Temple Pulls Away From Falcons, 70-56

Wednesday, November 28

Bowling Green, OH

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Temple

November 28, 2012 | Women's Basketball

Owls shoot 62% in second half

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Temple University shot 61.5 percent from the field in the second half, breaking open a close game en route to a 70-56 win over the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team Wednesday night (Nov. 28). The non-conference game was held at the Stroh Center.

FINAL STATISTICS: HTML   |   PDF
POSTGAME AUDIO: Danielle Havel   |   Jennifer Roos
Scroll down for video of the postgame interviews as well as highlights of the game (highlights courtesy WBGU-TV)

With the win, the Owls improve to 4-2 on the young season, while dropping the Falcons to 3-3.

The loss was the first-ever double-digit setback for the Falcons at the Stroh Center. BGSU is 15-3 in the building, now in its second season. The only prior losses came by one point apiece to Purdue and VCU in 2011-12.

Sally Kabengano led the visitors with 17 points, while Rateska Brown had 15. Brown scored 12 of her 15 points in the second period, going a perfect 4-for-4 from the field after halftime. After missing all three of her three-point attempts in the opening half, Brown made all three of her long-distance tries in the second period.

Victoria Macaulay rounded out Temple's double-digit scorers with 12 points.

The Falcons got 13 points from both senior Chrissy Steffen and redshirt junior Alexis Rogers. Steffen had nine of her points during a stretch of just 2:07 early in the second half, with the last of those points making it a one-point game. But, the Owls held the Falcons without a point for over seven minutes and without a field goal for more than nine minutes to slowly pull away.

The evening started off well for the home team, as the Falcons made eight of the first 11 shots of the night.   Rogers scored six of BG's first eight points of the game, and junior Jillian Halfhill also had six points in that stretch, including a nifty scoop shot in the lane and a driving jumper. Halfhill's last basket during time gave the Brown and Orange a 16-11 lead.

From that point on, however, the Owls gained control. Temple went on an 18-7 run over the last 12:41 of the half. The visitors tied the game at 18-18 on Kabengano's three-pointer with 7:14 left before halftime, and after Steffen gave BG a lead with a steal and easy layup, Kabengano hit another jumper to tie the score.

The teams traded free throws before a May Dayan layup gave TU a 23-21 lead heading into the final media timeout of the half. Rogers answered with a layup after the break, but a transition layup by Kabengano ignited a 6-0 run to end the period. That run also included a Kabengano jumper and a transition layup by Brown.

With the Falcons trailing, 35-29, Steffen got the home team started in the second half. The senior took a pass from sophomore Jasmine Matthews and hit a three-pointer with a minute gone, then stepped out top to knock down another trey off of a feed from senior Danielle Havel.

The Owls were answering at the other end, but Rogers hit a layup, and Steffen's driving 'and-one' layup at the 16:52 mark was followed by a successful free-throw try that cut Temple's lead to a single point, 35-34.

The Owls, however, had an answer for each Falcon hoop. Macauley hit a jumper, then got a steal and layup for a five-point lead. Matthews split a pair of charity tosses, but Natasha Thames answered with a layup. Thames had nine points and a game-high nine rebounds on the night.

Junior Katrina Salinas grabbed an offensive rebound and hit a floater in the paint, cutting TU's lead to 41-37, but the Falcons would not score again until 7:46 remained.

The Owls scored just 10 points in that nine-minute, nine-second span, but it was enough to wrest control of the game. Macaulay hit a layup to begin that run, but it was Brown who did the rest of the damage, scoring eight-straight points. She made a jumper, then hit a pair of three-pointers just over a minute apart. Her second long-range shot, coming with 11:30 on the clock, gave the Owls a 51-37 lead.

The score remained the same until freshman Bailey Cairnduff made a pair of free throws at the 7:46 mark. The visitors had an answer for every Falcon basket, however, and BG could get no closer than 12 points the rest of the way. Temple utilized nearly all of the shot clock on each possession down the stretch, ending those possessions with a score more often than not.

Temple shot 53.7% from the field for the game, including a 16-of-26 effort in the second half. The Owls also had a 38-28 advantage on the boards.

Halfhill scored eight points for the hosts, while junior Jill Stein had six and three teammates -- Cairnduff, Havel and Salinas -- five apiece.

The Falcons were whistled for just 10 fouls on the night, including only one in the first half. BGSU committed just four fouls in the first 38-plus minutes of the game, before fouling intentionally to get the Owls into the bonus in the late stages.

The Falcons return to the Stroh Center on Saturday afternoon (Dec. 1), continuing a three-game homestand by taking on Colorado State University. The women's game is the second half of a BGSU hoops doubleheader, as the Falcon men's team hosts Youngstown State at 2:00 p.m. before the women face CSU at 4:30 p.m.