Prochaska's Buzzer-Beater Lifts Falcons Past Akron, 47-45

Tuesday, February 22

Akron, Ohio

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Akron

Jessica Slagle hits an 'and-one' layup in the first half (photo by Larry Clapper)

February 22, 2011 | Women's Basketball

Senior hits a three-pointer with 0.2 seconds left

By: AKRON, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Senior Lauren Prochaska's three-pointer with just 0.2 seconds left lifted the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team to a 47-45 victory over the University of Akron Tuesday night (Feb. 22). The Mid-American Conference game was held at Rhodes Arena.

FINAL STATS - HTML | BOXSCORE - PDF
CURT MILLER POSTGAME AUDIO
PHOTO GALLERY - Photos by Larry Clapper

With the win, the Falcons improve to 23-4 overall and 11-3 in MAC play. The Zips drop to 13-13 and 6-8, respectively.

Prochaska's game-winner came after she and her teammates had struggled through a frigid shooting night. BGSU shot just 23.8 percent from the field, and the Falcons made only three three-pointers in 21 attempts on the night (14.3%).

Prochaska had made only 2-of-13 shots and was 0-of-4 from beyond the arc in the first 39 minutes and 55 seconds, but got open in the left corner to hit the first game-winning shot of her BGSU career.

Prochaska led the Falcons with 11 points, while sophomore Chrissy Steffen had 10.

Prochaska's heroics came after UA's Rachel Tecca scored with just 8.7 seconds left on the clock. Tecca led all players with 14 points and 13 rebounds on the night. She connected on a short jumper from the right side to give the Zips a 45-44 lead.

BGSU quickly got the ball over midcourt, and head coach Curt Miller called a timeout with 5.2 seconds left. After the teams lined up, the Falcons used another timeout before the final shot.

On that final play, senior Tracy Pontius dribbled from right to left across the top of the arc and threw a pass to Prochaska in the left corner, in front of the BGSU bench. Senior Maggie Hennegan set a screen to free Prochaska, who caught and fired a shot that hit nothing but net with just two-tenths of a second remaining.

Akron, needing to go the length of the court with no time to catch and shoot, actually completed a pass that sailed nearly two-thirds the length of the court. Tecca redirected the pass toward the net, but the ball fell short as the horn sounded.

Hennegan had nine points on the night, while senior Jen Uhl had seven points and eight rebounds. Prochaska nearly had a double-double, with a team-leading nine rebounds in addition to her 11 points. BGSU held a 41-39 advantage on the boards.

The Falcons held the Zips to a 28.6% shooting night, and the teams combined for 37 turnovers (18 by BGSU, 19 by Akron).

The game featured no fewer than 14 ties and 15 lead changes, and neither team led by more than four points all night. Tecca broke a 39-39 tie with a pair of free throws coming out of the final media timeout of the game. Those shots came with 2:29 remaining.

Hennegan responded with a layup just 10 seconds later, knotting the score once again. After an Akron miss, the ball went out of bounds to BG with exactly two minutes left.

On the ensuing possession, Hennegan drove the lane, was fouled and split a pair of charity tosses with 1:39 left, giving BG a 42-41 lead. Akron responded, as Kara Murphy missed a shot inside, but got her own rebound and was fouled. Murphy, Akron's career scoring leader, made two free throws with 1:23 on the clock, putting the Zips up by a point.

Steffen's jumper was blocked on the next possession, with the Zips rebounding. But, UA's Jasmine Mushington missed a shot with 44 seconds left, and Prochaska grabbed the rebound in traffic.

The Falcons' persistence paid off on the next possession. Prochaska's shot did not drop, but Uhl grabbed the rebound, whirled and fired a putback try. That shot would not fall, either, but Uhl got her own rebound and was fouled with 28.3 seconds remaining. Uhl drained both free-throw tries, giving the Brown and Orange a 44-43 lead.

Akron took the ball over midcourt and called timeout, setting up the play that resulted in Tecca's shot with 8.7 seconds left, setting up the heart-stopping finish.

BGSU began the night by going scoreless for over five-and-a-half minutes of play. The Falcons turned the ball over on the first three possessions, and on four of the first six. BG was 0-of-4 from the field with five turnovers by the first media timeout of the evening.

The Zips, however, committed turnovers on the first two possessions of the game as well. Neither team had so much as a shot attempt until Murphy missed a shot with two minutes gone. UA would score on a Taylor Ruper three-pointer at the 17:46 mark.

BGSU then held Akron off of the scoreboard for nearly five minutes, but the visitors could score no more than three points in that time. The Falcons' first points game when Jessica Slagle hit an 'and-one' shot at the 14:22 mark. The junior's free throw tied the score at 3-3.

The game was still deadlocked at 3-3 moments later, as the Falcons and Zips -- who had combined to score 162 points in last month's meeting in Bowling Green -- combined to go 2-of-21 from the floor over the first nine-plus minutes of the game.

The Falcons got some points at the free-throw line, however, to take a four-point lead. Uhl and Hennegan each got to the stripe within a span of 46 seconds, and each post player went 2-for-2. Withi 12:11 left in the half, the visitors had a 7-3 advantage.

But, back came the Zips. After going scoreless for seven minutes and 36 seconds, UA got two baskets in a 32-second stretch. Murphy hit a layup, and after a BG miss, Sina King's shot in the paint tied the score at 7-7.

Prochaska's shot fake, jump-stop and pass inside led to a Hennegan layup, but Tecca came right back to score for the Zips. Prochaska threw in a runner, but Tecca answered with another layup. The teams had taken nearly 11 minutes to make a total of four field goals, then had a combined four baskets in a span of 46 seconds.

And, on the next possession, Prochaska drew Tecca's second foul of the game, and the two-time MAC Player of the Year knocked down a pair of free throws for a 13-11 lead with just over eight minutes left in the period.

Mushington scored back-to-back layups to give the Zips the lead once again, and Hanna Luburgh's charity tosses put the home team up by a 17-13 score with 6:49 remaining before halftime. BG answered UA's 6-0 run, though, with six consecutive points of their own.

First, Pontius hit a three-point field goal from the right corner, BG's only successful triple in the game's first 33-plus minutes. The Pontius shot came after Prochaska jumped to grab an errant pass with her rigiht hand, turned her wrist and pushed the ball toward Pontius all in one motion. The Pontius trey brought the Falcons within a single point with 6:06 on the clock.

Uhl's free throw tied the game with just under five minutes left, and senior Chelsea Albert made a pair of tosses with 3:57 remaining in the half to give the Falcons a 19-17 advantage. The only remaining points of the half came on Carly Young's triple with two-and-a-half minutes left before the break. The teams combined for seven missed shots and four turnovers during the final 150 seconds.

In that first half, the Falcons went just 4-of-26 from the field, for a success rate of just 15.4%. BGSU had three times as many first-half turnovers (12) as field goals (four), but were within a point of the Zips.

Akron shot 29.6% in the first period, committing 10 turnovers.

BG got off to a much quicker start in the second half, as Steffen dribbled around the arc, turned the corner and found herself wide open for a layup with just 16 seconds elapsed. And, with only 1:25 gone, Prochaska threw a pass to Uhl for a second-chance layup and a 23-20 lead.

The Zips, however, scored seven-straight points, beginning with a three-point play by Natasha Williams that tied the score. Tecca scored on a turnaround jumper, then knocked down two shots from the stripe for a 27-23 Akron edge.

Prochaska's driving layup at the 15:05 mark began a 6-0 run for the Falcons, as BG held Akron off the scoreboard for over five minutes. Redshirt sophomore Danielle Havel split two tosses, and Prochaska got to the line and make a pair of free throws for a 28-27 BG lead with 12:38 left.

Senior Kelly Zuercher was fouled as she worked down low, and made one of two free throws to give the visitors a two-point edge. Mushington made a free throw, but Steffen then scored three-straight points.

First, the sophomore knocked down a jumper as she entered the paint. Then, she picked Mushington's pocket and was fouled as she sailed in for a layup. Steffen made one of her free-throw tries for a 32-28 lead midway through the half.

Kacie Cassell's three-pointer from in front of her own bench cut BG's lead to a single point, and that trey began a 7-0 run for the Zips. King made a free throw before Ruper hit a triple with 8:16 left. The hosts scored those seven points in just 64 seconds.

Steffen, however, kept her team within striking distance. First, the Carmel, Ind. native hit a layup with 6:55 on the clock. Then, after two Ruper free throws, Pontius drove the baseline and whipped a pass to Steffen for a three-pointer that tied the score at 37-all.

Hennegan's layup with 5:37 remaining gave BG a two-point lead, before Tecca got a putback to tie the score and set the stage for the final frenetic four minutes.

Ruper had eight points for the Zips, while Murphy had just four points but nine rebounds.

BGSU returns to Northwest Ohio to prepare for the final two games of the regular season. The Falcons host Kent State University on Saturday (Feb. 26) in a noon start at venerable Anderson Arena, with the game televised by SportsTime Ohio.

FALCON NOTES
* The Falcons, now 11-3 in the MAC, have a game-and-a-half lead on Kent State (9-4 MAC) ... the Golden Flashes host Ohio University on Wednesday night (Feb. 23) before coming to BG for Saturday's game.

* BGSU is now 23-4 overall on the season ... the Falcons have won at least 21 games in each of the last eight seasons, and BG has 23 or more wins in each of the last seven years.

* Over the last eight years, BG has AVERAGED 26.0 wins per season ... after posting a 21-35 record in head coach Curt Miller's first two seasons, the Falcons have gone 208-49 since that time.

* Senior Lauren Prochaska was held to single digits in the scoring column in back-to-back games for the first time in her BGSU career, with seven points against both Ohio (Feb. 16) and Miami (Feb. 19) ... and, with seconds left in Tuesday's game, Prochaska again was in single digits ... but, her game-winning shot gave her a total of 11 points on the night.

* Prochaska, BGSU's career leader in three-point field goals made, had gone 0-of-11 over the last two games and 39-plus minutes before burying her game-winning shot with 0.2 seconds left ... the triple was the 299th of her storied career.

* Believe it or not, BGSU now leads the all-time series with Akron by a 46-2 count, and the Falcons have won 17 consecutive games in the series.

* The Falcons' 47 points on Tuesday night marked the second-lowest point total in a win in school history, and the lowest in 32 years ... BG's only lower point total in a win came on Jan. 17, 1979, a 43-39 win at Defiance.

* BGSU had season-low totals/averages in field goals made (13), field-goal percentage (23.6), three-point FG made (three - tied a season low), three-point FG pct. (14.3) and assists (five - tied a season low) ... Akron's total of 14 FGM matched a season low for a BG opponent.