Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
CENTRAL MICHIGAN (First Round)
Falcons Are Headed To Cleveland
March 06, 2004 | Women's Basketball
March 6, 2004
Final Stats| Quotes| MAC Tournament Ticket Info.
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team used hot shooting in the early going, along with a pair of key scoring runs, to post a 66-54 win over visiting Central Michigan University Saturday afternoon (March 6). The game, a first-round contest in the Kraft Mid-American Conference Tournament, was held at BGSU's Anderson Arena.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 19-9 overall. BGSU, the fourth seed in the tourney, will play in the quarterfinal round Wednesday (March 10) at Gund Arena, against fifth-seeded Western Michigan University. WMU advanced with an 89-67 home win over #12 Akron.
The Chippewas, the tournament's 13th seed, end the season with a 5-23 record.
Four Falcons hit double digits in the win, led by freshman Ali Mann's 15 points. Mann had a game-high eight rebounds, while classmate Liz Honegger had 12 points and seven boards.
Both junior Kelly Kapferer and senior Lindsay Austin had 11 points, with Kapferer adding five rebounds in only 14 minutes of action. Austin had game-high totals of five assists and four steals.
The Falcons scored the first six points of the game, then scored six-straight points to take a 14-6 lead with nine minutes gone. BGSU began the day by making its first six shots from the field, while the Chippewas were 2-of-14 over the same stretch.
At one point in the first half, the visitors had taken 21 shots (making only three), while BGSU had attempted only seven (draining six). The Chippewas remained in the game, however, through relentless offensive rebounding. At that point in the contest, the visitors had a total of 11 rebounds, all on the offensive glass.
Central closed within to two points, at 23-21, before the Brown and Orange scored the final eight points of the half to take a 10-point advantage into the lockerroom.
Junior Tene Lewis began the run with a layup, and Austin hit a three-pointer with just over a minute left in the half. Mann took an Austin feed and hit a turnaround shot in the lane with only 3.3 seconds left, drawing a foul and converting a three-point play.
Another Falcon run early in the second half put the game away, for all intents and purposes. After a Lindy Hatfield trey brought the Chippewas within 33-26 at the 18:08 mark, BG reeled off a 12-0 run to take a 19-point lead. Six different Falcons scored points during that run, beginning with a Carin Horne layup and a Honegger putback of her own miss. Then, a triple on the fast break by senior Stefanie Wenzel was followed by a Mann layup and an Austin steal and breakaway layup.
The Falcons led by as many as 23 points, at 62-39, on a Kapferer jumper with 7:14 left, before the Chippewas went on a 15-4 run to end the game.
BGSU shot .480 from the field in the game, including a stellar .591 (13-of-22) in the first half. The Falcons held the Chippewas to a field-goal percentage of only .233 (7-of-30) in the first half and a .313 success rate for the game.
Central Michigan held a 41-37 rebounding advantage, and the visitors pulled down a whopping 26 offensive boards. That total led to a 23-12 advantage for the Chippewas in second-chance points.
The Falcons, who led from wire to wire for the second consecutive game this week, held advantages in both points in the paint (34-26) and points off turnovers (17-7).
Casey Manning led the visitors with 13 points and seven rebounds, while Ann Skufca had 11 points.
Wenzel had eight points and four assists, tying a season best in the latter category, in her final home game. Junior Tene Lewis had a season-high six points, four rebounds and three assists in the win. She played 20 minutes, tying her season high.
NOTES
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