Sunday, January 13
Bowling Green, OH
2:00 PM
Bowling Green State University
38
vs
48
Toledo
Rockets Outlast Falcons, 48-38, Sunday at the Stroh
January 13, 2013 | Women's Basketball
UT banks on Shafir's late-game three-point heroics
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FINAL STATISTICS: HTML | PDF
PHOTO GALLERY: courtesy Kara Fallon, BGSU Marketing & Comm.
POSTGAME AUDIO: Jillian Halfhill | Jennifer Roos
POSTGAME VIDEO: Jillian Halfhill | Jennifer Roos | WBGU-TV Highlights
WATCH THE REPLAY: ESPN3.com
With the win, the Rockets improve to 13-2 on the season, while dropping the Falcons to 10-5 overall. Both teams are now 1-1 in MAC action.
UT held a one-point lead with just under four minutes left, as BGSU senior Chrissy Steffen sandwiched a conventional three-point play around the final media timeout of the day. Shafir, who picked up her fourth foul on that play, hit a pair of free throws to give her team a 37-34 lead with 2:49 left, before hitting the game's key shot.
After BGSU missed a three-point try on the next possession, Steffen blocked a layup attempt by UT's Andola Dortch, with the ball going out of bounds to the Rockets. With the shot clock winding down, Shafir fired a shot from beyond the arc. The shot banked off of the glass and dropped through the hoop with 1:56 remaining, putting the visitors up by six points, 40-34. Junior Jillian Halfhill, who led the Falcons with 13 points, hit a runner on the ensuing possession, but the home team would draw no closer.
BGSU shot just 22.4 percent from the field for the game, hitting only six field goals in the first half and five in the second. The Rockets shot only 33.3%, including a 7-for-27 effort in the second half (25.9%), but the visitors had a 47-32 rebounding advantage on the afternoon.
The Falcons made just three of their first 23 shot attempts to begin the game, and Toledo took a 12-point lead, the largest of the day, on a Brianna Jones jumper with 2:53 left in the half.
Trailing by that 23-11 deficit, however, BG proceeded to go 3-of-3 from the floor to end the half. Junior Katrina Salinas knocked down a three-point try, and freshman Miriam Justinger scored four-straight points. When redshirt junior Alexis Rogers made a layup in the final minute of play, the Falcons' run was 9-0, and BG's deficit was just three points at the half.
The home team extended that run to 12-0 on a Halfhill triple to open the second-half scoring. Moments later, another triple by the junior point guard gave the Falcons their first lead of the day, 26-25. That was the first of four lead changes, with the last coming on a jumper by UT's Inma Zanoguera with 7:08 remaining.
Zanoguera's shot gave the Rockets a 32-31 lead, and Shafir's three-point play with 6:25 on the clock extended the margin to four points. Steffen responded in kind, with her old-fashioned three-point play at the 3:54 mark, before Shafir found the bank to be open on a Sunday, giving the visitors a six-point edge with just under two minutes left.
The unorthodox three was one of just two for the Rockets in the game. UT went 2-of-17 from behind the arc, with Shafir hitting both. The Falcons went 4-of-17 from long distance, led by a 2-of-3 effort from Halfhill.
Shafir and Halfhill were the only players to reach double digits in the scoring column. Lecretia Smith scored nine points for the Rockets, while Steffen had eight for the Falcons.
Halfhill scored all 13 of her points after halftime, as she and Steffen were the only two BG players to find the scoresheet in the second half.
The Falcons and Rockets took a while to get on the scoreboard at the start of each half. In the first period, Toledo committed turnovers on five of the first six possessions. But, a Shafir foul-line jumper put the Rockets on the board with 1:48 gone.
At the other end of the floor, BGSU missed six shots and committed three turnovers in the first four-plus minutes of the game. After jumpers by Shafir and Zanoguera gave the visitors a 6-0 lead, Falcon coach Jennifer Roos took a timeout.
Steffen finally got the hosts on the board with five minutes gone, taking a pass from Justinger and knocking down a three-point try to cut UT's lead in half. A Rogers layup got the Falcons within one, but Smith quickly answered for the visitors.
Sophomore Jasmine Matthews, who missed the Kent State game due to injury, came off the bench to hit a jumper, but that would be BGSU's last successful field goal for more than 10 minutes. Shafir scored the game's next four points, and after two Falcon free throws, the UT point guard hit a jumper, then made the Rockets only non-backboard-aided three-pointer of the day.
A Dortch jumper at the 5:40 mark gave UT a 19-9 lead, and after senior Allison Papenfuss split a pair of charity tosses, a Shafir steal led to a long pass upcourt, a Jones layup and a 21-10 Rocket lead.
Matthews made a free throw, but Jones hit a jumper for a 23-11 UT advantage. But, Salinas ended a string of 12 consecutive misses for the home team, taking a pass from senior Danielle Havel and hitting a corner three with 2:37 left before halftime.
UT missed a long-range try, and BG's next possession resulted in a Rocket foul and two free throws by Justinger. After another Toledo miss, Justinger hit a driving layup in traffic, and the Falcons were down by five, 23-18, with 1:22 left before the break. Rogers made a layup with 21 seconds left to cut the deficit to three points heading into the lockerroom.
In that opening half, BGSU missed six-straight shots to start the game, made three of the next five field-goal attempts, missed 12 more shots, then went 3-for-3 to end the period. Despite shooting only 23.1% from the floor, the home team was within a three-pointer of tying the game.
And, after a lengthy scoreless streak to begin the second half, that's exactly what the Falcons got. After a steal by Havel, Halfhill took a pass from Steffen and connected from behind the arc at the 16:49 mark. BG's run was 12-0, and the score was knotted at 23-all.
Smith's layup gave the Rockets the lead once again, and snapped a scoreless streak of 6:45 for the Gold and Blue. But, Halfhill hit a second-chance three to give BG the lead for the first time. That shot came after an offensive rebound and quick pass by Havel, and Halfhill's trey made the score 26-25 with 15:16 to go.
Zanoguera's jumper gave the Rockets the lead once again, but Halfhill was fouled on a three-point attempt in front of the BG bench. The junior made the first two of her resulting free-throw tries, and the Falcons were on top once again, 28-27, with 12:04 left. The lead grew to three points on a third-chance layup for the point guard, on a possession that featured offensive rebounds from Papenfuss and junior Jill Stein.
The teams exchanged free throws before a Dortch jumper with 8:29 remaining began a 7-0 run for the visitors. That run included a Zanoguera hoop that gave the Rockets the lead for good, followed by Shafir's 'and-one' layup with 6:25 left.
After Steffen responded in kind, with a three-point play of her own, Shafir's free throws and long-range banker gave the visitors a 40-34 lead with 1:56 remaining.
The Shafir triple came one possession after a three-point try by Havel, which would have tied the game, rimmed out with 2:26 remaining.
With the Falcons down six, Halfhill hit a runner with 1:28 on the clock. Dortch, however, found Smith for a layup with just over a minute to go. The Falcons missed a three-pointer, and UT came up with the rebound. BG was forced to foul, and Dortch split a pair of free throws with 40.5 seconds left.
Beginning with that Dortch free throw, the Rockets went 6-of-8 from the stripe to end the game. The Falcons could only counter with two Steffen tosses with 17 seconds left, and what had been a one-point game at the final media timeout ended up as a double-digit decision.
Three UT players had eight or more rebounds, with Dortch and Zanoguera grabbing nine apiece. Smith's eight included four at the offensive end. Rogers led the Falcons, with half of her six boards coming at the offensive end of the court.
The Falcons forced UT to commit 19 turnovers, and Rogers and Havel had three steals apiece. BG had 17 turnovers on the day.
Shafir was 7-of-15 from the floor, with her Rocket teammates combining to go just 10-of-36. Halfhill made four field goals in nine attempts, with the rest of the Falcons making only 7-of-40 shots in the game.
The Falcons are home again on Wednesday night (Jan. 16), wrapping up a season-long five-game homestand with a 7:00 p.m. game vs. Ball State.
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