Bowling Green State University Athletics
Tuesday, February 1
DeKalb, Ill.
5:00 PM CT
Bowling Green State University
67
at
64
Northern Illinois
Jen Uhl had 18 points in the Falcons' win at NIU
Prochaska Putback Lifts Falcons Past NIU, 67-64
February 01, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Uhl, Hennegan combine for 34 points in come-from-behind win
Senior Lauren Prochaska, held in check for 39-plus minutes, scored the final six points of the game to lift the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team to a 67-64 win over Northern Illinois University Tuesday night (Feb. 1). The Mid-American Conference game was held at NIU's Convocation Center.
FINAL STATS - HTML | BOXSCORE - PDF
CURT MILLER POSTGAME AUDIO
With the win, the Falcons improve to 18-4 overall and 6-3 in the MAC. BGSU's win broke a two-game losing streak. The Huskies drop to 9-13 and 3-6, respectively.
The game marked the 100th win in the career of BGSU's fourth-year seniors -- Prochaska, Chelsea Albert, Tracy Pontius, Jen Uhl and Kelly Zuercher. They become the sixth class in school history, and the fifth in a row, to reach the 100-win mark.
Four Falcons scored in double digits in the win, with BGSU's senior post tandem of Uhl and Maggie Hennegan combining for 34 points. Uhl had team-high totals of 18 points and seven rebounds, hitting a career-high four three-point field goals.
Hennegan scored 16 points, making 6-of-7 shots from the field and all four of her tries from the free-throw line. She tied for team honors with two blocked shots and three steals.
Marke Freeman paced the Huskies with 26 points on the night.
Prochaska had a total of 10 points in the game. In the final minute, though, she had six points, two offensive rebounds and a steal.
The game featured 11 lead changes, including four in the final two minutes. Freeman came up with a steal and hit a layup with 1:56 on the clock, giving the Huskies a 60-59 lead.
BGSU immediately responded, as Prochaska spotted Uhl slipping past her defender and fired a pass down low. Uhl's layup gave BG the lead once again with 1:39 left. But, Freeman knocked down a shot from just inside the arc with 1:08 remaining, putting the home team back in the lead.
On the next possession, Chrissy Steffen banked home a shot, but the basket was waved off as the BGSU sophomore was whistled for an offensive foul, giving the ball back to the hosts with 53.5 seconds remaining. Freeman hit a runner at the other end with 47 seconds left for a 64-61 NIU lead.
BG's next possession saw Pontius fire a three-point shot that was off the mark. But, Prochaska came up with the offensive rebound in traffic, and was fouled by Freeman. With 29.8 seconds left, the senior hit a pair of free throws to bring the Falcons within a point.
The Huskies inbounded the ball, and Hennegan immediately fouled Ebony Ellis. Ellis went to the line with 28.7 seconds remaining, and missed both of her free-throw tries. Uhl rebounded the ball after the second miss.
The ensuing possession saw Prochaska take a short shot from the left side, which did not drop. But, the two-time MAC Player of the Year followed her shot, grabbed the rebound and laid the ball back up and in as Freeman fouled her with just 15.3 seconds on the clock. The 'and-one' free throw did not drop, but BG had the lead, 65-64.
The next possession saw Freeman miss a jumper. NIU's Courtney Shelton came up with the rebound, but Prochaska ripped the ball away from her, and Shelton was forced to foul Prochaska with just 2.8 seconds left. This time, the Falcon senior hit both of her charity tosses for a three-point lead.
The Huskies had one more shot to tie the game, but with Falcon freshman Jill Stein pressuring the inbounds pass, the best look Northern could get was a shot by Brittney Callahan from her own half of the court that came up well short of the mark as the horn sounded.
Neither team ever opened up a double-digit lead in the game, which was played before a sparse crowd due to the impending blizzard. In a harbinger of things to come, Freeman opened the game's scoring with a three-pointer 57 seconds in. Hennegan answered with a layup, before Freeman converted a layup of her own.
The Falcons got back-to-back triples from Steffen -- who had 12 points on the night -- and Pontius, taking an 8-5 lead, but Freeman hit a floater in the lane to bring her team within 8-7 at the first media timeout.
Freeman -- who scored her team's first 14 points in the game -- drained another three-pointer at the 14:02 mark, but Uhl responded with a triple of her own just nine seconds later. Hennegan, who assisted on that trey, drove the lane and dished a pass to Steffen for another three-ball, and the Falcons had a 14-10 lead. Then, Pontius scored in the paint, and the Huskies used a timeout with 12:05 left in the half.
Freeman cut along the baseline and hit a layup, but Pontius fired a long pass downcourt to Hennegan for a transition layup and an 18-12 BGSU lead. The Huskies, however, went on a 6-0 run to tie the score.
Freeman's 13th and 14th points came on a jumper in the paint, and Kim Davis followed with a jumper of her own, for the first NIU points not scored by Freeman. Then, Freeman drove and scored to tie the contest with just over nine minutes left before halftime.
Uhl shook her defender and slipped inside, and Steffen found her for a layup to give the Falcons the lead once again. After a two-and-a-half minute scoreless stretch, Prochaska came up with a steal near midcourt and whipped a pass to junior Jessica Slagle for an easy layup and a 22-18 BG lead.
After Danielle Pulliam hit a jumper, Uhl and Steffen successfully worked a give-and-go, with Uhl hitting another layup. Ellis made two free throws, but Hennegan scored six-straight points. The senior drove right-to-left in the lane and fired home a one-handed shot, then was the recipient of Prochaska's jump pass for a layup and a 28-22 advantage with 3:54 left in the period. Then, Hennegan got to the line and knocked down a pair of tosses.
The Huskies responded with five points, including baskets by Pulliam and Shaakira Haywood, but Prochaska answered with a driving layup, her first field goal of the night. Pulliam's layup with 44 seconds left cut BGSU's advantage to three points, 32-29, at the intermission.
The Falcons shot 56.5 percent in the opening half, and BGSU forced the Huskies into 11 turnovers in the first 20 minutes of the game.
After converting shots at a high rate in the first half, the Falcons struggled to hit open shots in the first minutes of the second half. BG's first five shot attempts of the period came from three-point land, with four shots drawing iron before Uhl swished one home with nearly four minutes gone.
Uhl's shot, which came from the right corner, gave the Brown and Orange a 37-33 lead.
Davis converted a three-point play after an NIU miss somehow ended up in her hands, but Steffen found Uhl lurking behind the arc once again. Uhl, this time spotted up on the left elbow, drained her shot for a 40-36 advantage.
Shelton answered with a triple of her own, but Uhl hit her third three-pointer in the span of just over two minutes. This time, her shot bounced around the rim before falling through, and BG's lead was four points once again.
Freeman scored for the hosts, but Hennegan answered with a three-point play, sandwiched around the 12-minute media timeout, for a 47-41 BGSU advantage.
The Huskies, however, responded quickly and efficiently, scoring seven points in under a minute's time. A Freeman jumper was followed by a BG miss, and Shelton hit a three-pointer in transition. Then, BG turned the ball over in the backcourt, and Bianca Brown's jumper gave the home team a 48-47 lead with 10:49 left.
Hennegan again scored while drawing a foul, with a nice drive to the basket and an 'and-one' layup in traffic. Her free throw put the Falcons ahead by two points.
Ellis, however, nearly took over the game during the next few minutes. The NIU senior scored her team's next eight points, pulling down five rebounds -- including four at the offensive end -- during that three-minute stretch. BG's only answer during that stretch was a pair of Pontius free throws. When the smoke had cleared, the Huskies had a 56-52 lead with 6:45 remaining.
Brown extended the home team's lead to six points with a jumper, but the Falcons then scored the next seven points to take the lead. Prochaska got an offensive rebound, was fouled and hit two tosses with 5:41 on the clock, and Slagle got herself to the line and made a pair of throws just over a minute later.
The Falcon defense forced a shot-clock violation by the Huskies with 4:09 remaining, but Haywood got a hand on a shot by Pontius on the next possession. Albert stole the ball from Freeman, however, and Steffen hit a three-pointer with 3:39 left, giving BGSU a 59-58 lead.
Northern's Ashley Sneed drove the lane, but saw the ball go off her foot and out of bounds with 2:56 remaining. BG missed a shot on the following possession, and the teams then exchanged turnovers before Freeman hit her layup with just under two minutes left, setting the stage for the frenetic finish.
Uhl and Steffen combined to go 7-of-12 from three-point range in the win, with Uhl making four of her six tries and Steffen hitting half of her six attempts. Steffen also dished out four assists, tying Prochaska for game honors.
Prochaska, in addition to her 10 points and four assists, had six assists and three steals, matching Hennegan's game-high total in the latter category.
Ellis had 10 points and a game-high eight rebounds for the Huskies, who held a 37-26 margin on the glass. Pulliam and Shelton scored eight points apiece.
The Huskies' rebounding margin was just 20-18 in the second half. BGSU had 10 offensive boards in the game, all coming after halftime.
For the game, the Huskies shot 47.3% from the floor. BGSU shot just 29.6% in the second half, finishing the game with a 42.0% success rate.
The Falcons made eight three-pointers to the Huskies' four.
BGSU theoretically will return to Northwest Ohio sometime before Saturday (Feb. 5). On that date, the Falcons will host Ball State in a 2:00 p.m. start at Anderson Arena. That game will be the program's Alumnae Day, as many former Falcon greats will be on hand. Additionally, the BGSU women's basketball All-Anderson Team, announced earlier this season, will be honored at "The House That Roars." Saturday's game will be the first half of a Falcon hoops doubleheader, as the BGSU men will host Western Michigan in a 5:00 p.m. start.
FALCON NOTES
* As mentioned, Tuesday's win over NIU was the 100th victory in the careers of BGSU's five fourth-year seniors ... they are the fifth class in a row, and the sixth in program history, to reach that milestone.
* Tuesday's game, originally scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. local time, was moved up two hours to a 5:00 p.m. start due to the impending blizzard.
* The BGSU men's team, in town for their game vs. the Huskies on Wednesday, was on hand for Tuesday's contest.
* The Falcon women's basketball travel party, due to the inclement weather, remained in DeKalb on Tuesday night after the game.
* Lauren Prochaska's 10 points in Tuesday night's game increased her career total to 2,106 points ... Prochaska is now just 16 points away from tying the BGSU career scoring record, held by Jackie Motycka ... Motycka, who was named to the All-Anderson Team that will be recognized at Saturday's Ball State game, scored 2,122 points in her stellar BGSU career.
* Prochaska tied one school record on Tuesday night ... with six free throws made, Prochaska has now hit 551 shots from the stripe in her career ... that ties the record set by Kate Achter (2004-08) ... Prochaska is on track to shatter the BG record for free-throw percentage, having made 90.8% of her tosses in her career to date.
FINAL STATS - HTML | BOXSCORE - PDF
CURT MILLER POSTGAME AUDIO
With the win, the Falcons improve to 18-4 overall and 6-3 in the MAC. BGSU's win broke a two-game losing streak. The Huskies drop to 9-13 and 3-6, respectively.
The game marked the 100th win in the career of BGSU's fourth-year seniors -- Prochaska, Chelsea Albert, Tracy Pontius, Jen Uhl and Kelly Zuercher. They become the sixth class in school history, and the fifth in a row, to reach the 100-win mark.
Four Falcons scored in double digits in the win, with BGSU's senior post tandem of Uhl and Maggie Hennegan combining for 34 points. Uhl had team-high totals of 18 points and seven rebounds, hitting a career-high four three-point field goals.
Hennegan scored 16 points, making 6-of-7 shots from the field and all four of her tries from the free-throw line. She tied for team honors with two blocked shots and three steals.
Marke Freeman paced the Huskies with 26 points on the night.
Prochaska had a total of 10 points in the game. In the final minute, though, she had six points, two offensive rebounds and a steal.
The game featured 11 lead changes, including four in the final two minutes. Freeman came up with a steal and hit a layup with 1:56 on the clock, giving the Huskies a 60-59 lead.
BGSU immediately responded, as Prochaska spotted Uhl slipping past her defender and fired a pass down low. Uhl's layup gave BG the lead once again with 1:39 left. But, Freeman knocked down a shot from just inside the arc with 1:08 remaining, putting the home team back in the lead.
On the next possession, Chrissy Steffen banked home a shot, but the basket was waved off as the BGSU sophomore was whistled for an offensive foul, giving the ball back to the hosts with 53.5 seconds remaining. Freeman hit a runner at the other end with 47 seconds left for a 64-61 NIU lead.
BG's next possession saw Pontius fire a three-point shot that was off the mark. But, Prochaska came up with the offensive rebound in traffic, and was fouled by Freeman. With 29.8 seconds left, the senior hit a pair of free throws to bring the Falcons within a point.
The Huskies inbounded the ball, and Hennegan immediately fouled Ebony Ellis. Ellis went to the line with 28.7 seconds remaining, and missed both of her free-throw tries. Uhl rebounded the ball after the second miss.
The ensuing possession saw Prochaska take a short shot from the left side, which did not drop. But, the two-time MAC Player of the Year followed her shot, grabbed the rebound and laid the ball back up and in as Freeman fouled her with just 15.3 seconds on the clock. The 'and-one' free throw did not drop, but BG had the lead, 65-64.
The next possession saw Freeman miss a jumper. NIU's Courtney Shelton came up with the rebound, but Prochaska ripped the ball away from her, and Shelton was forced to foul Prochaska with just 2.8 seconds left. This time, the Falcon senior hit both of her charity tosses for a three-point lead.
The Huskies had one more shot to tie the game, but with Falcon freshman Jill Stein pressuring the inbounds pass, the best look Northern could get was a shot by Brittney Callahan from her own half of the court that came up well short of the mark as the horn sounded.
Neither team ever opened up a double-digit lead in the game, which was played before a sparse crowd due to the impending blizzard. In a harbinger of things to come, Freeman opened the game's scoring with a three-pointer 57 seconds in. Hennegan answered with a layup, before Freeman converted a layup of her own.
The Falcons got back-to-back triples from Steffen -- who had 12 points on the night -- and Pontius, taking an 8-5 lead, but Freeman hit a floater in the lane to bring her team within 8-7 at the first media timeout.
Freeman -- who scored her team's first 14 points in the game -- drained another three-pointer at the 14:02 mark, but Uhl responded with a triple of her own just nine seconds later. Hennegan, who assisted on that trey, drove the lane and dished a pass to Steffen for another three-ball, and the Falcons had a 14-10 lead. Then, Pontius scored in the paint, and the Huskies used a timeout with 12:05 left in the half.
Freeman cut along the baseline and hit a layup, but Pontius fired a long pass downcourt to Hennegan for a transition layup and an 18-12 BGSU lead. The Huskies, however, went on a 6-0 run to tie the score.
Freeman's 13th and 14th points came on a jumper in the paint, and Kim Davis followed with a jumper of her own, for the first NIU points not scored by Freeman. Then, Freeman drove and scored to tie the contest with just over nine minutes left before halftime.
Uhl shook her defender and slipped inside, and Steffen found her for a layup to give the Falcons the lead once again. After a two-and-a-half minute scoreless stretch, Prochaska came up with a steal near midcourt and whipped a pass to junior Jessica Slagle for an easy layup and a 22-18 BG lead.
After Danielle Pulliam hit a jumper, Uhl and Steffen successfully worked a give-and-go, with Uhl hitting another layup. Ellis made two free throws, but Hennegan scored six-straight points. The senior drove right-to-left in the lane and fired home a one-handed shot, then was the recipient of Prochaska's jump pass for a layup and a 28-22 advantage with 3:54 left in the period. Then, Hennegan got to the line and knocked down a pair of tosses.
The Huskies responded with five points, including baskets by Pulliam and Shaakira Haywood, but Prochaska answered with a driving layup, her first field goal of the night. Pulliam's layup with 44 seconds left cut BGSU's advantage to three points, 32-29, at the intermission.
The Falcons shot 56.5 percent in the opening half, and BGSU forced the Huskies into 11 turnovers in the first 20 minutes of the game.
After converting shots at a high rate in the first half, the Falcons struggled to hit open shots in the first minutes of the second half. BG's first five shot attempts of the period came from three-point land, with four shots drawing iron before Uhl swished one home with nearly four minutes gone.
Uhl's shot, which came from the right corner, gave the Brown and Orange a 37-33 lead.
Davis converted a three-point play after an NIU miss somehow ended up in her hands, but Steffen found Uhl lurking behind the arc once again. Uhl, this time spotted up on the left elbow, drained her shot for a 40-36 advantage.
Shelton answered with a triple of her own, but Uhl hit her third three-pointer in the span of just over two minutes. This time, her shot bounced around the rim before falling through, and BG's lead was four points once again.
Freeman scored for the hosts, but Hennegan answered with a three-point play, sandwiched around the 12-minute media timeout, for a 47-41 BGSU advantage.
The Huskies, however, responded quickly and efficiently, scoring seven points in under a minute's time. A Freeman jumper was followed by a BG miss, and Shelton hit a three-pointer in transition. Then, BG turned the ball over in the backcourt, and Bianca Brown's jumper gave the home team a 48-47 lead with 10:49 left.
Hennegan again scored while drawing a foul, with a nice drive to the basket and an 'and-one' layup in traffic. Her free throw put the Falcons ahead by two points.
Ellis, however, nearly took over the game during the next few minutes. The NIU senior scored her team's next eight points, pulling down five rebounds -- including four at the offensive end -- during that three-minute stretch. BG's only answer during that stretch was a pair of Pontius free throws. When the smoke had cleared, the Huskies had a 56-52 lead with 6:45 remaining.
Brown extended the home team's lead to six points with a jumper, but the Falcons then scored the next seven points to take the lead. Prochaska got an offensive rebound, was fouled and hit two tosses with 5:41 on the clock, and Slagle got herself to the line and made a pair of throws just over a minute later.
The Falcon defense forced a shot-clock violation by the Huskies with 4:09 remaining, but Haywood got a hand on a shot by Pontius on the next possession. Albert stole the ball from Freeman, however, and Steffen hit a three-pointer with 3:39 left, giving BGSU a 59-58 lead.
Northern's Ashley Sneed drove the lane, but saw the ball go off her foot and out of bounds with 2:56 remaining. BG missed a shot on the following possession, and the teams then exchanged turnovers before Freeman hit her layup with just under two minutes left, setting the stage for the frenetic finish.
Uhl and Steffen combined to go 7-of-12 from three-point range in the win, with Uhl making four of her six tries and Steffen hitting half of her six attempts. Steffen also dished out four assists, tying Prochaska for game honors.
Prochaska, in addition to her 10 points and four assists, had six assists and three steals, matching Hennegan's game-high total in the latter category.
Ellis had 10 points and a game-high eight rebounds for the Huskies, who held a 37-26 margin on the glass. Pulliam and Shelton scored eight points apiece.
The Huskies' rebounding margin was just 20-18 in the second half. BGSU had 10 offensive boards in the game, all coming after halftime.
For the game, the Huskies shot 47.3% from the floor. BGSU shot just 29.6% in the second half, finishing the game with a 42.0% success rate.
The Falcons made eight three-pointers to the Huskies' four.
BGSU theoretically will return to Northwest Ohio sometime before Saturday (Feb. 5). On that date, the Falcons will host Ball State in a 2:00 p.m. start at Anderson Arena. That game will be the program's Alumnae Day, as many former Falcon greats will be on hand. Additionally, the BGSU women's basketball All-Anderson Team, announced earlier this season, will be honored at "The House That Roars." Saturday's game will be the first half of a Falcon hoops doubleheader, as the BGSU men will host Western Michigan in a 5:00 p.m. start.
FALCON NOTES
* As mentioned, Tuesday's win over NIU was the 100th victory in the careers of BGSU's five fourth-year seniors ... they are the fifth class in a row, and the sixth in program history, to reach that milestone.
* Tuesday's game, originally scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. local time, was moved up two hours to a 5:00 p.m. start due to the impending blizzard.
* The BGSU men's team, in town for their game vs. the Huskies on Wednesday, was on hand for Tuesday's contest.
* The Falcon women's basketball travel party, due to the inclement weather, remained in DeKalb on Tuesday night after the game.
* Lauren Prochaska's 10 points in Tuesday night's game increased her career total to 2,106 points ... Prochaska is now just 16 points away from tying the BGSU career scoring record, held by Jackie Motycka ... Motycka, who was named to the All-Anderson Team that will be recognized at Saturday's Ball State game, scored 2,122 points in her stellar BGSU career.
* Prochaska tied one school record on Tuesday night ... with six free throws made, Prochaska has now hit 551 shots from the stripe in her career ... that ties the record set by Kate Achter (2004-08) ... Prochaska is on track to shatter the BG record for free-throw percentage, having made 90.8% of her tosses in her career to date.
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