Falcons Use Balanced Effort to Down Central Michigan, 70-50

Saturday, January 20

Bowling Green, Ohio

1:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

CENTRAL MICHIGAN

January 20, 2007 | Women's Basketball

Jan. 20, 2007

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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team continued a number of streaks and posted three double-digit scoring runs in a 70-50 win over Central Michigan University Saturday afternoon (Jan. 20). The Mid-American Conference game was held at BGSU's venerable Anderson Arena.

The Falcons improve to 16-2 on the season, and BG is now 6-0 in MAC play. The Chippewas drop to 9-10 and 1-5, respectively.

For the Brown and Orange, the win was the team's ninth in a row since a loss to top-ranked Duke on Dec. 19. The Falcons also extended two other streaks, winning for the 26th consecutive game at home and the 31st-straight contest against a MAC foe.

Senior Ali Mann scored 16 points to lead all players, while classmate Carin Horne added 12 in just 14 minutes of action. BGSU's balanced attack saw five additional players score between six and nine points apiece. In all, 10 of the 11 BG players that saw action in the game made at least one field goal, while all 11 Falcons had a rebound.

The Chippewas got 15 points from Candace Wilson and 11 from Britni Houghton.

BGSU never trailed, although the game was tied twice in the first two minutes, and the Falcons went on an 11-0 run, holding the Chippewas scoreless for nearly five minutes, to take an 18-6 lead with just over eight minutes elapsed.

Central was within 11 points before a second 11-0 BG run gave the Brown and Orange a 35-13 lead late in the first half. This time, the Falcons held the Chippewas off the scoreboard for 4:16.

BGSU led by a 39-20 count at halftime, and the visitors never got closer than 18 points in the second half.

Senior Liz Honegger got the Falcons started, scoring on each of BG's first two possessions of the game. Houghton had a pair of free throws after Honegger's first field goal, and Ann Skufca answered her second basket with a jumper of her own to knot the contest at 4-4.

Senior Megan Thorburn hit a three-pointer from the left corner, but Stacey Verhoff brought the visitors back within one, 7-6, at the 16:12 mark. Thorburn would hit again, from nearly the identical spot on the floor.

Mann, working inside, was the recipient of some contact that nearly knocked her out of bounds. As she was heading toward the baseline, however, she whipped a pass to Thorburn, again stationed in the left corner of the court. Thorburn's triple try was true, kick-starting BG's first 11-0 run.

After a CMU turnover and the day's first media timeout, Mann found an open Horne for a left-elbow three-pointer, and BG's lead was seven points. Junior point guard Kate Achter pushed the tempo off a BG defensive rebound, driving and kicking to Mann for another triple from the left elbow, and the home team had a 16-6 lead. Then, Achter eluded her defender with a shot fake, drove and hit an off-balance runner at the 11:52 mark.

A Wilson triple brought the Chippewas within 18-9, but sophomore Jasmine McCall fired a pass to an open Honegger for a layup, and BG's lead was in double digits for good. McCall then hit a foul-line jumper for a 22-9 BG advantage.

Several minutes later, with the Falcons ahead by 11, both Mann and Thorburn executed shot-fakes from the three-point arc. After Thorburn thought about a shot from the left elbow, she spotted an open Honegger, who had slipped out to the arc herself. Honegger's left-side trey was on the mark, giving the Falcons a 27-13 lead with five minutes left before halftime.

Achter picked up an assist on a Horne three-pointer with BG on the break. Then, after an Achter blocked shot and defensive rebound, Honegger's entry pass led to Mann's short and-one jumper. Mann's free-throw try was good, and BG had a 33-13 lead. Less than 30 seconds later, Achter's length-of-the-court drive resulted in a successful layup to cap the Falcons' second 11-0 run of the day.

Verhoff stopped that run with a jumper, and Skufca hit a three-pointer less than a minute later to cut BG's lead to 35-18. With the margin still at 17 in the final seconds of the half, Achter blew past her would-be defender with a crossover dribble, and faked a pass to Honegger on the right side of the court. That freed Achter for a wide-open look, as the junior streaked down the lane for an uncontested layup to give BG a 39-20 halftime margin.

The Falcons shot an even 50.0 percent in the first half, while holding the Chippewas to just a 6-for-25 (24.0%) showing. BGSU held first-half margins of 18-2 in points in the paint and 15-0 in fast-break points, and BG forced nine turnovers while allowing just those six field goals before the intermission.

The home team scored the first eight points of the second half, capping a 10-0 run -- the team's third double-digit run of the game -- and removing any remaining doubt about the outcome. BG scored those eight second-half points in a span of just 1:39.

Horne set the tone for the second half, tracking down a teammate's miss in the opening 14 seconds, drawing a foul and hitting both ends of her two-shot opportunity at the charity stripe. Then, after a Thorburn steal, Horne grabbed another missed shot and laid the ball in for a 43-20 BG lead.

Achter split a pair of free throws, then hit Mann with an inbounds pass as the shot clock was winding down. Mann's shot from the top of the arc found nothing but net, and BG had a 47-20 lead with 18 minutes left.

A blocked shot and defensive rebound by senior Amber Flynn led to a numbers advantage at the other end. With the Falcons running, Achter's pass to sophomore Lindsey Goldsberry resulted in a layup and a 49-22 margin, and the home team was well on its way to victory.

A layup by freshman Tara Breske exactly midway through the half gave the Falcons a 60-33 advantage, and BG head coach Curt Miller was able to substitute liberally.

The Falcons outrebounded CMU by a 46-34 count on the afternoon, including 26-18 in the second half. In that half, BGSU had 17 offensive rebounds, nearly matching Central's entire board total.

For the game, the Falcons shot 43.8% from the field while holding the visitors to a 33.3% rate. BG went 7-for-22 from three-point land, including 6-for-12 in the opening half. Three different Falcons made two triples apiece, with Horne a perfect 2-for-2 from long distance.

Wilson was 3-of-4 from three-point land for Central, while the rest of the team was a combined 2-for-11.

Honegger scored nine points in the win, while Achter had eight points, a game-high seven assists and five rebounds. Flynn had seven points, five boards and three blocked shots, and freshman Sarah Clapper scored six points and grabbed four rebounds in 11 minutes off the bench. Thorburn also had six points on the afternoon.

Goldsberry led all players with a career-high eight rebounds in the game, with four coming at the offensive end. Horne also had four offensive boards in the win.

Houghton and Sharonda Hurd each had seven rebounds for the Chippewas.

The Falcons now return to the road for the next three games, beginning with a Wednesday (Jan. 24) contest at Western Michigan. BGSU then plays at Eastern Michigan (Jan. 28) and Chicago State (Jan. 30), before hosting Toledo in a 4:00 p.m. game on Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 4).

NOTES
* The Falcons now lead the series with Central Michigan, 39-12, and BGSU has won the last six meetings ... BG is 21-4 in home games vs. Central, and now has a 10-game home winning streak in the series ... CMU's last win at Anderson Arena came on Feb. 8, 1995.

* BGSU held the Chippewas to six field goals in the first half Saturday ... meanwhile, the Falcons made six three-pointers in that half.

* Central made only three baskets in the game's first 15 minutes, and the Chippewas were just 4-of-23 from the field before making their final two shots in the final 1:36 of the half.

* All five starters scored between six and nine points in the first half, shooting a combined 14-for-26.

* For the game, the Falcons held advantages of 36-16 in points in the paint, 19-4 in fast-break points and 18-4 in second-chance points.

* Central Michigan's top-two scorers, Ann Skufca (12.4) and Sharonda Hurd (10.6), were averaging a combined 23.0 points entering the game ... but, the BG defense limited them to a total of seven points, holding Hurd scoreless in Saturday's game.

* The Falcons, as mentioned, have won 31 consecutive games against MAC foes, extending the school and conference records ... the old mark was 27, set by Fran Voll's BG teams from from Feb. 13, 1988 to Jan. 3, 1990 ... Voll, who coached both BGSU and CMU, served as the color commentator for BCSN's television coverage of Saturday's game between the Falcons and Chippewas.