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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Arizona State (Third Round)
Sun Devils End Falcons' Season in Sweet 16, 67-49, Saturday
March 24, 2007 | Women's Basketball
March 24, 2007
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GREENSBORO, N.C. - Arizona State University shot over 50 percent from the field and put the clamps on the Bowling Green State University offense Saturday afternoon (March 24), in a 67-49 win over the Falcons. The game, an NCAA Championships third-round game, was held at the Greensboro Coliseum.
Both teams now have records of 31-4. The Falcons see arguably the greatest season in Mid-American Conference history come to an end, while the Sun Devils move on to face Rutgers, a 53-52 winner over Duke in the day's second game.
In her final game in the Brown and Orange, senior Ali Mann scored a team-high 15 points, going 6-for-9 from the field. Two other seniors, Carin Horne and Amber Flynn, had 12 and 11 points, respectively, to round out the Falcons' double-figure scorers.
The Sun Devils, who shot a blistering 60.7 percent in the first half, got 16 points from Danielle Orsillo. Emily Westerberg had 15 points and a game-high eight rebounds, while Aubree Johnson had 10 points and seven boards.
ASU was hot from the get-go. After Mann scored on the Falcons' first possession, the Devils reeled off the next six points. Mann hit a driving layup three minutes in, but back-to-back three-pointers gave ASU a 14-4 lead, prompting a Falcon timeout at the 15:20 mark.
Out of that timeout, sophomore Lindsey Goldsberry hit a wide-open three-point try off of Mann's dribble penetration. Then, moments later, Mann hit a three-pointer of her own, giving her seven points on 3-for-3 shooting to that point.
The Falcons got a stop, with Flynn swatting an ASU shot attempt late in the shot clock, leading to a shot-clock violation. After Horne's sweet drive-and-dish led to Flynn's open layup, the Falcons were within five points, 17-12, at the second media timeout of the day.
But, the Sun Devils could not miss at the other end. ASU took a 25-14 lead to force Falcon coach Curt Miller to use a timeout with 8:17 left in the half.
Horne drove and hit an 'and-one' runner, and Flynn made another layup after junior Kate Achter's entry pass found her inside, but the Sun Devils just kept connecting at the other end of the court. Kayli Murphy hit a trey, then another jumper, and the lead was 31-18 as BG used yet another timeout.
Mann calmly hit a shot to stop that run, and the senior co-captain scored on a running one-hander (making her 5-for-5 from the field on the day), but the Sun Devils extended the lead to 12 points, 34-22, with just over three minutes left in the half. ASU upped that lead to 40-24 at the intermission.
The Falcons, after shooting 40.7% from the floor in the first half, got off to a stronger shooting start in the second stanza. Orsillo scored right away for the Devils, but Horne knocked down a three-pointer from the right wing.
Again, Orsillo canned a jumper, but senior Liz Honegger slipped outside to take an Achter pass and drain a triple. Horne drove and was fouled, getting herself to the line. She split her free-throw tries, missing the second, but Mann grabbed the offensive rebound. The ensuing possession led to Horne's running one-hander at the 17-minute mark, and the ASU lead was down to 11 points, 44-33.
Flynn got herself to the line and hit a pair of free throws, and suddenly the deficit was down to single digits, 44-35. Goldsberry stole Reagan Pariseau's cross-court pass, and the Falcons had a chance to cut into the lead even more, but BG was unable to get a good shot attempt on the next possession.
After a Falcon foul, Westerberg made a pair of charity tosses, and the ASU lead would not fall below double digits again. Layups by Jill Noe and Kate Engelbrecht 26 seconds apart gave the Sun Devils a 16-point lead, 52-36, with 12 minutes remaining.
Flynn made a layup, then split a pair of free throws, and a Mann layup cut the lead to 11 points midway through the half. But, Pariseau's three-pointer was followed by Johnson's layup. Orsillo's jumper at the 8:29 mark increased the lead to 18 points, 59-41.
A Horne jumper began a 4-0 run that cut the lead to 14, but BG could get no closer. Another jumper by Horne with 2:36 left proved to be the Falcons' final points of the game and the season. Westerberg's free throws and a Noe putback closed out the scoring.
For the game, the Sun Devils shot 50.9%, while holding the Falcons to a 38.8% rate. ASU went 5-for-10 from three-point range, with the Brown and Orange making 4-of-11 triple tries (36.4%).
ASU held a 37-24 advantage in rebounding. Honegger led the Falcons with six boards, while Horne and Mann had four apiece.
Goldsberry had six points and two steals for the Falcons, while Honegger scored five.
NOTES
* Junior Kate Achter came out of the game with 12:45 remaining in the second half, her first break in over 167 minutes ... Achter sat out the final 48 seconds of the MAC Tournament semifinal win over Eastern Michigan, then played all 40 minutes in wins over Ball State, Oklahoma State and Vanderbilt, before playing 'only' 27-plus minutes in a row vs. ASU.
* ASU's Briann January missed the game with a concussion suffered late in the Sun Devils' previous game, a second-round win over Louisville.
* Not surprisingly, there were a large number of media folks on hand for Saturday's games in Greensboro ... the list of credentialed media included the New York Times, USA Today, Associated Press, Boston Globe, Cleveland Plain Dealer, CSTV.com, Kansas City Star, Philadelphia Inquirer and ESPN.com, just to name a few.
