Bowling Green State University
St. Bonaventure
BGSU Beats Bonnies, 77-59, for Seventh Consecutive Win
December 14, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 14, 2008
Final Stats | BGSU-SBU Boxscore in PDF Format 
BGSU-SBU Gallery (photos by Bianca Garza) 
Coach Miller Post-Game Audio
Prochaska Post-Game Audio
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team put together double-digit scoring runs in each half en route to a 77-59 win over Saint Bonaventure University. The non-conference game was held at BGSU's venerable Anderson Arena.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 7-2 on the season, and BG has won seven consecutive games. The Bonnies drop to 6-2.
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska and junior Niki McCoy combined for 43 points, with Prochaska scoring a game-high 24 and McCoy pouring in 19. Dana Mitchell led the Bonnies with 12 points on the afternoon, with Katelyn Murray adding 10.
Trailing, 13-12, with just under 12 minutes left in the opening half, the Brown and Orange went on a 13-0 run to take the lead for good. McCoy began that run with a three-point field goal, and she and Prochaska combined for nine of the 13 points in that run. Soph Tracy Pontius capped that run with a three-pointer of her own, giving the home team a 25-13 lead with 9:02 left in the half.
Included in that run was a four-point play by Prochaska, who hit a triple from the right elbow while being knocked to the floor. The ball found nothing but net, as did the ensuing free throw at the 10:27 mark.
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Included in that torrid shooting stretch were four successful three-pointers in five long-range tries. Three of those triples -- by McCoy, Prochaska and Pontius -- came during that 13-0 run.
Prochaska's triple, of course, was part of the aforementioned four-point play. After that sequence, the Falcons forced the Bonnies into a shot-clock violation, and Pontius drove and dished to McCoy for a layup. Then, after an SBU miss, Pontius hit the triple that gave the Falcons a 12-point advantage.
Mitchell's layup stopped that run at the 8:47 mark, but the Falcons came right back, with McCoy spotting sophomore Chelsea Albert for a layup. The visitors went on a 6-0 run, cutting BG's lead in half, but junior Tara Breske, triple-teamed under the hoop, fired a pass to Prochaska in the left corner, in front of the Falcon band. The soph's triple try was true, and BG had a 30-21 lead.
With just under three minutes left in the half, senior Lindsey Goldsberry's entry pass to Prochaska resulted in a layup, a three-point play and a double-digit lead once again, at 35-25.
Prochaska would stray back outside the arc to hit another three-pointer -- her fourth of the half -- in the final minute, and McCoy's driving layup with just two seconds left gave the Brown and Orange a 40-28 lead at the break. Prochaska had 18 points in the first half.
In the second half, the visitors scored the first five points, getting within seven after a trey by Priscilla Edwards. McCoy hit a layup at the 17:59 mark, then converted another driving layup while being fouled just 30 seconds later. She hit the charity toss for a 10-point BG lead, 45-35.
Again, however, the Bonnies bounced back. Five-straight points, including another Edwards triple, cut the lead in half, before the Falcons pulled away with a second-half surge.
Prochaska got to the line and knocked down both of her shots, and Pontius hit a three-pointer off a Breske kickout. The lead was 50-40. Jessica Jenkins scored on a layup, but a steal and layup by Breske at the 13:26 mark prompted a timeout by the visitors.
Murray got the Bonnies within seven, hitting a three-pointer with 12:40 left in the game, but the visitors then would go nearly five minutes without scoring. A Prochaska layup began a 17-0 run that put the game away.
Freshman Jessica Slagle hit layups on back-to-back BG possessions, and Goldsberry hit a free throw. McCoy scored four-straight points, and Goldsberry got back to the line to knock down two more shots. When Goldsberry hit a layup with 8:31 on the clock, the lead was 22 points and the Bonnies wanted another timeout.
The run was not finished, however, as Prochaska stole the ball from Murray, and the soph culminated the next possession by hitting a jumper for a 69-45 Falcon lead with under eight minutes on the clock.
The Bonnies scored seven-straight points to cut the lead to 15 with just over a minute left, but would get no closer. BG scored the last three points of the afternoon, as Slagle found sophomore Kelly Zuercher for a layup, before hitting a free throw with 18 seconds left for the final margin.
On the afternoon, the Falcons shot an even 50.0 percent from the field. BG shot 53.6% in the opening half, and the Brown and Orange went 12-for-18 (66.7%) from the floor after that 3-for-10 start to the half.
The Bonnies shot 45.7% for the game, including only 39.1% in the second period. The Falcons hit eight three pointers to the visitors' five on the afternoon. Prochaska had four triples and Pontius three for the hosts.
The Falcons had 11 turnovers for the game, including only three in the second half. By contrast, the BG defense forced St. Bonaventure into 11 turnovers in each half, for a total of 22.
Goldsberry and Pontius scored nine points apiece for the home game, with Pontius dishing out four assists to tie for game honors. Breske, the Falcons' starting center, also had four assists, with Goldsberry adding three. McCoy had three of the Falcons' five blocked shots.
Megan Van Tatenhove added nine points for the visitors, while Edwards had eight.
The Falcons return to action on Sunday, Dec. 21, hosting Hartford in a 2:00 p.m. start at Anderson.
NOTES
* The Falcons, as mentioned, have won seven games in a row after starting the season with two losses.
* BGSU now leads the all-time series with St. Bonaventure by a 4-1 count, and the Falcons have won three-straight series meetings with the Bonnies.
* BG has yet to play a game decided by single digits this season.
* St. Bonaventure had entered the game with a 6-1 record ... the Bonnies' most recent game had been an 11-point victory over then-nationally ranked Michigan State.
* Junior post player Tara Breske had a career-high four assists in Sunday's win ... Breske had had three assists on three prior occasions, the most recent being last March 1 against Buffalo.
* Sophomore Tracy Pontius was 3-of-6 from three-point land vs. SBU ... Pontius has made 11 triples over the last three games, shooting 57.9% (11-of-19) during that time.
* Soph Lauren Prochaska had a game-high four triples in six long-range attempts on Sunday ... Prochaska had a team-leading 26 three-pointers this year, and has hit at least two in every game.
* Another sophomore, Kelly Zuercher, has 20 points over the last four games, after scoring a total of 13 during all of last season ... this year, Zuercher has gone 8-for-11 from the floor (72.7%).
* BGSU had a season-low 11 turnovers vs. SBU, forcing the Bonnies into 22 ... no opponent has had fewer than 17 turnovers vs. the Falcons this year to date.
* The Falcons have made more free throws than the opponent in every game this season ... SBU's 12 FTM marked a season high for a Falcon foe.
* BGSU has made 146 FTs to the opponents' 79 ... in fact, the Falcons' total of free throws made is more than the opponents have attempted (119).
