BGSU Rides First-Half Three-for-All to 80-59 Win, East Division Title

Saturday, February 26

Bowling Green, Ohio

Noon

Bowling Green State University

Kent State

Sophomore Chrissy Steffen tied her career high with 22 points vs. KSU (photo by Brad Phalin)

BGSU Rides First-Half Three-for-All to 80-59 Win, East Division Title

February 26, 2011 | Women's Basketball

Falcons down Kent State in final weekend game at Anderson Arena

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

A scorching performance from three-point range enabled the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team to build a large halftime lead, and the Falcons rode that success to an 80-59 win over Kent State University Saturday afternoon (Feb. 26) at Anderson Arena.

FINAL STATS - HTML   |   BOXSCORE - PDF
BGSU POSTGAME AUDIO: Curt Miller   |   Tracy Pontius & Chrissy Steffen
KSU POSTGAME AUDIO: Bob Lindsay
POSTGAME VIDEO: Miller   |   Lindsay   |   Pontius & Steffen
BGSU-KENT STATE PHOTO GALLERY

With the win, the Falcons improve to 24-4 overall and 12-3 in Mid-American Conference play. BGSU has clinched the league's East Division title and the number-two seed for the MAC Tournament.

The Falcons have won a division title for the seventh consecutive season.

The Golden Flashes, who lost for the first time this season to an East Division opponent, drop to 19-8 and 10-5, respectively.

BGSU made 13 three-point field goals on the day, including a 10-of-17 performance from long distance in the opening half. The Falcons opened up a 20-point lead at the intermission, and that margin never fell below 15 in the second period.

Sophomore Chrissy Steffen, the lone non-senior among the game's 10 starters, led the Falcons with 22 points, tying her career high. BGSU had four starters score in double digits, with the fifth starter scoring nine points.

Senior Tracy Pontius had 18 points, including a game-high total of five three-point field goals, for the Brown and Orange. With Kent State hanging around late in the second half, Pontius hit back-to-back triples to put the game away.

Seniors Lauren Prochaska and Maggie Hennegan scored 14 and 11 points, respectively, for the Falcons. Another BGSU senior, Jen Uhl, had nine points and a game-high 12 rebounds in the win.

KSU's Taisja Jones led all players with 25 points on the afternoon. Jamilah Humes had 13 points, six assists and four steals for the Flashes.

The lead changed hands five times in the early going, before Hennegan knocked down a three-pointer with five-and-a-half minutes gone, giving the Falcons the lead for good. BG extended the lead into double digits, and, after the Flashes had crept back within nine points, went on a 13-2 run to end the half with a 20-point lead, 49-29.

BG opened the margin to a game-high 25 points early in the second half, but KSU held the Falcons without a field goal for a span of over nine minutes to get within 15 on several occasions. With the home team leading by 18, Pontius hit three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to give the Brown and Orange a 74-50 lead with 4:28 remaining.

Jones, who was a thorn in BG's side all day long, scored the Flashes' first four points of the game, sandwiched around a Prochaska layup. The Falcons had success on the offensive glass early in the contest, with four offensive boards in the first two minutes. Three of those boards came on the same possession, which ended with a Pontius triple and a 5-4 lead.

That Pontius trey came after Steffen faked a three-point try and made the 'extra pass' to the wide-open senior point guard.

Ellie Shields scored for the Blue and Gold, but Steffen dribbled out beyond the arc and hit a three-pointer, and Hennegan's entry pass resulted in a Uhl layup and a 10-6 advantage.

Kent State countered with six quick points to take the lead. Humes followed a pair of free throws with a layup, and after a BG turnover, Shields knocked down a jumper in the paint for a 12-10 KSU lead.

Hennegan, however, found herself open at the top of the arc, and hit the trey that would give the Brown and Orange the lead for good. After a KSU turnover, junior Jessica Slagle spotted Steffen slipping out beyond the three-point line once again. Steffen took Slagle's pass and drained her shot for a 16-12 lead at the 13:02 mark.

Jones split a pair of charity tosses, but Slagle drilled a left-elbow jumper, and Uhl -- who had assisted on Slagle's hoop -- got an offensive rebound and putback, giving the Falcons a 20-13 lead.

Steffen stole the ball from Stephanie Gibson, and then got an offensive board after a teammate's miss. The soph kicked the ball out to Pontius for a long three-pointer and a 23-13 lead with 11:32 left before the break.

The Falcons were turning defense into offense, as 10 of BG's first 23 points came off of KSU turnovers. BG was 5-of-8 from three-point land in the first eight-plus minutes, with Pontius and Steffen each going 2-for-2 from long range in that time.

Kent clawed back within seven points after a putback by Jones, but after a KSU miss and Uhl's defensive rebound, the Falcons looked to run. A long pass ahead to Slagle was slightly overthrown, but the junior made a nifty save of the ball under the hoop, leaping in the air and whipping a pass to Prochaska at the left elbow. The two-time MAC Player of the Year connected on a three-pointer -- the 300th of her career -- and the Falcons had a 10-point lead.

Several moments later, Slagle cleaned up the glass and laid the ball back up and in, and Pontius then hit another trey for a 34-22 BG lead at the 6:42 mark.

Jones blocked a BG three-point try, then hit a jumper at the other end to cut the lead to 10. After Hennegan made a pair of free throws, Tamzin Barroilhet's trey cut the Falcons' lead to 36-27 with just over five minutes left in the period. But, the hosts then went on that 13-2 run to end the half.

That run began with eight-straight BG points, as Prochaska and Steffen hit three-point tries, with Hennegan scoring inside for the second basket during that three-hoop stretch. When Steffen's shot sailed through the hoop, the Falcons had a 44-27 lead with 3:06 left in the half.

Leslie Schaefer scored to end that 8-0 run, but Hennegan then picked up two assists and a steal within a span of just 18 seconds. The senior fed Uhl for a layup, then stole the ball from Barroilhet and found Steffen with a pass. The soph hit a three-pointer in transition with just over a minute on the clock, and BG's lead was 49-29.

Things got worse before they got better for the Flashes. Jones and Gibson were whistled for fouls within the first 37 seconds of the second half, with Gibson's foul giving her three for the game. Kent State did force a BG turnover, but the Flashes gave the ball back to BG just four seconds later, and Uhl became the home team's fifth player to hit a three-pointer in the game. After another KSU turnover, a Pontius layup put the Brown and Orange ahead by a 54-29 score.

Humes made a layup, but Steffen came up with a steal and easy layup for a 56-31 BG lead with 16:39 left. After Steffen's hoop, however, the Falcons did not make a field goal for nearly nine minutes.

Kent State scored the game's next 10 points, with Shields accounting for five. She hit a layup at the 15:44 mark, and had a three-point play exactly three minutes later. Jones had four points during the run, hitting a layup just before the Shields 'and-one' hoop, and coming up with a steal that led to another layup. The latter shot cut BG's lead to 56-41 with 12:34 remaining.

Prochaska got an offensive board and was fouled, knocking down both free-throw tries to stop KSU's run. Steffen went to the line 30 seconds later and connected on both of her shots, putting BG up by a 60-41 count midway through the period.

The Flashes kept coming, however, closing the gap to 15 once again on hoops by Jones and Humes. Humes, though, was whistled for her fourth foul of the day with 8:39 remaining, and Steffen sank two more tosses for a 62-45 advantage.

Chenel Harris made a layup for the visitors, cutting BG's lead to 15 points for a third time in the half. But, Hennegan drained a foul-line jumper with 6:53 on the clock. That shot ended BGSU's drought at 9:46 without a field goal.

After going nearly 10 minutes between field goals, the Falcons then made a basket on five consecutive possessions, taking firm control of the game with a 12-3 run. Steffen drove down Main Street for an easy layup and a 66-47 lead. Jones hit a jumper, but Hennegan answered with a jumper of her own. Humes split a pair of free-throw tries, before Pontius put the game away.

First, the senior took a pass from Prochaska and nailed a three-pointer from the right win, upping the lead to more than 20 points with just under five minutes remaining. Then, after a KSU turnover, Pontius hit her second triple in a 25-second span. This time, Hennegan drove into the middle of the paint and kicked the ball out to the point guard at the top of the arc. Pontius fired a long straightway three that was on target, giving the Brown and Orange a 74-50 lead with 4:28 left and all but clinching the victory and the divisional title.

Hennegan, in addition to her 11 points, had eight rebounds and a team-leading four assists. She also had three steals, tying Steffen for the BG lead in that department, and two blocked shots.

Pontius knocked down five three-pointers for the second-straight Saturday and the fourth time this season, while Steffen tied her career best by making four triples in the game. Prochaska went 2-of-4 from long distance, in the process surpassing the 300 mark for her career.

Jones was 10-of-18 from the field en route to her 25 points, and she led the Flashes with nine rebounds and three blocked shots.

The Falcons had a 32-29 advantage on the boards, and BG had 17 second-chance points to the Flashes' nine. The home team also enjoyed a 32-17 lead in points off turnovers.

The Falcons remain at home, closing the regular season with a Wednesday (March 2) contest vs. the University at Buffalo. That game, which begins at 7:00 p.m., will be BGSU's Senior Night, and will be preceded by a ceremony recognizing the six senior players (and two managers).

Additionally, Wednesday night's game potentially could be the last-ever women's basketball game inside Anderson Arena. The Falcons are "Closing the Doors of The House That Roars," and BGSU will move into the brand-new Stroh Center in time for the 2011-12 season.

FALCON NOTES
* BGSU has won a MAC divisional title for the seventh consecutive season ... the last six of those have been outright East Division crowns ... the seven-year run for Curt Miller and his staff began with a West Division title in 2005, before the Falcons were moved from the West back to the East Division prior to the 2005-06 season.

* The Falcons have earned a bye for the upcoming MAC Tournament, and will be the number-two seed ... all 12 teams qualify for the tourney, which begins with first-round games at campus sites next Saturday (March 5) ... BGSU will bypass that round, and the team's first MAC Tournament action will come in the quarterfinal round on Wednesday, March 9, against an opponent to be determined ... according to the MAC's web site, BG's game will be the first of the day, beginning at noon ... the quarterfinal, semifinal (March 11) and championship (March 12) rounds will be held at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

* Senior Lauren Prochaska scored 14 points on Saturday, in the process surpassing the 2,200-point mark for her career ... Prochaska now has 2,203 points as a Falcon, the highest total in school history and the fourth-highest total in MAC annals.

* Prochaska now has 504 points this season to date ... she is the first player in BGSU women's basketball history to score over 500 points in each of her four years.

* Prochaska became just the second player in MAC history to make 300 three-point field goals ... she now sits at 301 ... former Ball State sharpshooter Audrey McDonald (2006-10) made 323 three-point field goals in her career.

* In the teams' first meeting this season, Kent State posted a 44-43 win over BGSU (Jan. 15, 2011) ... in that game, the Falcons scored a total of 43 points (obviously) and made 14 field goals, including seven three-pointers ... BGSU had five assists in the entire game.

* On Saturday, in the first half alone, the Falcons had 49 points, hitting 17 total field goals, including 10 three-pointers ... BG had 12 assists in the first half of Saturday's win at Anderson Arena.

* BGSU finished the February schedule with a perfect 7-0 mark ... the Falcons are 60-16 in February games during the Curt Miller Era, including a 50-3 mark since the start of the 2004-05 season.

* Saturday's game was televised by SportsTime Ohio ... according to the station's web site, it will re-air on STO twice on Saturday (4:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.), and also will be shown at 5:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. on Sunday.