ROLL ALONG! Falcons Win an Outright MAC Title with 91-48 Victory at KSU

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team scored early and often, rolling along to a 91-48 win at Kent State University Tuesday night (Feb. 28) at the M.A.C. Center. With the victory, the Falcons clinched the Mid-American Conference's outright regular-season title.

FINAL STATISTICS: HTML | PDF
THE BRACKET: 2012 MAC Tournament
POSTGAME AUDIO: Halfhill & Rogers | Curt Miller

The Falcons shot over 50 percent from the field and hit a school record-tying 16 three-point field goals en route to the road win. The victory, coupled with Central Michigan's 61-46 win over Eastern Michigan, left the Falcons alone at the top with a 14-2 MAC record.

In addition to the regular-season title, BGSU sewed up the number-one seed for the MAC Tournament. The Falcons have earned a 'triple bye' for the tourney, and will play in the semifinal round for the ninth consecutive season.

BG's regular-season title is the team's eighth in a row, with seven of those being outright crowns. EMU and Toledo (a 70-65 winner at Ball State on Tuesday night) each finished at 13-3 in conference play, a game behind the Brown and Orange.

Sophomore Jillian Halfhill poured in 15 first-half points en route to a game-high 17. She hit three three-point field goals, including two in the final 1:02 of the first half as BGSU opened up a 41-19 lead at the break.

Halfhill paced four double-digit scorers for the Falcons, as redshirt sophomore Alexis Rogers had 13 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Rogers posted her double-double in just 18 minutes of action.

Both redshirt junior Danielle Havel and sophomore Noelle Yoder had 10 points on the night, with senior Jessica Slagle adding nine and freshman Deborah Hoekstra a career-high eight.

After scoring the last six points of the first half on those two Halfhill treys, the Falcons scored the first 12 points of the second period, and the rout was on.

A total of nine different BGSU players made at least one three-pointer in the win. In addition to Halfhill's three, five of her teammates -- Havel, Hoekstra, Rogers, Yoder and freshman Jasmine Matthews -- hit two apiece. Havel and Rogers each went 2-for-2 from behind the arc, while Yoder was 2-for-3 from long range.

Slagle, junior Simone Eli and freshman Logan Pastor each made a triple as well.

Head coach Curt Miller got a total of 49 points from players off of his bench on Tuesday night. The Falcons forced 22 KSU turnovers and had a 24-11 advantage in points off turnovers.

Rogers scored the game's first five points, hitting a long two-pointer with a minute gone, then knocking down a trailing three-ball. Jamie Hutcheson got the hosts on the scoreboard with a layup two minutes in, but Slagle found a cutting Havel for a layup and a 7-2 lead.

Leslie Schaefer answered with a layup of her own, but KSU then would go over four minutes without a point. A putback by Halfhill sparked a 13-0 run for the Falcons, giving BG a 20-4 lead with seven minutes elapsed.

Halfhill had seven of the Falcons' 13 points during that span, including a three-pointer out top off of a Chrissy Steffen pass. Steffen tied Slagle for team honors with four assists.

After a KSU miss, Havel fed Matthews for a triple from the right elbow, giving the Falcons a 15-4 lead and prompting a timeout by the Flashes at the 14:27 mark. The timeout did nothing to slow the Brown and Orange, however, as Rogers knocked down a triple, and Halfhill hit a transition layup for that 20-4 lead.

Trisha Krewson broke the home team's drought with a layup at the 12:49 mark, but Halfhill came right back with a runner late in the shot clock for her fourth consecutive make and a 22-6 BG advantage.

Steffen lobbed a pass inside to Rogers for a jump-stop and a layup, and Slagle saved a teammate's errant pass, dribbled through traffic in the paint and found an open Steffen for an easy layup and a 26-8 lead.

Halfhill came up with with a steal and fed Havel for a transition layup and a 30-11 margin. The Flashes sandwiched a pair of treys around a Havel triple, but Slagle hit a jumper for a 35-17 lead.

Then, Halfhill drained a three-pointer as she was knocked to the ground with just over a minute left in the half. After the BG defense forced Kent State into a shot-clock violation, Slagle hit Halfhill for another three-ball in the final seconds of the half, giving the Falcons that 41-19 advantage.

The visitors forced 15 KSU turnovers in that opening half, and BG had an 18-2 advantage in points off turnovers in the period.

Halfhill, as mentioned, had 15 first-half points, just four less than the Flashes scored as a team.

Matthews took Slagle's inbounds pass and knocked down a three-pointer from the left corner in the opening minute of the second half, and the Falcons were well on their way to a win. Rogers sliced in between two KSU players for an offensive rebound and a putback, and Slagle spun through the defense and banked a shot off the glass for a 48-19 lead.

Havel found herself wide open beyond the arc, and her three-pointer at the 17:23 mark increased the margin to over 30 points for the first time, Then, Yoder knocked down a fadeaway bank shot, for BG's 17th and 18th consecutive points, dating to the first half. The lead was 53-19 with 16:20 remaining.

The Flashes scored six of the next eight points to cut BG's lead to 30, but Slagle hit a trey moments later for a 60-27 advantage. The hosts would go on an 8-3 run over the next several minutes, cutting the Falcons' lead to 63-35 with 11 minutes left.

But, Hoekstra keyed an 8-0 BG run in a 62-second span. She knocked down a triple, then fed Yoder for a three-ball 30 seconds later. With just under 10 minutes left, Hoekstra got to the line and made a pair of tosses for a 71-35 lead.

Pastor assisted on back-to-back baskets by Papenfuss, with a lob pass to the junior followed by a pass ahead for a fast-break layup. Yoder's trey with 6;02 left gave the Falcons a 78-40 lead, and after a layup by KSU's Melanee Stubbs, Papenfuss took a Hoekstra pass and scored again.

The lead reached 41 points on a Pastor trey, assisted by sophomore Jill Stein, with 4:10 remaining, and Eli connected from beyond the arc just over 30 seconds later, with Papenfuss getting the assist. Hoekstra took a pass from Stein and made BG's 16th triple of the night with 2:37 left, and BG's lead was a game-high 47 points. The teams traded layups before KSU scored the last four points to provide the 43-point final margin.

The BG bench scored 34 of the Falcons' 50 second-half points, as BG shot 54.8% as a team in the period. For the game, the Falcons shot 51.6% while holding KSU to a 32.7% success rate.

BGSU shot over 47% from long range, making those 16 treys in 34 tries. The Falcons were 9-of-10 from the free-throw line.

Halfhill scored her 17 points in just 19 minutes, going 6-of-8 from the field. She added three assists and two steals. Rogers made five of her eight shots on the night.

Papenfuss was a perfect 3-for-3 in the game, with four rebounds and two assists to go along with her six points. Matthews also scored six points on a pair of triples.

Tamzin Barroilhet led the Flashes with 12 points, while Krewson scored 10 and Schaefer nine.

The semifinal round of the MAC Tournament is set for the afternoon of Friday, March 9, at Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland. BGSU will play the first game of the day, beginning at 12:00 p.m., and could face one of the following five opponents: fourth-seeded Miami, fifth-seeded Central Michigan, #8 seed Ohio, ninth-seeded KSU or #12 seed Ball State. The complete MAC Tournament bracket is attached as a PDF at the top of the page.

FALCON NOTES
* BGSU has won a MAC regular-season title for the eighth consecutive year, with seven outright crowns during that time ... the Falcons had the best record in the league six-straight years from 2005-10 ... last season, BG won the East Division with a 13-3 league mark, but Toledo was 14-2 to capture the overall title ... this year, BGSU's 14-2 record put the Falcons a game ahead of both UT and Eastern Michigan.

* The Falcons' total of 16 three-point field goals tied the school record ... BGSU had hit 16 treys on three prior occasions, including in last year's final regular-season game, vs. Buffalo at Anderson Arena (March 2, 2011) ... the Falcons' other games with 16 successful triples came against Akron (Jan. 26, 2000) and KSU (Jan. 16, 2008).

* BGSU had made a total of 26 three-pointers in the month of February (spanning seven games) prior to hitting 16 on Tuesday night ... the Falcons had not made more than six treys in a game this month, and BG had had three games with just two triples made.

* The Falcons' total of 91 points tied a season high ... BG also scored 91 in a 50-point win over Madonna on Dec. 21, 2011 ... Tuesday's output marked BGSU's highest point total in a MAC game since last year's final regular-season contest vs. UB, a 92-68 win at Anderson Arena.

* BGSU had not scored 90 points away from home since a 91-58 win over Miami in the quarterfinal round of the league tournament two years ago (March 10, 2010) ... BG hadn't reached 90 points in a true road game since a 98-74 win at Saint Francis (Pa.) on Nov. 25, 2008 ... the Falcons' last 90-point effort in a MAC road game came in a trip to the M.A.C. Center four years ago; a 90-64 win over KSU on Jan. 16, 2008.

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