Thursday, March 27
Bowling Green, OH
7:00 PM
Bowling Green State University
63
vs
53
Michigan
Sharp-Shooting Falcons Advance Past Michigan, 63-53
March 27, 2014 | Women's Basketball
Seniors combine for 48 points to earn themselves another home game
LINKS
FINAL STATISTICS: HTML | PDF
POSTGAME AUDIO: Halfhill | Stein | Roos
VIDEO: BGSU-Michigan Highlights
PHOTO GALLERY: Bianca Garza, BGSU Mkt. & Comm.
TICKETS: Monday's BGSU-Rutgers game (Note: TicketMaster link will be active Friday at 9:00 a.m.)
WNIT BRACKET: Updated after Thursday's games
With the win, the Falcons improve to 30-4 on the season. This year's club is just the second team in Mid-American Conference women's basketball history to win 30 games in a season, joining the 2006-07 BGSU team (31-4) on that short list.
BGSU will host a WNIT quarterfinal-round game, as Rutgers University will invade the Stroh Center on Monday night (March 31), with tipoff set for 7:00 p.m. CLICK HERE to order tickets for that game online (note: link will be active Friday at 9:00 a.m.)
The Wolverines end the season with a record of 20-14.
The three seniors on BGSU's active roster led the way on Thursday night, combining for 48 of the Falcons' 63 points. Alexis Rogers had a game-high 20 points, making 7-of-8 shots from the floor, while Jillian Halfhill scored 18 points and Jill Stein 10. Stein had a double-double, with 11 rebounds in the win.
The Falcons shot 55.8 percent from the field on Thursday evening, including a blistering
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WNIT SCORES & SCHEDULE Thursday, 3/27 South Florida 74, Geo. Washington 59 Indiana 66, Northwestern 65 Rutgers 91, Seton Hall 79 2OT Bowling Green 63, Michigan 53 South Dakota State 70, Minnesota 62 Mississippi State 59, Auburn 54 Friday, 3/28 Colorado at UTEP, 7 p.m. MT Quarterfinal Schedule Sunday, 3/30 Indiana at South Dakota State, 3 p.m. ET USF at Mississippi State, 6 p.m. ET Monday, 3/31 Rutgers at Bowling Green, 7 p.m. ET TBD Washington vs. Colorado/UTEP winner |
Rogers was a perfect 2-of-2 from long distance, while Matthews joined the senior trio in double digits with 11 points on Thursday night.
In addition to her double-double, Stein dished out a BG-high five assists.
The Wolverines got 15 points and seven rebounds from Nicole Elmblad, while Cyesha Goree had 12 points and a team-leading eight boards.
BGSU made 7-of-8 shots to begin the second half, with two three-pointers from Matthews and one from Halfhill during that nine-minute span.
The game began at a breakneck pace, as the teams played at a high tempo over the first few minutes. The lead changed hands four times in the first seven-plus minutes, but after Halfhill hit a three-pointer at the 12:11 mark, the Falcons would not trail again.
Rogers opened the game's scoring, cutting to the basket, taking a pass from Stein and finding herself all alone for an easy layup just over 30 seconds in. U-M responded quickly, however, as Shannon Smith drilled a triple, and Siera Thompson came up with a steal and layup for a 5-2 lead with only 64 seconds gone. That three-point lead, however, would be Michigan's largest of the game.
Back-to-back three-pointers by the Falcons turned Michigan's three-point lead into a three-point deficit. Redshirt sophomore Erica Donovan missed a shot, but alertly followed her own miss, grabbing the rebound and firing the ball to Halfhill for a trey that tied the game. Then, Matthews fed Rogers for a triple and an 8-5 lead with 16:39 left in the half. Thompson's trey tied the score heading into the first media timeout.
U-M took the lead on a jumper by Goree, and after Stein answered with a layup, Elmblad's bucket gave the Wolverines a 12-10 lead.
Halfhill knotted the score with a pair of free throws at the 12:58 mark, and the senior point guard knocked down a corner three less than a minute later. Smith's layup was followed by a banker by sophomore Miriam Justinger, and the home team had a 17-14 lead.
The teams traded jumpers once again, as Goree scored in the paint before Halfhill hit a runner. Elmblad's three-point play tied the game, 19-19, with 7:03 left in the half, but Matthews took a pass from freshman Abby Siefker and drilled a left-corner three-pointer just under a minute later, giving BGSU the lead for good.
After Elmblad scored again, Halfhill spotted Rogers for a left-wing three, and the Falcons had a 25-21 lead with 4:37 left in the period. That shot marked the first time either team had led by more than three points, and it also began a 9-1 Falcon run to end the half.
Matthews converted a runner, and after Val Driscoll hit a free throw, junior Deborah Hoekstra's nice pass resulted in a Stein layup and a seven-point lead. That lead grew to nine points, 31-22, when Stein got a driving baseline layup try to go with 1:07 left.
U-M's next two possessions resulted in a blocked shot by Hoekstra and an offensive foul, as Stein took a charge on Goree just before the horn sounded, and BGSU took that 31-22 advantage into the lockerroom.
The Falcons shot 48% in the opening half, and BG was 5-of-9 from three-point land in the opening 20 minutes. The Brown and Orange held U-M to a 31.0% success rate and a 2-of-9 long-range effort in the half.
Thompson opened the second half with a jumper, but Stein found Matthews for a three-pointer with the shot clock winding down, and the Falcons had a 10-point lead for the first time. That lead increased to 12 points, 36-24, via a Halfhill floater just under three minutes into the period.
Michigan got back-to-back layups, and BG's lead was still eight before Matthews found Halfhill for a corner three. After a U-M miss, Stein's pass found Matthews outside the arc, and the net barely moved as her shot from the right wing dropped through. BGSU's lead was 44-30 with 13:46 to go.
At that point, the Falcons had made 5-of-6 shots to begin the half, and BG's scorching start continued as Rogers hit shots on the next two possessions. The senior cut down the lane to take a pass from Stein and score, and she then worked around her defender for a one-handed scoop. Michigan was scoring at the other end of the court, however, and after the second Rogers shot in that stretch, a layup by Goree made it a 48-36 game midway through the half.
Rogers drew a charge against Goree, however, then drove the lane, drew two defenders to her and hit a wide-open Donovan with a bounce pass. Donovan's layup made it a 50-36 game.
Back came the visitors, though, as Paige Rakers hit a three and Elmblad put back Goree's miss. Suddenly, it was a nine-point game heading into the under-eight-minute media timeout.
But, the Falcons had an answer for the Michigan mini-run. After the teams traded buckets, BGSU scored the game's next nine points to take a commanding 61-43 lead by the final media timeout of the night.
That 9-0 run began with a nifty layup by Rogers, and Halfhill's right-wing three off of a Justinger pass made it a 57-43 BG lead. Driscoll fouled Rogers, who hit two charity tosses at the 4:09 mark, before Stein's jumper beat the shot-clock buzzer and gave BG that game-high 18-point lead with 3:06 remaining. Michigan scored 10 of the game's final 12 points, but it was too little, too late.
The Falcons had 15 assists on 24 field goals, with all eight players who saw action dishing out at least one assist. BGSU had a slim 28-27 rebounding advantage, as the three seniors combined for 21 of those 28 boards. In addition to Stein's 11 rebounds, Rogers had six and Halfhill four.
The BGSU-Rutgers game will begin at 7:00 p.m. on Monday night, with the winner advancing to face either Mississippi State or South Florida. USF plays at MSU on Sunday evening (March 30).
Ticket prices for the BGSU-RU game will remain the same as in the first three rounds of the WNIT: Anderson Club tickets are $22 apiece, general reserved tickets are $13, and youth tickets (ages 3-18) are $5. All BGSU students will be admitted free with their student ID, thanks once again to the generosity of an anonymous donor. Tickets will be available at the BGSU Athletics Ticket Office in the Stroh Center, or online through the Ticketmaster link near the top of this page.
FALCON NOTES
* BGSU is now a perfect 16-0 at the Stroh Center in 2013-14, extending the school record for home wins in a season.
* The Falcons beat Michigan for the second time this season, and by nearly the identical score ... almost five months ago, BGSU and U-M opened the season at the Iona Tip-Off Tournament in New Rochelle, N.Y., with the Brown and Orange coming away with a 63-52 win (Nov, 8, 2013).
* With 20 points on Thursday night, senior Alexis Rogers moved up two spots on the BGSU career scoring list ... Rogers now has 1,241 points in 99 career games as a Falcon, an average of 12.5 points per contest ... she moved past Melissa Chase (1,223 points from 1979-83) and Michelle Shade (1,233 points from 1991-95) into 17th place on the BGSU career scoring list, and she trails her former teammate, Chrissy Steffen by just four points ... Steffen currently sits in 16th place in school history, with 1,245 career points from 2009-13.
* Senior Jill Stein's double-double on Thursday was the sixth of her career, with all six coming this season.
* After combining for just two points along with seven rebounds in BGSU's WNIT second-round win over St. Bonaventure, Rogers and Stein combined for 30 points and 17 boards in the win over U-M.
* The Falcons' other senior on the active roster, Jillian Halfhill, scored 18 points for the second-straight game ... Halfhill scored 18 points in each of BG's two wins over U-M this year.
* BGSU now has an all-time record of 7-5 in postseason WNIT appearances ... the Falcons are 5-1 in the WNIT since Jennifer Roos took the head-coaching job prior to last season.
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