Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Premier All-Stars
Halfcourt Buzzer-Beater Gives Premier All-Stars 72-71 Win
November 03, 2003 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 3, 2003
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Nearly 15 years ago, Lisa Cline graduated from Millersburg West Holmes High School as the all-time leading scorer in the state of Ohio.
Monday night at Anderson Arena, Cline showed she still has some magic left.
Cline's 45-foot shot as the buzzer sounded lifted the Premier All-Stars to a 72-71 win over the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team in exhibition play. The contest marked the lone exhibition game for the Falcons.
The game featured 16 lead changes and the debut of head coach Curt Miller's 2003-04 squad. The team has seven freshmen and a total of nine players who did not see action last season. Eight of those players played Monday night, with three cracking the starting lineup.
One of the returnees, senior Stefanie Wenzel, led the Falcons with 18 points, including a 3-of-4 night from three-point range. Freshman Megan Thorburn, starting at forward in her first-ever collegiate game, added 12 points and five rebounds.
Junior Kelly Kapferer, who sat out last season after earning two letters with the Falcons, had 11 points and a team-high seven boards. Senior Lindsay Austin and freshman Ali Mann rounded out Miller's starting five.
For the All-Stars, former Ohio State standout Jamie Lewis led the way with a game-high 20 points in 39 minutes. Joni O'Connell added 16 points, while Cline had 12 points and a game-high five assists.
The Falcons led by as many as eight points early in the first half, before the All-Stars mounted a comeback to take the lead. The game was tied four times in the first half, the last coming with 4:52 left as Cline made the first of two free throws. She drained the second charity toss to give the visitors a one-point lead, but the Falcons held the All-Stars scoreless the rest of the way, scoring the last seven points of the half.
A pair of freshmen accounted for all seven of those points, with Thorburn converting a three-point play and Carin Horne adding a basket and two free throws.
The Falcons had two cold spells in the second half. After Thorburn drained a three-pointer on the first possession of the half, the All-Stars scored the next 10 points to go ahead, 41-40. Junior Sakima Smith followed her own miss to regain the lead for the Brown and Orange, and the lead changed hands several times in the next few minutes.
The Falcons forged ahead, as a Mann three-pointer gave the hosts a 57-50 advantage midway through the half. When Austin made a triple of her own at the 7:54 mark, the Falcons led by eight points.
The home team still held an eight-point edge with 5:38 left, 69-61, after a Wenzel layup, but that would prove to be the Falcons' final hoop of the game. Lewis made a trey for the All-Stars, but Wenzel's two free throws just before the final media timeout gave BG a 71-64 lead.
Out of the timeout, an O'Connell layup cut the lead to five. Two minutes later, Cline split a pair of free throws, and the visitors were within four at 71-67. After a BG offensive foul, Lewis hit a shot with 35 seconds left, cutting the lead in half.
BGSU worked the clock, but Wenzel was forced to take a long shot as the shot clock expired, and the ball went out of bounds to the All-Stars with 3.1 seconds left.
The visitors inbounded the ball to Cline, who took a few dribbles and got off a shot just after crossing midcourt. Cline had made just 2-of-8 shots from the field prior to sinking that final hoop.
For the Falcons, sophomore Casey McDowell had six points in 10 minutes in her first action. McDowell sat out the 2002-03 season after transferring from Indiana State.
Freshman Amber Flynn had five points and six rebounds in only eight minutes, while Horne had four points in just three minutes of action.
Frosh Liz Honegger and Julie Gompers also made their BGSU debuts, as all 14 healthy players saw action. Freshman Kim Nowakowski had surgery on her broken foot last Monday (Oct. 27), and remains sidelined.
The youthful, athletic Falcons held a 37-35 rebounding edge, and BG had 15 offensive rebounds. The Falcons held an 11-4 advantage in second-chance points and a 9-0 margin in fast-break points.
BGSU now has nearly three weeks before opening the regular season. The Falcons will play a Nov. 22 game at Youngstown State, before returning home to host Detroit three days later (Nov. 25) in a 5:45 p.m. start at Anderson.
