Falcons Shut Down Buffalo, 70-45

Wednesday, January 5

Buffalo, N.Y.

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

BUFFALO

January 05, 2005 | Women's Basketball

Jan. 5, 2005

Final Stats

BUFFALO, N.Y. - The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team held the host University at Buffalo without a field goal for a first-half span of 11:52, building a 22-point halftime lead en route to a 70-45 win Wednesday night (Jan. 5). The game, the Mid-American Conference opener for both teams, was held at Alumni Arena.

With the victory, the Falcons improve to 8-4 overall and 1-0 in MAC play, and BG has now won five consecutive games. The host Bulls dropped to 2-10 and 0-1, respectively.

The win was the 50th of Falcon head coach Curt Miller's career, and put his overall record above the .500 mark for the first time since his opening game at the BG helm. Miller now has a 50-49 ledger in his fourth season at Bowling Green.

The Falcons made eight three-point field goals in the first half, paced by a 3-for-3 long-range effort from sophomore Carin Horne in the opening 20 minutes. BG finished 9-for-30 from long distance for the game.

"I was really pleased with our first-half offensive production," said Miller. "We came out and set the tone with our three-point game against their zone defense."

"Buffalo has some very good young talent. But, so do we, and we got 36 of our 43 first-half points from our freshmen and sophomores."

Three of those sophomores, Liz Honegger (14), Horne (13) and Ali Mann, (13) reached double digits in scoring in the game. The Falcons shot 55.6 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes, while holding UB to just a 5-for-22 effort (22.7%) in the first half.

Both teams got off to a slow start offensively, as a three-pointer by UB's Stephanie Bennett tied the game at 5-5 with five-and-a-half minutes gone in the first half. But, Horne responded with a triple at the other end of the court just 14 seconds later, and the Falcons never were headed.

Horne's trey began a 10-0 run, and another Horne three-pointer gave the Falcons an 18-7 lead with 9:22 left in the half. The lead never fell into single digits again.

Following Stephanie Bennett's shot (that had knotted the score at five apiece), the Bulls were a perfect 8-of-8 from the free-throw line over the next 11-plus minutes, but could not hit a shot from the field until another Stephanie Bennett trey at the 2:37 mark. Prior to the latter shot, the Falcons had led by a 33-11 count. The teams traded points over the final minutes of the half, with the Brown and Orange taking a 43-21 lead into the lockerroom.

With the Bulls still within 21 points midway through the second half, the Falcons went on a 9-0 run that removed any lingering doubt about the outcome.

The first seven points of that run came within a 56-second span. Freshman Kate Achter scored a backdoor layup after a nifty pass by Horne, then senior Kelly Kapferer hit a layup off a Honegger pass. The co-captain returned the favor seconds later, kicking the ball out to a trailing Honegger for a three-pointer at the 9:08 mark. When Kapferer hit another layup off a Mann feed, the Falcons led by 30 points, 61-31, and UB got no closer than 25 points the rest of the evening.

Honegger, in addition to her game-high total of 14 points, also led all players with five steals and tied for game honors with four assists. Junior Casey McDowell matched Honegger's total of four helpers.

Mann had a game-high nine rebounds, while Achter had eight points and seven boards. McDowell scored six points and sophomore Amber Flynn five.

For the Bulls, Stephanie Bennett had 13 points and Allison Bennett added 10.

BGSU held a 41-31 advantage on the boards, and BG had 15 offensive rebounds to the Bulls' nine.

The Falcons next head to Kalamazoo for a Saturday (Jan. 8) game at Western Michigan University, beginning at 2:00 p.m.