Bowling Green State University
CENTRAL MICHIGAN
Honegger, Falcons Outlast Central Michigan, 57-52
January 25, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 25, 2006
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Junior Liz Honegger hit a three-point field goal with just 9.2 seconds left, snapping a tie game and giving the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team a 57-52 win at Central Michigan University Wednesday night (Jan. 25). The Mid-American Conference game was held at CMU's Rose Arena.
"Ironically, the play that we used to take the lead was a play that we thought was going to be there from the opening tip," said Falcon head coach Curt Miller. "We struggled all game to get it, but we went back to it. That was the play that we thought we could hurt them with. It took 39-plus minutes to get it, but to Liz's credit, having not played a great game, she was courageous enough to still want that shot. And, she made a big, big shot."
Junior Carin Horne led the Falcons with 14 points, while sophomore Kate Achter added 10.
Honegger's trey was the Falcons' only field goal in the game's final 6:41. The Falcons had led, 50-40, before the Chippewas scored 10-straight points to tie the game with 4:23 left. Each team scored just two points apiece over the next four-plus minutes, leaving the contest tied and setting the stage for Honegger's heroics.
On the winning play, Achter drove left and headed down the lane. In traffic, she fired a pass to freshman Lindsey Goldsberry at the three-point arc on the right wing. Goldsberry made the `extra pass,' finding Honegger at the right elbow for the three-pointer.
After Honegger's trey, the Chippewas tried a long pass, but Goldsberry intercepted the ball just over midcourt. The freshman was fouled with 6.6 seconds left and hit both free throws to provide the final margin.
The Falcons, with several fouls to give, fouled with 4.0 seconds on the clock to force a CMU inbounds pass. That pass was stolen by junior Ali Mann as the clock ran out.
The game featured a total of only 19 turnovers and 22 fouls, as the hosts used nearly the entire 30-second shot clock on nearly every possession. Three times in the first half alone, Central hit a shot just as the shot-clock buzzer went off.
Honegger, who hit the final field goal of the game, also had hit the first, taking an Achter pass and hitting a three-pointer to open the scoring. The Falcons forced a shot-clock violation on the next possession, and Mann quickly scored at the other end, giving the Falcons a 5-0 lead.
Stacey Verhoff got the hosts on the board, but Horne responded with a hoop on the fast break, and the Chippewas took a timeout.
The hosts battled back to tie the game at 11-11, and the contest was tied four times over the next few minutes. BGSU broke the fourth tie of the half on a pair of Horne free throws with 8:04 left, and a jumper by junior Megan Thorburn gave the Falcons a 20-16 lead.
The Chippewas got within a single point, at 24-23, on a Candace Wilson three-pointer with 2:25 left before intermission, but Achter split a pair of free throws, then drove deep into the lane and found a cutting Horne for an easy layup at the 1:07 mark.
Wilson hit another hoop for the hosts, but Horne answered with a pull-up jumper basket in the final half-minute. BGSU called time with 17.2 seconds left, and -- out of that timeout -- Horne and Achter teamed up once again. The duo used a midcourt trap to pick up a steal, with Horne finding Achter ahead of the pack for an easy layup with only three seconds left. BGSU took a six-point lead, the biggest of the half, into the lockerroom.
In the second half, the lead fluctuated between three and eight points for the first 11-plus minutes. CMU was within a three-pointer, at 43-40, after a layup by Sharonda Hurd and a back-door layup by Casey Manning, when the Falcons went on a 7-0 run.
That run began with a Goldsberry three-pointer, doubling the BG lead. Then, senior Casey McDowell got ahead of everyone on the break, gathered in a pass from freshman Jasmine McCall and converted a layup at the 7:17 mark. Then, Goldsberry hit the floor to dive for a deflected CMU pass, coming up with the steal as the Falcons called time.
Out of that timeout, junior Amber Flynn gathered in a teammate's missed shot and laid the ball in. The Falcons led by 10 points, the biggest margin of the entire night. But, as mentioned, BGSU would hit only one field goal over the remaining 6:41.
First, Chasidy Myers scored on a jumper. Myers led three Chippewa double-digit scorers with 12 points on the night. Then, a Verhoff trey cut the lead to 50-45 at the 5:32 mark.
Another Myers basket, this time on a putback, narrowed the margin to three points, before Wilson erased the lead altogether with a three-pointer at the 4:23 mark.
The teams traded unsuccessful possessions before Achter was fouled as she rose for a right-side jumper with 2:45 on the clock. The soph hit both of her charity tosses, and the Falcons had a two-point lead.
The Chippewas missed a pair of shots on the next possession, but BGSU then had back-to-back shots blocked at the other end, and Central had the ball back with 1:48 remaining.
On the next possession, Myers missed a shot off of an inbounds pass, but after a wild scramble, the ball went right to Wilson, who grabbed it and laid it in. The teams were tied once again, 52-52, with 1:31 left.
After a Falcon miss and a Chippewa rebound at the other end, the hosts took a timeout with 52.9 seconds left. Four seconds later, Achter committed a foul, just BG's fourth of the half. CMU inbounded the ball and got it to Hurd, but Honegger blocked her layup try, and McDowell grabbed the rebound with 32 seconds left. The Falcons called time with 18.9 seconds remaining, setting up the winning play
In addition to the double-digit scoring nights for Horne and Achter, the Falcons got eight points from both Honegger and McDowell, six from Mann and five from Goldsberry. Honegger led the Falcons with eight rebounds, as BG held a slim 33-32 margin in that column of the boxscore.
Myers, as mentioned, had 12 points for the hosts, while Verhoff and Wilson scored 10 apiece.
Achter led all players with five assists on the night, while McCall had four helpers and no turnovers.
The Falcons return home for the next two games, beginning with Saturday afternoon's (Jan. 28) game vs. Western Michigan. That contest will start at 1:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena.
NOTES
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