Bowling Green State University
Wright State
Women's Basketball Posts 56-52 Win At Wright State
December 16, 2000 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 16, 2000
DAYTON, Ohio - Senior Afra Smith tied her career high with 20 points as the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team posted a 56-52 road win against Wright State University Saturday afternoon (Dec. 16). The Falcons captured their first road victory of the season in the game, held at WSU's Ervin J. Nutter Center.
The game was the final contest for the Falcons before the holidays. BGSU will be idle until a Dec. 28 road game against UW-Milwaukee.
Sophomore Kim Griech chipped in with 12 points, while freshman Lindsay Austin also was in double digits with 11 points, as the Falcons improved to 4-6 on the season.
The Falcons trailed by five points early, as WSU built a 7-2 lead in the first few minutes. An 8-0 run, however, put BGSU ahead to stay. A basket by redshirt freshman Pam Brown was followed by three-point shots from Austin and Griech, giving the Brown and Orange a 10-7 advantage at the 15:09 mark.
The Falcons led for the remainder of the first half, of course, but did not lead by greater than four points until Smith split a pair of free throws with 2:29 left to give the Brown and Orange a 27-22 lead. After a pair of Raider charity tosses cut the lead to three points, the Falcons would score the last six points of the half.
Buckets by Griech and Austin, followed by a pair of Megan Jerome free throws, gave the visitors a nine-point margin, 33-24, at the intermission.
The 24 points surrendered by the Falcons was the fewest allowed in a half this season.
In the second half, the Falcons quickly took a double-digit lead, as Brown scored off a Griech feed just nine seconds in. But, the Raiders would slowly come back, and got within four points on a Reggen Stewart basket at the 14:56 mark. Minutes later, the Falcon lead was five points as Chanda Hollingsworth hit a three-pointer with 12:12 left. That trey made the BG lead 45-40.
From there, however, the Falcons held the host school without a point for the next 8:22. BG, however, could only score eight points themselves during that time, taking a 53-40 lead with under four minutes left.
That's when Stewart broke the WSU scoring drought with back-to-back baskets, and another Hollingsworth trey cut the lead to 51-47 with 2:49 left. Stewart, who had a team-high 20 points, and Hollingsworth, who finished with 12, were the only members of the WSU squad to score in the second half until just under six seconds remained.
After Hollingsworth's triple, neither team could score for over two minutes. The Raiders, who had committed just three fouls in the second half to that point, began to foul the Falcons in the final minute.
The Raiders' fourth foul in a seven-second span marked the team's seventh of the half, and send Austin to the line with 38.2 seconds left for a one-and-one opportunity. Austin missed the front end, and WSU got the rebound. On the ensuing possession, Hollingsworth banked in a three-pointer with 31.3 seconds remaining, cutting the lead to three.
Again the Falcons were fouled, and again BG missed the front end of a one-and-one situation. This time, however, WSU came down the floor and missed a pair of hurried three-point attempts. BGSU rebounded the ball, and Hollingsworth was forced to foul Griech with 11.7 ticks on the clock.
Griech split her two charity tosses to give the Falcons a four-point lead. WSU's Natalie Dunn scored with 5.7 seconds left, then fouled Smith after BG inbounded the ball. Smith drained both free throws to seal the victory.
Wright State dropped to 2-7 on the year with the loss.
The Falcons' defensive effort was by far the team's best of the year. BGSU held Wright State to a field-goal percentage of just .303, marking the Falcons' best defensive game since Feb. 26, 1999 (Akron, .300). The Raiders' 52 points marked the second-lowest opponent scoring output in the Dee Knoblauch Era (Northern Illinois, 50 points, Feb. 7, 2000). "This was a huge win for us, on the road and with us still not at 100 percent," said Knoblauch. "Afra Smith had a great game, and I thought our defense was just outstanding.
"Also, Lindsay Austin just keeps getting better with each game. We found a way to win today, and that's the mark of a good team."
For the fifth consecutive game, the Falcons played without starters Jackie Adlington, Angie Farmer and Francine Miller, all of whom are nursing injuries.
Following the UWM game, the Falcons will begin the MAC schedule and the new millennium with a Jan. 3 game against Akron. Start time for that contest is 7:00 p.m. at BGSU's venerable Anderson Arena.
