Bowling Green State University
BUFFALO
Falcons Shut Down Buffalo, 75-52
January 21, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 21, 2009
Final Stats
| BGSU-Buffalo Boxscore in PDF Format 
Coach Miller Post-Game Audio
Breske Post-Game Audio
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team had a record night defensively, posting a 75-52 win over the University at Buffalo Wednesday evening (Jan. 21). The Mid-American Conference game was held at venerable Anderson Arena.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 16-2 overall and a perfect 5-0 in the MAC. BGSU completes the first round-robin swing through the MAC's East Division unscathed, with five wins against intra-divisional opposition. Overall, the Falcons have won 16-straight games after an 0-2 start to the season.
The Bulls drop to 4-14 and 0-5, respectively.
BGSU's defense held UB to a field-goal percentage of just 22.6% in the second half, and the Falcons had 20 steals -- tying the school record for a MAC game -- in the win.
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Breske had a well-rounded game, with a team-high seven rebounds in the win. She also had a career-high five steals, along with two assists and two blocked shots in a season-high 31 minutes.
For the Bulls, Kourtney Brown had 12 points, while Rachelle Matthys scored 11.
The Falcons never trailed in the game, but the Bulls were within just eight points, 37-29, at the half. After the teams traded early second-half runs, UB trailed by nine, but the Falcons then scored nine-straight points to put the lead into double digits for good.
McCoy scored five of the Falcons' first seven points as BGSU took a 7-2 lead, and had seven points less than four minutes into the game, when she hit a layup to give BGSU an 11-6 advantage. That was part of an early 8-0 run by the Brown and Orange, capped by a steal and layup from sophomore Tracy Pontius to put the Falcons ahead, 15-6. Pontius was one of the two Falcons to score nine points in the game, joining freshman Jessica Slagle, while senior Lindsey Goldsberry would score seven.
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The home team responded, as Goldsberry took a Slagle pass and knocked down a three-pointer of her own, but the Bulls got hoops from Jamie Schiebner and Jessica Fortman just 28 seconds apart to cut BG's lead to 18-17 midway through the half.
Out of the 9:02 media timeout, Prochaska hit two free throws, and Goldsberry's entry pass found Breske for a layup. Prochaska drained a three-pointer off a Pontius inbounds pass, and the Falcons had a 25-17 lead. Breske split a pair of free throws to complete an 8-0 run for the hosts. The junior got to the line after recording steals on back-to-back UB possessions.
The lead fluctuated between seven and 10 points for the next five minutes, but a Matthys trey was followed by a UB steal, leading to a Brittany Hedderson jumper, and the Bulls were within five points, 32-27, prompting another Falcon timeout with 1:33 left in the half.
Pontius returned to the game and hit a driving layup out of that timeout. Then, after a UB turnover, the Falcons spent much of the ensuing possession with the ball in the backcourt. Finally, Pontius headed upcourt, getting to the foul line before skipping a pass to Breske underneath the hoop. The junior co-captain's hesitation move got her defender, Brown, in the air, and the UB post was whistled for her third foul of the game as Breske's shot banked off the glass and through the hoop. Her free throw put BG ahead by 10 points, 37-27, with 40.3 seconds left in the half.
A Beth Christensen bucket cut BG's lead to eight points at the half.
Prochaska, Breske and McCoy combined for 28 of the Falcons' 37 first-half points, with Prochaska scoring 11 and Breske 10. Breske also had four steals, three rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot in that first half.
Goldsberry poked the ball away from Dayna Smith on the opening possession of the second half, and Prochaska hit a three-pointer to begin an 8-0 run for the home team. McCoy converted a three-point play, then hit another driving layup to cap that run before UB finally broke a scoring drought with Brown's two free throws at the 16:45 mark.
Those free throws, however, began a 7-0 run for the visitors, including a Schiebner three-point play and a layup from Brown. The Bulls were within single digits, at 45-36. But, BG answered with another run to build a relatively comfortable lead.
After Brown's layup, Goldsberry rebounded her own missed shot while drawing Brown's fourth foul of the game with 14:45 left. That possession resulted in a Prochaska jumper. After a Pontius three-point play just over a minute later, the Falcons had a 50-36 lead.
Sophomore Jen Uhl hit a pair of free throws, and Goldsberry stole the ball at midcourt, leading to a Pontius layup and a 54-36 lead.
Matthys answered with a three-pointer, but Uhl drove the baseline and kicked the ball to Slagle in front of the BG bench. Slagle's left-corner three-ball was true, and the Falcons had an 18-points advantage once again with 11:49 remaining.
That trey began a run in which Slagle scored seven-straight points to give the Falcons a 61-39 lead. The freshman split two free throws, then drove the lane for yet another BGSU three-point play.
The teams traded points before another 8-0 Falcon run removed all doubt about the outcome. After junior Sarah Clapper fed McCoy for a layup, Goldsberry picked Fortman's pocket and sailed in for another Falcon layup. Prochaska's steal just seconds later resulted in Breske's putback on the ensuing possession, and a Kelly Zuercher layup gave BG a 25-point lead, the largest of the game, with 2:51 left. UB scored six-straight points before freshman Maribeth Giese hit two free throws and Zuercher banked home a layup to close the scoring.
All 13 players on the BGSU active roster saw action for the second-straight game.
Pontius, in addition to her nine points, led the Falcons with five assists, and also had three steals. Goldsberry pulled down six rebounds and tied Breske for team honors with five steals of her own. Prochaska had three steals and Slagle two, with Clapper and sophomore Laura Bugher each recording one.
Hedderson had five assists and five steals to lead the Bulls in both categories, while Christensen had a game-high eight rebounds as UB held a 37-33 lead on the glass. Brown had seven boards, three steals and two blocks, while Fortman scored eight points and grabbed six rebounds.
BG was 20-of-23 from the free-throw line, while Buffalo made 11 tosses in 13 tries.
The Falcons now begin a six-game stretch against the MAC's West Division, beginning with a Saturday (Jan. 24) contest at Eastern Michigan University.
FALCON NOTES
* The Falcons, as mentioned, had 20 steals vs. Buffalo, tying the school record for a MAC game ... BG had 20 steals vs. Central Michigan on Jan. 10, 1996 ... the school mark for all games is 21, set against Texas Southern on Dec. 4, 1993, and tied vs. Youngstown State less than a month later (Jan. 3, 1994).
* BGSU made 20 free throws in 23 attempts Wednesday night, a percentage of 87.0% ... over the last three games, the Falcons are a combined 72-of-80 from the stripe, for a blistering 90.0% success rate ... on the year, BG is shooting 79.1% (337-426) from the free-throw line, and the Falcons are shooting 86.2% (106-123) in the five MAC games to date.
* The Falcons made more free throws than the opponent for the 17th time in this year's 18 games ... BGSU has made more free throws than the opposition has attempted in 14 of those 18 games, with those totals being equal in one other game.
* Wednesday's win enabled Falcon coach Curt Miller to move up on a pair of lists ... Miller now has 166 total wins at BGSU, tying him for sixth place in MAC history ... he is now deadlocked with Bill Fennelly on that list ... Fennelly, now at Iowa State, coached Toledo from 1989-95.
* Miller now has 84 wins in MAC regular-season play, tying him for ninth on that list ... he has matched the total amassed by former Ohio coach Marsha Reall.
* With a game-high 16 points in the win over UB, sophomore Lauren Prochaska now has 816 career points, in just 52 games ... junior Niki McCoy scored 14 points vs. the Bulls ... McCoy, in her first playing season at BGSU after transferring from Akron, now has a career total of 980 points in 72 games ... she scored 735 points in two years with the Zips before coming to BG and sitting out last season.
* The Falcons' win, combined with other results around the MAC on Wednesday, gave BGSU a two-game lead in the East Division race ... Ohio won at Miami on Wednesday afternoon, giving both the Bobcats and RedHawks 3-2 MAC records ... Kent State and Akron are both 2-3 in the MAC after UA's win over the Golden Flashes Wednesday night.
* BGSU is now the only undefeated team in conference play ... Northern Illinois defeated Ball State in DeKalb, giving both the Huskies and the Cardinals 4-1 conference records ... Toledo also has a 4-1 mark, after a win over Central Michigan.
* The Brown and Orange finished the first round of intra-divisional play with a perfect 5-0 record ... in the four years since the current MAC scheduling format was adopted (five intra-divisional games, six cross-divisional games and five more games within the division), the Falcons have started 5-0 three times ... the lone exception was last season, when BGSU won the first four games before losing to Miami at Anderson Arena ... that loss was the first of three in a row, but BG rebounded to win the final nine regular-season games.
