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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
St. Bonaventure
Falcons Top St. Bonaventure, 71-46, For Miller's 100th Win
December 09, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 9, 2006
Final Stats | BGSU-SBU Boxscore in PDF Format
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. - Curt Miller prides his Bowling Green State University women's basketball Falcons on being a blue-collar team.
Perhaps it is only fitting, then, that Miller's club used a workmanlike effort to get him his 100th win.
Seniors Ali Mann and Carin Horne scored 19 points apiece as the Falcons moved to 7-1 on the year with a 71-46 win over St. Bonaventure University in non-conference action at the Reilly Center Saturday (Dec. 9). The Bonnies drop to 4-5 on the year.
Dana Mitchell led the hosts with 11 points off the bench, while Katelyn Murray had nine. The Falcons held Audrey Latendresse, the Bonnies' leading scorer, to just two points on the night.
The Falcons weren't flashy, just efficient and consistent. BG shot 48.4 percent from the field for the game, going an identical 15-for-31 in each half, while holding the Bonnies for 33.3% success rate.
Mann did most of her scoring damage in the first half, with 15 points before intermission, while Horne scored 12 second-half points, including 10 in a span of 2:42 midway through the period.
Mann had the first six points of the game, all on layups down low as the Falcons pounded the ball inside. While Mann was a presence on offense, Horne asserted herself at the defensive end, getting three steals in a four-possession span.
A Horne layup, assisted by junior Kate Achter, gave the Brown and Orange an 8-0 lead before the hosts got on the board on a Murray triple with 3:45 elapsed.
Sophomore Jasmine McCall's and-one layup on the break led to a three-point play, giving BG a 16-7 advantage at the second media timeout of the game.
Bona battled back, keeping the game in single digits for the next several minutes. Senior Amber Flynn hit a layup out of a timeout at the 7:53 mark, and split a pair of free throws a minute later to put the Falcons' lead into double digits at 23-13.
From there, neither team would score for over a minute and a half, before Mann hit for five-straight points. She converted a layup, then knocked down a three-pointer, both on assists from McCall. After a Flynn steal resulted in a pull-up left-side jumper by Horne, the Falcons' run was 10-0 and the lead was 30-13.
Again, the Bonnies would battle back, but a pair of free throws after an offensive rebound, then a jumper on the next possession to cut BG's lead to 30-17.
After a quick Falcon timeout, Flynn ignited a 6-0 run with a hoop and a three-point opportunity. The Falcon senior hit another basket while being fouled with a minute to play before intermission. Although the free throws would not go, BG's lead was 17 points again.
An Achter layup gave BG a 36-17 advantage, before Mitchell split a pair of charity tosses to send the teams into the lockerroom at 36-18.
The Falcons had only three turnovers in the opening half, while forcing 12 by the hosts.
On the opening possession of the second half, senior Liz Honegger hit a shot with a defender in her face. A Horne basket before the first minute was gone gave the Brown and Orange a 22-point lead.
With BG up by 18 points, at 41-23, McCall split four defenders for a layup down the middle of the lane. Mitchell answered at the other end, but a basket by Horne with 14:08 left began a 9-0 BG run, with Horne scoring seven of the nine points.
Less than a minute later, Horne took an inbounds pass from Achter and drained a triple. Then, Achter's long outlet pass found senior Megan Thorburn ahead of the pack for a layup and a 25-point lead. Another Horne hooop at the 12:07 mark put the Falcons up by a 52-25 count. After Murray hit a three-pointer, Horne answered with another triple to restore the 27-point lead.
The Bonnies whittled the lead down to 22 on several occasions, but could get no closer. The Falcons' lead peaked at 32 points after freshman Sarah Clapper hit a trey, then found Flynn for a hoop inside. That capped a 10-0 run to give the Brown and Orange a 67-35 lead with just over five minutes left.
All 12 Falcons saw at least five minutes of action in the game, with 11 finding the scoresheet. Flynn joined Horne and Mann in double figures with 11 points, while McCall had five points, four assists and four steals.
Horne also had four steals in the win, while Achter had a game-high six assists along with a pair of steals and a pair of blocks.
The Bonnies held a 41-31 rebounding advantage, but committed 26 turnovers on the night. BG had just 10 turnovers, and totaled 17 assists and 18 steals in the game.
The Falcons now take a break for exams, before journeying to Cancun, Mexico, for a pair of games. BGSU will take on fourth-ranked Duke on Dec. 19, and will meet Texas-Arlington the following day.
QUOTING HEAD COACH Curt Miller
"Tonight was a good road win for us. Certainly, any time you can come in to an Atlantic 10 team's building and get a win, it's a big win. Hats off to St. Bonaventure; their game plan was terrific. They were going to make us go two-by-two-by-two, and not let us get our three-point shooting going. But, to our credit, we found ways to score inside the arc, and get to the basket. Ultimately, we won some of the one-on-one battles that they forced us to win."
(On his 100th win)
"It is very exciting, and I am happy for my staff. They have been with me the entire way. Honestly, after a nine-win first year (2001-02), one hundred wins seemed a long way away. But, my assistants have done a tremendous job recruiting competitive kids; we are averaging over 18 wins per season during our tenure, and we have very high win totals over the last three-plus seasons. It is exciting to get to 100, and I am proud for our staff and more importantly, the players. I didn't win those games, they did."
"St. Bonaventure was terrific defensively. They chased our shooters, they didn't give us any easy looks at the arc all night. When we got the ball inside, they were going to guard us one-on-one and force us to score over them. And, sometimes we did and sometimes we didn't. They are a containment defense, very much like us -- Jim (Crowley) yells 'high hands' as much as I do. They force you to make shots throughout the game. Because of the way we play, we had to get penetration to get that done, and fortunately, we were able to do so."
NOTES
* As mentioned, the win was victory number 100 in Curt Miller's head-coaching career. Miller is now 100-57 in his sixth year with the Falcons, and is only the third BGSU women's basketball coach to reach the century mark. Fran Voll had a 144-60 mark in seven years at BG (1984-91), while Jaci Clark had a 135-65 record in her seven years at the Falcon helm (1991-98).
* Senior Ali Mann became only the ninth player in school history to surpass the 1,400-point mark for her career. Mann now has 1,407 points in her BG tenure. Meanwhile, Carin Horne moved into 19th place in the school career scoring list, and now has 1,031 points as a Falcon.
* The Falcons have won 15 of the last 17 true road games, with the only losses during that time being four-point overtime setbacks at Kentucky and Notre Dame. The last time BG lost a road game in regulation was a 57-52 setback at Eastern Michigan on Feb. 19, 2005.
* BGSU has held the opponent under 50 points in four of eight games this season. Meanwhile, the Falcons have scored over 70 points in seven games, and have totaled at least 68 points in all eight contests this year to date.
* The Falcons have had at least one run of 10 points or more during each of the season's first eight games.
* St. Bonaventure's Audrey Latendresse entered the game averaging a team-high 16.9 ppg ... but, the Falcons held Latendresse scoreless in the first half en route to just two points on the night ... she was 1-for-10 from the field.
* On Friday (Dec. 8), former BGSU men's basketball standout Steve Watson was named the Director of Athletics at St. Bonaventure. Watson, after transferring from Rutgers, earned a pair of letters for the Falcons and was a starter on a pair of NIT teams. Watson, currently an associate A.D. at Eastern Michigan, will replace another BGSU alum, Dr. Ron Zwierlein, who is retiring Jan. 31 after three years at the SBU athletics helm. During Watson's playing career at BGSU, one of the Falcon assistant coaches was Anthony Solomon, who is now the head coach at ... St. Bonaventure.
* Useless note of the day, as we answer the question: How is win number one similar to win #100? Prior to Curt Miller's first head-coaching win, the Falcons ate their pre-game meal at Applebee's ... the entire pre-game meal took 48 minutes, a pretty speedy turnaround for a party of 20-plus members ... since that time, Miller has considered 48 minutes the benchmark for all pre-game meals ... fittingly, the team ate pre-game meal at Applebee's on Saturday, and the time spent in the restaurant was surprisingly close to 48 minutes ... as was the case in win number one, (November of 2001, at Youngstown State), the Falcons went out and got Miller another win, this time putting him at the century mark for his career. Strange but true!
