After dropping its first game on the road to Youngstown State, the women’s basketball team will open up its home schedule today against Detroit.

Coach Curt Miller has said that it is important for the team to develop during the non-conference schedule, and not necessarily be concerned about wins and losses at this point of the season.

“I will not put pressure on our young players to win games early,” Miller said. “We want to be a competitive [Mid-American Conference] program.”

With that in mind, Miller said he saw some things to be happy with in Saturday’s 69-67 loss to the Penguins.

“The Youngstown State game was a great learning experience,” Miller said. “We got great production out of our freshmen, but we didn’t make enough stops to win the game.”

Perhaps the most impressive offensive performance came from freshman Megan Thorburn, who was 8-17 from the floor and finished with a team-high 22 points.

Another impressive statistic was that the Falcons out-rebounded Youngstown State, 37-32.

Miller said that gives the team confidence going into today’s game, and shows the strength of the new players that were brought in.

“I thought that was a great sign, that we out-rebounded a tough rebounding team,” Miller said. “I knew our rebounding would be better because of our recruiting.”

The Falcons now face a Detroit team that is coming off a big non-conference win against Toledo.

Detroit won the game in dramatic fashion when Elizabeth Kryzyzek hit a 15-foot shot at the buzzer to secure a 50-49 win over the Rockets in Savage Hall.

Like Youngstown State, Detroit has a new coach this season, Mickey Barrett.

Miller said that Detroit will be a difficult test for BG.

“Detroit is more talented than Youngstown State,” Miller said. “The advantage goes to Detroit.”

In order to get the win over the Titans, Miller said the Falcons will need to get more scoring from up front.

“The one thing that came out of the game on Saturday is that we realized we missed too many shots in the paint,” Miller said. “We gotta concentrate and make tough shots.”

Miller said that the opportunity exists for the Falcons to prove something to themselves in today’s game.

“We have a chance to send a message,” Miller said. “We can prove to ourselves that we can win games.”