April 16, 2003

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -

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Bowling Green State University women's basketball head coach Curt Miller has announced the signing of a student-athlete to a National Letter of Intent. Alison Mann (Chelsea, Mich.) will join the Falcons for the 2003-04 academic year, bringing the total number of signees to seven.

All seven players have received all-state honors of some kind, including three in multiple sports.

Mann, a 6-1 forward, is a senior at Chelsea High School. She averaged 19.6 points, 8.2 rebounds, three assists and 2.5 steals per game last season, en route to earning all-state third-team honors by the Detroit News. A two-time captain and two-year MVP for the Bulldogs, Mann also was named to the Ann Arbor News All-Area First Team last fall, and earned All-Southeastern Conference honors for the third consecutive season. She shot 52 percent from the floor and nearly 73 percent from the free-throw line, and had a three-point field-goal percentage of .436 in her senior season.

As a junior in the fall of 2001, Mann was an all-state second-team pick by the Detroit News, and was the Ann Arbor News Class B-C-D Player of the Year.

Mann also plays for the CHS softball team, and helped the Bulldogs to a 36-3-1 record and the Michigan Division II state championship last spring. She was an all-conference honorable-mention pick on the diamond.

In the classroom, Mann is a three-year academic letterwinner and has a 3.88 grade point average.

"Ali Mann is a tremendously versatile forward," said Miller. "She has the ability to score inside off the dribble and has great touch from the three-point arc. She will be asked to play the 'four' or 'three' positions for the Falcons, and fits into our system perfectly with her ability to face the basket with her size.

"Ali rounds out an outstanding recruiting class of seven impact players, plus an eighth newcomer who will be eligible after sitting out this past season."

Mann joins Amber Flynn (Cincinnati, Ohio), Julie Gompers (Wheeling, W. Va.), Liz Honegger (Lafayette, Ind.), Carin Horne (Lima, Ohio), Kim Nowakowski (Butler, Pa.) and Meghan Thorburn (Mason, Mich.) in the Falcons' recruiting class for the 2003-04 academic year. The seven incoming freshman will be joined by Casey McDowell (Hudson, Ohio), who sat out the 2002-03 season after transferring from Indiana State University. McDowell retains three years of eligibility.

Flynn, a 6-0 forward, is a senior at North College Hill High School. In the fall, she helped the Trojans to a 21-5 record (the first 20-win season in school history) and a berth in the semifinals of the Ohio Division III State Tournament. As a junior, she had helped NCHHS to an 18-5 record and had passed the 1,000-point mark by the end of that season. Flynn was rated as one of the top 35 senior power forwards in the nation by the All-Star Girls Report. This fall, she helped the NCHHS volleyball team to the school's first sectional and district championships in any girls sport, as the team went 23-1, losing in the regional semifinals. Then, she helped the basketball team to the first regional championship in any girls' sport. Flynn has earned first-team all-league honors in basketball, volleyball and softball during her first three years, and has won a league championship (high jump) in track as well.

Gompers, a 5-6 point guard, is a senior at Wheeling Park H.S. This season, she was named to the Class AAA all-state second team by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association. Gompers was rated the top senior point guard in the state of West Virginia by the All-Star Girls Report after leading her team to a spot in the state tournament quarterfinals as a junior, averaging 15 points, 7.2 assists and 4.6 streals per game that season. Gompers was a member of three West Virginia state soccer championship teams from her freshman through junior seasons. Last fall, Gompers was a first-team all-state selection, and was named the Midfielder of the Year in the state of West Virginia.

Honegger, a 5-11 forward, is a senior at Jefferson H.S. Recently, she was an all-state first-team selection by the Associated Press, and she also earned that honor from the Indiana Coaches of Girls Sport Association. She has been named to the Indiana All-Star Team that will play Kentucky's All-Stars in a pair of games on June 14 (Owensboro, Ky.) and June 21 (Conseco Fieldhouse, Indianapolis). She also played for the North in the Reebok North-South All-Star Classic in early April. Honegger averaged a double-double for the second consecutive season and the third time in four years, with 24.4 points and 12.8 rebounds as a senior. She ended her high-school career with totals of 1,292 points and 1,004 rebounds, averaging 15.0 ppg and 11.7 rpg during her four years. The All-Star Girls Report rated Honegger the fifth-best senior power forward in the state of Indiana and one of the top 150 power forwards in the country. Honegger has had a pair of nationally-ranked high school track and field marks, and finished third in the state in the shot put and fifth in the discus last spring. She has earned all-conference honors in basketball, soccer and track.

Horne is a 5-10 forward from Lima Senior H.S, and was an Associated Press Division I All-Ohio Second-Team selection after averaging 19.5 points per game as a senior. Horne also earned all-district first-team honors, and was named the Player of the Year on the all-city (Lima) team. As a junior, she averaged 18.0 points and 7.9 rebounds and shot nearly 38% en route to all-district honors.

Nowakowski is a 6-1 forward/center from Butler H.S. A third-team all-state selection, she averaged 16.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game in helping the Golden Tornadoes to a 22-6 record her senior season. Nowakowski, who scored 1,137 points in just three seasons, was named the Trib North Player of the Year by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and also was listed as one of Western Pennsylvania's "Terrific Ten" by that same publication. Both the Tribune-Review and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette named her to their WPIAL Class AAAA All-Star teams. Nowakowski was listed as one of the top-50 senior centers in the country by the All-Star Girls Report. She has played for the Pittsburgh Power AAU team as well. She helped that team, playing without one of its star players, to an 8-1 record and a fifth-place finish at the 184-team Junior National Championship Tournament in July of 2002.

Thorburn is a 6-1 forward at Mason H.S. A four-year varsity starter, she averaged 19 points and seven rebounds per game this past season, en route to all-state fifth-team honors by the Detroit Free Press. She was named to the All-Capital Circuit League First Team in each of her last three years after earning third-team honors as a freshman. Thorburn was rated as the 11th-best returning player in the state of Michigan by the Free Press, and that newspaper listed her as one of the state's top-100 players in each of the last two years. The All-Star Girls Report listed her as one of the top 35 senior wings in the country and the third-best senior wing in the state of Michigan. This past summer, Thorburn helped her club team, the Livingston Sting, to a state championship. In track and field, she had a high jump of five feet in the Michigan H.S. state meet as a sophomore.

The Falcons finished the 2002-03 season with a 12-16 overall mark, and BGSU was 5-11 in Mid-American Conference play. BGSU loses the services of seniors Kim Griech, Megan Jerome, Francine Miller and Karen Stocz, as well as redshirt junior Pam Brown, from that squad.

BGSU WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SIGNEES

Amber Flynn         6-0  F/C   Cincinnati, Ohio (North College Hill)
Julie Gompers       5-6   G    Wheeling, W. Va. (Wheeling Park)
Liz Honegger       5-11   F    Lafayette, Ind. (Jefferson)
Carin Horne        5-10   F    Lima, Ohio (Lima Senior)
Alison Mann         6-1   F    Chelsea, Mich. (Chelsea)
Kim Nowakowski      6-1  F/C   Butler, Pa. (Butler)
Meghan Thorburn     6-1   F    Mason, Mich. (Mason)