Bowling Green State University
Kent State
Miller Ties Voll In Career Wins As Falcons Roll, 76-68, Over Visiting Kent State
February 20, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 20, 2008
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Miller (BGSU) post-game audio | Achter, Uhl & Goldsberry (BGSU) post-game audio | Bob Lindsay (Kent State) post- game audio
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Head coach Curt Miller tied legendary Falcon coach Fran Voll, earning his 144th career win on Wednesday night as the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team earned a 76-68 victory over the visiting Kent State Golden Flashes. The Wednesday night Mid-American Conference tilt was held at BG's Anderson Arena.
With the victory, the Falcons improved 20-6 overall and 9-3 in the MAC, dropping the Golden Flashes to 7-17 and 4-8, respectively. Win no. 20 signifies the fifth consecutive season under Miller in which the Falcons have won as many, or more, games. The staff is the only one in the program's history to repeat the accomplishment in more than four uninterrupted seasons.
The Falcons were led on the evening by a career-high 22-point effort from freshman reserve forward Jennifer Uhl. From the bench she has averaged 14.0 ppg in the past five Falcon wins and has scored 13 or more point in the last four; tonight marked the first time in which she has surpassed 20 points. Fellow freshman Lauren Prochaska chipped in yet another double-figure scoring night (the 24th of her career) contributing 14 points, teammate Tara Breske pitched in 11 points of her own.
Noteworthy nights were also seen by guards Kate Achter and Lindsey Goldsberry.
For Achter, her 16 points helped her to claim a place in Falcon women's basketball history as she has now scored 1,440 points with the Orange and Brown and ranks 6th on the all-time list. Achter has drained 354 points this season; her second best season with BGSU as five games loom in the regular season. She also dished 10 assists marking the second time this season in which she has scored in the double figures and has added at least 10 assists to the boxscore. Her 177 assists to date tie her record from last season and is the fourth best single season total by a Falcon.
Goldsberry had one of the most productive night's for BG as she nabbed a team high eight rebounds, scored 10 points, and added six assists all while picking up four steals. In the effort she tied both her career marks for rebounds and assists.
KSU was led on the night by freshman Chenel Harris who had 20 points and 10 rebounds. Asheley Harkins and Rachel Bennett were also good for 11 and 15 respective points. Each of the three saw 37 minutes of action.
In a contest under which BGSU never trailed, Bowling Green open the game with an early 7-0 run before the Golden Flashes would retaliate with a Bennett steal resulting in the first KSU points of the game at 17:16. Harkins would add another two before the first media timeout and the Golden Flashes threatened the Falcons 7-4 lead at 16:46.
The Falcons diversified their scoring as each of players on the court took their turn contributing points to a 16-7 run which lasted through 10:29 and helped the hosts lead by as many as 11 points (20-9) at 11:46 and 12 by it's finale, a three pointer swished by Goldsberry, 23-11.
The Golden Flashes, playing mainly seven players, procured a run of their own late in the half and managed to get within nine points on a Bennett trey. KSU then reached an even smaller seven point deficit, 27-20 on a Harris jumper with a solid 5:00 still in tact until intermission. It was the first time KSU had cut the lead under 10-points since the 10:46 mark.
In the closing minutes of the half, Achter took control of the game scoring six of the Orange and Brown's final nine points to take a 10 point lead into the locker room, 36-26. She would score 12 of her 16 points in the first half.
Bowling Green led KSU in every statistical category with 20-minutes of play exhausted. Not only were they outscoring Kent 18-4 in points off turnovers, but also BG was ahead in the points in the paint (14-12), second chance (2-0), fast break (4-2) and bench points (8-4). All eight of the BG reserve points were scored by Uhl. Bowling Green was also narrowly out rebounding Kent State 20-19 and had six less (13-7) turnovers.
A Stephanie Gibson three point field goal opened the second half at 19:41 and showed the Falcons the fight had yet to dim in the Golden Flashes.
Though Bowline Green, led by rookies Prochaska and Uhl, would sink seven points in the ensuing two minutes, the KSU defense would allow only one other shot, a missed three by Prochaska, before the first media timeout at 15:42. The Kent State offense on the other hand combined a pair of back-to-back three's by Harkins and Harris to lessen the BGSU lead to a handful of points, 42-37, at 15:56. Kent State had not closed the scoring gap this much since the 13:37 mark of the first half.
Bowling Green continued to retain the lead in the higher single digits through the 13:01 mark, but then the Golden Flashes made their move, picking apart the lead one point at a time. Beginning with a three by Harris to move the score to 52-46, Kent State went 4-of-4 from the free throw line and counted down the difference between the teams until a single field goal stood between the MAC East foes, 52-50, with 11:30 still reading on the scoreboard.
Kent State appeared to have put the Falcons on their heels, but an Achter lay-up at 10:39 made the match a two basket game and soon their after (9:27) Breske would make the tail end of a shooting free throw to launch the Falcons ahead five. Prochaska followed with a lay-up in transition to send BG ahead seven points, 57-50 at 9:06.
A five to eight point lead would plague the Golden Flashes until they once again sliced it to five thanks to a made Anna Kowalska free throw, 60-55 at 6:22. Coming up big again, Goldsberry sank her second three pointer of the night at 5:41 (63-55) and BG would ride an 8-0 run to comfortably lead KSU by a plus-13 margin with 4:12 yet to be decided, 68-55.
Continuing to battle, Kent State cut the lead under 10 point on three additional occasions before hitting their final shot of the night, a three pointer by Bennett that produced the final score of 76-68 in favor of the Orange and Brown.
The Falcons shot 44.8 percent from the floor for the game, while KSU shot just 39 percent. BG's bench out-scored the Flashes 25-7, while the Falcons also saw 27 points on the night off KSU's 21 turnovers.
BG will return to action on Saturday (Feb.23) when they head to Oxford, Ohio to take on fellow MAC East leader Miami. The opening tip is scheduled for 2 p.m.
*Falcon Notes*
*Feb. 28, 2007 - The last time BGSU had five players in double-digit scoring. Tonight every class was represented as senior Kate Achter (16), junior Lindsey Goldsberry (10), sophomore Tara Breske (10) and freshmen Lauren Prochaska (14) and Jennifer Uhl (22) notched 10 or more points.
*In the month of February Lauren Prochaska has missed just two free throws with both occurring against Eastern Michigan. She has made 22-of-24 shots from the stripe. Prior to tonight's two made free throws, Prochaska led the league with her 89.9 free throw percentage and was ranked sixth in the country.
*Head coach Curt Miller tied Fran Voll's record nearly three weeks before Voll's final win with the Falcons in 1991. On March 5, 1991 Voll led the Falcons past Eastern Michigan, 97-75, for his 144th win. Two days later he and the Orange and Brown were knocked out of the post-season league tournament by Central Michigan. Both coaches did, though, win game 144 in Anderson Arena. Voll finished his career at 144-60 between the 1984-85 season and 1990-91 season. He also posted an 89-27 record in the MAC. Miller's current tally reads 144-66 overall and 75-33 in the league. Miller joined the BGSU Athletic Department as the head women's basketball coach in 2001.
*Jennifer Uhl's 22 points are the most by a Bowling Green freshman this season; Prochaska has hit 20 on three occasions. The record for most points under Miller as a freshman is held by Carin Horne. On Jan. 7, 2004 she netted 34 points over the Ball State Cardinals.
*The next time the Falcons take to Anderson Arena, seniors Kate Achter and Whitney Taylor will be hosting a MAC team at home for the final time in their career with the Orange and Brown. To date the two have 102 wins under their belts and are one shy of tying the record set by last year's senior class - 103 wins over a four year span. If the Falcons can gut out two additional wins, Achter and Taylor will comprise the winningest class in MAC basketball (male or female) history.
##BGSU WOMEN'S BASKETBALL##
