Bowling Green State University
BALL STATE
BGSU Bests Ball State, 76-67, in Battle of Division Leaders
February 03, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 3, 2009
Final Stats
| BGSU-Ball State Boxscore in PDF Format 
Coach Miller Post-Game Audio
Goldsberry & Slagle Post-Game Audio
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University women's basketball Falcons overcame a sluggish shooting night from the field with a team effort and lights-out free-throw accuracy. It all added up to a 76-67 win over Ball State University in a battle of Mid-American Conference division leaders Wednesday night (Feb. 3) at venerable Anderson Arena.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 19-2 overall and a perfect 8-0 in the MAC. BGSU has won 19 consecutive games after starting the season with a pair of losses. The Cardinals drop to 14-8 and 6-2, respectively.
The Falcons shot just 33.9 percent from the field, including an 8-for-32 (25.0%) effort in the opening half. But, BG was a blistering 32-for-34 (94.1%) from the free-throw line, and seven different players scored between seven and 15 points in the win.
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Emily Maggert and Danielle Gratton had 18 and 17 points, respectively, for the Cardinals. In addition to scoring, Maggert led all players in rebounding, with 10 boards on the night.
Believe it or not, the Falcons -- who as mentioned hit only eight field goals in the first half -- went 3-for-3 from the floor to start the game. Goldsberry hit a three-point field goal, one of her game-high three triples, just five seconds into the game, giving the home team a lead it would never relinquish.
After Gratton got the visitors on the board, Prochaska got to the line and knocked down a pair of free throws. Gratton answered again, but Goldsberry hit her second triple of the night with just 82 seconds elapsed, and BG had an 8-4 advantage.
McCoy scored on a jumper at the 18:12 mark, and when Goldsberry made two charity tosses just over a minute later, the senior co-captain had eight points and her team had a 12-4 lead.
Gratton hit a long three-pointer, then a jumper, putting the visitors within three points, but a layup by junior Tara Breske was followed by a Pontius three-pointer, giving BG a 19-11 lead with just over five minutes gone.
At that point, the Falcons were 5-for-9 from the field. BG would make just three of the final 23 field-goal attempts of the half.
Freshman Jessica Slagle's two free throws put BG up by a 21-13 margin, and soph Chelsea Albert made a pair of tosses two minutes later, for a 10-point lead midway through the half. Maggert, however, scored the game's next six points, bringing the Cards within 23-19.
Breske's layup off a Pontius feed broke a drought of 4:02 without a point and 9:05 without a basket for the home team. After Gratton answered with a layup, Goldsberry took a Breske kickout and let fly from the left corner. Her three-point try rattled home, and McCoy's free throws gave BG a 30-21 lead with 4:49 left before halftime.
A Pontius three-pointer gave the Falcons an 11-point lead with 2:17 to go, and the soph hit two shots from the stripe to restore that 11-point margin heading into halftime.
In that opening half, the Falcons were outrebounded by nine, in addition to that 25.% shooting rate. BG made just 3-of-19 shots from inside the three-point line in the opening 20 minutes. But, the Falcons were a perfect 16-for-16 from the free-throw line, and had just three turnovers to the Cardinals' 14.
Both teams got off to a slow shooting start in the second half, but it was the Cardinals who began to heat up first. After BSU's guards had gone the entire first half without scoring, Porchia Green hit back-to-back shots 27 seconds apart to open the second-half scoring. MmcCoy answered the second shot with a layup, but Gratton came right back with a jumper to get the Cards within 39-32.
With 16:17 left in the game, however, Gratton was called for an offensive foul, her third foul of the evening, and went to the bench.
Audrey McDonald fired a three-pointer, and Green split a pair of free throws, putting BSU within three points, 39-36, with 15 minutes left. Prochaska's jumper extended the margin to five, but Jade Barber converted a three-point play with 13:12 remaining, and BG's lead was just two points.
The Falcons, though, proceeded to convert no fewer than three conventional three-point plays in a span of just over a minute and a half. BG scored eight-straight points to begin a 13-2 run.
That stretch began with a pair of McCoy free throws -- after Gratton had picked up her fourth foul with 12:56 left. Then, a Prochaska steal of a BSU inbounds pass led to a transition hoop, a foul, and a free throw.
Then, soph Jen Uhl stole the ball from the Cards' Patrice King, throwing the ball ahead to Albert at midcourt. Albert's two-hand overhead pass, reminiscent of a soccer throw-in, found Slagle ahead of the pack.
With several defenders in pursuit, Slagle made a hesitation move to get King in the air, and hit a layup while drawing a foul. Her free throw at the 12:02 mark completed the three-point play and gave BG a 10-point lead.
Green snapped the 8-0 run with a layup, but Prochaska came right back with a layup of her own. Then, Slagle came up with a steal and converted another 'and-one' layup. Her free throw gave the Brown and Orange a 54-41 advantage.
When Prochaska made a pair of tosses after a technical foul against the BSU bench, the Falcons had hit 23 consecutive free throws. With just under eight minutes left, a Prochaska defensive rebound got BG's transition offense started. Slagle stopped near the arc and whipped a pass to a wide-open Uhl at the left elbow. The sophomore's three-point try found nothing but net, and the home game had a 16-point lead, the largest of the game.
Uhl was fouled shooting another three-point attempt, and made two of her three throws for a 63-47 BG lead. The Cards got six-straight points to cut the lead to 10, and the teams traded hoops for the next few minutes. Breske's turnaround fadeaway jumper put the Brown and Orange up by a 69-59 count with 3:18 left.
But, Gratton made a jumper, and after a steal, Kiley Jarrett's triple but BG's lead to just five points, 69-64, with 1:31 remaining. Gratton fouled Pontius near midcourt -- Gratton's fifth foul -- with 1:16 left, and the Falcon soph knocked down both of her free throws. Those were the first two of seven-straight BG points, all coming from the stripe, before a late trey by Jarrett closed the game's scoring.
Jarrett had 10 points to round out BSU's double-figure scorers, while Green scored nine points.
In addition to the Falcons' four double-digit scorers, Breske and Slagle had eight points apiece, while Uhl had seven points in just 10 minutes.
For the game, the Cardinals shot 45.2% to the Falcons' 33.9% from the floor. The Falcons, however, had a 25-point advantage at the free-throw line, and BG forced the visitors into 21 turnovers while committing 11 themselves.
For the third consecutive game, Prochaska was one rebound shy of a double-double. The sophomore led the Falcons with nine boards, and also had a team-high two blocked shots.
BGSU had advantages of 11-0 in fast-break points and 17-10 in bench scoring, offsetting Ball State's leads in points in the paint (32-26) and second-chance points (11-6).
The Falcons will return to action on Saturday (Feb. 7), heading to Kalamazoo to take on Western Michigan University. That game, which begins at noon, will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
NOTES
* The Falcons have won 19 consecutive games, tied for the fourth-longest streak in school history ... the current run marks the eighth double-digit streak in BG annals, and the fourth in as many years.
* The school record is a 21-game win streak, by the 1986-87 Falcon team, and BG had 20-game streaks in both 1988-89 and 1993-94 ... the 2005-06 Falcons put together a 19-game streak that included all 16 MAC regular-season games and all three MAC Tournament contests.
* BG's streak is the second-longest active winning streak in the nation, behind only #1 Connecticut ... with a win over Rutgers on Tuesday night, UConn has won 22-straight games.
* The Falcons have won 14 consecutive home games, tied for the eighth-longest current home court winning streak ... UConn is at the top of that list as well, with 35 consecutive home victories.
* The Falcons held Ball State's guards without a point in the first half ... BSU posts went 12-for-17 from the field in that opening period, with Gratton and Maggert combining to go 10-for-13 ... but, the Cardinal guards were just 0-of-11 in the first 20 minutes.
* BG was a perfect 16-for-16 from the free-throw line in the opening half, and the Falcons made the first 23 tosses of the night before finally missing with 7:05 left in the second half.
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