Falcons Get Team Effort in 89-68 Win

Wednesday, December 23

Bowling Green, OH

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Appalachian State

December 23, 2009 | Women's Basketball

BGSU ends pre-holiday schedule with home victory over Appalachian State

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

It was a complete team effort for the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team on Wednesday night (Dec. 23), as the Falcons posted an 89-68 win over Appalachian State University. The non-conference game was held at venerable Anderson Arena.

BGSU 89, Appalachian State 68 - Final Stats
BGSU 89, Appalachian State 68 - PDF Boxscore
Postgame Audio: Curt Miller | Tracy Pontius
BGSU's Cumulative Stats - PDF

With the win, the Falcons improve to 9-3 on the year, and BGSU has won eight of the last nine contests. The Mountaineers drop to 4-6 on the season.

Fifteen different players saw action for head coach Curt Miller's team, with no fewer than 14 finding the scoresheet. BGSU made 14 three-point field goals, shooting 50 percent from beyond the arc in the win.

The Falcons' total of 89 points was a season high, as was BG's 14 successful triples.

Junior Lauren Prochaska led the home team with 21 points, while classmate Tracy Pontius had 15 points and a game-high eight assists. Senior Tamika Nurse also was in double figures with 12 points, adding four assists and a team-leading three steals.

The Falcons' team effort offset eye-popping statistical performances from a pair of ASU freshmen. Ashlen Dewart led all players with 34 points, going 15-of-22 from the field and adding seven rebounds. Anna Freeman had a double-double, with 13 points and a game-high 10 rebounds, and came relatively close to a quadruple-double with eight blocked shots and seven assists. She added a team-high three steals for good measure.

Sam Ramirez scored 10 points and dished out six assists for the visitors.

BGSU forced 26 ASU turnovers, and the Falcons held a 31-12 margin in points off turnovers. The home team also went 19-of-26 from the free-throw line, including a 14-of-16 effort in the first half. The Mountaineers did not get to the stripe in the opening half and went 6-of-8 for the game.

Nurse hit the Falcons' first three-pointer of the night with just over a minute gone, breaking a 2-2 tie. BGSU would not trail again.

After a scoreless drought of several minutes, junior Chelsea Albert kicked the ball out to Pontius for a three-pointer and an 8-2 lead. Kelsey Sharkey hit from beyond the arc for the visitors, but Pontius would knock down another long-range shot with just over five minutes gone.

The margin was still six points a few minutes later, when Prochaska converted a four-point play. The junior took a Pontius pass at the right elbow, and hit a three-pointer in front of the ASU bench as a foul was called on Anna Freeman. Her free throw to complete the play gave the Brown and Orange a 17-7 lead. The foul was Anna Freeman's second of the game, sending her to the bench.

On the next possession, Prochaska came up with a steal at the defensive end, then dribbled upcourt and fired the ball ahead to sophomore Jessica Slagle for another three-pointer -- the Falcons' fifth of the game. The shot gave the Falcons a 20-7 advantage with 12:45 left in the half.

The lead reached 15 points when Pontius nailed another long-distance try at the 11:34 mark. Then, with the Falcons up by 13 points a few minutes later, a pair of free throws by senior Tara Breske began a 6-0 run. Breske's tosses, which came 11:22 into the game, made her the eighth different BG player to find the scoresheet.

Thirty-six seconds later, junior Maggie Hennegan's entry pass resulted in a layup by junior Kelly Zuercher, the ninth Falcon to score, and a pair of Nurse charity tosses gave the Falcons a 32-13 lead.

The visitors, however, found success pounding the ball inside to Dewart, who scored three-straight baskets to cut her team's deficit to 13 points. Prochaska got to the line and sank a pair of shots, but Ramirez hit a trey, and Anna Freeman got a steal and a layup to cut BG's lead to 10 points.

With 2:43 on the clock, Anna Freeman connected from three-point land to whittle the margin into single digits. The Falcons answered, however, scoring the final 11 points of the half to take a 50-30 lead into the intermission.

The run began when Pontius' cross-court pass freed junior Jen Uhl for a left-elbow triple. Pontius and Prochaska each made a pair of free throws, and Hennegan got a pair of baskets in the final 36 seconds. First, the redshirt junior took a pass from fellow transfer Nurse and converted a layup with the shot clock winding down. Then, after an offensive foul on the Mountaineers, Pontius hit Hennegan for another layup just before the first-half horn.

The 50 points marked BG's most in a half this year to date. In that half, the Falcons shot .438 from the field to the Mountaineers' .406, but BGSU made eight three-pointers to ASU's four, and hit 14 free throws to zero for the visitors. The Falcons also forced 13 turnovers by the Mountaineers while committing just four themselves.

In the second half, the visitors got within 17 points, but the Falcons scored five points in a span of just a few seconds. Prochaska hit yet another BG three-pointer from the right corner, and a foul was called away from the ball as said ball went through the basket. On the ensuing inbounds pass, Pontius hit Breske as she cut to the hoop, and the senior co-captain's layup gave the Falcons a 62-40 lead with 15:06 left ih the game.

BG maintained a lead of at least 20 points the rest of the night. After Dewart stepped out beyond the arc and hit a three-ball to cut the Falcons' lead to 20, Nurse answered with a trey at the other end, and a steal and layup by Prochaska gave BG a 25-point cushion. BGSU had scored 71 points with 11:14 still remaining in the game, and Miller utilized the opportunity to give his starters some rest before the holidays.

Albert got on the board with two free throws midway through the half. Then, freshman Chrissy Steffen's shot -- a three-pointer, of course -- gave BG a game-high 28-point lead with 8:42 left, and made her the 11th different Falcon to score, but the home team was far from finished, as three more players would find the basket. Freshman Jessie Tamerlano (12) knocked down a jumper at the 6:42 mark. Classmate Simone Eli (13) entered the game and -- with a large contingent of her former Genoa High School teammates cheering her every move -- drained a three-pointer on her first trip down the court. That shot gave the Falcons an 83-58 lead with 4:13 remaining.

After a Ramirez trey, senior Laura Bugher (14) worked inside for a short jumper in traffic with 3:37 left. Then, Tamerlano stripped the ball from Ramirez and sailed in for a layup and an 87-61 advantage. The Mountaineers scored seven of the game's final nine points to get within 21 points before the final horn sounded.

For the game, the Falcons shot .406 from the floor, but BG made an even 50 percent of its shots from three-point land, going 14-of-28. ASU shot .483 from the field, including a 15-of-26 performance (.577) after halftime. But, the Mountaineers had 13 turnovers for the second consecutive half.

Both teams were in a giving mood as the holidays approach. Each team scored 28 baskets, with ASU players totalling 24 assists and Falcon passers combining for 21.

The Mountaineers, led by Anna Freeman, had a team total of 11 blocked shots. But, the Falcons had 17 offensive rebounds on the night. In all, BG had a slim 37-36 advantage on the boards.

Uhl led the Falcons with seven rebounds, and added five points. Hennegan had seven points and six boards, while Breske scored six points and had two of the home team's three blocked shots. Steffen scored five points in seven minutes.

In addition to her team-leading point total, Prochaska had four rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals. She and Pontius each made four three-point field goals on the night.

BG now takes a break for the holidays. The Falcons' next game will be next Wednesday, Dec. 30, at Hartford. The Brown and Orange then will return home to close the non-league portion of the schedule on Saturday, Jan. 2, 2010, against SIU Edwardsville in a 2:00 p.m. tip.

FALCON NOTES
* The game was the first-ever meeting between the Falcons and Appalachian State, but was BG's second win this year over a Southern Conference team ... the Brown and Orange downed UNC Greensboro, 80-51, just under a month ago (Nov. 27) at that most venerable of venues.

* BGSU is now 4-0 at Anderson Arena this season, and the Falcons have won 23 of the last 24 games at "The House That Roars" ... 18 of those 23 wins have been by double-digit margins.

* The Falcons' total of 14 three-point field goals made was the team's highest in nearly two years, since BG made a school record-tying 16 triples in a win at Kent State (Jan. 16, 2008).

* Junior Lauren Prochaska had her fifth game this season of 20 or more points, and the 24th of her career ... she has scored in double digits in 72 of her 80 career games.

* Prochaska has moved into second place on the BGSU career list for three-point field goals made ... with four successful treys on Wednesday night, she now has 176 in her career ... Prochaska moved past Sara Puthoff (173 from 1994-98), and now trails only school record-holder Liz Honegger ... Honegger hit 216 treys during her Falcon career, which spanned from 2003-07.

* Last season, the Falcons had more rebounds than the opponent just 13 times in 34 games ... this year, BGSU has outrebounded the opposition 10 times in 12 games, including in nine of the last 10 contests ... BG has a +2.6 rebounding margin ... when outrebounding opponents, the Falcons are 111-11 in the Curt Miller Era, including a 91-4 mark in the last five-plus seasons (since the start of 2004-05).

* The win was the 188th of Miller's head-coaching career, moving him within one victory of third place on the Mid-American Conference list ... Fran Voll currently holds down that third-place spot, with a total of 189 wins at BGSU and Central Michigan ... only Kent State's Bob Lindsay (378 wins) and former Toledo coach Mark Ehlen (240) are ahead of Voll on that list.

* Freshman Simone Eli scored her first collegiate points, draining a three-point try from in front of the BGSU bench ... she is the 15th different Falcon player to score this season ... as mentioned, 14 of those 15 Falcons scored in Wednesday's win over ASU.