Bowling Green State University
Yale
Women's Basketball Drops Gatorade Classic Opener
December 27, 2001 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 27, 2001
CORAL GABLES, Fla. - The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team has struggled offensively for most of the 2001-02 campaign. Unfortunately for Falcon fans, it was more of the same on Thursday evening (Dec. 27), as the Brown and Orange fell to Yale University by a 51-47 count. The game, the opener of the Gatorade Holiday Classic, was played at the Knight Sports Complex in Coral Gables, Fla.
Yale moved to 6-3 on the year with the win, while the Falcons dropped to 2-8.
Bowling Green held the Bulldogs to just a .321 shooting effort from the field (18-of-56), including a 2-of-14 night from three-point land (.143). But, the Falcons shot just .273 from the field, making 18 shots in 66 tries. BG made only one three-point field goal in 27 attempts (.037).
The game featured eight lead changes and eight ties. The Bulldogs scored the first four points of the game before the Falcons got on the board on a Karen Stocz free throw at the 15:37 mark. BGSU did not make a basket until sophomore Tene Lewis scored 5:11 into the contest. But, the Falcons trailed by just two points, 6-4, at that juncture.
BGSU led by three points on several occasions in the first half, but a 7-0 Yale run gave the Bulldogs a 22-18 lead with 2:45 left. After a BG free throw 29 seconds later, neither team could score again until sophomore Lindsay Austin grabbed a rebound and hit a left-side jumper at the halftime buzzer.
The Falcons scored the first four points of the second half to take a four-point lead, BG's biggest of the game, but Yale came back to score the next three points and knot the contest, the first of seven second-half deadlocks.
Yale led by as many as five points, 43-38, in the second half, but the Brown and Orange forged the game's final tie, at 45-all, on a Stocz bucket with 4:53 left. Yale's Bonnie Smith broke the deadlock with a put-back at the 2:19 mark, and Lindsay Page's basket with 1:35 left gave the Bulldogs a four-point edge.
Senior Dana Western-Schuka cut the lead in half with a two-pointer at the 1:04 mark. After a BGSU foul, YU's Helene Schutrumpf split a pair of free throws to make it a three-point game with 51.7 seconds left.
The Falcons missed a three-point try on the ensuing possession, and Yale rebounded the ball with approximately 38 seconds remaining. But, the Bulldogs inexplicably took a quick shot, which missed, and BG got the rebound and called a timeout with 25.8 seconds left.
The Falcons worked the clock down, but a three-point try missed the mark. The ball went out of bounds, and Yale was awarded possession. After another BGSU foul, Schutrumpf split a pair of charity tosses with 1.8 seconds left to provide the final margin.
Sophomore Kelly Kapferer led the Falcons with 12 points, and had a double-double with 10 rebounds. The rebounding total tied her career high, and the double-double was Kapferer's second, both this season and in her career.
Western-Schuka matched Kapferer's rebound total, and had a whopping eight steals at the defensive end of the floor. Western-Schuka's steal total was just one away from the school record, set by Melissa Chase in 1980.
Junior Stocz had eight points off the bench for the Falcons, while classmate Kim Griech had seven. Austin had six points and five assists, while Western-Schuka added six points to the cause.
For Yale, Bonnie Smith had 11 points off the bench, while Lindsey Page also came off the bench to score 10 points and grab a game-high 11 rebounds.
The Falcons will return to action Friday (Dec. 28) at 5:00 p.m., in the consolation game of the Gatorade Holiday Classic. BG will face Lehigh University, a 76-49 loser to Miami in Thursday night's second game.
