Bowling Green State University
AKRON
Falcons Race Past Akron, 80-48
February 15, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 15, 2006
AKRON, Ohio - Playing as a ranked team for the first time in 12 years, the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team raced out to a 13-0 lead, and the Falcons were never headed in an 80-48 win at the University of Akron Wednesday night (Feb. 15). The Mid-American Conference game was held at UA's Rhodes Arena.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 21-2 overall and 12-0 in MAC play. BGSU is ranked #25 in the nation in the latest USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches poll. The host Zips dropped to 4-19 and 1-11, respectively.
The Falcons hit four three-point field goals in the game's first six minutes in taking that 13-0 lead. By contrast, UA had a total of only five field goals over the entire first half as BGSU built a 35-17 lead at the intermission.
The Falcons shot 61.5 percent from the field in the second half and an even 50.0% for the game. BGSU got a game-high 20 points from junior Carin Horne, while classmates Amber Flynn and Liz Honegger had 14 and 13 apiece. Flynn's point total set a career high, while Horne's 20-point effort was a season best.
A total of 11 players on the 12-woman BGSU roster saw at least 10 minutes of action, with 10 finding the scoresheet.
BGSU's bench scored half of the Falcons' points in the win, outscoring the UA bench by a 40-16 count. Flynn led the BG bench players, while senior Jill Lause had a season-high eight points and sophomore Whitney Taylor and freshman Lindsey Goldsberry added six apiece.
Niki McCoy led the Zips with 13 points. The Falcons forced UA into 27 turnovers, and BG had a 26-13 advantage in points off turnovers.
Both teams got off to a slow start, as each team went three possessions before the scoreless tie was broken. Honegger snapped the drought at the 18:21 mark, taking a kick-out from junior Ali Mann and hitting the first of the Falcons' 10 three-point field goals of the night. Then, after a Honegger steal, junior Megan Thorburn drained a left-side triple on a pass from sophomore Kate Achter.
A Mann free throw gave the Falcons a 7-0 lead, and Honegger fed Horne for a left-elbow trey at the 15:39 mark. Then, Honegger hit the visitors' fourth triple in just over four minutes, and BG's lead ballooned to 13-0 with 14:13 left in the opening half.
McCoy hit a free throw to get the Zips on the board with 6:19 elapsed, but Flynn hit a free throw, then converted a fast-break layup on a no-look bounce pass from senior Casey McDowell, giving the Brown and Orange a 16-1 lead and prompting an Akron timeout.
Flynn's layup, at the 11:29 mark, was the first two-point basket of the game.
After missing eight shots from the field and committing nine turnovers in the game's first eight-plus minutes, UA got its first field goal on a three-point play from Jessica Deville. But, the Falcons kept forcing the tempo.
Mann found Honegger inside for an easy layup, and McDowell fired a cross-court pass to Horne for a fast-break jumper. When Achter spotted Honegger ahead of the pack for another layup, the Falcons held a 26-9 lead with 6:25 left in the half, and the hosts burned another timeout.
BGSU took a 35-17 lead into the lockerroom, with three Falcons hitting double digits in scoring in that opening 20 minutes. Horne led the way with 11 first-half points, while Honegger and Flynn each had 10. Flynn had the Falcons' last seven points of the half.
Horne came out like a house afire in the second half, scoring BGSU's first seven points of that stanza. She grabbed a teammate's missed shot and converted a layup, hit another layup on the break, and drilled a left-side three-pointer from in front of the BG bench.
Horne would score nine of BGSU's first 10 second-half points, playing just four minutes in that half after picking up her third and fourth fouls. On the night, Horne had her 20 points in only 21 minutes of action.
Flynn scored four-straight points to give BGSU a 51-28 lead with 12 minutes left in the game. She put back a missed shot, then got an easy layup off a nifty entry pass from freshman Jasmine McCall.
Moments later, Lause hit a short-corner jumper, and Mann took a McCall inbounds pass and drained a three from the other side of the court. BG led, 56-30, with 10 minutes left in the game.
Lause hit a jumper and a pair of free throws in a 15-second span, and the lead was up to 28 points, 60-32.
For most of the game's last 12 minutes, the Falcons' lineup consisted of the team's three freshmen -- Goldsberry, McCall and Jessica McKenzie -- along with Lause and Taylor. Beginning with Lause's four-point stretch, the Brown and Orange outscored the Zips by a 24-16 count over the game's last 10 minutes.
Another Lause layup gave the Falcons a 64-36 lead with just under seven minutes left in the contest, and when McCall found Goldsberry for an open three-pointer, the lead was over 30 points for the first time.
McKenzie hit back-to-back layups, including a difficult shot in traffic after Lause's entry pass, and the lead was 71-37 with four-and-a-half minutes on the clock.
Goldsberry had a hand in the Falcons' last nine points, hitting a long-range shot at the three-minute mark, then finding an open Taylor for a pair of triples. Taylor's second trey closed the scoring with 37 seconds left.
Achter led the Falcons with five assists, while McCall added four. BGSU had 22 assists on the game's 28 baskets, with nine different players recording at least one helper.
Honegger had a game-best eight rebounds as the Falcons held a narrow 32-30 advantage in that category. Horne added five boards, while all four of Mann's rebounds came at the offensive end.
Honegger and Horne had three steals apiece as the visitors posted 15 as a team.
Flynn was a perfect 5-for-5 on the night, adding four rebounds of her own. Lause's night included four boards and a 3-for-4 field-goal rate.
BGSU returns home for the next two games, beginning with Saturday's (Feb. 18) contest vs. the University at Buffalo. Starting time for that game, the first half of a doubleheader at Anderson Arena, is 1:00 p.m.
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