Saturday, February 20
Akron, OH
2:00 PM
Bowling Green State University
66
at
56
Akron
Lauren Prochaska drives to the basket during first-half action at Akron. Prochaska had a game-high 20 points (photo by Larry Clapper)
Falcons Get Past Akron, 66-56, to Give Miller 200th Win
February 20, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Prochaska has 20 points to pace four BGSU players in double digits
In a game with a tournament type of atmosphere, the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team picked up a 66-56 road win over the University of Akron Saturday afternoon (Feb. 20). The Mid-American Conference game was held at UA's Rhodes Arena.
HTML: Box & Play-by-Play | BGSU Cumulative Stats
PDF: Boxscore | BGSU Cumulative Stats
POSTGAME AUDIO: Curt Miller & Lauren Prochaska
PHOTO GALLERY: BGSU-Akron photos by Larry Clapper
With the win, the Falcons improve to 21-6 overall and 11-2 in the MAC. BGSU leads the MAC's East Division by one game over Kent State and two games over UA. The Zips drop to 15-11 and 9-4, respectively.
The win was the 200th in the BGSU head-coaching career of Curt Miller. Miller is just the third coach in conference women's basketball history to reach 200 victories, and becomes the fastest coach in MAC annals to reach the milestone.
Junior Lauren Prochaska had 20 points to pace four BGSU players in double figures. Senior Tamika Nurse had 14 points, including seven free throws in the last 85 seconds, while juniors Tracy Pontius and Jen Uhl scored 10 points apiece.
Uhl had a double-double, with a game-high total of 10 rebounds. The Falcons held a 40-38 advantage on the boards.
Rachel Tecca led the Zips with 20 points and nine rebounds off the bench, while Amber Witt added nine points.
The Falcons ended the first half on a 12-2 run, holding the Zips without a field goal over the final 6:53, to take a 31-27 halftime lead. BG would keep the home team without a basket for the first two-plus minutes of the second period, taking an eight-point lead with two minutes gone.
In all, the Falcons had an 18-4 run over a span of just over nine minutes, with all four of the Zips' points during that time coming at the free-throw line.
BG's lead reached double digits for the first time on a Prochaska three-point field goal midway through the half. The home team scored six-straight points to cut the Falcons' advantage to 50-46, but a 7-0 run lifted BG's lead to a game-high 11 points with under six minutes left, and UA could not get closer than five points the rest of the day.
BGSU burst out to a 7-2 lead in the early going. Pontius hit a triple on BGSU's first possession of the afternoon. After Jolene Tamboue hit a layup to get the Zips on the board, senior Tara Breske countered with a turnaround jumper in the paint. Breske then stole the ball from Ayla Guzzardo and fed Pontius for a two-on-one layup, resulting in an early five-point lead and a UA timeout at the 17:18 mark.
The Zips responded with four consecutive points, before a second Pontius triple gave the Brown and Orange a 10-6 lead at the initial media timeout.
Breske increased that lead to 12-6 with a layup, and a Pontius driving layup gave the Falcons a 14-8 advantage with 13:36 left in the half. At that point, Pontius (10 points) and Breske (four) were the only players to have found the scoresheet for the visitors.
The Zips rallied back, scoring nine consecutive points. Guzzardo assisted on the first four of those points, finding North Canton natives Amber Witt and Kyle Baumgartner for layups. Then, Tecca hit a pair of free throws, and got an offensive rebound and an 'and-one' layup, giving UA a 17-14 lead out of the 11:39 media timeout.
Prochaska ended the run with a right-side three-ball, but Jasmine Mushington gave the Zips the lead once again. A Witt layup was the only scoring over the next three minutes, before Breske's nice look resulted in a layup by Uhl, cutting the hosts' advantage to 21-19.
Baumgartner hit a jumper, though, and a third-chance layup by Tecca resulted in a 25-19 Akron lead and a BGSU timeout with 6:57 left in the half. That timeout precipitated the aforementioned run.
Prochaska got the run started with a steal and an 'and-one' layup. Her free throw cut the Zips' lead to three, 25-22. Then, Breske came up with a steal to give BG the ball back. At the other end, Breske looked to be trapped, as she couldn't find a teammate to pass the ball to, so she simply rose up and hit a right-side jumper. After a UA miss and a BG rebound, Prochaska found Breske for a long two-pointer and a 27-26 lead, as the Zips burned a timeout at the 5:21 mark.
Tecca hit a pair of free throws, but junior Kelly Zuercher's two tosses gave the Brown and Orange a 28-27 lead. A Nurse coast-to-coast layup with just over two minutes left gave the Falcons a three-point margin, and Nurse's free throw with 42 seconds left was the only other scoring before the break.
The second half saw Tamboue pick up her third foul on the opening possession of the half, a sign of things to come for both teams. By game's end, Tamboue had fouled out, and seven other players -- three for BGSU, four for Akron -- had four fouls.
Prochaska was the victim of that Tamboue foul to start the half, and the BG junior uncharacteristically missed her second free-throw try. But, after a UA miss, Pontius drove the baseline and whipped a pass to Prochaska, who hit a three-pointer as the shot-clock buzzer sounded. That trey gave BGSU an eight-point lead, the largest of the game to that point.
Back came the Zips, scoring eight of the next 10 points. BG's only points in that span came when Zuercher alerted spotted an open Uhl under the basket for an easy layup. But, Tecca scored six-straight points on a trio of layups, the last cutting the Falcons' lead to 37-35 with 16:14 left.
Uhl grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled in the process, splitting her free throws, and Prochaska scored on a driving banker, getting fouled and completing the three-point play for a 41-35 lead.
But, as the shot-clock wound down, UA's Natasha Williams was fouled in the act of shooting a three-pointer, and she hit all three resulting charity tosses to cut BG's lead in half. Junior Maggie Hennegan hit a layup after a nifty bounce pass from freshman Chrissy Steffen, before Tamboue's layup made it a 43-40 game.
Prochaska hit two free throws out of the 11:58 media timeout, and a Nurse jump-stop layup gave BGSU a 47-40 advantage. Then, Prochaska stole the ball from Tecca and hit a transition layup as the whistle blew. But, the call went against Prochaska. Instead of a 49-40 lead with Prochaska going to the line, the Falcon junior had her third foul of the game and the Zips had the ball.
The BG defense forced a miss, and the next possession saw Prochaska take a pass from Pontius, spot up and hit a right-elbow three-pointer for a 50-40 lead.
The Zips would not go away, however, scoring six-straight points. The last three came on Witt's triple, the home team's only successful shot from long distance in the game. Prochaska's runner gave BGSU a 52-46 lead with 8:12 left, and Uhl's three-point play gave the Falcons a nine-point advantage with 6:38 remaining.
When Nurse hit a shot in the lane, the Falcons had an 11-point lead -- the largest of the day -- with under six minutes left. UA made one last run, scoring six-straight points. Witt hit two tosses, and Tecca converted a putback with just over four minutes remaining. When Mushington made a layup with just over two minutes on the clock, the Falcons' lead was down to 57-52. And, Prochaska was called for an offensive foul, giving the ball back to the hosts.
UA missed a three-point try on the next possession, though, with Nurse grabbing the rebound. She was fouled, went to the line and hit a pair of tries with 1:25 left. Nurse would go 7-of-8 from the stripe in the final minute and a half, with Uhl also sinking two tosses during that time.
The Falcons had a poor day from the free-throw line over the first 38-plus minutes. BGSU went just 10-of-21 from the stripe before going 9-of-10 over the final minute and a half.
Breske had eight points for the Brown and Orange, as the BG starters scored 62 of the team's 66 points on the day.
The Falcons held UA's top scorer, Kara Murphy, to just four points on 1-of-9 shooting from the field. Murphy had eight rebounds for the hosts. Tamboue, Baumgartner and Mushington had six points apiece for the Zips.
The Falcons now prepare for another trip eastward, taking on the University at Buffalo in Wednesday (Feb. 24) action. That game will begin at 7:00 p.m. at UB's Alumni Arena.
FALCON NOTES
* BGSU's win gives Curt Miller a record of 200-79 in his ninth year since assuming the Falcon helm ... Miller becomes the fastest coach to 200 wins in MAC women's basketball history ... only Kent State's Bob Lindsay (389 wins after Saturday's victory at Ohio) and former Toledo head coach Mark Ehlen (240 wins) have reached the 200-win plateau ... Miller got there in his 279th career game, while it took Ehlen 292 games and Lindsay 308 to reach the milestone.
* Lauren Prochaska, just a junior, has moved into fifth place on the BGSU career scoring list ... Prochaska's total of 20 points on Saturday gives her 1,576 in 95 career games ... she moved past Francine Miller (1,574 points from 1998-2003) in the UA game ... Prochaska is just four points behind fourth-place Kate Achter (1,580 points from 2004-08) on the BGSU list.
* Saturday's game was Akron's 'Pink Zone' game in support of breast cancer awareness ... BGSU's 'Pink Zone' game was last Saturday, Feb. 13, in the win over Ohio.
* BGSU's magic number for a first-round bye in the MAC Tournament is one ... one BG win, or one loss by Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan (both 8-5 MAC), would give the Falcons a top-four seed and a berth in the quarterfinal round ... the divisional winners will earn the #1 and #2 seeds for the tournament, with the remaining teams, regardless of division, seeded by record.
* Junior Jen Uhl's double-double against the Zips was the third of her career ... all three have come this season, and all three have come in MAC play -- against Eastern Michigan, Toledo and UA.
HTML: Box & Play-by-Play | BGSU Cumulative Stats
PDF: Boxscore | BGSU Cumulative Stats
POSTGAME AUDIO: Curt Miller & Lauren Prochaska
PHOTO GALLERY: BGSU-Akron photos by Larry Clapper
With the win, the Falcons improve to 21-6 overall and 11-2 in the MAC. BGSU leads the MAC's East Division by one game over Kent State and two games over UA. The Zips drop to 15-11 and 9-4, respectively.
The win was the 200th in the BGSU head-coaching career of Curt Miller. Miller is just the third coach in conference women's basketball history to reach 200 victories, and becomes the fastest coach in MAC annals to reach the milestone.
Junior Lauren Prochaska had 20 points to pace four BGSU players in double figures. Senior Tamika Nurse had 14 points, including seven free throws in the last 85 seconds, while juniors Tracy Pontius and Jen Uhl scored 10 points apiece.
Uhl had a double-double, with a game-high total of 10 rebounds. The Falcons held a 40-38 advantage on the boards.
Rachel Tecca led the Zips with 20 points and nine rebounds off the bench, while Amber Witt added nine points.
The Falcons ended the first half on a 12-2 run, holding the Zips without a field goal over the final 6:53, to take a 31-27 halftime lead. BG would keep the home team without a basket for the first two-plus minutes of the second period, taking an eight-point lead with two minutes gone.
In all, the Falcons had an 18-4 run over a span of just over nine minutes, with all four of the Zips' points during that time coming at the free-throw line.
BG's lead reached double digits for the first time on a Prochaska three-point field goal midway through the half. The home team scored six-straight points to cut the Falcons' advantage to 50-46, but a 7-0 run lifted BG's lead to a game-high 11 points with under six minutes left, and UA could not get closer than five points the rest of the day.
BGSU burst out to a 7-2 lead in the early going. Pontius hit a triple on BGSU's first possession of the afternoon. After Jolene Tamboue hit a layup to get the Zips on the board, senior Tara Breske countered with a turnaround jumper in the paint. Breske then stole the ball from Ayla Guzzardo and fed Pontius for a two-on-one layup, resulting in an early five-point lead and a UA timeout at the 17:18 mark.
The Zips responded with four consecutive points, before a second Pontius triple gave the Brown and Orange a 10-6 lead at the initial media timeout.
Breske increased that lead to 12-6 with a layup, and a Pontius driving layup gave the Falcons a 14-8 advantage with 13:36 left in the half. At that point, Pontius (10 points) and Breske (four) were the only players to have found the scoresheet for the visitors.
The Zips rallied back, scoring nine consecutive points. Guzzardo assisted on the first four of those points, finding North Canton natives Amber Witt and Kyle Baumgartner for layups. Then, Tecca hit a pair of free throws, and got an offensive rebound and an 'and-one' layup, giving UA a 17-14 lead out of the 11:39 media timeout.
Prochaska ended the run with a right-side three-ball, but Jasmine Mushington gave the Zips the lead once again. A Witt layup was the only scoring over the next three minutes, before Breske's nice look resulted in a layup by Uhl, cutting the hosts' advantage to 21-19.
Baumgartner hit a jumper, though, and a third-chance layup by Tecca resulted in a 25-19 Akron lead and a BGSU timeout with 6:57 left in the half. That timeout precipitated the aforementioned run.
Prochaska got the run started with a steal and an 'and-one' layup. Her free throw cut the Zips' lead to three, 25-22. Then, Breske came up with a steal to give BG the ball back. At the other end, Breske looked to be trapped, as she couldn't find a teammate to pass the ball to, so she simply rose up and hit a right-side jumper. After a UA miss and a BG rebound, Prochaska found Breske for a long two-pointer and a 27-26 lead, as the Zips burned a timeout at the 5:21 mark.
Tecca hit a pair of free throws, but junior Kelly Zuercher's two tosses gave the Brown and Orange a 28-27 lead. A Nurse coast-to-coast layup with just over two minutes left gave the Falcons a three-point margin, and Nurse's free throw with 42 seconds left was the only other scoring before the break.
The second half saw Tamboue pick up her third foul on the opening possession of the half, a sign of things to come for both teams. By game's end, Tamboue had fouled out, and seven other players -- three for BGSU, four for Akron -- had four fouls.
Prochaska was the victim of that Tamboue foul to start the half, and the BG junior uncharacteristically missed her second free-throw try. But, after a UA miss, Pontius drove the baseline and whipped a pass to Prochaska, who hit a three-pointer as the shot-clock buzzer sounded. That trey gave BGSU an eight-point lead, the largest of the game to that point.
Back came the Zips, scoring eight of the next 10 points. BG's only points in that span came when Zuercher alerted spotted an open Uhl under the basket for an easy layup. But, Tecca scored six-straight points on a trio of layups, the last cutting the Falcons' lead to 37-35 with 16:14 left.
Uhl grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled in the process, splitting her free throws, and Prochaska scored on a driving banker, getting fouled and completing the three-point play for a 41-35 lead.
But, as the shot-clock wound down, UA's Natasha Williams was fouled in the act of shooting a three-pointer, and she hit all three resulting charity tosses to cut BG's lead in half. Junior Maggie Hennegan hit a layup after a nifty bounce pass from freshman Chrissy Steffen, before Tamboue's layup made it a 43-40 game.
Prochaska hit two free throws out of the 11:58 media timeout, and a Nurse jump-stop layup gave BGSU a 47-40 advantage. Then, Prochaska stole the ball from Tecca and hit a transition layup as the whistle blew. But, the call went against Prochaska. Instead of a 49-40 lead with Prochaska going to the line, the Falcon junior had her third foul of the game and the Zips had the ball.
The BG defense forced a miss, and the next possession saw Prochaska take a pass from Pontius, spot up and hit a right-elbow three-pointer for a 50-40 lead.
The Zips would not go away, however, scoring six-straight points. The last three came on Witt's triple, the home team's only successful shot from long distance in the game. Prochaska's runner gave BGSU a 52-46 lead with 8:12 left, and Uhl's three-point play gave the Falcons a nine-point advantage with 6:38 remaining.
When Nurse hit a shot in the lane, the Falcons had an 11-point lead -- the largest of the day -- with under six minutes left. UA made one last run, scoring six-straight points. Witt hit two tosses, and Tecca converted a putback with just over four minutes remaining. When Mushington made a layup with just over two minutes on the clock, the Falcons' lead was down to 57-52. And, Prochaska was called for an offensive foul, giving the ball back to the hosts.
UA missed a three-point try on the next possession, though, with Nurse grabbing the rebound. She was fouled, went to the line and hit a pair of tries with 1:25 left. Nurse would go 7-of-8 from the stripe in the final minute and a half, with Uhl also sinking two tosses during that time.
The Falcons had a poor day from the free-throw line over the first 38-plus minutes. BGSU went just 10-of-21 from the stripe before going 9-of-10 over the final minute and a half.
Breske had eight points for the Brown and Orange, as the BG starters scored 62 of the team's 66 points on the day.
The Falcons held UA's top scorer, Kara Murphy, to just four points on 1-of-9 shooting from the field. Murphy had eight rebounds for the hosts. Tamboue, Baumgartner and Mushington had six points apiece for the Zips.
The Falcons now prepare for another trip eastward, taking on the University at Buffalo in Wednesday (Feb. 24) action. That game will begin at 7:00 p.m. at UB's Alumni Arena.
FALCON NOTES
* BGSU's win gives Curt Miller a record of 200-79 in his ninth year since assuming the Falcon helm ... Miller becomes the fastest coach to 200 wins in MAC women's basketball history ... only Kent State's Bob Lindsay (389 wins after Saturday's victory at Ohio) and former Toledo head coach Mark Ehlen (240 wins) have reached the 200-win plateau ... Miller got there in his 279th career game, while it took Ehlen 292 games and Lindsay 308 to reach the milestone.
* Lauren Prochaska, just a junior, has moved into fifth place on the BGSU career scoring list ... Prochaska's total of 20 points on Saturday gives her 1,576 in 95 career games ... she moved past Francine Miller (1,574 points from 1998-2003) in the UA game ... Prochaska is just four points behind fourth-place Kate Achter (1,580 points from 2004-08) on the BGSU list.
* Saturday's game was Akron's 'Pink Zone' game in support of breast cancer awareness ... BGSU's 'Pink Zone' game was last Saturday, Feb. 13, in the win over Ohio.
* BGSU's magic number for a first-round bye in the MAC Tournament is one ... one BG win, or one loss by Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan (both 8-5 MAC), would give the Falcons a top-four seed and a berth in the quarterfinal round ... the divisional winners will earn the #1 and #2 seeds for the tournament, with the remaining teams, regardless of division, seeded by record.
* Junior Jen Uhl's double-double against the Zips was the third of her career ... all three have come this season, and all three have come in MAC play -- against Eastern Michigan, Toledo and UA.
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