Three-Mendous First Half Propels Falcons Past Oakland

Saturday, November 20

Bowling Green, Ohio

2:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Oakland

Tracy Pontius had 17 first-half points, including 5 3-pointers, vs. Oakland (photo by Dave Kielmeyer)

November 20, 2010 | Women's Basketball

BGSU hits 10 three-point field goals before halftime in 80-46 win

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team hit 10 first-half three-pointers Saturday afternoon (Nov. 20), riding that long-distance marksmanship to an 80-46 win over Oakland University. The non-conference game was held at venerable Anderson Arena on the BGSU campus.

FINAL STATISTICS - HTML | BOXSCORE - PDF
PHOTO GALLERY (courtesy Dave Kielmeyer, BGSU Marketing & Communications)
POSTGAME AUDIO - Curt Miller
Scroll down for postgame video interviews with Tracy Pontius, Maggie Hennegan & Curt Miller

With the win, the Falcons improve to 3-1 on the season, while the Golden Grizzlies fall to 1-3 on the year.

Senior Tracy Pontius scored all of her game-high 17 points in the first half, hitting five three-pointers. The Falcons made 10 three-pointers in 21 attempts in the opening 20 minutes, opening up a 45-20 lead at the intermission.

Four Falcons hit double digits in the win, as senior Maggie Hennegan had 13 points, while senior Lauren Prochaska and sophomore Chrissy Steffen had 11 apiece.

Steffen made a total of three three-pointers in the game, while Prochaska hit two. Hennegan made her only long-distance try, while freshman Noelle Yoder had a triple as well.

BGSU went 12-of-32 from three-point range on the day, and the Falcons were 20-of-24 at the free-throw line.

Prochaska had a well-rounded game, leading all players with six assists and adding five rebounds and two steals. Pontius had five assists in the game, as BGSU had 19 assists and 11 turnovers as a team.

Hennegan and fellow senior Jen Uhl had six rebounds each, as the Falcons held a 46-40 advantage in that category.

Malika Glover led the Grizzlies with 14 points, while Brittney Nelson had 11 points and a game-high total of seven rebounds. The Falcons held OU's leading scorer, Bethany Watterworth, without a point in the game. Watterworth, who entered the game averaging 22.0 points per game this season, went 0-for-6 from the field and was in foul trouble for much of the afternoon.

Dave Kielmeyer photo - Nov 20 2010 vs Oakland

Prochaska set the tone for the game early. After the Falcons won the jump ball to open the game, Pontius fired a pass ahead to the two-time Mid-American Conference Player of the Year. Prochaska hoisted a three-point try from the right wing with just four seconds gone, and the shot found nothing but net.

With just over a minute elapsed, Prochaska was fouled in the act of shooting a triple. She went to the line and hit all three free throws, and the score was Lauren 6, Oakland 0.

Anna Pattritto's jumper got the visitors on the board two-and-a-half minutes in, but triples by Steffen and Pontius gave the Brown and Orange a 12-2 advantage. Prochaska, after scoring the first six points for the hosts, assisted on the next six, with passes to both Steffen and Pontius.

Toledo native Sherise Calhoun's steal and layup cut the lead, but Steffen fed fellow soph Allison Papenfuss for a foul-line jumper, sparking a 6-0 run. Pontius hit a pair of charity tosses, then found Hennegan for a layup and an 18-4 lead less than six minutes into the contest.

After the slow start, the Grizzlies looked to get back into the game, mounting a 9-2 run to get within seven points. Brittany Carnago -- who had seven blocked shots for OU in the game -- scored in the paint, but Prochaska answered with a jumper of her own. But, Glover sandwiched a pair of layups around a Nelson three-pointer, and the score was 20-13. Carnago blocked shots on back-to-back BGSU possessions during that stretch, and the Grizzlies responded with baskets each time.

With the score 20-13, however, and the visitors looking to whittle down BG's lead even more, Watterworth was called for an offensive foul -- her third foul of the day -- and headed to the bench with 9:14 left in the half. After another OU foul, Hennegan hit a pair of throws to put the Falcons up by nine.

Pontius took a pass from Prochaska on the left wing and drained a trey. OU's Zakiya Minifee answered with a three-pointer of her own, but Hennegan stepped out beyond the arc, took a Pontius pass and drained a triple try of her own. The Falcons' lead was 28-16.

Carnego scored inside for the visitors, but Prochaska found Steffen in three-point land for BG's sixth trey of the day. Thirty seconds later, Steffen returned the favor, spotting Prochaska in three-point land. Prochaska made a shot fake, waited for a defender to fly past her, and let fly the shot that became the Falcons' seventh successful triple. The home team had a 34-18 lead.

Neither team scored for over two minutes, but when that scoring drought was broken, it was broken ... (wait for it) ... 1) by the Falcons, and 2) with a three-pointer. Hennegan took a pass in the paint and kicked the ball out to Pontius for another triple. It was the senior's third trey of the day, and her team's eighth. BG led, 37-18, with 3:48 left before halftime.

That was the first of three triples that Pontius would hit over the final four minutes of the half. The second gave the Falcons a 40-19 lead with 3:10 left before halftime. On BG's next possession, the point guard got the ball inside to Hennegan for a layup and a 42-19 advantage.

Then, with 1:48 left in the period, Pontius took a Prochaska pass and let fly another long-distance shot. This one, like so many of BGSU's first-half tries, was on target and the Falcons had a 45-20 lead. BG took that advantage into the lockerroom.

In that first half, 21 of the Falcons' 33 total field-goal attempts came from three-point range.

BGSU scored the first seven points of the second half, taking a 52-20 lead, and the margin would never fall below 24 points the rest of the day. Steffen opened the second-half scoring with the Falcons' 11th three-pointer of the game, Uhl followed with a layup in transition, and Hennegan got to the line and made a pair of free throws. Also during that stretch, Watterworth was whistled for her fourth foul of the day with 16:46 still remaining.

The lead stayed between 26 and 32 points for the next 10 minutes, and head coach Curt Miller was able to give his bench players valuable minutes on the court. Pontius and Prochaska played a combined eight second-half minutes, as Pontius checked out of the game with 16:34 remaining, while Prochaska went to the bench for good with 14:02 on the clock.

Midway through the half, junior Jessica Slagle's sweet bounce pass was right on target, giving senior Chelsea Albert an easy layup for a 61-33 BG advantage. Albert scored again moments later, with an offensive rebound and putback in traffic.

The visitors knocked the Falcons' lead down to 24 points, but Slagle dished out two more assists, finding freshman Jill Stein and Albert for back-to-back layups. Albert, who had a blocked shot during that stretch, was fouled on her layup, completing the three-point play with 4:22 on the clock. After Glover answered with a layup, Albert got back to the line for two more free throws, hitting both.

Yoder then scored the game's next four points, on a jumper and a pair of shots from the stripe, and when redshirt soph Maribeth Giese hit a free throw of her own, BG's lead was 34 points, 77-43.

The visitors scored three consecutive points, but Yoder matched that with a three-pointer to close the game's scoring. Giese assisted on that final basket. Freshman Jillian Halfhill stole the ball on the next OU possession, and the Falcons ran out the clock.

Albert had a perfect shooting day, going 3-for-3 both from the floor and from the line, en route to nine points. The senior also had three rebounds and a blocked shot in 12 minutes of action.

Yoder scored seven points, the most of her young career, in only seven minutes, and also grabbed four rebounds.

After holding Youngstown State to just 25.0 percent shooting from the field in Wednesday's (Nov. 17) win, the Falcon defense limited the Golden Grizzlies to a 28.1% success rate on Saturday.

The Falcons return to Anderson for a Thanksgiving-Eve game, hosting Detroit on Wednesday night (Nov. 24). Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at "The House That Roars." Then, BGSU will jet to the state of Washington for two games in the Seattle University Thanksgiving Tournament. The Falcons will face Arkansas Little Rock on Friday night (Nov. 26) and either Montana State or host Seattle on Saturday (Nov. 27).