Bowling Green State University
NORTHERN ILLINOIS
Pontius, Falcons Work Overtime to Down NIU, 76-70
January 31, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 31, 2009
Final Stats
| BGSU-Northern Illinois Boxscore in PDF Format 
Coach Miller Post-Game Audio
DeKALB, Ill. (BGSUFalcons.com) - Sophomore Tracy Pontius scored a career-high 31 points, including 24 after halftime, as the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team picked up a 76-70 overtime win at Northern Illinois University Saturday afternoon (Jan. 31). The Mid-American Conference game was held at NIU's Convocation Center.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 18-2 on the season, and a perfect 7-0 in MAC action. BGSU has won 18 consecutive games since suffering back-to-back losses to open the season. The Huskies dropped to 10-10 and 5-2, respectively.
Sophomore Lauren Prochaska and senior Lindsey Goldsberry joined Pontius in double digits, with 13 and 11 points, respectively. Pontius hit five three-point field goals, while Prochaska and Goldsberry knocked down three apiece, as the Falcons were 12-of-23 from beyond the arc.
Jessie Wilcox had 19 points to pace four NIU players in double figures on the day.
The Falcons' other two starters, juniors Tara Breske and Niki McCoy, scored eight points apiece. Breske also had eight rebounds, just one behind Prochaska's team-leading total of nine.
McCoy had seven boards in the game, and with a three-pointer in the first half, went over the 1,000-point mark for her career. McCoy, a native of Sylvania, Ohio, McCoy is in her first playing season with the Falcons after transferring from Akron.
Pontius scored BGSU's last eight points of regulation, including a layup and a three-point field goal in the final minute of play. A native of Morton, Ill., she nearly gave the Falcons the win in regulation, but her last-second shot in the lane hit the back iron and bounced off.
That second half featured five ties and eight lead changes. Northern led by six points on three second-half occasions, the last coming on a Mauvolyene Adams jumper with just 2:43 left in the contest.
The Falcons missed a shot on the next possession, but Pontius picked Marke Freeman's pocket near midcourt, and was fouled by Freeman in the ensuing scramble, with both players hitting the deck. Pontius went to the line for a one-and-one opportunity with exactly two minutes left, and hit both shots to bring BG within four points.
The Huskies used much of the shot clock on the next possession, before a Wilcox jumper was off the mark. BG missed a layup try in traffic, though, and multiple players battled for the rebound, with the ball going back to the Huskies on alternate possession. Just 1:16 remained in the game.
With the Falcons applying defensive pressure, NIU was forced to call a timeout just four seconds later, still deep in their own end of the court. Out of that timeout, the Huskies missed connections on a short pass, still deep in their own end of the court. The ball landed out of bounds with 1:07 remaining, turning it back over to the Brown and Orange.
Pontius was fouled as she drove toward the basket, and went to the line for another one-and-one opportunity. This time, she made the first shot but missed the second, and BG was called for a foul on the rebound with 53.8 seconds left.
After the Huskies inbounded, however, Goldsberry ripped the ball away from Wilcox and fed it to a cutting Pontius for a layup with 48.0 seconds remaining. Suddenly, the Falcons trailed by a single point, 61-60.
The Falcons were called for a foul, and Aileen Rossouw split her two free-throw tries, giving the hosts a two-point advantage with 43.1 seconds left. The Falcons took the ball over midcourt, and looked for a good shot before calling a timeout with 24.1 seconds left in the game and 12 seconds on the shot clock.
Out of that timeout, Pontius dribbled around the perimeter to the top of the arc, found herself all alone, and buried a triple try with just 18.6 seconds left to give the Falcons their first lead in nearly 12 minutes, 63-62.
The Huskies quickly raced downcourt, but turned the ball over. McCoy came up with the steal, and was fouled with 11.5 seconds remaining. Her first one-and-one try did not go down, and the Falcons committed a foul on the ensuing rebound. Roussouw went back to the line and hit a free throw to tie the score. Her second shot would not drop, and Prochaska hit the deck to grab the ensuing rebound. Several NIU players battled the Falcon soph for the ball, before the whistle blew with exactly 10 seconds left. The inadvertant whistle resulted in BGSU keeping the ball via the alternating-possession rule.
With a chance for the win, Pontius drove past her defender and through the tall trees in the lane. She split two Huskie defenders and got off a runner in the lane, but the ball bounded away and the teams headed to overtime.
Goldsberry hit a three-pointer just six seconds into the extra period, giving the Falcons the lead for good. Neither team would score for over a minute and a half, before Pontius got to the line and hit two shots with 3:20 remaining.
Freeman put back her own miss -- one of 18 offensive rebounds for the Huskies in the game -- but Breske's driving layup gave the Falcons a 70-65 lead with 2:39 left. But, the home team was far from finished, even after the BG defense forced a shot-clock violation with 2:08 on the clock.
BG used much of the shot clock on the next possession, but a shot would not drop, and NIU got the ball back. Wilcox missed a three-point try, but an offensive rebound led to a Wilcox foul-line jumper with 1:17 left, and it was a one-possession game, at 70-67.
Again, BGSU used much of the clock, and again, BG missed a shot. Wilcox rebounded the ball, but had the ball poked away from her by Breske. The Falcon junior co-captain grabbed the ball and hit a wide-open layup, giving the visitors a five-point lead with 40.1 seconds left.
After another NIU miss, Pontius was fouled and hit two tosses with 22.7 ticks to go. The Falcons were ahead by seven, 74-67.
The Huskies got a three-point opportunity, as Ebony Ellis hit a shot and drew a foul with 17.6 second left. The free-throw try was good, but Pontius and sophomore Chelsea Albert each hit free throws in the final seconds to provide the final margin.
Atter the teams had battled to a 25-25 deadlock at the half, the second half was back and forth for the first eight minutes. McCoy got a steal on NIU's opening possession of the half, then hit a contested driving layup, but Wilcox answered at the other end to tie the game.
Goldsberry took a Prochaska pass and hit a triple, and McCoy made the 'extra' pass to Pontius for a long-range shot. Then, Goldsberry's nice look inside resulted in a Breske layup, and Prochaska spotted an open Goldsberry for a right-corner triple. Unfortunately for the Falcons, the Huskies were converting their shots during that time as well, and the visitors' lead was only three points, at 38-35.
Both teams began that half by going 5-for-8 from the field.
The back-and-forth action continued, with Prochaska scoring on a drive and Pontius draining two free throws to put the Falcons up by five points, 42-41. Freeman and Rossouw scored for the home team, though, to begin a Huskie run.
Wilcox hit a three-pointer, and the Huskies then tied up the Falcons for a jump ball before hitting a third-chance layup. When Wilcox knocked down a baseline jumper at the 10:30 mark, the run was 11-0 and the hosts had a 48-42 lead.
Just that quickly, however, the Falcons came back. Pontius hit a long three-pointer with 10:12 left, then drilled another triple just 32 seconds later, and the score was tied.
But, a 6-0 Huskie run, capped by two shots in transition, gave the home team a 54-48 lead at the 7:49 media timeout.
Again, the Falcons had an answer, with a 7-0 run. Goldsberry's pass found McCoy for a layup, and Prochaska spotted up for a long three-pointer. Goldsberry faked a shot, took a few dribbles and hit a foul-line jumper, and BG had a 55-54 lead with 6:18 left.
A Wilcox layup, however, began a 7-0 run for the home team, culminating with the Adams layup and the aforementioned 61-55 lead.
The first half saw the Falcons race out to a 10-2 advantage, with 10-straight points after Ellis had opened the game's scoring. Prochaska scored six of those points, on a pair of triples, and Breske and Pontius also scored hoops during that time.
NIU battled back to get within two points, 16-14, on Freeman's fast-break layup at the 7:56 mark. BGSU then scored the next six points, including McCoy's historic three-point field goal with 7:37 on the clock, but NIU ended the half on an 11-3 run to tie the score at intermission.
Pontius, in addition to her career-best point total, led ll players with five assists and three steals in the win. She tied her career high with five three-pointers made, and played a career-high 42 minutes.
Prochaska played the entire 45 minutes in the game, and all five BG starters played 39 or more minutes each.
Adams had 15 points for the Huskies, while Ellis had 14 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. The home team owned a 51-34 advantage on the boards, and had 18 offensive rebouonds. NIU had commanding advantages of 18-0 in second-chance points and 38-20 in points in the paint.
The Falcons, as mentioned, hit 12 three-pointers to the home team's three. BGSU held Kylie York scoreless on the afternoon. York had entered the day ranked fourth in the MAC in three-pointers made.
BGSU shot 41.7 percent from the field on Saturday, including a 48.1% rate in the second period and a 3-for-6 effort in overtime. NIU shot 53.3% in the second half, but was just 10-of-33 (30.3%) in the first half and 3-of-11 (27.3%) in the OT session.
The Falcons, led by Pontius, went 14-of-19 at the free-throw line. Pontius made 10 of those tosses in 12 tries. NIU was 9-for-13 at the stripe.
The Falcons host Ball State University on Tuesday (Feb. 3) at Anderson Arena in another matchup of divisional leaders. BGSU, of course, leads the MAC's East Division. BSU, after a win over Miami Saturday night and losses by NIU and Toledo, is in sole possession of first place in the West Division with a 6-1 league mark. Tipoff for Tuesday's game is 7:00 p.m. at "The House That Roars."
NOTES
* The Falcons have started MAC play with a 7-0 record for the fifth time in school history, and the third time in the last four seasons ... BGSU's 1986-87, 1988-89, 2005-06 and 2006-07 teams all won the first seven MAC games of the year ... the first three teams went a perfect 16-0 in league regular-season play, while the '06-07 team went 15-1 in the MAC en route to the NCAA's "Sweet Sixteen."
* BGSU, as mentioned, has won 18 consecutive games, tied for the fifth-longest streak in school history ... the current run marks the eighth double-digit win streak in BG annals, and the fourth in as many years ... the school record is a 21-game win streak, set during the 1986-87 season.
* The Falcons' current streak is also the second-longest active winning streak in the nation ... Auburn's loss at Georgia Thursday night (Jan. 29) snapped the Tigers' streak at 20 wins ... only Connecticut is ahead of the Falcons on that list ... UConn ran its streak to 21 games with a Saturday win over Georgetown.
* Junior Niki McCoy reached a career milestone on Saturday ... her first basket of the game, a three-point field goal with 7:37 remaining in the first half, put her over the 1,000-point mark for her career ... McCoy, in her first playing season after transferring from Akron, now has a career total of 1,006 points ... she scored 735 points in two seasons with the Zips before coming to BGSU and sitting out last season.
* Sophomore Tracy Pontius exploded for 31 points in the win at NIU ... it marked the first 30-point game of her career ... her previous career best was 22 points, in the Falcons' home win over Youngstown State earlier this season Dec. 6, 2008) ... Pontius now has 15 games of double-digit point totals this year.
* The Falcons now have had three instances where a player has scored 30 or more points in a game this year ... soph Lauren Prochaska had 32 points against both Saint Francis (Pa.) and Miami ... in the first seven years under Curt Miller, BGSU had a player reach the 30-point mark only five times.
* The Falcons are now 27-1 in MAC road games over the last three-plus years ... the only loss during that time came last season at Ball State (68-47; Jan. 26, 2008) ... that BSU game is the Falcons' only double-digit loss to a MAC team over the last five years (since a 92-81 loss at Miami on Feb. 3, 2004).
* Saturday marked the Falcons' first overtime game of the year, and the team's first OT contest since the semifinal round of last year's MAC Tournament ... BGSU lost to Ohio in double-OT (March 14, 2008).
* The Falcons' game at NIU marked BGSU's first overtime win in over four years ... the team's last OT victory came on Jan. 15, 2005, at Toledo ... the win at NIU snapped a four-game Falcon losing streak in overtime contests.
