Dec. 19) and Youngstown State (Dec. 21) ... BG will finally return home to face Appalachian State on Wednesday, Dec. 23 ... after the Canisius game on Dec. 19, the Falcons will have played as many games in the state of New York as in venerable Anderson Arena.

LAST TIME OUT
Junior Lauren Prochaska's double-double helped lift the Falcons to a 77-72 win over Saint Francis (Pa.) Tuesday night (Dec. 1) at venerable Anderson Arena ... Prochaska, the reigning MAC Player of the Year, had 27 points and 10 rebounds on the night ... junior Tracy Pontius added 17 points, while senior Tamika Nurse added 12, helping the Falcons overcome a season-high 26 turnovers ... the Falcons also offset that high turnover total with an impressive rebounding performance ... BGSU held a 48-30 advantage on the glass, including a 25-8 margin in the opening half ... junior Jen Uhl led the way with 14 rebounds, tying her career high ... in addition to Prochaska's 10 boards, the Falcons got an eight-rebound performance from junior Maggie Hennegan ... BG got to the line nearly twice as often as SFU ... the Falcons made 27 free throws in 36 attempts, while the Red Flash went 12-of-19 from the stripe ... Britney Hodges scored a game-high 28 points for the visitors, making five of her team's 10 three-point field goals ... Samantha Leach joined Hodges in double digits, with 11 points ... the Falcons, who came into the game averaging over 10 successful three-pointers per game, attempted just 12 on Tuesday night, making four ... Pontius and Prochaska each went 2-of-4 from beyond the arc.

SCOUTING VANDERBILT
Vanderbilt brings a 7-0 record into Friday's game ... the Commodores are ranked 14th in the nation in the USA Today ESPN poll and 16th by the Associated Press ... VU's most recent game was a 63-46 win at Wright State on Wednesday night (Dec. 2) ... the Commodores are 4-0 at home, with victories over Lehigh, UC Riverside, Austin Peay and North Carolina State ... VU is shooting 47.4 percent from the field and holding opponents to just a 34.2% field-goal rate this year to date ... senior guard Merideth Marsh is averaging 13.3 points per game, while junior forward Hannah Tuomi has 13.1 ppg to date ... Tuomi leads the team in rebounding, with 7.0 per game, and is shooting 52.9% from the floor ... Marsh has 4.3 rpg and leads the 'Dores with 18 three-point field goals made ... junior guard Jence Rhoads has 10.7 points and a team-leading 6.3 assists per game ... sophomore forward Jordan Coleman (7.4 ppg, 6.4 rpg) and senior guard Jessica Mooney (6.4 ppg) have joined Marsh, Rhoads and Tuomi in the starting lineup in each of the first seven games ... the Commodores returned eight letterwinners, including three starters, from last year's team that finished 26-9 overall, 10-4 in Southeastern Conference play and advanced to the 'Sweet Sixteen' of the NCAA Championships ... head coach Melanie Balcomb has a record of 179-61 in her eighth season at VU ... she is 342-165 in her 17th year as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is vucommodores.com.

THE SERIES
The Falcons trail Vanderbilt, 2-1, in the all-time series between the teams ... the teams met in back-to-back years in Nashville, with the Commodores winning a narrow 69-66 decision on Dec. 10, 1992, and a 92-70 game a year and a day later (Dec. 11, 1993) ... both of those BGSU teams – the 1992-93 and '93-94 squads – went on to advance to the NCAA Championships ... the teams' most recent meeting came in the national tournament, in East Lansing, Mich., with the Falcons posting a 59-56 triumph in an NCAA second-round game (March 20, 2007).

BGSU VS. THE SEC
The Falcons had an all-time record of 1-11 against Southeastern Conference teams ... the lone win, as mentioned, came against Vanderbilt in the second round of the 2007 NCAA Championships ... BGSU is 1-2 vs. the Commodores, and the Falcons are 0-3 against Georgia and 0-2 vs. Kentucky ... BG is 0-1 all-time against Auburn, Florida, Ole Miss and South Carolina ... the South Carolina and Florida meetings, as well as the most recent Vandy contest, came in the NCAA Tournament.

TOUGH CROWD
The Falcons' early-season schedule has been difficult, to say the least ... BGSU's game at Oakland (Nov. 24) concluded a three-game road trip, in which the three opponents averaged 28.0 wins a season ago ... the first two foes, third-ranked Ohio State and Marist, each posted 29 victories last year, as did the Falcons ... OU went 26-7 in 2008-09 ... all three schools – like BG – advanced to national postseason play ... the Falcons' first four opponents of the season – Chicago State, OSU, Marist and Oakland – posted a total of exactly 100 wins last season ... and, it doesn't exactly get any easier for the Falcons with a trip to Nashville to face Vanderbilt, a 26-win and NCAA 'Sweet Sixteen' team from a year ago.

TOUGH CROWD II
The Vanderbilt game is BG's fourth on the road this year ... those four foes – Ohio State, Marist, Oakland and VU – combined for 110 wins a year ago, and all four advanced to national postseason play (three to the NCAAs).

JUST AS SUCCESSFUL IN THE CLASSROOM
The Falcons had one of the most successful seasons in program history on the court in 2008-09 ... head coach Curt Miller's program had one of its most successful campaigns in the classroom as well ... BGSU was ranked fifth in the entire nation on the WBCA's Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll for 2008-09 ... the awards recognized teams throughout the country that had the highest grade point averages for 2008-09 ... as a team, the Falcons had a GPA of 3.470 in '08-09 ... BGSU was the only MAC program on the list, and the Falcons were also the only program from the state of Ohio in the Division-I Top 25.

TICKET SALES ARE ROLLING ALONG
• As of Monday, Nov. 30, a total of 583 women's basketball season tickets had been sold for 2009-10 ... according to available information, that is a new record ... the previous best had been a total of 491 season tickets sold two years ago (2007-08) ... as recently as 2005-06, the total of BGSU women's basketball season tickets sold was just 62.

• BGSU has had four-digit crowds in each of the three home games this year to date ... last season, the Falcons had seven crowds of over 2,000 fans at "The House That Roars," averaging a school-record 1,763 per game.

THE SENIORS
Fourth-year Falcons Tara Breske, Laura Bugher and Sarah Clapper have helped the Brown and Orange average 28.7 wins per season since arriving on campus ... that trio has been a part of the two winningest teams in program history, as well as four of the five national postseason wins in BG annals ... BGSU has gone 90-19 overall and 43-5 in MAC regular-season action since Breske, Bugher and Clapper came to the school ... Tamika Nurse, a fifth-year senior, begins her first playing season after sitting out last year as a transfer from the Univ. of Oregon.

THE JUNIORS
BGSU has posted a record of 59-15 overall, and the Falcons are 28-4 in MAC regular-season games since Chelsea Albert, Tracy Pontius, Lauren Prochaska, Jen Uhl and Kelly Zuercher set foot on campus ... that is an average of 27.5 wins per year through the first two seasons ... the Falcons have played national postseason tournament games at Anderson Arena in both seasons, beating Dayton in last year's WNIT and facing Syracuse and Indiana in that tourney at 'The House That Roars' in 2009 ... Maggie Hennegan joins that group in 2009-10 ... Hennegan sat out last season as a transfer after playing two years at Saint Louis Univ.

THE SOPHOMORES
Maribeth Giese and Jessica Slagle helped the Brown and Orange to 29 wins – the second-highest total in MAC history – along with a school-record 25-game winning streak in their first year in BG ... the Falcons are 33-7 since the duo arrived in Northwest Ohio ... Danielle Havel is a member of the sophomore class, but will sit out the 2009-10 season after transferring from DePaul Univ.

THE FRESHMEN
Four freshmen joined the Falcons for the 2009-10 season ... that list includes Simone Eli (Genoa, Ohio/Genoa), Allison Papenfuss (Whitehouse, Ohio/Anthony Wayne), Chrissy Steffen (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) and Jessie Tamerlano (North Royalton, Ohio/North Royalton).

CAPTAINS
Seniors Tara Breske and Sarah Clapper and redshirt junior Maggie Hennegan are the captains of the 2009-10 Falcons ... Breske is a captain for the second consecutive year ... the captains earned that distinction in a vote of their teammates ... the award is particularly impressive in Hennegan's case, as she was chosen as a captain before ever playing her first game as a Falcon.

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