Bowling Green State University
Youngstown State
Achter, Falcons Roll Past YSU, 83-61
November 30, 2004 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 30, 2004
Final Stats | Quotes
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Freshman Kate Achter scored 23 points, the most of her brief career, as the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team opened the home slate with a convincing 83-61 win over visiting Youngstown State University Tuesday night (Nov. 30) at Anderson Arena.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 2-2 on the season, while the Penguins drop to 2-3.
Three Falcon sophomores joined Achter in double digits, as Liz Honegger, Carin Horne and Ali Mann had 14 points apiece. Honegger had a double-double, with a game-high 15 rebounds, and also had four blocked shots and three steals.
In addition to scoring, Achter paced all players in assists (five) and steals (four) in the game.
"We won a lot of games last year, but I don't know if we played that smoothly (in any game last season)," said Falcon fourth-year head coach Curt Miller. "It was a very crisp, well-played, high-intensity game. That is as well as we have played since I have been here. (Youngstown State) is a good team that is going to win a lot of games this year."
The Penguins broke out to an early 9-4 lead, and led by a 12-6 margin before the Falcons came roaring back. A free throw by sophomore Megan Thorburn began a 7-0 run which put the home team ahead by a point.
The game see-sawed back and forth for the next few minutes, until a Cathy Hanek three-point field goal -- YSU's sixth of the contest -- knotted the score at 22-22 with 9:02 left. But, that would be the Penquins' last field goal of the half.
A Mann jumper began a 14-0 run that put the Brown and Orange ahead to stay. Achter and Thorburn scored four points apiece during the decisive run, which was finally snapped by a Lauren Branson free throw with 2:29 remaining before the intermission.
Horne responded with a three-pointer, however, and the Falcons led by 16, at 39-23. BG took a 41-27 advantage into the lockerroom.
In the second half, the closest the visitors could come was nine points, after a Barb Fabianova jumper with 16:46 remaining put the visitors within 45-36. But, Horne responded by scoring the game's next five points. The soph drained a trey off a Mann feed, then hit a driving, left-handed layup in the lane, and the lead never again fell into single digits.
For the Penguins, Fabianova had 14 points, while Jen Perugini had 13 points and a team-high nine rebounds. Hanek scored 12 points and added eight boards.
The Falcons held a 38-35 rebounding advantage, and BG posted decisive margins in several other categories. The Falcons held a 48-8 advantage in points in the paint, including a 30-0 first-half margin, and BG's bench outscored the Penguin subs, 41-13. The home team had 30 points off turnovers, to the visitors' nine.
BGSU now hits the road for the next six games, beginning with a pair of contests in the Brown Classic this weekend. The Falcons will face Lehigh in Saturday (Dec. 4) action, then will play either Winthrop or Brown the following afternoon. The Falcons' next home game is Dec. 30 vs. Bucknell.
