Second-Half Surge Lifts Falcons Past Ohio, 77-63

Wednesday, February 16

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Ohio

Chrissy Steffen had a career-high 22 point in the Falcons' win over Ohio

February 16, 2011 | Women's Basketball

Steffen, Pontius combine for 39 points

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, leading by just four points at the half, opened the second period on a scoring surge en route to a 77-63 win over Ohio University Wednesday night (Feb. 16). The Mid-American Conference game was held at venerable Anderson Arena.

FINAL STATS - HTML   |   BOXSCORE - PDF
BGSU-OHIO PHOTO GALLERY
POSTGAME AUDIO: Curt Miller   |   Tracy Pontius & Chrissy Steffen
POSTGAME VIDEO: Curt Miller   |   Tracy Pontius & Chrissy Steffen

With the win, the Falcons improve to 21-4 overall and 9-3 in MAC play, while the Bobcats drop to 7-18 and 3-9, respectively.

Sophomore Chrissy Steffen scored a career-high 22 points, and senior Tracy Pontius had 17 in the win. The duo combined to hit eight of BGSU's nine three-point field goals.

Alesia Howard had 14 points to lead a balanced Ohio scoring attack. Four Bobcats hit double digits in the scoring column on the night.

In the first half, the Falcons opened up an early six-point lead, but could not pull away. The 'Cats battled back in an opening 20 minutes that saw the ties and three lead changes.

Steffen scored the final four points of the first half to break a 27-27 tie and give the Falcons the lead for good, and Pontius took charge at the beginning of the second period. BG, after scoring 31 first-half points, had 17 points in the first 4:04 of the second half.

During that span of just over four minutes, Pontius scored five points and dished out three assists.   BG scored on the first three possessions of the half, and the Falcons got points on 10 of the first 11 second-half possessions.

That offensive efficiency on those 11 possessions helped the Falcons open up a 20-point lead. The Brown and Orange went on a 23-7 run during that time.

The Bobcats opened the game's scoring, but Pontius -- after being held to one point in Saturday's (Feb. 12) game at Eastern Michigan -- drained a three-pointer to give the Falcons the lead. Several minutes later, she fed fellow senior Jen Uhl for a layup and a 5-2 lead.

Kamille Buckner answered with a putback for the visitors, but two other Falcon seniors teamed up for a hoop, as Maggie Hennegan took a pass from Lauren Prochaska and hit a short-corner jumper. Then, after a Bobcat turnover, Uhl found Steffen open in the left corner, and the soph hit a three-pointer for a 10-4 BG advantage with just under four minutes gone.

After scoring those 10 points in the first four minutes, however, the Falcons would put up just 21 more points on the scoreboard in the last 16 minutes of the period.

BG went scoreless for just over three minutes, but allowed the visitors only a pair of free throws in that time. When Pontius banked home a runner in the lane as the shot-clock horn sounded, the Falcons had a 12-6 lead.

Ohio, however, got a Tenishia Benson jumper and a three-pointer from Howard, getting within one point midway through the half. Prochaska responded by getting to the line and hitting a pair of free throws, but Howard answered with another layup.

Redshirt sophomore Danielle Havel and senior Kelly Zuercher made connections on back-to-back possessions, with Zuercher assisting on a pair of layups by Havel. The first gave the Falcons a 16-13 lead, and after Buckner answered with a jumper, Zuercher's pass hit Havel, who was cutting down the lane. The DePaul transfer scored on a nifty one-handed scoop shot.

But, the 'Cats came back, as Symone Lyles converted a three-point play, tying the score with 7:05 left in the half. Zuercher took a pass from Havel and was fouled on a shot attempt.  She split her two charity tosses, but Howard's long two-point jumper gave the visitors a 20-19 lead with 6:28 on the clock.

Junior Jessica Slagle drained a shot from three-point land to give the Falcons the lead once again, but Buckner's layup knotted the score.

Slagle's pass found an open Steffen for a triple and a 25-22 lead with just over five minutes left in the half. And, one minute later, Havel's pass freed Zuercher for a jumper and a five-point advantage, and the Bobcats used a timeout.

Less than a minute after the timeout, however, the 'Cats had tied the score. Five quick points, capped by an Ashley Fowler three-pointer, tied the score with 3:12 left before the half.

With the clock ticking under two minutes, Steffen drove the left baseline and hit a pull-up shot for a 29-27 lead. The Falcons would not trail again. Then, the sophomore rebounded an Ohio miss, took the ball all the way downcourt and hit a shot in the lane. The Falcons took a 31-27 lead into the intermission. Steffen had 10 points in the first half, leading all players.

Pontius got things started quickly in the second half, taking a handoff from Hennegan and driving down the lane for a layup witih just eight seconds gone. The Bobcats hit a jumper on their first possesion of the period, but Pontius drove the lane again, this time whipping a pass to Steffen for a three-ball from the right side.

After forcing Ohio to miss a shot, the Falcons got another hoop, as Prochaska threw a pass inside to Hennegan for a layup. BG had seven points just 1:19 into the half, and the Falcons held a 38-29 lead.

The 'Cats split a pair of tosses at the 18:07 mark, but Uhl drained two free throws just 16 seconds later, beginning a 7-0 run. Pontius had assists on a pair of hoops, finding Steffen alone in the left corner for a trey, then slashing between two players and flipping a pass to Uhl for an easy layup and a 45-30 lead.

Pontius took a pass from Uhl a moment later and, using Uhl as a screen, hit a straightaway trey. Benson's jumper cut the Falcons' lead to 48-34, but a Pontius free throw began another BG run. Slagle followed with two tosses, and Pontius connected from long distance again. Havel kicked the ball out to the senior point guard for a right-corner triple and a 54-34 BGSU lead with 12:31 left. The Brown and Orange went 4-of-4 from three-point range during the first seven-plus minutes of the half.

Several minutes later, the Falcons made it five consecutive three-pointers made, as Steffen drove the left baseline and fired a pass to Pontius for a right-elbow trey and a 58-36 lead. Buckner hit a layup to cut BG's lead to 20 points midway through the half, but Steffen drove along the right baseline and knocked down a layup for a 60-38 lead.

The 'Cats scored five straight points, and got within 17 on three occasions over the next few minutes, but a 6-0 run by the home team opened the margin to a game-high 23 points, 73-50, with just under four minutes remaining.

That 6-0 run saw Uhl pick up one of her team-high five assists with a nice look to Hennegan inside, and Hennegan then hit freshman Jillian Halfhill in stride as she cut to the basket. In traffic, Halfhill converted a layup, adjusting her shot in midair and scoring to give the Brown and Orange that 23-point advantage.

The Bobcats ended the game on a 9-2 run against the BG bench to cut the deficit to the final 14-point margin. Three of BGSU's 11 turnovers in the game came in the final 2:03.

Each team shot an even 50 percent from the floor for the game. The Bobcats hit half of their shots in each 20-minute period, while the Falcons went 14-of-23 (60.9%) from the field in the second period. The Brown and Orange made five of six three-point field-goal attempts in the final 20 minutes.

BG, as mentioned, committed 11 turnovers on the night, while forcing the Bobcats into a total of 21.

Uhl had nine points and team-high totals of six rebounds and five assists, without a turnover, for the Falcons. Hennegan scored eight points and had three assists and a pair of streals.

BGSU had 20 assists on 26 baskets, and had an assist-to-turnover ratio of nearly two-to-one. In addition to Uhl's five assists, Pontius had four helpers, also without a turnover. Hennegan had three assists on the day, while three players -- Havel, Prochaska and Zuercher -- dished out two apiece.

Ohio had four players in double figures in the scoring column. In addition to Howard's 14 points, Buckner had 13 points and a game-high eight rebounds. Benson scored 12 points while Shavon Robinson added 11.

BGSU went 9-of-20 from three-point land as a team. Pontius was 4-of-5 from beyond the arc, and 6-of-7 from the field on the day, while Steffen made four of her seven long-distance attempts.

The Falcons take to the road for the next two games, beginning with a Saturday (Feb. 19) contest vs. Miami University. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at Millett Hall.

FALCON NOTES
* Wednesday's win gave BGSU head coach Curt Miller a total of 117 Mid-American Conference victories, tying him for third on the MAC list ... he is now deadlocked with former BGSU and Central Michigan coach Fran Voll ... only KSU's Bob Lindsay (251 MAC victories) and former Toledo head coach Mark Ehlen (140 MAC wins) are ahead of Miller and Voll on that list.

* Miller already ranked third on the MAC list for overall victories, and now has 227 wins at BGSU ... he trails only Lindsay (408) and Ehlen (240) on that chart.

* Chrissy Steffen, as mentioned, scored a career-high 22 points in the win over Ohio ... her previous career best was 17 points in last month's (Jan. 12) victory against Akron ... Steffen also set a career standard for field goals made (eight), and tied her career bests with 13 FG attempted and four three-pointers made.

* Senior Lauren Prochaska tied two more school records on Wednesday night ... she made the 127th start of her career, and increased her streak of consecutive games started to 127 ... Prochaska, who has started every game since arriving at BG, tied the records held by Liz Honegger (2003-07) in each case.