MAC CHAMPS! Falcons Win at Akron, 77-76, for Outright Regular-Season Crown

Jillian Halfhill v Akron - Jan 12 2014 - kielmeyer pic

Senior Jillian Halfhill's layup with 6.6 seconds left gave the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team a 77-76 win at the University of Akron Saturday afternoon (March 8). The Mid-American Conference game was held at James A. Rhodes Arena.

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POSTGAME AUDIO: Halfhill | Justinger | Roos *
MAC TOURNAMENT BRACKET: PDF
* joined in progress midway through her opening statement

With the win, the Falcons improve to 27-3 overall, and BGSU ends the regular season with a 17-1 MAC ledger. BG's win at Akron, coupled with a Central Michigan loss at Eastern Michigan on Saturday, gives the Falcons the outright league regular-season crown.

BGSU ends the regular season having won 13 consecutive games. Akron dropped to 20-9 overall and 14-4 in the MAC, and the loss to the Falcons snapped a 13-game win streak for the Zips.

Senior Alexis Rogers had a monster game, with game-high totals of 23 points, 15 rebounds and seven steals. The steal total tied her career high, and the rebound total included nine at the offensive end.

Fellow senior Jill Stein had 12 points and seven boards, while sophomore Miriam Justinger scored 11 points, all in the final six minutes of the second half. Justinger's point total included a key three-point field goal in the late going, as well as three free throws in the final minute of play.

Hanna Luburgh had 20 points to pace four double-figure scorers for Akron. Anita Brown had 17 points off the bench, while Kacie Cassell and Katie Nunan scored 10 points apiece.

The Zips shot 50.9 percent from the field for the game, including 56.0% in the second half, while BGSU shot 36.5% on the afternoon. Akron outrebounded the Falcons by two, 36-34, but BG hit eight three-pointers to the Zips' five, and the visitors went 23-of-26 from the free-throw line (88.5%). UA hit 13-of-16 shots from the stripe.

Justinger, as mentioned, scored all 11 of her points in the game's final six minutes, beginning with a free throw at the 5:52 mark that cut the Akron lead to 65-63. After a Rogers steal, Justinger converted a nifty left-side baseline drive, and the game was tied.

After Nunan hit a long two-pointer, though, the Zips led by two points heading into the final media timeout, and Cassell split a pair of free throws out of the break for a 68-65 UA lead with 3:41 to go.

On the next possession, the Falcons nearly threw the ball away, but Rogers saved it with a headlong dive under the basket, and Justinger grabbed the ball in front of the BG bench, a split-second before an Akron player could arrive. Justinger drove and drew a foul on Carly Young, knocking down both free-throw tries at the 3:18 mark.

Cassell missed a layup, with Rogers rebounding. The ensuing possession saw the senior take a Justinger entry pass and hit a layup for a 69-68 BG lead, but the Zips came right back, as Luburgh's three-pointer gave the hosts a 71-69 lead with just over two minutes remaining.

Back came the Falcons, as Halfhill drove the lane and kicked a pass to Justinger on the right side. The sophomore's rainbow three was on target, and the Falcons led, 72-71, with 1:51 on the clock.

Brown split a pair of free throws with 1:37 left, tying the game. She missed the second try, but the Zips kept possession after the Falcons dropped the rebound out of bounds. Luburgh made BG pay with a pull-up jumper for a 74-72 UA lead with 1:17 remaining.

The next possession saw Rogers miss a layup try, but the senior tied up an Akron player on the rebound, and the possession arrow was pointing in BG's direction with 1:03 left.

Justinger was fouled by Young on a three-point try -- Young's fifth foul of the game -- with 45.4 seconds to go. The sophomore hit all three resulting free-throw attempts, and the Falcons had a 75-74 lead.

On the next possession, Cassell was double-teamed in the frontcourt, and momentarily lost possession of the ball. The UA point guard was able to dive on it and call a timeout, Akron's last, with 28.4 seconds left.

After the timeout, the Zips' Luburgh was fouled by Justinger, with both teams in the double bonus. Luburgh hit both shots with 20.1 seconds remaining, and the hosts had a one-point lead.

BG did not call a timeout, instead inbounding and running the offense, and Halfhill scored on a right-side drive with 6.6 seconds to go. Akron, out of timeouts, raced upcourt, but the BG defense forced Cassell to take a contested shot which fell short, glancing off the front of the rim as the buzzer sounded.

The Falcons now hold a 51-3 advantage in the all-time series with the Zips, and BGSU has won three-straight meetings, as well as 22 of the last 23 matchups, with Akron. But, Saturday's game was just one of numerous recent BG-UA games that have gone right down to the wire.

The Zips got on the board first, as Rachel Tecca hit a jumper 90 seconds in. Tecca, UA's leading scorer, played less than three minutes of Saturday's contest, however, checking out of the game at the 17:15 mark of the opening half.

Stein's reverse layup tied the game, and moments later, the Brown and Orange hit back-to-back treys. Redshirt sophomore Erica Donovan's right-side triple try was good, with Halfhill assisting, and Stein passed the ball out of a triple team to a wide-open Jasmine Matthews. The junior's shot from the left side gave the visitors an early 8-4 lead.

The lead stayed between two and four points for the next few minutes, with Rogers hitting a pair of free throws, then stealing the ball, going coast to coast and scoring after eluding her defender with an impressive hesitation move. The Falcons had a 12-8 advantage.

That lead increased to six points -- the Falcons' largest lead of the game -- when Halfhill pulled down a defensive rebound, went from one end of the court to the other and hit a runner. The Zips used a timeout at the 12:53 mark, trailing by a 14-8 score.

Luburgh hit a three-pointer out of that timeout, but a Halfhill pull-up jumper made it a 16-11 game. Brown hit a pair of shots, including a tough fadeaway jumper, and a Nunan layup gave UA a 17-16 lead. Freshman Rachel Konieczki fed Matthews for a left-side trey, but UB took the lead right back on Brown's three-point play at the 8:31 mark.

Hannah Plybon's jumper gave the hosts a 22-19 lead, but Konieczki got her defender in the air by faking a three-point try, then took a dribble and hit a long two-pointer to cut UA's lead to one point. Megan Barilla answered with a trey, however, for a 25-21 Akron lead with 7:33 left in the half.

With the Zips still leading by four, junior Deborah Hoekstra drilled a three-point try, but Nunan's layup began a 6-0 run for UA, and when Cassell hit a jumper at the 2:39 mark, the hosts had their largest lead of the game, 33-26.

Stein hit a pair of charity tosses, and Rogers scored on an up-and-under move to cut the Falcons' deficit to three points. Young came off of a screen to hit a three-pointer, however, and Brown answered two Rogers free throws with an easy reverse layup, giving the Zips a 38-32 lead at the intermission.

Stein and the Falcons rallied at the start of the second half. The senior scored the first six points of the period, with a layup just 13 seconds in, and back-to-back buckets just 30 seconds apart a few minutes later. The latter shot tied the game and prompted an Akron timeout.

Brown scored, but Halfhill lobbed the ball inside to Rogers. Cassell hit a three-pointer, but Rogers put back a teammate's miss, then picked Cassell's pocket before being fouled by the UA senior on a layup try. Rogers hit one of the two free throws, tying the game at 43-all.

Luburgh responded with four-straight points, on a right-side jumper, then a transition layup after a BG miss. But, Rogers kicked the ball to Matthews for a trey, and after an Akron turnover, Hoekstra hit a long-range shot to give the Falcons a 49-47 lead with 14:45 to go.

Cassell's layup tied the score once again, and after Donovan split a pair of charity tosses, Luburgh's layup gave the Zips a one-point lead. Then, Plybon scored inside for a 53-50 UA advantage. Another layup, this time by Brown, gave the hosts a five-point lead with just over 11 minutes on the clock.

Stein was fouled inside, and hit both shots from the line, but DiAndra Gibson's driving layup restored Akron's five-point margin. The teams traded free throws, before Rogers faked a three-point shot, then faked a drive and hit a step-back three. That shot cut the BG deficit to 59-57.

Brown hit a jumper, then made a free throw on UA's next possession for a 62-57 lead, but the Falcons scored five-straight points to tie it up. Donovan got to the line and hit both ends of a one-and-one opportunity, and Rogers converted a three-point play with 7:05 to go. Young responded with an 'and-one' shot of her own, giving the Zips a 65-62 advantage and setting the stage for the final frenetic minutes.

Matthews had nine points and Hoekstra eight for the Falcons. Halfhill had six points and a game-high four assists, while Donovan also scored six points in the win.

Luburgh had a double-double for the hosts, with 10 rebounds, while Young also had 10 boards to go along with six points before fouling out.

Akron enjoyed advantages of 34-24 in points in the paint and 38-21 in bench scoring, but the Falcons had a whopping 29-5 lead in points off turnovers. BG turned the ball over 12 times, while forcing the Zips into 18 turnovers.

BGSU has won a division title in nine of the last 10 seasons. And, the Falcons have had the best overall regular-season record in the MAC in eight of those 10 years.

The Falcons' next game will be against an opponent to be determined, in the semifinal round of the MAC Tournament. That game will begin at 12:00 p.m. on Friday (March 14) at Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland.

If the seeds hold to form, BGSU would face fourth-seeded Buffalo. But, BG's semifinal-round opponent will come from a group that includes #5-seeded Ball State, #8 Eastern Michigan, #9 Northern Illinois and #12 Kent State as well. The MAC Tournament bracket is available as a PDF link near the top of this page.

Friday's semifinal-round winners will advance to Saturday's (March 15) MAC Tournament championship game, which will begin at 1:00 p.m. at The Q.

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