Bowling Green State University
OHIO
Falcons Pull Away From Ohio, 86-59
February 05, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 5, 2005
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - A 15-1 second-half run broke open a close game and lifted the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team to an 86-59 victory over Ohio University Saturday afternoon (Feb. 5). The game, the Mid-American Conference TV Game of the Week, was held at venerable Anderson Arena.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 14-6 overall and 7-2 in MAC play, and BGSU remains atop the MAC's West Division. Ohio drops to 9-11 and 5-4, respectively.
A pair of sophomores had double-doubles for the Falcons, as Ali Mann had a game-high 19 points and 10 rebounds, while Liz Honegger had 15 points and paced all players with 12 boards. Falcon freshman Kate Achter had 17 points and sophomore Carin Horne scored 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
The Bobcats' Andrea Johnson led three double-figure scorers with 14 points, while Erin Isbell had 13 and a team-high seven rebounds. Simone Redd scored 10 points off the bench.
As was the case in BGSU's last game (Wednesday's 80-44 win over Northern Illinois), it took the Falcons a few minutes for the offense to get going. A three-point field goal by redshirt junior Casey McDowell gave the Falcons a 5-2 lead, but the Bobcats scored the game's next four points.
The lead changed hands several times over the next few minutes, before a three-point play by Horne kick-started a 7-0 Falcon run. Horne's layup came after a nifty back-door pass from senior Tene Lewis.
Kristian Kirkpatrick stopped that run with a jumper at the 12:26 mark, but BG promptly scored the next nine points to take a 23-10 lead with 10:04 left before halftime.
In that latter run, Honegger hit a jumper, then grabbed a rebound of an Ohio miss at the other end. Off a BG miss, Lewis corralled the rebound in traffic underneath the hoop and kicked the ball out to Honegger for a left-side three. The sophomore's shot went in as she was knocked to the ground.
Then, a Lewis steal led to an Achter driving shot, forcing Ohio to take a timeout. Lewis capped the 9-0 run with a layup off a pass from Mann.
A Honegger three-point play extended the margin to 14 points, 26-12, with 9:05 left in the half. But, the Bobcats then made a run of their own, scoring nine-straight points to cut the lead to five points at the 6:23 mark.
Mann broke that run with a rebound and layup of her own miss, then scored again on the Falcons' next trip down the court. Ohio battled back to within five points on two more first-half occasions, but Horne scored the last four points of the half as the Falcons took a 41-29 lead at the intermission.
Mann had 13 points and seven boards in that first half, while Honegger had 10 points and eight rebounds in the opening 20 minutes.
The second half featured a total of 29 fouls and 43 free-throw attempts. BGSU was whistled for three quick fouls, with two coming against Mann in the first 50 seconds of the half. The Bobcats were 6-for-6 from the line in the opening 1:15, with only a McDowell layup countering that scoring for the hosts.
After the last of those Ohio free throws, Mann's long football-like pass found Achter streaking ahead of the pack. The freshman laid the ball in, was fouled, and converted the charity toss.
Johnson countered with a jumper, cutting BG's lead to 46-37, but Kirkpatrick was called for her third foul of the game at the 18:07 mark, and Horne hit one of the resulting free throws.
A key sequence came seconds later, as Kirkpatrick committed her fourth foul with 17:50 to go. With a substitute at the scorer's table waiting to check in at the next stoppage, the Falcons worked the ball inside. BG missed a shot, but Kirkpatrick, the Bobcats' leading scorer, was called for her fifth foul as the teams battled for the rebound. Kirkpatrick was out of the game with exactly 17 minutes left.
Only eight seconds later, Isbell, the team's top rebounder, picked up her third foul, and was called for her fourth at the 15:10 mark, forcing her to the bench for much of the remainder of the contest.
Ohio battled through the foul troubles, scoring seven-straight points to cut the gap to seven points, 51-44, at the second media timeout of the half. But, Achter began the Falcons' game-changing 15-1 run with five consecutive points from the foul line.
Achter hit a pair of tosses at the 11:27 mark, then stole the Bobcats' inbounds pass and was fouled, leading to two more successful free throws just two seconds later. Achter rebounded an OU miss and was fouled, sinking another free throw, her fifth in a 20-second span.
The Falcons' first nine points in the 15-1 run all came at the stripe, as Lewis and Horne each knocked down a pair of free throws. A layup by Mann was followed by a rebound and putback from Horne 30 seconds later. After Mann drove and scored on another layup, the lead was 21 points, 66-45, with 8:11 remaining.
The margin was 19 when Honegger hit a three-pointer off a pass by junior Jill Lause with 5:45 left. Then, McDowell stole a cross-count pass in front of the television broadcasters and fed Achter for an acrobatic layup. As the ball went through the hoop, Isbell was called for her fifth foul with 5:34 left. Achter's free throw gave BG a 25-point lead, and the margin stayed in the mid-20s for the rest of the afternoon.
The Falcons shot 42.6 percent from the field, while limiting Ohio to a 34.5% rate, including an 8-for-27 (29.6%) performance in the second half. BGSU held a commanding 55-37 advantage on the boards, and the hosts had 25 offensive rebounds.
The Falcons' three sophomore starters -- Honegger, Horne and Mann -- combined for 30 rebounds, including 15 on the offensive end. Lewis added four offensive boards.
On the day, Lewis had six total rebounds, to go along with six points, a game-high seven assists, three steals and the first two-block game of her career. McDowell had five points, and tied Lewis and Achter for game honors with three steals.
Kirkpatrick had eight points and six rebounds for the Bobcats, but played just 20 minutes before fouling out. Isbell played only 21 minutes on the day.
BGSU enjoyed advantages of 25-8 in second-chance points and 17-6 in fast-break points. The Falcons turned the ball over 20 times, the most in MAC play this season, but forced Ohio into 24 turnovers.
On the afternoon, the Falcons and Bobcats were called for a total of 50 fouls and took a whopping 65 free-throw shots, making 41.
A crowd of 1,625 was on hand at Anderson Arena, and that group included a large number of Falcon alumnae, in various women's sports. Several hundred former BGSU athletes, who competed in athletics in the pre-Title IX days, returned to campus this weekend. At a banquet and awards ceremony Friday evening, the BGSU Athletics Department awarded varsity letters to these women, whose leadership laid the foundation for the Falcons of today. The group was in attendance and was recognized at Saturday's game.
This season's Falcons remain in first place in the MAC's West Division, just a half-game ahead of Ball State (11-10, 7-3 MAC). The teams meet only once in the 2004-05 regular season, and that meeting is Tuesday (Feb. 8) in Muncie. BGSU then concludes the final two-game road swing of the season with a Saturday (Feb. 12) game at Akron, before playing three-of-four games at home to end the month of February.
