It’s been a whirlwind month for the Bowling Green State University women’s basketball team.The
Falcons have played seven regular-season games in November, going 6-1, with only one game at home. The 6-1
start, which includes wins over Michigan and Ohio State, has generated some interest in the national
polls.Bowling Green starts December with a game Sunday at Springfield, Mass. against Monmouth University at
10 a.m. It’s the finale of four games for the Falcons in the Basketball Hall of Fame Challenge.”We’re
excited right now where we stand at 6-1, yet everybody knows that your non-conference record is exactly
that, your non-conference record. Things start to count when you get to conference play,” BG head coach
Jennifer Roos said.The first three games of the Hall of Fame Challenge were in Columbus last weekend.”The
competition level there was extremely high,” Roos said. BG played Marist, Old Dominion, and Ohio State.She
added the Falcons’ knowledge and preparation impressed her during the three games.”We have a handful of
kids on our team that have an extremely high basketball IQ, and we needed that,” Roos said. ”Their
maturity level, and high IQ definitely rose to the top.”I was happy with our conditioning level,” Roos
added. ”On day three against Ohio State, I felt like we had more energy in the second half than Ohio State
did, and that was a big turning point.”Of a possible 600 total minutes in the three games, BG’s starters
logged 484 minutes, with Jillian Halfhill playing 110 and Alexis Rogers playing 101 of a possible 120
minutes each.”If you would have seen the enthusiasm in the locker room after the game against Ohio State
(the last of the three games), they still had some more energy with how hard they were cheering when they
heard they had time off,” Roos said.Roos also had a list of areas that the Falcons could improve upon after
the three-day marathon.”We need more contributions from kids off the bench,” Roos said. ”Granted, I know
I control playing time, but we made some mistakes when we came off the bench that we can’t make.”We have
the ability to get contributions from everybody on the team, night in and night out, and that’s our goal to
get those contributions higher and higher with each game.”Roos is also looking for improved free-throw
shooting from the team. The Falcons are 96-of-150 from the line (64 percent), so far this season, with the
five starters going 74-of-119 (62.2 percent).”That free-throw percentage has got to increase,” Roos
said.”Yet, one of my favorite stats is that you still want to make more free throws than the other team
shoots, and through the (first) six games we met that,” Roos added.MONMOUTH: The Hawks are off to an 0-6
start.Chevahhan Paalvast, a 6-foot redshirt senior, leads the Hawks averaging 11.8 points and 6.5 rebounds
per game.Paalvast is a native of New Zealand.BOLTON: BG freshman Leah Bolton is recovering from knee
surgery. She dressed for the three games at Ohio State and participated in warmups.”She is getting
closer,” Roos said.HOME: After Sunday’s game, the Falcons play three of their remaining four December games
at home.The Falcons host UW-Milwaukee (Dec. 8); Massachusetts (Dec. 15); and St. Francis, Pa. (Dec. 29). The
lone road game is at Purdue on Dec. 22.