Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Albany
Falcons Collar Great Danes, 76-40
November 17, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 17, 2006
Final Stats | BGSU-Albany Boxscore in PDF Format
ORLANDO, Fla. - Eleven different players found the scoresheet as the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team picked up a 76-40 win over the University at Albany Friday night (Nov. 17). The non-conference game was the first in the UCF Golden Knights Tournament in Orlando, Fla.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 2-1 on the young season, and advance to Saturday's (Nov. 18) championship game. The Great Danes drop to 1-2 on the year.
In that championship contest, the Falcons will meet Fairleigh Dickinson, a 77-64 winner over host UCF in Friday's second game. The UCF-UAlbany game will begin at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, with the BGSU-FDU contest scheduled to start at approximately 5:00 p.m.
Three senior post players combined for 43 of BGSU's points, led by Ali Mann's 16. Liz Honegger had 15 points, while Amber Flynn came off the bench to score 12 points and pull down a game-high nine rebounds.
UAlbany got 12 points from Amanda Ward, while North Canton Hoover H.S. graduate Kristin Higy had eight points and a team-best eight rebounds.
The Falcons got off to a slow start for the third time in as many games this season. Neither team scored for nearly a minute and a half, before senior Carin Horne knocked down a jumper. A turnover by the Great Danes produced a Megan Thorburn hoop, and Albany took a quick timeout. Out of the timeout, however, Horne got a steal and layup for a six-point BG lead.
Albany, though, rallied back to tie the game at 6-6, holding the Falcons off the scoreboard for four minutes. Finally, Flynn broke that drought, but the Danes held BG pointless for two more minutes, and the teams were tied at 8-8 with over eight minutes gone.
Out of a media timeout, though, the Falcons took the lead for good. Mann took a pass and converted a layup while drawing a foul. The free throw did not go down, but Flynn grabbed the rebound, was fouled and hit one of her charity tosses.
Then, junior Kate Achter rattled home a pull-up jumper, and Mann worked inside for another layup at the 8:36 mark. The Falcons' lead was 15-8 and the Great Danes burned another timeout.
The lead would increase to 18-8 on a Mann three-point field goal, before Higy snapped a 10-0 BG run. The teams traded baskets before Mann got into the paint for another layup with 3:30 left in the half.
As that shot came through the net, the Albany bench was whistled for a technical foul, and Achter hit both of the resulting free throws, giving BGSU a 24-12 lead.
A minute later, Honegger took a pass from sophomore Lindsey Goldsberry and knocked down a three-ball from the left wing. Then, with 90 seconds left before halftime, a pass to Achter in the left corner was off the mark, but the junior was able to save the ball from going out of bounds, then fire an off-balance pass to Honegger under the basket. Honegger, in one motion, caught the ball and banked the ball off the glass and in as the whistle sounded for an Albany foul. The Falcon senior hit the free throw to produce the 30-14 lead that the Brown and Orange would take into the lockerroom.
Honegger still had the hot hand as the second half began. Forty seconds into the half, she took a Horne pass and hit another trey from the left elbow. Then, after a Falcon steal, Achter found a trailing Honegger for yet another triple, and the lead was 37-16.
Near the 16-minute mark, Mann hit a pair of free throws, and Flynn stole the ball at midcourt and raced ahead of the pack for a layup. On Albany's next posession, soph Jasmine McCall came up with a steal and was fouled on her breakaway.
McCall hit her first toss and missed the second, but Mann stole the ball out of the hands of an Albany player and laid it in for a 46-18 lead.
BGSU kept up the pressure, and when Honegger slipped past the defense and junior Whitney Taylor found her for a layup 'and one,' the Falcons led by over 30 points, 53-22. But, BG was far from finished.
Freshman Sarah Clapper hit a three-pointer with 8:30 left, capping a 13-1 run, and the Falcons had a 61-23 advantage. Flynn scored BG's next five points, and the Falcons' margin grew as high as 39 points before ending the night at 36.
QUOTING COACH MILLER
"Certainly, the score is not an indication of how we played tonight. Your goal throughout the season is to keep getting better and better, and I don't think we were as good a basketball team tonight as we were Monday night in South Bend. That concerns me."
"Despite the low point total (against the Falcons), the most glaring thing to me was the way that our defense struggled tonight. Teams continue to exploit some of our flaws, and we need to work very hard on the practice court to get better defensively. As we meet some of the higher-echelon teams we will meet this year, we can't afford to have lapses like we did tonight, or we are going to be exploited."
"I was pleased with the effort and the energy coming out of halftime. It just needs to be there for 40 minutes. No matter who the opponent is, our energy has to be there for 40 minutes. Our energy was very good out of the lockerroom. If there was any doubt at halftime, we certainly played well enough during that stretch to put the game in hand and remove all doubt."
"Going into this game, we thought we could hurt them inside, so it is not a surprise that we were led in scoring by our three senior post players. Overall, though, our energy and intensity need to be better if we want to win tomorrow night."
NOTES
* The game marked the first-ever series meeting between the Falcons and Albany.
* The Falcons have now won 36 of the last 41 games ... BGSU is a perfect 5-0 in games after a loss during that time.
* In the history of the program, BGSU now has an overall record of 6-3 in games played in the state of Florida ... the Falcons now are 3-1 all-time in games in Orlando ... in the UCF Turkey Shootout in November of 1998, BG picked up wins over Butler and Buffalo, but lost to Syracuse in the second game of that tourney ... that SU team featured an assistant coach named Curt Miller.
* The Falcons have held three of the last five opponents to 40 points or less, dating to last season ... BG limited Kent State to 39 points in last year's MAC Tournament championship game, and held Detroit to only 37 points in the 2006-07 season opener a week ago (Nov. 10).
* BGSU has had at least one run of 10 points or more in each of this season's first three games ... the Falcons reeled off 16-straight points at UDM, and had first-half runs of 10-0 and 11-0 at Notre Dame on Monday (Nov. 13) ... vs. Albany, the Falcons had a 10-0 run in the first half.
* Freshman Sarah Clapper had five points, the most of her young career, in the Albany game ... that total included her first successful three-pointer as a Falcon ... another freshman, Laura Bugher, scored the first point of her career with a second-half free throw.
* Senior Liz Honegger was 3-for-4 from three-point range vs. the Great Danes ... Honegger now has a career total of 160 treys made, and has moved into a tie for fourth place with Angie Farmer (1997-2001) on the BGSU list ... Honegger is now just 13 shy of matching the school's career record-holder, Sara Puthoff (173 from 1994-98).
* Honegger's 15 points in the Albany game upped her career total to 1,215 ... she has moved past Jacki Raterman (1,213 from 1995-99) on that BGSU career list, and now ranks 13th in school history.
* Saturday's game will be the Falcons' first-ever contest against Fairleigh Dickinson ... entering Friday's action, BGSU had never met any of the other three teams in the UCF Tournament field.
