Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Delaware
Breske, Falcons Wrap-Up Pre-Christmas Win
December 21, 2007 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 21, 2007
BGSU Post-Game Quotes |
Final Stats
NEWARK, Del. - Sophomore Tara Breske continued her dominance near the Mason-Dixon Line, scoring a career-high 21 points as the Falcons delivered an early Christmas present to the Bowling Green State University coaching staff - their second straight road win. BGSU (8-2) beat the Fightin' Blue Hens of the University of Delaware (1-9), 64-54, inside the Bob Carpenter of the Frank Acierno Arena on Friday (Dec. 21) evening.
Breske also recorded seven rebounds on the defensive end while Lauren Prochaska chipped in 15 points and a matching seven boards. Lindsey Goldsberry was the third Falcon to cross into the double-digits with her 11 points and went on to account for a team-high four steals. Point guard Kate Achter may have scored just five points, but she still had a productive outing finding her teammates en route to turning in a 10 assist night.
Corinthia Benison and Kyle DeHaven led the hosts with 16 and 12 points, respectively. Benison and Ariene Jenkins also paced the Hens with six rebounds.
Tonight's win marked the first time this season in which the Falcons produced more turnovers than their opponents, 19-18.
Freshman starter Crystal Murdaugh scored the first points of the contest with a jumper in the paint while fellow post Tara Breske helped the Falcons stop the vertically gifted UD post game with her seventh block of the season on the following trip down the court.
After sinking a foul shot at 17:11, Murdaugh scored her fifth point of the night to give BG a two point lead, 5-3 on the Hens, but it was DeHaven's off balance fade-away that tied the score at 5-5 at the 16:42 mark.
After being fouled by Jenkins, Breske made a pair of FT's straight out of the media timeout and Goldsberry's three gave the Falcons their largest of the game at that point, 12-7. Prochaska also put in a pair of free throws as the Falcons doubled the Hens, 14-7.
As a result of UD's missed fast break lay-up, Breske turned her rebound into an assist finding Achter at the mid-court line. The senior's lay-in capped a 9-0 run on the hosts and led to a Delaware thirty-second time out for a much needed re-grouping.
To that point UD had six one-and-outs on 11 possessions.
The Fightin' Blue Hens lived up to their name as Jamie Mundy and her teammates continued to fight their struggles shooting the ball. Mundy hit a two-ball just to the slight right of the top of paint to cut the lead to 18-11 at 10:56, but the Hens continued to struggle to find their spark when facing their own basket. In the first half, they would finish hitting just eight field goals (8-25 - 32%) and was only 16-46 (34.8%) the entire night.
At the 5:41 mark, Ethlynne Thomas sunk two free throws to cut the BGSU lead to four, 18-22, for the second time in two minutes. Inspired by the play at the offensive end of the court, Thomas stole a BG pass and before they could blink, BG's once nine point lead had diminished to two. It was only the third time UD had scored on back-to-back possessions.
Soon after, Breske was fouled at the height of her jumper with a slap on the wrist as Eva Riddick looked to pick-up a block of her own, but was instead given the foul. Breske, much like in the closing seconds of the Mount. St. Mary's game, nailed both from the line. She later laid in a soft touch lay-up to give BG a six point lead, 26-20.
At 3:46, Mundy hit the only UD three of the night to make the board read 26-23. The Hens were good for a low 1-7 (14.3%) from the longer ranges.
Prochaska then nearly answered with a three own her own as it teased the Falcons rolling around the rim and eventually into Murdaugh's seemingly bionic arm. The forward was engulfed by white jerseys but still managed to take control of the rebound and net another field goal in traffic.
Breske and Murdaugh went on to account for 17 of the Orange and Brown's 32 points of the half. Including Chelsea Albert's and Jennifer Uhl's combined three points, the Falcon forwards were responsible for 20 first half points.
BGSU's 32-23 (+9) lead marked the eighth time this season in which they had scored 30-plus points in the first 20:00. The Hens' 23 points was the second least total the BG defense allowed this season; the lowest was 21 at Lipscomb. With the win, BGSU has sat even or ahead of every opponent that they beat this season.
As the second half opened, Bowling Green found itself in foul trouble ... quickly.
Bowling Green opened the half with consecutive missed three's while Delaware used the number three for their own purposes; drawing a trio of BG fouls in the first two minutes of the half.
UD's Tesia Harris then drew the fourth Falcon foul of the opening minutes after making a crucial bucket. She went on to also make the following foul shot.
BG continued to be plagued by the foul trouble and Murdaugh, who made an impact on the on the hoop and in under it in the first half, now was forced to play cautiously with three fouls.
The Falcons then fouled again making Benison's field goal worth three, instead of two.
Before the Orange and Brown knew what had happed, Delaware had produced a 10-0 run, was in the bonus and the visitors had been called for their fair share of fouls.
Down, but by no means out, Achter rallied the Falcons and found Uhl under the basket. Uhl's turnaround lay-up and her made FT, helped the Falcons eclipse yet another lead, 37-34 at 15:47. The Falcons six-point margin was their best of the half since starting at nine points ahead.
By 15:15 the Falcons matched their first half foul total of eight infractions, and although UD was charged with just four, it seemed as if the winner of this game would need to sink their foul shots if they hoped to do the same to their opponent. By game's end, Bowling Green out shot Delaware, 78.9-percent to 70.0-percent from the free throw line.
Continuing on her career-night, Breske hit a three to give BG a six point lead, but Vanessa Kabongo answered with a jumper of her own at 14:12, 42-38.
Goldsberry took over the match at the 13:44 recording yet another steal and one possession later was given chance to make a play worth four points due to an overly aggressive box out outside of the arc - for those keeping track she did complete seldom seen the four-point play.
Following Goldsberry's performance, Prochaska followed with her own three from the same range, but UD continued to chip away at the lead with their own field goals. BG was in the midst of a Wild West type shoot out and remained ahead between seven and nine points between 12:14 and 9:11.
Making the fight that much harder, BG was not only trying to shutdown the Delaware offense, but they were also playing with the double-bonus at their back with almost an entire 10 minutes yet to be determined. By the aforementioned 9:11 mark, UD had caught up and both teams were getting to shoot two free throws on every foul.
Thanks to Breske's perfect night at the line, BGSU raised the bar back to double figures, 54-44, and the visitors did not look back.
With under four minutes the Falcons starting core had three players with four fouls, one with three and Achter with four to give yet they were playing as if they each had clean slates. The foul trouble did not stop the Falcons from going at the Hens and at the height of their final run, Bowling Green was up by as many as 16 points with 2:32 ticks on the clock, 64-48.
Although the Hens made the opening 10-point run at BG, their largest lead of the game was just a field goal in the first half.
In the miscellaneous stats, Delaware's bench outscored the Falcons 13-3. The East Coast squad also held a lead on the Falcons in the points off turnover category, 23-17. Fast break points (6-0) was the only place in which the Falcons outshined the Hens in the sundry portion of the box score.
As the weekend closes, Breske's numbers are very impressive to say the least ... In the past two games, she led the Falcons averaging 16.5 ppg. The sophomore was 11-20 from the floor (.550) and 10-14 from the stripe (.714) including tonight's perfect 6-6 against Delaware. Breske also grabbed a team-high 18 total boards and was one of two players to pull in 12 defensive boards. Even more impressive, she had just two turnovers while also contributing two blocks and two assists. Amazingly enough, her 33 total points this weekend tied her season total from last season.
The Falcons will take four days to spend time with their families for the Christmas holiday and will return to campus on Dec. 26 for a practice before traveling to Ames, Iowa for the University of Iowa Cyclone Shootout. The shootout, a three day tournament, will pit the Orange and Brown against host Iowa State (Dec. 28), Hampton (Dec. 29) and the University of Tennessee-Martin (Dec. 30).
##BGSU WOMEN'S BASKETBALL##
