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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
BUFFALO
Falcons Run Past the Bulls, 75-42
January 06, 2007 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 6, 2007
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team started fast and finished strong, leading from wire to wire in a 75-42 victory over the University at Buffalo Saturday afternoon (Jan. 6). The Mid-American Conference game was held at Anderson Arena.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 12-2 on the season and 2-0 in MAC play. BGSU's victory was its 27th in a row against MAC opposition, tying the school and league records. The Bulls drop to 5-9 and 0-2, respectively.
Senior Ali Mann scored a game-high 24 points, including 18 in the first half. Mann singlehandedly outscored the Bulls in the first 20 minutes, as the Falcons held a 38-15 lead at the intermission.
Senior Megan Thorburn had a season-best 21 points, including a game-high four three-point field goals. Seniors Liz Honegger and Amber Flynn rounded out the Falcons' double-digit scorers with 10 points apiece.
The Bulls got 11 points from both Heather Turner and Belinda Gibb.
The Falcons scored the first seven points of the afternoon, with Honegger accounting for six of those on a pair of three-pointers. She took a Mann pass and drained a trey in the first minute of the game, then hit another triple after a feed from junior Kate Achter, and BG led by a 7-0 count at the 18:15 mark.
The Bulls battled the Falcons basket for basket over the next few minutes, and the teams went to the first media timeout of the day with BG leading, 13-6. Soon after that timeout, Turner's jumper in the lane cut the Falcons' lead to 13-8, but BG was about to break the game wide open.
After that Turner shot, at the 14:12 mark, the Falcons proceeded to score 19 unanswered points. UB would go nearly nine minutes (8:55) without a point, and the Bulls would not make another field goal for 11:32. By that time, the game's outcome had been decided.
The 19-0 run began innocently enough, as Achter drove and hit a jumper in the paint. Then, the junior drove the lane again, this time dishing to Thorburn for a left-side three-ball, and the lead was 18-8. The Falcons' run was just beginning, however.
After Thorburn's triple, the Falcons forced UB to turn the ball over on no fewer than six consecutive possessions. Meanwhile, BG's offensive onslaught continued. Honegger hit a layup off Achter's entry pass, and Flynn was fouled inside and made both free throws for a 22-8 lead.
Flynn faked a shot at the arc and made the 'extra pass' to Mann for a wide-open three-point try. Mann buried the shot, and BG's lead was 25-8. The Falcons' defense then forced a shot-clock violation, part of those six-straight UB turnovers.
Achter threw the ball inside to Mann, who worked her defender into the block and hit a turnaround layup. Then, Lindsey Goldsberry's right-side entry pass found Honegger, who hit a tough turnaround jumper with a defender in her face. BG's lead was 29-8 at the 6:51 mark.
The home team capped the epic run with Honegger throwing the ball inside to Mann for an and-one layup. Mann hit the free throw to give the Brown and Orange a 32-8 advantage.
Finally, Gibb drew a BG foul and hit the first of her two free-throw tries to break the Bulls' scoring drought at the 5:17 mark. Several minutes later, Gibb converted a layup for the visitors' first hoop in eleven-and-a-half minutes, but the Bulls still trailed by 20, 33-13.
Mann scored the game's next five points. She hit a right-side runner, and Achter then came up with a steal and fired a pass to Mann for a left-elbow triple with 1:46 left before halftime. A Turner layup cut the Falcons' halftime lead to 38-15.
As mentioned, Mann singlehandedly outscored the Bulls in the opening half, 18-15. She hit seven field goals to UB's team total of six in the first 20 minutes.
UB scored five of the first seven points in the second half, cutting the lead to 40-20. But, the Falcons removed any remaining doubt with a 13-0 run, this time holding the Bulls off the scoreboard for 4:22. Thorburn keyed this BG run with back-to-back three-point daggers. The senior took passes from Achter on two consecutive possessions, found herself wide open, and buried her triple tries, with the second giving the Falcons a 47-20 lead.
Mann scored on yet another layup, and Achter grabbed a long defensive rebound and raced the length of the court ahead of the pack for a layup of her own. When Mann hit yet another shot in the paint, BG's lead was 53-20.
After a jumper by UB's Stephanie Bennett, Thorburn knocked down a pair of free throws, then capped off a crowd-pleasing play. Goldsberry made a diving effort to come up with a steal near midcourt, then fired a pass which resulted in Thorburn's hitting a transition layup while drawing a UB foul. The ensuing free throw gave the hosts a 58-22 lead with 13:57 on the clock.
Thorburn's final three-pointer of the day came with 8:30 left, off an Achter inbounds pass after a BG timeout. The straightaway three gave the Falcons a 62-33 advantage. Flynn converted a three-point play several minutes later, taking a pass from freshman Sarah Clapper and hitting a baby hook shot while drawing a foul.
Goldsberry knocked down a three-pointer at the 4:49 mark, and Flynn would hit several more shots before game's end. Her back-to-back layups capped a 6-0 BG run that made the score 75-40, before the Bulls closed the scoring with just 13 seconds left in the game.
The Falcons shot 51.0 percent from the field, including a 54.5% effort (12-of-22) in the second half. BG held the visitors to just a 31.9% success rate.
Buffalo committed 26 turnovers against the stifling BG defense, and the Falcons enjoyed a 30-11 advantage in points off turnovers. The Brown and Orange had a 23-2 edge in fast-break points.
In addition to Thorburn's season-high 21 points, she also had a season-high rebounding total, leading the Falcons with seven boards. Honegger had six rebounds on the day.
Achter scored six points and had eight assists and three steals. Goldsberry, in just 18 minutes of action, had three assists and a BG-high four steals.
For the Bulls, Turner was a perfect 5-for-5 from the field, while Jamie Schiebner grabbed eight rebounds and made four steals to lead the team in both categories. UB held a 33-30 rebounding advantage on the day.
Turner's teammates combined to go 10-of-42 from the field. UB made just one three-pointer in 12 attempts, while the Falcons were 9-of-24 from beyond the arc.
The Falcons will conclude a two-game homestand Wednesday (Jan. 10), hosting Kent State University in a rematch of the last two MAC Tournament championship games.
NOTES
* The Falcons posted their 27th win in a row against MAC competition, tying the school and conference records ... BG's last loss against a league foe came on Feb. 19, 2005, a 57-52 setback at Eastern Michigan ... the Falcons then won three games to close the regular season, and went 3-0 in the 2005 Kraft MAC Tournament to win the title ... the 2005-06 edition of the Brown and Orange reeled off 16 consecutive victories in conference play, and captured three more wins vs. league foes in the MAC Tournament, before opening this conference campaign with a pair of wins.
* The Falcons tied the record set by Fran Voll's BG teams of the late 1980s ... those clubs won 27-straight games from Feb. 18, 1988 to Jan. 3, 1990 ... of the six such streaks over 20 games in league history, four have been compiled by Bowling Green.
CONSECUTIVE WINS VS. MAC OPPONENTS
(Includes both regular-season and MAC Tournament games)
27 - Bowling Green (2/23/05 to present)
27 - Bowling Green (2/13/88 to 1/3/90)
26 - Central Michigan (3/11/83 to 1/12/85) *
24 - Kent State (12/3/97 to 1/6/99)
22 - Bowling Green (12/13/86 to 1/16/88)
20 - Bowling Green (1/8/93 to 3/12/93)
* streak snapped by BGSU, 58-41, on 1/15/85
The Falcons have now won 24 consecutive games at Anderson Arena ... that streak is the second-longest active home winning streak in the nation, trailing only LSU's 38-game streak ... LSU hosts Georgia on Sunday (Jan. 7).
* BGSU has now shot 50.0% percent or better in six of this season's 14 games, topping the total (four) for all of last season ... the Falcons are now a perfect 20-0 in such games in the Curt Miller Era.
* Seniors Ali Mann (24) and Megan Thorburn (21) gave the Falcons two 20-point scorers in the same game for the second time this season ... Mann and junior Kate Achter each had 23 points in BG's win over Temple in the home opener (Nov. 24, 2006).
* Mann has become just the fourth player in school history to top the 1,500-point mark for her career ... she joins Jackie Motycka (2,122 points), Sara Puthoff (1,678) and Francine Miller (1,574) on that exclusive list.
* Achter's eight-assist game on Saturday moved her into sixth place on that BGSU career list ... she now has 348 career assists, one more than Cathy Koch (347 from 1988-92).
* The Falcons have allowed just 37.0 points per game in the two MAC contests, Wednesday's 61-32 win at Akron and Saturday's triumph over UB.
* In those two wins, the Falcons have allowed the opponents to make a total of just 27 field goals in the 80 minutes of play ... meanwhile, BG made 26 baskets in Saturday's game alone.
* All 12 of BGSU's wins have been by double-digit margins, with six by over 30 points.
* As a team, the Falcons have shot 51.1 percent from the field in the six games (all wins) at Anderson Arena this season ... senior Amber Flynn is shooting an eye-popping 70.6% (24-for-34) while Achter is shooting 68.8% (22-for-32) at Anderson ... Mann and Honegger have shot 55.6% and 54.3%, respectively, in the six home contests to date.
* Saturday's win marked the 280th MAC regular-season victory in the history of the BGSU program, the most of any conference institutions.
* BGSU now has an overall record of 84-23 since the current senior class arrived on campus, and the Falcons are 42-8 in MAC regular-season contests during that time ... BG has won 46 of the last 52 games.
* The Falcons are now 18-8 in MAC home openers through the years.
