Wednesday, February 10
Mount Pleasant, MI
7:00 PM
Bowling Green State University
65
at
67
Central Michigan
Junior Tracy Pontius led BGSU with 16 points, including 4 3-pointers, at CMU
Furious Comeback Lifts CMU Past Falcons, 67-65
February 10, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Prochaska sets BGSU career 3-point record in loss
Host Central Michigan rallied from a 16-point second-half deficit, taking the lead with less than half a minute left en route to a 67-65 win over the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team Wednesday night (Feb. 10). The Mid-American Conference game was held at the Rose Center.
HTML Stats | PDF Boxscore | Curt Miller Postgame Audio
With the win, the Chippewas improved to 9-14 overall and 6-5 in the MAC. Central has won seven consecutive home games, including a 5-0 mark in conference action at the Rose Center this year to date. The Falcons drop to 19-6 and 9-2, respectively.
The Falcons, having completed the six-game swing against MAC West Division opponents, lead the league's East Division by one game over both Akron and Kent State. Each MAC team has five regular-season games remaining, as the second intra-divisional round-robin play begins this weekend.
Central's win snapped a nine-game BGSU winning streak in the series, and marked the Chippewas' first over the Falcons in just over seven years. CMU's last win over the Brown and Orange came on Feb. 5, 2003, at Rose.
Junior Tracy Pontius led the Falcons with 16 points, including 13 in the second half. Pontius hit four of the Falcons' nine three-point field goals on the evening.
Senior Tara Breske had 11 points vs. the Chippewas, while classmate Tamika Nurse had 10 points and a game-high eight assists. Both Breske and Nurse had three steals on the night.
Junior Lauren Prochaska hit a pair of three-pointers in the first half, becoming the school's career leader in three-point field goals made in the process. Prochaska now has a total of 217 successful triples at BG, breaking the record of 216 held by Liz Honegger.
Kaihla Szunko had a monster game for the Chippewas, with game-high totals of 21 points and 18 rebounds. Szunko was 9-of-12 from the field and had seven offensive boards in the game.
After scoring the game's first two points, the Chippewas did not lead again until Shonda Long's layup with just 28.9 seconds remaining in the game. That shot gave the hosts a 66-65 lead.
On the next possession, the Falcons turned the ball over, and BG fouled Rachel Mauk with 16.1 seconds on the clock. Mauk went to the line and missed her first free-throw try, but made the second, giving the hosts a two-point advantage.
The Falcons got the ball over midcourt and called timeout with 10.7 seconds left. Following that break, Nurse drove the baseline, but saw the ball knocked out of bounds with 3.9 seconds remaining.
The ensuing inbounds pass went to Breske, who fired a three-point attempt that hit the iron and bounced away as the buzzer sounded, sparking a massive celebration at midcourt.
The Chippewas overcame a total of 28 turnovers in the game, including 17 in the first half, by shooting .548 from the field in the second half. BGSU had 20 turnovers on the night.
The Falcons spotted CMU the game's opening two points, but responded with five-straight points, as junior Jen Uhl hit a three-pointer and Nurse knocked down a jumper. Szunko got a tip-in for the hosts, before Prochaska drained a triple for an 8-4 BG lead at the 16:26 mark. That shot enabled the Falcon junior to tie the school record for successful long-range shots.
After Breske split a pair of free throws, Prochaska connected from beyond the arc once again. The school-record triple came with 14:55 on the clock, and gave the Brown and Orange a 12-4 lead. But, those would be Prochaska's last points of the game.
BGSU increased the lead to 10 points after a layup from freshman Chrissy Steffen and a jumper from junior Maggie Hennegan. After Szunko scored again for the hosts (she had Central's first 10 points of the night), junior Kelly Zuercher's short-corner jumper gave the Falcons an 18-8 advantage at the game's second media timeout.
At that point, the Falcons had made 7-of-10 shots from the field. But, BGSU then missed the next eight shot attempts, turning the ball over several times in that span as well.
The hosts still trailed by 10 points, at 20-10, before Britni Houghton hit a layup at the 8:08 mark, for the Chippewas' first points by someone not named Szunko. Stefanie Mauk then made a three-pointer, cutting BG's lead to five, before Steffen knocked down a trey of her own. Steffen's shot was the Falcons' first field goal in exactly six minutes.
The Falcons took a double-figure lead once again after junior Laura Bugher made a nifty cut to the basket, took a pass from freshman Allison Papenfuss and laid the ball up and in.
Central got within seven points, but Pontius dribbled around the top of the arc, found herself unguarded and uncorked a shot that was on target. The Falcons had a 30-20 advantage with 2:47 left in the half. But, CMU scored the final five points of the half, including an acrobatic layup by Szunko with mere seconds left in the period that cut BG's lead to five points at the break.
The hosts got as close as three points early in the second half, but Nurse hit back-to-back shots to begin a 13-0 run for the Falcons. Nurse made a layup in transition after a Breske steal, then took a cross-court pass from Pontius and drained a three-ball, giving the Falcons a 37-29 lead and prompting CMU coach Sue Guevara to use a timeout.
The break did nothing to slow the visitors' momentum, though. Hennegan drove down the lane for a layup and a 10-point lead, and Pontius drilled a three-pointer after a scramble for the ball in the paint.
After a Central miss, Pontius hit another trey at the 14:24 mark, giving BGSU a game-high 16-point lead and causing the Chippewas to take their fourth timeout of the game.
Long finally broke her team's scoring drought of nearly four minutes, but Hennegan's nice look inside resulted in a Breske jumper and a 47-31 lead with 13:53 remaining. But, Central then seized the momentum, coming all the way back to tie the game in a span of five and a half minutes.
That span was five minutes and 31 seconds, to be exact, and those 331 seconds saw the Chippewas go on a 20-4 run. That run began innocently enough, as Houghton made a trey, but Breske answered with a jumper at the 11:58 mark. Then, Central scored seven-straight points, and 17 of the game's next 19.
Long scored the first five points of the 7-0 run, with Rachel Mauk's layup getting the hosts within 49-41 with 10:39 left. Nurse hit two free throws, but Skylar Miller's jumper began a 10-0 run. That run culminated with Long's layup at the 8:22 mark, and the game was tied, 51-51.
Hennegan responded with a layup in traffic, giving BG the lead once again, and Breske canned a jumper. Miller hit another layup, but a three-pointer from Pontius gave the Falcons a 58-53 advantage with 6:49 remaining.
Another Pontius hoop, this one a fast-break layup, gave the Falcons a 60-53 lead. Nurse, who had assists on both of those Pontius hoops, then picked up her second steal in as many CMU possessions, drawing a foul and splitting a pair of free throws for an eight-point lead, 61-53, with 5:07 left.
The Falcons still held a six-point lead at the final media timeout of the night, after a Pontius transition layup with 4:23 remaining. But, Szunko's three-point play cut BG's lead in half, and Her layup with 2:46 remaining cut the visitors' advantage to just a single point, 63-62.
The teams traded unsuccessful possessions, and the shot clock was winding down on BG's next chance, when Breske took a pass from Hennegan and hit a foul-line jumper just as the shot-clock buzzer sounded. BG held a 65-62 lead with 1:43 remaining.
Central responded, however, as Szunko hit a second-chance layup with 1:15 left, cutting BGSU's advantage to a single point once again. BG missed a shot on the next possession, and the Chippewas grabbed the rebound, got the ball over midcourt and called timeout with 54.5 seconds remaining.
Houghton missed a jumper and Hennegan was fouled on the rebound. She went to the line with 37.4 seconds on the clock, but missed the front end of a one-and-one opportunity, with Miller rebounding. That set the stage for Long's layup and the final half-minute of action.
Central shot .466 from the field for the game, while holding the Falcons to an even 40 percent from the field. The Chippewas held a 42-22 advantage in points in the paint and had 18 second-chance points to the Falcons' three.
Long scored 16 points for the home team, while Houghton had 10 points, six rebounds and six assists.
Steffen had seven points off the bench for the Brown and Orange, while Hennegan and Prochaska scored six apiece and Uhl added five. Prochaska led the Falcons with eight rebounds, while Hennegan had five. CMU held a decisive 43-27 rebounding advantage on the night, including a 23-12 margin in the second half.
The attendance, announced at 794, was the smallest crowd to see a BGSU game since the Falcons' trip to Canisius back on Dec. 19. BG has played in front of four crowds of less than 1,000 this year, with three of those coming in the Falcons' three games in the state of Michigan.
As mentioned, Central's win was the first over BG in over seven years. CMU has now won 13 of the 55 total meetings between the teams.
The Falcons now return home -- where the average attendance has been over 1,500 this season -- for a Saturday (Feb. 13) game vs. Ohio University. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at BGSU's venerable Anderson Arena.
HTML Stats | PDF Boxscore | Curt Miller Postgame Audio
With the win, the Chippewas improved to 9-14 overall and 6-5 in the MAC. Central has won seven consecutive home games, including a 5-0 mark in conference action at the Rose Center this year to date. The Falcons drop to 19-6 and 9-2, respectively.
The Falcons, having completed the six-game swing against MAC West Division opponents, lead the league's East Division by one game over both Akron and Kent State. Each MAC team has five regular-season games remaining, as the second intra-divisional round-robin play begins this weekend.
Central's win snapped a nine-game BGSU winning streak in the series, and marked the Chippewas' first over the Falcons in just over seven years. CMU's last win over the Brown and Orange came on Feb. 5, 2003, at Rose.
Junior Tracy Pontius led the Falcons with 16 points, including 13 in the second half. Pontius hit four of the Falcons' nine three-point field goals on the evening.
Senior Tara Breske had 11 points vs. the Chippewas, while classmate Tamika Nurse had 10 points and a game-high eight assists. Both Breske and Nurse had three steals on the night.
Junior Lauren Prochaska hit a pair of three-pointers in the first half, becoming the school's career leader in three-point field goals made in the process. Prochaska now has a total of 217 successful triples at BG, breaking the record of 216 held by Liz Honegger.
Kaihla Szunko had a monster game for the Chippewas, with game-high totals of 21 points and 18 rebounds. Szunko was 9-of-12 from the field and had seven offensive boards in the game.
After scoring the game's first two points, the Chippewas did not lead again until Shonda Long's layup with just 28.9 seconds remaining in the game. That shot gave the hosts a 66-65 lead.
On the next possession, the Falcons turned the ball over, and BG fouled Rachel Mauk with 16.1 seconds on the clock. Mauk went to the line and missed her first free-throw try, but made the second, giving the hosts a two-point advantage.
The Falcons got the ball over midcourt and called timeout with 10.7 seconds left. Following that break, Nurse drove the baseline, but saw the ball knocked out of bounds with 3.9 seconds remaining.
The ensuing inbounds pass went to Breske, who fired a three-point attempt that hit the iron and bounced away as the buzzer sounded, sparking a massive celebration at midcourt.
The Chippewas overcame a total of 28 turnovers in the game, including 17 in the first half, by shooting .548 from the field in the second half. BGSU had 20 turnovers on the night.
The Falcons spotted CMU the game's opening two points, but responded with five-straight points, as junior Jen Uhl hit a three-pointer and Nurse knocked down a jumper. Szunko got a tip-in for the hosts, before Prochaska drained a triple for an 8-4 BG lead at the 16:26 mark. That shot enabled the Falcon junior to tie the school record for successful long-range shots.
After Breske split a pair of free throws, Prochaska connected from beyond the arc once again. The school-record triple came with 14:55 on the clock, and gave the Brown and Orange a 12-4 lead. But, those would be Prochaska's last points of the game.
BGSU increased the lead to 10 points after a layup from freshman Chrissy Steffen and a jumper from junior Maggie Hennegan. After Szunko scored again for the hosts (she had Central's first 10 points of the night), junior Kelly Zuercher's short-corner jumper gave the Falcons an 18-8 advantage at the game's second media timeout.
At that point, the Falcons had made 7-of-10 shots from the field. But, BGSU then missed the next eight shot attempts, turning the ball over several times in that span as well.
The hosts still trailed by 10 points, at 20-10, before Britni Houghton hit a layup at the 8:08 mark, for the Chippewas' first points by someone not named Szunko. Stefanie Mauk then made a three-pointer, cutting BG's lead to five, before Steffen knocked down a trey of her own. Steffen's shot was the Falcons' first field goal in exactly six minutes.
The Falcons took a double-figure lead once again after junior Laura Bugher made a nifty cut to the basket, took a pass from freshman Allison Papenfuss and laid the ball up and in.
Central got within seven points, but Pontius dribbled around the top of the arc, found herself unguarded and uncorked a shot that was on target. The Falcons had a 30-20 advantage with 2:47 left in the half. But, CMU scored the final five points of the half, including an acrobatic layup by Szunko with mere seconds left in the period that cut BG's lead to five points at the break.
The hosts got as close as three points early in the second half, but Nurse hit back-to-back shots to begin a 13-0 run for the Falcons. Nurse made a layup in transition after a Breske steal, then took a cross-court pass from Pontius and drained a three-ball, giving the Falcons a 37-29 lead and prompting CMU coach Sue Guevara to use a timeout.
The break did nothing to slow the visitors' momentum, though. Hennegan drove down the lane for a layup and a 10-point lead, and Pontius drilled a three-pointer after a scramble for the ball in the paint.
After a Central miss, Pontius hit another trey at the 14:24 mark, giving BGSU a game-high 16-point lead and causing the Chippewas to take their fourth timeout of the game.
Long finally broke her team's scoring drought of nearly four minutes, but Hennegan's nice look inside resulted in a Breske jumper and a 47-31 lead with 13:53 remaining. But, Central then seized the momentum, coming all the way back to tie the game in a span of five and a half minutes.
That span was five minutes and 31 seconds, to be exact, and those 331 seconds saw the Chippewas go on a 20-4 run. That run began innocently enough, as Houghton made a trey, but Breske answered with a jumper at the 11:58 mark. Then, Central scored seven-straight points, and 17 of the game's next 19.
Long scored the first five points of the 7-0 run, with Rachel Mauk's layup getting the hosts within 49-41 with 10:39 left. Nurse hit two free throws, but Skylar Miller's jumper began a 10-0 run. That run culminated with Long's layup at the 8:22 mark, and the game was tied, 51-51.
Hennegan responded with a layup in traffic, giving BG the lead once again, and Breske canned a jumper. Miller hit another layup, but a three-pointer from Pontius gave the Falcons a 58-53 advantage with 6:49 remaining.
Another Pontius hoop, this one a fast-break layup, gave the Falcons a 60-53 lead. Nurse, who had assists on both of those Pontius hoops, then picked up her second steal in as many CMU possessions, drawing a foul and splitting a pair of free throws for an eight-point lead, 61-53, with 5:07 left.
The Falcons still held a six-point lead at the final media timeout of the night, after a Pontius transition layup with 4:23 remaining. But, Szunko's three-point play cut BG's lead in half, and Her layup with 2:46 remaining cut the visitors' advantage to just a single point, 63-62.
The teams traded unsuccessful possessions, and the shot clock was winding down on BG's next chance, when Breske took a pass from Hennegan and hit a foul-line jumper just as the shot-clock buzzer sounded. BG held a 65-62 lead with 1:43 remaining.
Central responded, however, as Szunko hit a second-chance layup with 1:15 left, cutting BGSU's advantage to a single point once again. BG missed a shot on the next possession, and the Chippewas grabbed the rebound, got the ball over midcourt and called timeout with 54.5 seconds remaining.
Houghton missed a jumper and Hennegan was fouled on the rebound. She went to the line with 37.4 seconds on the clock, but missed the front end of a one-and-one opportunity, with Miller rebounding. That set the stage for Long's layup and the final half-minute of action.
Central shot .466 from the field for the game, while holding the Falcons to an even 40 percent from the field. The Chippewas held a 42-22 advantage in points in the paint and had 18 second-chance points to the Falcons' three.
Long scored 16 points for the home team, while Houghton had 10 points, six rebounds and six assists.
Steffen had seven points off the bench for the Brown and Orange, while Hennegan and Prochaska scored six apiece and Uhl added five. Prochaska led the Falcons with eight rebounds, while Hennegan had five. CMU held a decisive 43-27 rebounding advantage on the night, including a 23-12 margin in the second half.
The attendance, announced at 794, was the smallest crowd to see a BGSU game since the Falcons' trip to Canisius back on Dec. 19. BG has played in front of four crowds of less than 1,000 this year, with three of those coming in the Falcons' three games in the state of Michigan.
As mentioned, Central's win was the first over BG in over seven years. CMU has now won 13 of the 55 total meetings between the teams.
The Falcons now return home -- where the average attendance has been over 1,500 this season -- for a Saturday (Feb. 13) game vs. Ohio University. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at BGSU's venerable Anderson Arena.
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