Fast BGSU Start Leads to 73-42 Win over Ball State

Wednesday, January 16

Bowling Green, OH

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Ball State

January 16, 2013 | Women's Basketball

Falcons hold BSU without a field goal for nearly 12 minutes to start the game

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Allison Papenfuss vs Ball State - Jordan Sternberg photo

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team got off to a fast start at the offensive end, and the Falcon defense held Ball State University without a field goal for nearly 12 minutes at the start of Wednesday night's (Jan. 16) game. It all added up to a Falcon win, 73-42, in Mid-American Conference action at the Stroh Center.

LINKS
FINAL STATISTICS: HTML   |   PDF
POSTGAME AUDIO: Allison Papenfuss   |   Jennifer Roos
POSTGAME VIDEO:   Papenfuss   |   Roos   |   Game Highlights (courtesy WBGU-TV)
PHOTO GALLERY: BGSU-Ball State (courtesy Jordan Sternberg, BGSU Marketing & Comm.)

With the win, the Falcons improve to 11-5 on the season, while dropping the Cardinals to 5-11. Both teams are now 2-1 in MAC play.

The Falcons scored 21 of the game's first 23 points, and Ball State never crept closer than 15 points the rest of the night. After the Cards got within 17 points on two occasions early in the second half, the Falcons scored five-straight points to put the lead over 20 points for good.

Redshirt junior Alexis Rogers scored 17 points, including 10 in the first half. Rogers made her first five field-goal attempts of the night, helping BG shoot 53.1 percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes.

With the game tied, 2-2, in the very early going, the Falcons proceeded to score the next 19 points to settle matters. Ball State got two free throws from Brandy Woody just 57 seconds into the game, then did not score a point until Katie Murphy's two charity tosses with 11:45 left in the half.

BSU's first successful field goal did not come until just 8:06 remained in the first half. The Cards misfired on 16 shot attempts before Lyzz Smith hit a three-pointer from the corner.

The Falcons took a 38-19 lead into the halftime break, holding BSU to just a 6-for-29 field-goal rate (20.7%) in that opening half. BSU shot 32.0% from the field in the second period and finished with a 25.9% effort for the game.

Senior Allison Papenfuss joined Rogers in double figures for the Falcons, with her total of 12 points falling just one shy of her career high. Papenfuss added seven rebounds and a pair of blocked shots, and led all BG players with 27 minutes played in the contest.

Junior Jill Stein had a game-high nine rebounds as the Falcons held a 47-30 advantage on the glass. Stein also had three blocks to lead all players and tie her career best.

Junior Jillian Halfhill dished out a career-high nine assists in just 19 minutes in the win. Halfhill's previous career best was five assists, but she had matched that total with over seven minutes left in the first half on Wednesday night.

Rogers went 8-of-10 from the field en route to scoring her 17 points in only 18 minutes. All 10 Falcons who saw action in the game scored at least three points, with each of the 10 pulling down one or more rebounds.

BG scored on the first three possessions of the game. Rogers took a Halfhill pass and converted a layup with 25 seconds gone, and after Woody tied the score with two shots from the stripe, Rogers grabbed a teammate's miss and put the ball back up and in, giving the Falcons the lead for good.

Havel took a pass from Halfhill and hit a short right-side jumper, and the Falcons were off and running. Literally. BG's next two buckets came after BSU misses. Halfhill threw long passes downcourt to find freshman Miriam Justinger and Rogers, respectively, for easy layups and a 10-2 lead with just under four minutes gone. Halfhill assisted on four of the Falcons' first five field goals of the game.

Justinger hit Papenfuss for a jumper, and the freshman then scored herself, receiving a pass from junior Katrina Salinas and knocking down BG's first three-pointer of the night. The Falcons' lead was 15-2 with five minutes gone.

After a Ball State miss, Salinas spotted Papenfuss ahead of the pack and hit the senior with a long pass that led to another transition layup. Just over 30 seconds later, Papenfuss again received a pass on the break -- this time from Justinger -- and the senior knocked down a short jumper. The home team was ahead by a 19-2 count as the Cardinals used their second timeout in the game's first eight minutes.

Out of that break, though, it was more of the same. A BSU miss was followed by a BGSU rebound, leading to a transition bucket. This time, senior Chrissy Steffen scored inside, and the Falcons were up, 21-2. Out of the 11:45 media timeout, Murphy's two tosses broke a BSU scoreless streak of 7:18.

At that point, BGSU had made 10 of 15 shots from the field (66.7%), while Ball State had yet to hit a shot in 12 attempts.

Another Rogers putback gave the Brown and Orange a 23-4 advantage with over 10 minutes gone, before the Cards scored four-straight points. After a free throw, Smith took a pass from Nathalie Fontaine and hit a three-pointer at the 8:06 mark. Halfhill, however, threw a pass inside to Papenfuss for a layup, the first of two hoops for the senior in an 18-second span.

The Cards got to within 15 points, but Salinas hit a three-pointer, and a Rogers jumper gave the Falcons a 20-point lead, 33-13, with 3:28 left before halftime. Moments later, a Justinger trey gave the Brown and Orange a 36-15 advantage, and Salinas put the Falcons up by 23 with a layup at the one-minute mark. The visitors scored the last four points of the half.

The Falcons had 22 points in the paint in the first half en route to 28 for the game.

In the second period, a quick BSU layup was answered by a three from senior Danielle Havel. The Cardinals hit a trey of their own, but Halfhill lobbed a pass inside to Rogers for a layup, and Steffen's three-bal gave the Brown and Orange a 46-24 advantage with less than two minutes gone.

The lead reached 25 points on a Rogers putback in traffic with 14:48 left, and after BSU scored four points in a row, sophomore Deborah Hoekstra drained a triple try midway through the period. She then was fouled on another three-point shot, making two of the ensuing free throws, and BG's lead was 59-35.

After two Salinas tosses, Brittany Carter hit a triple for the visitors, cutting BG's lead to 23, 61-38, with 7:38 left. But, the hosts proceeded to go on a 9-0 run over the next four-plus minutes. Stein and freshman Bailey Cairnduff each went 2-for-2 from the line, and Hoekstra hit another three-pointer. A Papenfuss jumper gave the hosts a 70-38 lead heading into the final media timeout of the night.

Cairnduff, who was a perfect 4-for-4 at the line, made two more tosses with 2:35 left, and Stein added a free throw before Carter closed the scoring with a trey at the 1:53 mark.

Carter, the lone player to hit double digits for the Cardinals, had 11 points, while Woody had seven points along with a team-leading four assists.

Justinger had nine points for the Falcons, while Hoekstra had eight points and a career-high five rebounds. Salinas scored seven points and Havel and Steffen five apiece.

BGSU now hits the road for six of the next eight games, beginning Sunday (Jan. 20). The Falcons will head to Athens to take on Ohio University in a 2:00 p.m. start. BG's next home game is a week from Thursday, Jan. 24, against Miami.