.png&type=webp)
Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Vanderbilt (Second Round)
Falcons Headed to Sweet 16! BGSU downs Vanderbilt, 59-56
March 28, 2007 | Women's Basketball
March 20, 2007
Final Stats |
AP Photo Gallery 
|
Photo Gallery
EAST LANSING, Mich. (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team continues to make history.
Senior Amber Flynn scored a game-high 19 points off the bench as the Falcons defeated Vanderbilt University, 59-56, Tuesday night (March 20) in NCAA Championships second-round action at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Mich.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 31-3, and advance to this weekend's Greensboro Regional. BGSU will meet Arizona State University, a second-round winner over Louisville, in Greensboro, N.C., on Saturday (March 24) at noon.
Vanderbilt, the #2 seed in the Greensboro Region, sees the season come to an end with a record of 28-6.
Senior Carin Horne scored 12 points for the Falcons, while senior Ali Mann and junior Kate Achter had 10 points apiece. Mann hit one of the biggest shots in program history, with a three-point dagger in the game's final minute.
Liz Sherwood had 18 points off the bench for the Commodores, while Carla Thomas had a double-double, with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
BGSU, having already set a MAC record for wins in a season, has become the conference's first women's team ever to reach the round of 16. BGSU is the seventh seed in the Greensboro Region.
The Falcons shot a stellar 53.8 percent from the field in the first half en route to a 13-point lead at the intermission. Vanderbilt battled back to get within three points, 52-49, with under two minutes remaining, before Mann hit her killer three-pointer with 55.3 seconds left, giving the Falcons a six-point lead.
"It's the biggest win in program history for our conference and for our community," said Falcon head coach Curt Miller. "It's just great; we're taking it to another level. There are great coaches in the MAC, and we finally are getting the respect we deserve."
BG forced Vanderbilt into 20 turnovers and held the Commodores' Dee Davis scoreless in the game. The Vandy trio of Christina Wirth, Caroline Williams and Davis, which entered the game averaging a combined 31.7 points per game, scored a total of just 14 vs. the Falcons.
The Falcons led from wire to wire after scoring the first four points of the late-night affair. Achter hit a pull-up jumper on the game's second possession, and Horne knocked down a right-side jump shot of her own.
A big block by senior Liz Honegger also helped set the tone early that the Falcons would not back down from the taller and higher-seeded Commodores. When Horne took a pass from senior Megan Thorburn and hit a three-pointer from the left side, the Falcons held a 7-2 lead two-and-a-half minutes into the game.
Sophomore Lindsey Goldsberry, on the first possession after she had entered the game, ripped the ball away from Thomas at the defensive end, and the ensuing possession culminated with Mann's tough turnaround jumper that gave the Brown and Orange a 10-6 lead at the initial media timeout.
The Commodores appeared to be growing slightly more frustrated. Wirth picked up her second foul at the 14:47 mark, and Mann took a Honegger pass and hit a jumper, giving the Falcons a 12-6 lead and prompting VU coach Melanie Balcomb to take a timeout.
Sherwood scored for the Commodores, and -- after Horne threw in a bank shot -- hit another jumper for the higher seed. Mann, after nearly throwing the ball away at midcourt, took a return pass from Achter and drilled a three-pointer from the left elbow, giving BG a 17-10 advantage.
Sherwood continued to find success at the offensive end, with a three-point play midway through the half, but Thorburn spotted Flynn cutting down the lane and hit her for a layup and a 19-13 lead.
Then, Achter drove and drew Wirth's third foul of the game with 8:51 still remaining in the first half. Achter's free throws gave the Brown and Orange a 21-14 lead.
Just before the eight-minute media timeout, Flynn's power move resulted in Williams' second foul of the day, and the Falcon senior hit those free-throw tries out of the timeout. Then, Honegger accepted a pass from Achter and nailed a triple try, giving BG a double-digit lead, 26-16.
VU answered at the other end, but Flynn's nice catch and finish of Thorburn's lob pass restored the 10-point lead. Flynn split two charity tosses for a 29-18 advantage.
Thomas scored for the Commodores, but Flynn drove in among the tall trees (the 6-3 Thomas and the 6-4 Sherwood) and hit a running layup off the glass. The Falcons held a 31-20 lead with four minutes until halftime.
Thirty seconds later, Horne converted a sweet driving one-hander for a 33-22 lead, and with the shot clock winding down, Achter split a pair of defenders and fired a jump pass to an open Flynn for a layup and a 35-22 advantage, and the Commodores took a timeout with 1:34 on the clock.
Sherwood scored yet again for VU, but Flynn again hit a wide-open layup, again off an Achter assist, and the Falcons took a 37-24 lead into the lockerroom.
Not surprisingly, Vanderbilt -- the Southeastern Conference Tournament champion and a national top-10 team -- was far from finished. The Commodores quickly scored the first four points of the second half to cut the BG lead to nine points. Compounding Curt Miller's worries was the fact that Mann picked up her third foul at the 16:36 mark and had to head to the bench.
A minute later, however, Goldsberry knocked down one of her rain-making three-point attempts, giving BG a 40-28 lead. Then, Honegger drew a foul on Sherwood, and the Falcon senior split her free throws for a 13-point margin. Achter then made something out of nothing, hitting a jumper when it seemed that a BG possession was headed nowhere. That shot gave the Falcons a 43-32 lead.
Horne nailed a three-pointer with the shot clock winding down, and the Falcons led by a 46-34 count at the 12-minute mark. The Commodores got a hoop to pull within 10 points at the next media timeout, and Wirth's three-pointer -- the first of the game for VU -- cut the lead to 46-39 with 11:10 remaining.
Mann returned to the game at about that point, but Goldsberry soon joined Mann with three fouls, on a curious call. Goldsberry, in front of Williams as the two jockeyed for position after a missed shot, was the one whistled for the foul at the 10:34 mark.
Then, with 9:50 on the clock, Mann was whistled for her fourth foul. Vandy cut the Falcon lead to just five points, 46-41, before Flynn was fouled inside and hit both of her ensuing free throws with approximately 8:30 left.
Flynn drained two more charity tosses with 7:27 remaining, then hit a layup at the 6:51 mark. That, however, would be BG's last points until the final minute of the game.
Vanderbilt's comeback continued as Thomas hit a jumper with 5:50 remaining. Believe it or not, that would be the final points by either team for over three minutes.
Jennifer Risper hit a long two-pointer with 2:23 remaining, and Wirth's steal at midcourt led to a BG foul with 1:58 on the clock. Wirth hit both free throws, and the Falcon lead was 52-47.
Then, Risper stole the ball and laid it in, cutting the Vandy deficit to three points. The Falcons nearly threw the ball away again, but Mann was able to call timeout a step before going out of bounds near the scorer's table with 1:31 left.
On the ensuing inbounds play, however, Achter was hit by Thomas, and the ball went out of bounds off Achter. The Commodores had the ball back with 1:27 left and a chance to tie the game.
Risper's three-point attempt, however, was no good, and the ball went out of bounds off a Vanderbilt player with 1:14 remaining. The Falcons' next possession led to Mann's epic three-pointer with 55.3 seconds on the clock. VU took a timeout with 48.8 seconds left, trailing by six points.
The Commodores missed another triple try on the next possession, but grabbed the offensive rebound. Honegger, however, stole the ball and was fouled by Thomas with 32.3 seconds left.
After a delay of several minutes (the shot and game clocks went out above the basket where BG was shooting), Honegger's free-throw try would not drop, and VU grabbed the rebouind.
Again, however, a three-point try was unsuccessful. Risper, though, got the rebound and was fouled. She made two tosses to cut BG's edge to 55-51.
BG inbounded the ball and Achter was fouled with 19.2 seconds remaining. The Falcon junior made the first of her two free-throw tries for a five-point lead. Thomas hit a layup at the other end, and Vandy quickly took time, trailing by three points with 10.4 seconds left.
Again, the Falcons were able to inbound the ball, and again, Achter was fouled, this time with 9.3 seconds left. Both of her tosses on the one-and-one opportunity were good, and BG led by a 58-53 count.
Williams hit a three-pointer, however, with 1.3 seconds left, and VU took a final timeout. After the break, Mann inbounded the ball to Achter, and the buzzer sounded as BG began to celebrate. The officials, though, looked at the television monitor and ruled that Achter had been fouled with 0.4 seconds remaining.
Achter went to the line and missed the first free-throw try, keeping the lead at two points. The BG coaches signalled to Achter to miss the second try on purpose, and the junior may indeed have tried to miss it. The shot, however, found the bottom of the net, giving the Falcons a three-point lead. The Commodores were unable to get a shot off in the remaining four-tenths of a second, and BG had the historic win.
Achter had a game-high eight assists in addition to her 10 points. For the third-straight contest, she played all 40 minutes.
Honegger had a game-high four steals in addition to five points and five rebounds. BG had nine steals and a 20-10 advantage in points off turnovers.
Horne led BG's balanced rebounding effort with six boards, while Honegger had the five caroms and three teammates had four apiece. VU held a 37-31 rebounding advantage.
Wirth had nine points and Risper eight for the Commodores. Vandy entered the game leading the nation in three-point field-goal percentage, but the Commodores went just 2-for-10 from long distance on the night.
A total of seven players saw action for the Falcons, with all seven playing at least 21 minutes. The Brown and Orange held off VU despite making just five field goals (5-for-22) in the second half. For the game, the Falcons shot 39.6% from the field, while VU shot 43.4% on the night.
BGSU, as mentioned, will face Arizona State in the round of 16. The Falcons and Sun Devils, the No. 3 seed, will meet in a 12:04 p.m. tipoff at the Greensboro Coliseum on Saturday. The game will be televised nationally by ESPN, with Mike Patrick (play-by-play), Doris Burke (analyst) and Holly Rowe (sideline) on the call.
NOTES
* BGSU's trip to the 'Sweet 16' of the NCAA Championships is the first ever by a MAC team ... the MAC has now won a total of seven games in the history of the NCAA Tournament.
* The Falcons are the first MAC team ever to win two games in the same NCAA Tournament.
* BG's win was the Falcons' first over a top-10 team in over a decade ... Vanderbilt is ranked seventh in the Associated Press poll and eighth in the USA Today/ESPN Top-25.
* BGSU had never beaten a Southeastern Conference team, having gone 0-11 lifetime prior to Tuesday night ... Vanderbilt had never lost to a MAC school, with a 14-0 record in such games prior to Tuesday's loss to the Falcons.
* The game, scheduled to begin at 9:30 p.m., actually tipped off at 9:49 p.m. Eastern ... the final horn sounded at 11:55 p.m.
