Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Iona
Falcons Top Iona, 81-62, For First Win
November 24, 2002 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 24, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Francine Miller and Stefanie Wenzel combined to score 45 points as the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team picked up an 81-62 win over Iona College Sunday afternoon (Nov. 24). The non-conference game was held at Anderson Arena.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 1-1 on the season, while dropping the Gaels to 0-2.
Miller, who played in only four games last year due to injury, made seven of her 11 shots from the field en route to a game-high 25 points. Wenzel, a junior who led the Falcons in scoring a year ago, led BG with three three-point field goals and totalled 20 points Sunday afternoon.
Senior Kim Griech also scored in double digits for the Brown and Orange, with 11 points for the second consecutive game.
Iona got 17 points each from Michelle Fahy and Melissa Yeagley, while Jamie Donnelly had 10.
The first half featured four ties and six lead changes, before a trey by Griech snapped a 22-22 deadlock with 6:47 left before the break. That shot, which gave the Falcons the lead for good, sparked a 7-0 BG run.
A Wenzel layup gave the Brown and Orange a nine-point lead, 36-27, before Fahy hit a pair of free throws to cut the halftime margin to seven. In the second half, however, the hosts would take command.
Wenzel hit a triple off a set play just six seconds into the half. After Donnelly scored a hoop at the other end, a Miller trey gave the Falcons an 11-point edge, 42-31. The lead got up to 16 on two occasions, before the Gaels made one last run.
Back-to-back three-pointers by Fahy and LaShanna Crowell cut the margin to single digits, at 69-60, with 5:27 remaining. But, the Falcons would go on a 12-2 run to end the game, with 10 of those 12 points coming from the free-throw line.
The Falcons salted the game away at the charity stripe, going 23-of-25 (.920) in the second half and 25-of-30 for the game. IC, on the other hand, made just one of eight free-throw tries (.125) in the final 20 minutes, going 7-of-15 on the day.
The Brown and Orange shot .424 from the field and held the visitors to just a .343 field-goal percentage. BGSU also held a 47-39 advantage in rebounding, with senior Megan Jerome grabbing a game- and career-high nine boards.
In just 18 minutes of action off the bench, Jerome had six points, five assists and the nine rebounds. Freshman Molly Martin, making her second consecutive start at point guard, had two points and a team-high six assists on the day.
Sheena Howard had a game-high eight assists for Iona, while Renee Gaudette had five helpers in just eight minutes off the bench.
BGSU junior point guard Lindsay Austin missed her second game in a row due to a sprained ankle. Redshirt junior Pam Brown, who also had been battling an injury, saw her first action, with two points in four minutes. Brown missed both the Falcons' exhibition game (Nov. 12) and Friday's (Nov. 22) regular-season opener.
The Falcons now have a week-and-a-half before the next game, completing a three-game homestand with a contest vs. Butler on Wednesday, Dec. 4. That game, the first half of a BGSU hoops doubleheader, will begin at 5:45 p.m. at Anderson.
