Bowling Green State University
Kent State
Prochaska, Falcons Rally for 61-54 Win over Kent State
February 28, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 28, 2009
Final Stats
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Coach Miller Postgame Audio
Prochaska & Uhl Postgame Audio
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - Sophomore Lauren Prochaska, held scoreless in the first half, scored 25 points in the second half to lead the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team to a 61-54 win over Kent State University Saturday afternoon (Feb. 28). The Mid-American Conference game was held at venerable Anderson Arena on the BGSU campus.
With the win, the #25 Falcons improve to 25-2 overall and 14-0 in MAC play. BGSU has won a school-record 25 consecutive games after starting the season with a pair of losses. The Golden Flashes drop to 17-9 and 6-8, respectively.
Prochaska's second-half uprising enabled her to surpass the 1,000-point mark for her career. Prochaska is the 23rd woman in school history to score 1,000 points, but becomes only the second to reach the milestone as a sophomore.
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BGSU clinched the #1 East seed for the MAC Tournament weeks ago, and holds a seven-game lead over Ohio University in the East Division, through Saturday's games. The Falcons are two games ahead of West Division-leading Ball State with two games to go. BG, by virtue of a win over BSU in the teams' lone regular-season meeting, would win a tiebreaker with the Cardinals.
Additionally, the victory made Curt Miller the school's winningest coach in MAC games.
Prochaska had a double-double in Saturday's win over KSU, with a game-high 10 boards in addition to her game-high total of 25 points. Soph Jen Uhl joined Prochaska in double digits with 10 points on the afternoon.
For the Flashes, both Rachel Bennett and Jamilah Humes had 14 points, while Anna Kowalska had 10. Kowalska, who also had three blocked shots, played only 23 minutes before fouling out.
It is BGSU men's basketball coach Louis Orr who often speaks of not letting field-goal percentage dictate winning percentage. And, Orr often talks about needing to 'stay on the grind.' However, both applied to Miller's team on Saturday afternoon. The Falcons shot just 30.9 percent from the field, including an 8-for-31 (25.8%) effort in the first half. And, BG trailed for seemingly the entire afternoon, experiencing several scoring droughts. But, the Falcons never let Kent State take a lead greater than seven points.
The game featured a total of 10 ties as well as 11 lead changes, but BGSU trailed for the final seven-plus minutes of the first half, and the Falcons were behind for the bulk of the second half before taking the lead for good with 3:48 remaining.
Uhl capped an 8-0 run for the Falcons with a game-changing three-point field goal with 2:08 remaining, giving BG a 56-50 lead.
The teams got off to a slow start, scoring-wise, in the first half. KSU's Chenel Harris scored the first points of the game with over two minutes gone, and a Kowalska layup at the 16:52 mark gave the visitors a 4-0 lead.
The Falcons missed seven shots to start the game, before senior Lindsey Goldsberry flipped a pass to her fellow co-captain, junior Tara Breske, for a layup at the 15:56 mark. That basket began a stretch in which the Falcons scored 10 points in 98 seconds.
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MAC STANDINGS (through Saturday) EAST DIVISION BGSU 14-0 Ohio 7-7 Kent St. 6-8 Miami 5-9 Akron 5-9 Buffalo 2-12 WEST DIVISION Ball St. 12-2 Toledo 11-3 NIU 9-5 CMU 7-7 EMU 3-11 WMU 3-11
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After going 4:04 without a point, then scoring those 10 points in 1:38, the Falcons proceeded to score only four points over the next 9:07. BG's defense, however, kept the Flashes from building a lead any higher than five points during that span.
Kent tied the score with four quick points out of the game's initial media timeout, with a Humes steal and layup knotting the score at 10-10. Junior Niki McCoy put BG back in the lead with a putback of her own miss at the 12:31 mark, but KSU's Lorriane Odhiambo made two free throws to even matters once again.
Pontius drove the lane and dished a nifty bounce pass to Breske, freeing the junior for a wide-open layup and a 14-12 BG lead, but the Falcons then would go 4:37 without a point.
Kent scored seven-straight points, with a Bennett jumper, a Stephanie Gibson layup and a Humes three-point play. The latter play gave the Flashes a 19-14 advantage with 6:42 left in the half.
Finally, a pull-up jumper by Pontius broke the Falcons' scoring drought, but Kowalska answered with a layup, and a jumper by Yoshica Spears gave the Flashes a seven-point lead, their largest of the game.
Sophomore Kelly Zuercher cut into that lead, taking a Prochaska pass and hitting a three-pointer to bring BG within four. The Falcons got as close as three points on two Goldsberry free throws, but Bennett hit a layup just before the end of the half to give KSU a 26-21 lead at the intermission.
Prochaska, as mentioned, was scoreless in that first half. And, the sophomore missed her first three shots of the second period to make her 0-of-7 from the field. But, she would turn things around, making six of her final eight shots in the game, and going 11-of-12 from the free-throw line.
Prochaska would score BG's first 12 points of the half. She got her first points of the game at the stripe, driving and drawing the third foul on Harris with just under two minutes gone in the second period. The national leader in free-throw percentage hit her two shots from the line.
Then, just over a minute later, Prochaska drilled a three-pointer, tying the game at 26-all. After a Harris jumper, Prochaska scored on a layup just before the initial media timeout of the period.
Another three-pointer at the 13:08 mark was followed by a pull-up jumper 40 seconds later, giving the Falcons a 33-32 lead. But, two Humes free throws put the Flashes ahead once again, and KSU would not trail for the next seven minutes.
After Zuercher split a pair of free throws for the hosts, the Flashes went on a quick 6-0 run. Humes picked up assists on the first two baskets, by Kowalska and Spears, and a Bennett jumper gave the Flashes a 40-34 lead.
Falcon freshman Jessica Slagle cut her team's deficit in half with a conventional three-point play, drawing Kowalska's fourth foul with 9:25 remaining. Odhiambo replaced Kowalska in the KSU lineup, and would trade baskets with Prochaska over the next few minutes.
Prochaska's first basket during that stretch came when she sliced in between several Kent State players for an offensive rebound and a quick layup, and her second hoop was a jumper at the 7:55 mark.
Not content to continue playing tag with the Flashes, Prochaska picked up a steal and then drew the fourth foul of the game on Harris. The Falcon soph went to the line and hit a pair of free throws to get BG within a point, at 44-43. Suddenly, Prochaska had 18 points on the day.
Asheley Harkins fed Humes for a jumper, but Pontius hit a clutch three-pointer to tie the game with 5:25 left. The Pontius shot was especially big considering the sophomore had made just 1-of-12 shots from the field in the game's first 34-plus minutes. That shot came after Breske got an offensive rebound in traffic and kicked a pass to Goldsberry at the top of the arc. Goldsberry whipped a pass to Pontius at the right elbow, and the resulting triple tied the game at 46-46.
Kowalska returned to the game with 4:57 on the clock, and was whistled for her fifth foul just 18 seconds later, as she guarded Prochaska on a drive. Prochaska's two free throws put BG ahead by a 48-46 count. But, Humes would hit a jumper, and Bennett made two charity tosses with exactly four minutes remaining, giving the Flashes the lead once again.
Out of the game's final media timeout, Pontius went to the free-throw line. She made her first shot, but missed the second. But, Pontius anticipated the miss, beating everyone to the rebound and drawing a foul from Odhiambo. This time, Pontius hit a pair of tosses, and -- as a result of those three made free throws in a one-second span -- the Falcons had the lead for good, at 51-50.
On the next possession, Uhl blocked a shot by Harkins and grabbed the rebound. BG's ensuing possession resulted in two Prochaska free throws. Then, after the Falcon defense forced another KSU miss, Uhl hit her back-breaking triple.
On that possession, Goldsberry made several key plays. After Uhl missed a jumper, Goldsberry grabbed the offensive rebound. Then, after the Falcons nearly turned the ball over, the senior co-captain tracked it down before it bounced over halfcourt. After grabbing that loose ball and finding the KSU defense out of position, 'Golds' fired a pass to a wide-open Uhl, who knocked down the shot from the right elbow. BG led, 56-50, with just over two minutes left.
Humes made a jumper, but the Flashes fouled Uhl, who made a pair of tosses at the 1:12 mark. Bennett got to the line for a pair of free throws, and the visitors then forced a turnover to get the ball back with just under a minute left. But, BG forced a Humes miss, and Prochaska grabbed the rebound. She was foulde with 36.4 seconds left, and hit a pair of free throws. The latter toss gave her 1,000 career points, and also gave the Falcons a 60-54 lead.
After another miss, Prochaska again got a rebound and again drew a foul. This time, she uncharacteristically made only one of the two free throws, but the Falcons were ahead by seven points with 24.1 seconds to go. After Humes missed a three-point try with 10 seconds left, Breske tracked down the ball and the Falcons ran out the clock.
Breske had nine rebounds to finish one behind Prochaska in that category, as the Falcons enjoyed a 36-34 advantage on the boards. BGSU had 16 offensive boards en route to a 20-10 margin in second-chance points.
Pontius, despite struggling from the field, had eight points, including her late three-pointer. Goldsberry had five points and a team-leading four assists, while Breske and Zuercher scored four points apiece.
For the visitors, Odhiambo had six points off the bench, and tied Spears for team honors with 11 rebounds. Kent had 32 points in the paint to the Falcons' 14.
The Falcons went 7-for-20 from three-point range and 20-of-24 from the free-throw line. KSU made 10-of-12 free throws. BGSU held Kent State, who entered the week ranked second in the nation in three-point field goal percentage, without a single trey. The Flashes were 0-of-9 from long distance.
The Falcons will hit the road for the final time in the regular season, heading to Oxford to face Miami University on Wednesday night (March 4). BG then returns home to close the regular season with a game vs. Ohio University next Saturday afternoon, March 7. That game tips off at 2:00 p.m. at Anderson.
FALCON NOTES
* The Falcons now lead Kent State, 42-27, and BGSU has won 11 consecutive games vs. the Golden Flashes.
* BGSU, as mentioned, has clinched at least a tie for the MAC's best regular-season record ... the Falcons need one more win, or a Ball State loss, to clinch the league's best mark outright ... it would be the fifth consecutive year that BG accomplished that feat.
* Lauren Prochaska reached the 1,000-point plateau for her career ... she becomes the 23rd player in school history to reach the milestone, but only the second to do so as a sophomore ... Jackie Motycka, BGSU's all-time scoring leader, was the first player to reach the millennium mark as a soph, on her way to a school-record 2,122 career points.
* Prochaska scored her 1,000th point in her 61st career game ... only Motycka got to 1,000 points faster, achieving that feat in her 54th game as a Falcon.
* Miller is now 93-33 in MAC games since arriving in Northwest Ohio ... he moves past Jaci Clark (92-32) into sole possession of first place on the BGSU career list for conference wins ... he is now eighth in MAC history in league victories.
* Overall, the win was the 175th of Miller's BGSU career ... he moves into sole possession of fourth place on that MAC list, a game ahead of Miami's Maria Fantanarosa ... KSU coach Bob Lindsay tops both lists, with 370 overall wins and 230 MAC victories with the Golden Flashes ... former Toledo coach Mark Ehlen ranks second on both lists, and was in Anderson Arena Saturday, as part of the broadcast team for the BGSU-KSU game.
* Saturday's win, as mentioned, was the Falcons' 25th in a row, extending the school record ... the MAC record is 26 wins, by Central Michigan in the 1983-84 season.
* Kent State entered the week ranked second in the nation in three-point field goal percentage, having made 41.1% of their attempts ... but, the Falcons held the Flashes without a single trey ... KSU went 0-for-9 from long distance.
* Prochaska recently set the school record by making a school-record 45 consecutive free throws, tied for the seventh-longest streak in NCAA history ... that streak came to an end when she missed a free throw in the win over Central Michigan on Feb. 15 ... after that miss, Prochaska made 33-straight free throws, the second-longest such streak in Falcon history ... she sank her first 11 tries on Saturday vs. KSU, before missing her final attempt of the day.
NCAA Record Book, Most Consecutive Free Throws Made
FTM -- Player, Team -- Years
66 -- Ginny Doyle, Richmond -- 1991-92 ^
60 -- Adrienne Squire, Penn State -- 2004-06 ^
57 -- Jody Beerman, Central Michigan -- 1986-87
53 -- Katie Miller, UNI -- 1999-00
49 -- Lisa Rathburn, BYU -- 1990-91
46 -- Brooke Lassiter, Louisiana Tech -- 2000-01
45 -- Lauren Prochaska, Bowling Green -- 2008-09
45 -- Amy Slowikowski, Kent State -- 1988-89
45 -- Wendy Scholtens, Vanderbilt -- 1988-89
39 -- Kirsten Smith, Arizona -- 1985-86
38 -- Christi Osborne, Virginia Tech -- 1993-94
37 -- Lindsay Bowen, Michigan St. -- 2002-03
36 -- Shanna Zolman, Tennessee -- 2003-04
35 -- Ellen Shields, St. Joseph's -- 1988-89
35 -- Angie Sorieya, Dartmouth -- 2003-04
33 -- Lauren Prochaska, Bowling Green -- 2008-09
33 -- Kourtney Mennen, Indiana St. -- 1999-00
33 -- Lindsey Meder, Iowa -- 2000-01
^ accomplished over parts of two seasons
* Prochaska's 20-point game was her 11th of the season and the 17th of her career ... she had her second double-double of the year, and the sixth of her Falcon career, vs. the Golden Flashes.
* As a team, the Falcons made 32 consecutive free throws before missing the first attempt on Saturday ... BGSU sank the final eight charity tosses of the Akron game (Feb. 21) before making a school-record 24-of-24 free throws at Buffalo (Feb. 25).
* The Falcons are now a perfect 12-0 at Anderson Arena this year ... the school record for home wins in a season is 13, set in 1988-89 (13-1) and matched in 1992-93 (also 13-1) ... BGSU has posted perfect home records three times; in 1974-75 (7-0), 1975-76 (6-0) and 2005-06 (11-0) ... the Falcons' final home regular-season game comes next Saturday, March 7, against Ohio.
