Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Akron
Late First-Half Run Lifts Falcons Past Akron, 74-62
January 06, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Prochaska scores 23 as BGSU opens MAC play with win
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team broke open a tie game with a double-digit run late in the first half, en route to a 74-62 win over the University of Akron Wednesday night (Jan. 6). The game, the Mid-American Conference opener for both teams, was held at venerable Anderson Arena.
STATS, ETC.
BGSU 74, AKRON 62 - Final Stats
BGSU 74, AKRON 62 - PDF Boxscore
BGSU's Cumulative Stats - HTML
BGSU's Cumulative Stats - PDF
POSTGAME AUDIO
Curt Miller | Lauren Prochaska
With the win, the Falcons improve to 11-4 overall, while dropping the Zips to 6-8.
Junior Lauren Prochaska led the Brown and Orange with 23 points on the evening, pacing three players in double digits for the hosts. Rachel Tecca had 26 points off the bench for the visitors.
The Falcons now lead the all-time series with the Zips by a 42-2 count, and BGSU has won 13 consecutive series meetings. BG has a perfect 23-0 home record in games vs. UA over the years.
The Zips never led, but bounced back from an early seven-point deficit to tie the contest. The game was deadlocked five times in the first half, the last at 24-24 after a Jolene Tamboue layup. But, the Falcons proceeded to score 12-straight points as part of a 19-4 run to end the half.
In the second half, the Falcons never let the lead drop under double digits, but never quite put the Zips away, either. BG's advantage reached a game-high 17 points after a four-point possession with 6:44 to go, but the visitors cut the lead to 10 points on numerous second-half occasions.
Senior co-captain Tara Breske had 14 points for the Brown and Orange, while junior Tracy Pontius added 13. Tecca was the lone UA player in double digits.
The Falcons got off to a quick start, hitting the first three shots of the night to open up a 7-0 lead. Prochaska assisted on two of those baskets before scoring the third herself. on the first possession of the night, she kicked the ball out to junior Jen Uhl for a three-pointer from the very top of the arc. Then, after a Pontius steal, Prochaska got the ball to Breske for a short-corner jumper and a five-point lead. The shots by Uhl and Breske both came with the shot clock winding down.
After Uhl took a charge by a UA player at the other end of the floor, Prochaska drove down the lane for a layup that gave BG that seven-point lead and prompted an Akron timeout with less than two minutes gone.
Kyle Baumgartner got the Zips on the board with a short jumper at the 17:30 mark, but Uhl hit Breske for another jumper a minute later. However, the visitors went on a 7-0 run of their own, holding the Falcons scoreless for over four-and-a-half minutes.
Baumgartner hit another layup to cut BG's lead to 9-4 by the game's initial media timeout, and a three-pointer by Kara Murphy made it a two-point game. Tecca got on the scoreboard at the 12:14 mark, and the score was tied at nine.
Head coaches Curt Miller and Jodi Kest were assistant coaches together at Cleveland State a decade-and-a-half ago, and were working hard to outwit the other on this evening. The Falcons went ahead three times in the game's next two minutes, only to see the Zips answer at the other end. The last tie in that sequence came on a pretty turnaround jumper from Tecca, but Prochaska answered with a smooth jumper as she sliced left-to-right across the paint. The hosts held a 17-15 lead midway through the half.
A few minutes later, BG went ahead by four points on an offensive rebound and putback by Uhl. Ayla Guzzardo hit a three for the Zips, but Prochaska returned the favor with a triple of her own, giving BG a 24-20 lead. The Zips got hoops from Murphy and Tamboue before the hosts went on a game-changing run.
That 12-0 run began when senior Tamika Nurse hit a jumper while being fouled with 5:47 left in the half. Nurse's free throw completed the three-point play and gave the hosts the lead for good. Moments later, Uhl drove the baseline and, from under the basket, spotted Prochaska at the left elbow. Prochaska's three-point try found nothing but net, giving the Falcons a 30-24 advantage.
Pontius stole the ball from Natasha Williams at midcourt and was fouled, hitting both ends of a one-and-one opportunity. Then, 40 seconds later, Pontius came up with another steal and headed downcourt for a layup and a 34-24 lead.
On Akron's next possession, Prochaska blocked Murphy's three-point try, with Pontius grabbing the ball. One Preseason All-MAC Team member assisted the other, as Pontius fired the ball downcourt to Prochaska, who sailed in ahead of the pack for an uncontested layup and a 12-point advantage.
Tamboue's free throws at the 2:43 mark broke Akron's scoreless drought, but Uhl nailed her second triple of the half to give the Falcons a 39-26 lead. Tecca's layup, the Zips' first basket in nearly five minutes, cut that lead to 11, but the home team would score four points in a hurry.
Prochaska made a layup with 1:22 left in the half, and Pontius quickly stole the inbounds pass and banked a jumper off the glass and in, increasing BG's lead to 15 points. The Falcons took that 43-28 advantage to the lockerroom.
At the beginning of the second half, either the defenses were hot, or the offenses were, well, not. The teams combined to make just one of the first 12 shot attempts of the period. The lone successful shot in that time came from Tamboue just seven seconds into the half.
After 11 consecutive misses, a Murphy jumper cut the Falcons' lead to 11 points, at 43-32. Pontius came right back with a driving one-hander for the Falcons, but the lead would remain between 10 and 13 points for the next eight-plus minutes.
After a layup by Amber Witt got the Zips within 10 points, freshman Allison Papenfuss used the glass to convert a right-side jumper, and classmate Chrissy Steffen took a Nurse pass and hit a three-pointer on the fast break. The Falcons' lead was 56-41, and the Zips used a timeout.
Tecca knocked down a jumper out of that timeout, but the Zips were called for an intentional foul just eight seconds later. After Nurse's long pass was caught by Prochaska under the basket, a UA player shoved the Falcon junior in the back as she prepared to shoot. Prochaska hit both free throws, and the Falcons retained possession. Nurse's inbounds pass to Breske resulted in a layup just one second after the Prochaska free throws. The four-point possession gave BG a 60-43 lead with 6:44 left.
Back came the Zips, however, as Tecca hit a pair of shots to cut the Falcons' lead to 13 points. Pontius scored with 4:02 left, but Tecca hit yet another jumper. But, some nifty passing led to three more points for the Brown and Orange.
Pontius drove along the baseline, drawing a pair of defenders as she passed under the basket. She whipped a pass to Nurse in the left corner, who faked a shot and found Uhl in front of the BG bench. With the UA defense scrambling to keep up, Uhl fired an extra 'extra pass' to a wide-open Prochaska at the right elbow, giving one of the top three-point shooters in school history a good look at a three-point shot. Prochaska made no mistake, burying her shot for a 65-49 Falcon lead with 3:32 remaining.
Guzzardo, though, made a three-pointer of her own, and another Tecca layup with 1:45 left cut the Falcons' lead to 11 points. Prochaska was fouled and hit both tosses with 1:25 remaining, but Tecca converted a three-point play 13 seconds later, and BG's lead was down to 10 points.
UA was forced to foul, however, and the Falcons made the most of the opportunities at the stripe. BG went 7-of-8 from the foul line over the game's final 1:07, more than offsetting a pair of Tecca free throws and a late three-pointer by Taylor Ruper.
The Falcons shot 41 percent from the field for the game, including a .471 rate in the first half, while UA had a field-goal percentage of .388. BG went 18-of-19 from the free-throw line, making the first 16 tries of the night before finally missing withi just 38 seconds left, while UA was 6-of-13 from the stripe.
Prochaska had three of the home team's six three-pointers, while Uhl made a pair. BG was 6-of-16 from beyond the arc.
Tecca was the only Akron player to score in double digits, but Tamboue had eighit points and Murphy seven. Tamboue pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds as the Zips held a 44-38 advantage on the boards.
Ul had eight points and a team-leading eight rebounds for the Falcons, and she tied for team honors with three assists. Breske had seven boards and a career-high four blocked shots, while Pontius had six boards and five steals. For Pontius, the rebound and steal totals each fell just one shy of matching her career best.
Nurse had seven points and Steffen five for the Brown and Orange.
The Falcons will hit the road for a Saturday (Jan. 9) contest at Ohio University. That game, the second half of a doubleheader, is scheduled to tip off at 4:30 p.m.
FALCON NOTES
* As mentioned, the Falcons now hold a 42-2 lead in the all-time series with Akron, and BGSU has won 13 consecutive games over the Zips ... BG has a perfect 23-0 mark in home games vs. UA.
* Wednesday's win was the 190th in Curt Miller's head-coaching career ... Miller, who became the winningest coach in Falcon history two seasons ago, moved past former BGSU and Central Michigan coach Fran Voll into third place on the Mid-American Conference wins list ... Miller now trails only Bob Lindsay (Kent State) and Mark Ehlen (former Toledo coach) on the conference chart.
* In MAC games only, Miller now has 95 victories, and has moved into sole possession of seventh place in league history on that list ... he moved ahead of former Toledo mentor Bill Fennelly (now at Iowa State).
* Junior Lauren Prochaska had a team-leading 23 points vs. the Zips ... she has scored at least 20 points three times in the last four games and seven times this season ... Prochaska has had a total of 26 career 20-point games ... she has scored in double digits in 75 of her 83 career games at BGSU.
* Prochaska moved up several spots on the BGSU career scoring list Wednesday ... she now has 1,363 points in her Falcon career, and has tied Stephanie Coe (1983-87) for 12th place in school history ... Prochaska entered Wednesday's game in 14th place, but moved past Carin Horne (1,341 points from 2003-07) and equalled Coe's career total ... Prochaska's next target is 11th-place Angie Bonner, who had 1,412 points from 1987-90.
* BGSU is now 7-2 in MAC openers in the Curt Miller Era, and the Falcons have won six consecutive conference-opening games ... BG is 6-3 in the MAC home opener in Miller's tenure, with a five-game win streak.
* How about an End-of-Year/Decade list? With the win over Akron, the Falcons are now 2-0 in the 2010 calendar year ... here are BGSU's records in each calendar year of the past decade or so ...
2010 - 2-0
2009 - 28-7
2008 - 26-7
2007 - 31-5
2006 - 29-4
2005 - 25-5
2004 - 22-10
2003 - 12-16
2002 - 12-15
2001 - 10-19
2000 - 13-16
* The Anthony Wayne High School band turned in a stellar performance at the game, and provided AWHS alum Allison Papenfuss with a large cheering section at the south end of the court.
* The Falcons went 16-of-16 from the free-throw line to begin the night, before finally missing in the game's final minute ... BG wound up shooting .947 from the line for the game.
