Bowling Green State University
NORTHERN ILLINOIS
Falcons Hold Off Northern Illinois for 10th Consecutive Win, 66-58
February 08, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 8, 2006
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - It may not have been the prettiest win of the season.
But, it was a win, and the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team will take it, thank you.
The Falcons held off a spirited Northern Illinois University club for a 66-58 win over the Huskies Wednesday night (Feb. 8). The Mid-American Conference game was held at venerable Anderson Arena.
The win, the Falcons' 10th in a row, improved the team's records to 19-2 overall and 10-0 in MAC play. Northern dropped to 9-12 and 5-5, respectively.
Junior Liz Honegger had a game-high 18 points for the Falcons, while classmate Ali Mann and sophomore Kate Achter added 12 apiece.
Mary Basic had 15 points to pace three double-digit scorers for the Huskies.
Neither team ever led by more than six points in the game's first 36-plus minutes. Out of the game's final media timeout, however, Honegger took an Achter pass and drilled a line-drive three-pointer from the right elbow, giving the Falcons a 62-53 lead with 3:17 on the clock.
The Huskies responded, however, as Basic hit a trey at the 2:52 mark to cut the lead back to six points. The teams traded misses, before Kristin Wiener drew Honegger's fifth foul of the night with 1:36 left. Wiener hit two free throws to bring the visitors within four, 62-58.
The Huskies then forced the Falcons to throw the ball away, but, after an NIU missed shot and offensive rebound, Basic was called for an offensive foul with 45.3 seconds left.
Achter was fouled and went to the line with 30.2 seconds remaining, splitting a pair of free throws for a five-point lead. Stephanie Raymond fell as she tried to drive the lane, with the ball going to BG senior Casey McDowell. McDowell got the ball to Achter, who again was fouled and again split her charity tosses with 18.1 seconds left.
After a Northern timeout, the Huskies struggled to get a good shot, and a three-point try was off the mark and grabbed by Achter in the waning seconds. The Falcon sophomore was fouled again, with nine-tenths of a second left in the game, and hit both free throws to close the scoring.
The first half of the game saw both teams struggle to make shots, as the game was scoreless for nearly two minutes, and the Falcons led by just a 4-2 count four minutes in. The first 12 minutes featured five ties and five lead changes, with the sixth lead change of the night coming on Achter's jumper at the 7:52 mark, putting BG up by a 15-14 count.
Neither team had led by more than three points to that juncture, but the Falcons then would go on a mini-run. Achter rebounded a teammate's miss and hit a layup for a 17-14 lead, and after a pair of Raymond free throws, Honegger grabbed a rebound and converted a putback of her own at the 5:26 mark.
Less than 30 seconds later, McDowell spotted junior Amber Flynn on the left side of the basket, and Flynn's soft shot swished home for a 21-16 BG lead.
After a Huskie timeout, the visitors scored four-straight points to cut the lead to one, before another Flynn layup off a Jasmine McCall assist gave the Brown and Orange a 23-20 lead at the 3:21 media timeout.
The lead fluctuated between one and three points for the final 4:25 of the half, with the final basket producing the biggest roar from the crowd to that point. On BG's last possession of the half, McCall drove downcourt, and Honegger set a pick at the center line that knocked Basic to the ground. McCall sailed in for a layup just seconds before the horn, giving BG a 27-24 lead at the intermission.
In the second half, the Falcons scored five of the first seven points to open up a 32-26 lead. Mann took a pass from junior Carin Horne and hit a midrange jumper. Basic converted a jumper at the other end, but Horne nailed a three-pointer for a six-point margin.
Minutes later, a Raymond triple cut BG's margin to three points, 34-31, but Honegger took a Horne pass and drilled a left-side trey to restore the six-point lead.
After a McDowell jumper at the 15:50 mark, BG's lead still was six, 39-33, but the Huskies would score the next four points to cut the margin back to just a bucket. Honegger made a free throw, however, then converted a layup to put BG ahead by five. But, the Huskies made the game's biggest run to take the lead.
Northern scored the next seven points, all from the hot hand of Whitney Lowe. First, Lowe got to the line and split a pair of free throws, at the 12:19 mark. Then, she hit three-pointers on back-to-back possessions, putting the visitors up, 44-42, with 11:11 remaining.
Flynn took a pass from McCall and hit a layup to tie the game at 44, and, after a Jessie Wilcox free throw gave NIU a brief one-point lead, Honegger scored five-straight points.
Following the Wilcox FT, the Falcons missed a shot, and McCall dove to the floor for the rebound, as BG called time. Out of that timeout, Honegger took a pass from McDowell and hit a trey to give the hosts the lead for good, 47-45, at the 9:53 mark.
Less than a minute later, Achter's inbounds pass found Honegger wide open under the basket for a layup. After a pair of free throws by Basic, Mann found Flynn inside for another BG layup.
Wilcox got back to the line and sank a pair, but Mann took a McCall pass and scored while drawing a foul. She completed the three-point play for a 54-49 Falcon lead at the 7:33 mark.
With Achter and Horne on the bench with four fouls, Honegger was called for her third foul with 6:57 left in the game. Wilcox made two more free throws, but McCall again found Mann for her second three-point opportunity in a 49-second span. After the basket, foul and free throw, BG was up by six, 57-51, with 6:44 remaining.
Wiener took a pass from Basic and hit a layup, but Horne responded by slicing into the lane and hitting a jumper with 4:22 left. Honegger then hit her trey that put BG up by a 62-53 score at the 3:17 mark.
In addition to the contributions of the three double-digit scorers, the Falcons got nine points from Horne, while Flynn scored eight points in just 14 minutes off the bench. Flynn provided a spark, going 4-for-7 from the field and adding two steals. Horne had a game-best three steals.
McCall had five points, four rebounds and a season-high five assists. The freshman did not commit a turnover in her 14 minutes of action.
The Falcons shot 42.9 percent from the field, connecting on 24 of the team's 56 shots from the floor on the night. The Falcons shot 53.8% (14-of-26) in the second half after making just a third of their shots (10-for-30) in the first 20 minutes.
NIU made just 15 field goals on the night, shooting 30.6% from the floor. The Huskies went just 6-for-25 (24.0%) in the first half.
For the visitors, Wiener and Lowe joined Basic in double digits. Wiener scored 12 points, and had a double-double, pulling down a game-high 10 rebounds. Lowe's 11 points included two of the Huskies' four three-pointers. Both teams were 4-of-16 from beyond the arc on the night, combining to go 8-for-17 in the second half after an 0-for-15 aggregate long-range performance in the first.
Northern made 24-of-26 shots from the free-throw line (92.3%), while the Falcons were 14-of-18 (77.8%) from the stripe.
BGSU concludes regular-season play against the MAC's West Division, heading to Indiana for Saturday's (Feb. 11) game at Ball State.
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