Bowling Green State University
EASTERN MICHIGAN
Women's Basketball Loses At Eastern Michigan
February 21, 2001 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 21, 2001
YPSILANTI, Mich. - The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team never got untracked, shooting just 18.5 percent in the first half, and Eastern Michigan University got contributions from a number of different players. The result was an 86-50 victory for the host Eagles in Wednesday's (Feb. 21) Mid-American Conference game at the Convocation Center.
With the victory, EMU ties a school record for overall wins, moving to 16-9. The Eagles are now 9-5 in MAC play. BGSU drops to 10-15 overall and 6-8 in MAC action.
The Falcons scored the first bucket of the game, as redshirt freshman Pam Brown converted with just eight seconds gone. After a Kristy Maska three-point field goal for the hosts, BG regained the lead on a layup in transition by Lindsay Austin. That 4-3 lead would be the Falcons' last margin of the night.
EMU scored the next eight points to start a back-breaking 32-3 run. When the smoke cleared, the Eagles held a 35-7 lead, the largest margin of the half, at the 4:48 mark. The Brown and Orange went nearly 12 minutes without a field goal during one first-half stretch.
The Eagles led by a 39-17 margin at the half, and BGSU never got closer than 22 points in the second half. The hosts' largest lead was 40, at 71-31 with 6:35 to go. The Falcons, who made just five field goals in 27 attempts in the first half, went 13-of-28 from the floor (.464) in the second half en route to a .327 percentage for the game.
EMU shot .438 on the night, going 28-of-64 from the field. The Eagles, who entered the game ranked fourth in the nation with 7.71 treys per game, went 10-of-32 from long range on the night. BGSU, ranked 10th in the country with 7.13 per game, went 6-of-13 from beyond the arc.
Austin led the Falcons with 14 points, including a pair of triples in as many attempts. Senior Angie Farmer and Brown each had eight points, while freshman Kelly Kapferer added six.
The Falcons' top-two scorers, junior Francine Miller and Farmer, were held to a combined 13 points.
"We were perfectly prepared to have Angie and Franny not get many open looks," said BGSU coach Dee Knoblauch. "We were all set to have our point guard and our center make a 14-footer.
"We just couldn't make a shot, and we got in too deep of a hole.
"We didn't do a very good job defensively, and they did a wonderful job of taking us off the dribble. At the other end, we didn't do a good job of stopping the dribble penetration, and they took it hard to the hoop.
"Eastern is playing very well right now."
Dru Bishop's 14 points led a balanced Eagle effort, as Maska and Stephanie Smiley each had 13 points. Smiley had game-high totals of six assists and five steals.
Shani Charles had 12 points for the hosts, while three other players had at least eight points.
The Falcons head to Buffalo for the final road game of the regular season. That Saturday (Feb. 24) contest tips off at 5:00 p.m. at UB's Alumni Arena.
Following the UB game, the Falcons return home to end the regular season with a Wednesday (Feb. 28) game against Miami. Tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m. at Anderson Arena.
The MAC Tournament begins Saturday, March 3, with first-round games at campus sites. Through Wednesday's action, the Falcons still held the eighth (and final homecourt) seed for the tourney. BGSU leads Ohio University (5-10), a double-overtime loser at Buffalo Wednesday, by a game-and-a-half. The Bobcats can do no better than match the Falcons' current total of six MAC wins, and BG holds the tiebreaker over the Bobcats by virtue of a sweep of the season series between the teams.
Western Michigan lost to Central Michigan Wednesday night, putting the Broncos (4-10) two games behind the Falcons with two games to play. WMU, however, holds the tiebreaker over the Brown and Orange.
