Saturday, January 2
Bowling Green, OH
2:00 PM
Bowling Green State University
70
vs
57
SIU Edwardsville
Falcons Able to Hold Off SIU Edwardsville, 70-57
January 02, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Prochaska scores game-high 27 points; Miller moves into tie for third on MAC coaching list
Junior Lauren Prochaska scored a game-high 27 points, helping the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team to a 70-57 win over Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Saturday afternoon (Jan. 2). The non-conference game was held at venerable Anderson Arena on the BGSU campus.
BGSU 70, SIU EDWARDSVILLE 57 - Final Stats
BGSU 70, SIU EDWARDSVILLE 57 - PDF Bosxscore
POSTGAME AUDIO: Curt Miller | Lauren Prochaska
With the win, the Falcons improve to 10-4 on the season, while dropping the Cougars to 2-13. BGSU has concluded the non-league portion of the schedule with a double-digit win total for the fourth consecutive year.
Additionally, the win was the 189th in Curt Miller's BGSU tenure, moving the ninth-year Falcon head coach into a tie for third place on the Mid-American Conference wins list.
A pair of Falcon seniors joined Prochaska in double digits in the scoring column, as Tamika Nurse scored 11 points and Tara Breske 10. Nurse only took three shots from the field, but was 9-of-11 from the foul line. Prochaska made 10 free-throws in 12 attempts as the Falcons had a productive day from the stripe.
BGSU shot just 30.4 percent from the field on the afternoon, but the Brown and Orange went 32-of-40 (.800) from the free-throw line. The Cougars shot .379 from the floor and went 9-of-15 (.600) from the stripe.
In addition to her point total, Prochaska also led the Falcons in rebounding, with nine on the day. Junior Maggie Hennegan had seven points, seven rebounds and a game-high three blocked shots for the Brown and Orange.
The Cougars got 15 points and seven boards from Raven Berry, while Michaela Herrod and Kate Affourtit had 10 points apiece. Sydney Stahlberg grabbed nine rebounds and Herrod eight for the visitors, who held a slim 42-41 advantage on the boards.
Sophomore Jessica Slagle scored three points in the game, but provided a spark off the bench in the second half when the Falcons sorely needed it.
Early on, it looked like the Falcons might run away and hide. BGSU took a 6-0 lead on the first three possessions of the game, going 3-of-3 from the field. Breske hit a pair of turnaround jumpers on the Falcons' first two trips down the floor, and junior Jen Uhl's steal led to an easy transition layup for the Brown and Orange, as junior Tracy Pontius fed Prochaska for an uncontested hoop at the 18:37 mark.
But, the Cougars battled back, scoring the next four points and eventually getting within two points at 8-6. The Falcons answered with a 7-1 run, with five of those seven points coming from the line. Hennegan hit a pair of charity tosses to give the home team a 10-6 advantage, and Nurse canned a jumper. Then, the University of Oregon transfer was fouled on a three-point attempt, went to the line and hit all three of her shots for a 15-7 BG lead.
The visitors got back within 17-11 after a steal led to an Affourtit layup, and Miller called a timeout with 8:12 left in the half. Out of that timeout, Hennegan hit an open Prochaska for a right-elbow three-pointer, sparking a 7-0 run.
Prochaska scored all seven points in that run, hitting a layup off an inbounds pass from freshman Simone Eli before grabbing an offensive rebound and laying the ball off glass and in. The home team had a 24-11 lead with six minutes left before halftime.
Affourtit ended the Falcons' run with a three-pointer, but Prochaska took a pass from senior Sarah Clapper and connected from long distance for a 27-14 BG advantage. Again, though, Affourtit hit from beyond the arc, cutting BG's lead to 10 points with 4:32 left in the half. The teams traded points for the remainer of the half, with the Falcons' last seven points coming from the free-throw line. The Brown and Orange took a 34-25 lead into the lockerroom.
Once the second half commenced, however, that lead evaporated quickly. SIUE scored the first nine points of the period, tying the score with 17:29 left. Courtney Kenner scored five of the Cougars' nine points in that stretch, with a triple and a second-chance jumper. The latter shot knotted the game at 34-all.
The Falcons got a pair of free throws from Prochaska at the 16:09 mark to regain the lead, but Kenner's two tosses just nine seconds later tied the score once again. FInally, though, the Falcons hit a shot from the field. After going 0-of-8 from the floor to begin the second half, BG connected when Prochaska rebounded her own miss and hit the follow-up try.
Prochaska's putback gave the Falcons the lead for good, and Clapper followed with a long two-pointer after a nifty shot fake. Hennegan split a pair of free throws to give BG a 41-36 edge, but the Cougars got back within two points after Berry's layup at the 10:57 mark. That's when Slagle gave the Falcons a boost off the bench.
The sophomore had come into the game with 11:21 on the clock. On the Falcons' first trip down the floor, she promptly drained a three-pointer from the left corner, in front of the BG bench. Breske assisted on the play, which gave the Brown and Orange a 45-40 lead.
Slagle missed a triple try on BG's next possession, but freshman Allison Papenfuss got the rebound and laid the ball in for a seven-point advantage. Then, Slagle came up with a steal and fired the ball to Breske, who hit a transition layup for a 49-40 BG lead with just under 10 minutes left.
The visitors got within seven points when Madison Meade split two free throws out of the eight-minute media timeout, but SIUE would get no closer. Freshmen Jessie Tamerlano and Chrissy Steffen each hit a free throw, and Steffen fired the ball inside to Hennegan for an 'and-one' layup with 6:19 left. The ensuing free throw did not go down, but BG's lead was 11 points.
The lead fluctuated between nine and 11 points over the next few minutes, but four consecutive tosses from Steffen put BG up by a 61-48 count. Then, after the final media timeout of the night, some nifty passing by the Falcons led to another hoop, with Breske's pass finding an open Prochaska for a three-ball and a 16-point lead, the biggest of the afternoon.
The lead stayed in double digits the rest of the way, with the Falcons answering each SIUE score. Steffen scored five points off the BG bench, while classmate Papenfuss added four. Breske had five rebounds and two blocked shots in the game, as the Falcons had a season-high eight blocks.
The Falcons forced 21 Cougar turnovers and had a 21-11 advantage in points off turnovers in the game. Prochaska had three of BG's 11 steals, with Uhl and Breske picking up two apiece.
BGSU will remain home to begin the Mid-American Conference schedule, taking on the University of Akron on Wednesday evening (Jan. 6). Tipoff is 7:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena.
FALCON NOTES
* The Falcons posted a winning non-conference record for the eighth consecutive season, and BG picked up 10 non-league wins for the fourth-straight year ... prior to the current run, the Falcons had never won as many as 10 non-conference games in a season.
* Head coach Curt Miller moved into a tie for third place on the Mid-American Conference list ... Miller, already the winningest coach in BGSU women's basketball history, now has a total of 189 victories since assuming the Falcon helm ... he is deadlocked with former BG coach Fran Voll on the MAC chart ... Voll had 144 wins at BGSU and 41 more at Central Michigan ... only Kent State's Bob Lindsay and former Toledo coach Mark Ehlen are ahead of Miller and Voll in MAC annals.
* Junior Lauren Prochaska's total of 27 points tied the BGSU season high ... she also had 27 points in the Falcons' win over Saint Francis (Pa.) last month (Dec. 1, 2009) ... Prochaska's Saturday output marked her sixth game of 20 or more points this season, and the 25th such contest of her BGSU career ... she has scored in double digits in 74 of her 82 career games.
* Prochaska now has a total of 1,340 career points, and ranks 14th on that BGSU list ... she is only one point behind 13th-place Carin Horne ... Horne had 1,341 points for the Falcons from 2003-07 ... Prochaska is averaging 16.3 points per game, the second-highest average in school history, in her career.
* A total of 15 different players saw action for the Falcons in Saturday's win ... it marks the fifth time this season that 15 BG players got minutes in the same game ... prior to 2009-10, the Falcons had not played 15 different players in a game since at least 1985-86.
* BGSU had season-high totals in free throws made (32) and attempted (40), as well as blocked shots (eight) on Saturday ... however, the Falcons' total of 17 field goals made was a season low, as was BGSU's .304 field-goal percentage ... BG tied season lows in three-pointers made (four) and assists (10).
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