BGSU Shoots Past Tiffin, 91-48, in Exhibition Play

Saturday, November 2

Bowling Green, OH

4:30 PM

Bowling Green State University

Tiffin ^

November 02, 2013 | Women's Basketball

Donovan scores game-high 17; Falcons hit 14 three-pointers

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Erica Donovan vs Tiffin - Bianca Garza photo

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team scored from inside and out in a 91-48 win over Tiffin University Saturday afternoon (Nov. 2). The exhibition game was held at the Stroh Center on the BGSU campus.

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POSTGAME AUDIO: Jill Stein | Jennifer Roos
POSTGAME VIDEO: Jill Stein | Jennifer Roos

Redshirt sophomore Erica Donovan, after sitting out last season, led the way with a game-high 17 points, but the win was a well-rounded effort.

All 11 BGSU players who saw action scored at least three points, with nine of those players totaling six or more points in the win. The Falcons outscored the Dragons by a 34-18 margin in the paint, and BG went 14-of-26 from three-point land.

Seniors Alexis Rogers and Katrina Salinas joined Donovan in double digits with 11 points apiece, while senior Jill Stein and junior Deborah Hoekstra had nine points each. Sophomore Miriam Justinger scored eight points, with freshmen Kennedy Kirkpatrick and Abby Siefker chipping in with seven each.

Senior Jillian Halfhill had six points, and junior Jasmine Matthews and freshman Rachel Konieczki scored three points each.

The Falcons enjoyed advantages of 30-0 in fast-break points and 27-7 in points off turnovers. BGSU had 22 assists on 33 baskets on Saturday, and the Brown and Orange turned the ball over just eight times.

Karli Mast led the Dragons with 10 points on the day, while Katie Miller had eight points. Jessica Farr scored seven points and paced the visitors with seven rebounds. Tiffin had a 42-37 advantage on the glass.

Several Falcons just missed recording double-doubles. In addition to her nine points, Stein had game-high totals of 10 boards and six blocked shots. Siefker pulled down nine rebounds and Donovan seven.

Four BGSU starters had at least four assists in the win. Rogers led all players with six, while Halfhill, Justinger and Stein dished out four apiece.

The Falcons never trailed in the game, and the Falcons surged out to an early 18-2 lead, largely on the strength of the three-pointer. After a Halfhill free throw opened the scoring, Donovan took a pass from the senior point guard and hit a corner three for a 4-0 advantage with less than a minute gone. A Donovan jumper at the 18:40 mark gave her five points and her team a 6-2 lead.

Justinger took a pass from Rogers and drained a shot from beyond the arc, and Donovan and Justinger each connected from long range again. When Justinger's second shot went through the hoop, BG had a 15-2 lead with just over four minutes gone.

Hoekstra knocked down a triple try of her own, and the lead was 18-2 at the 13:12 mark. That capped a 14-0 run for the home team. Tiffin went scoreless for a span of 6:02 before Mast hit the first of her three treys on the day.

Konieczki's first points came on a driving layup that gave the home team a 20-5 lead, and a Siefker putback in traffic put the Falcons up by a 24-10 count. The Falcons got the lead as high as 22 points in the opening half, going on a 10-0 run after the Dragons had crept within 27-15.

That 10-point run included a three-point play by Stein after Rogers threw the ball inside to her fellow senior. Stein returned the favor, spotting Rogers beyond the arc for a three-pointer with 5:32 on the clock.

Tiffin, however, whittled the Falcons' lead down to 14 points at the intermission, as the visitors scored 11 of the final 14 points of the period.

BG, though, scored on the first three possessions of the second half, with Stein hitting back-to-back layups and Rogers taking a long pass by Justinger and scoring in transition. Jessica Farr split a pair of free throws for TU, but a Donovan three-pointer sparked another 10-0 run for the hosts. Donovan scored seven of those 10 BG points, and the Brown and Orange had a 56-29 lead.

If any doubt remained about the outcome of the game, the Falcons removed that doubt with a 13-0 run midway through the half. Rogers hit three layups during that run, and Hoekstra drilled another three-pointer during that span. When Halfhill scored with 8:38 to go, BG's lead was 74-35.

A Matthews triple less than a minute later gave BG a 40-point lead for the first time, and that lead grew as large as 49 points on two occasions late in the game, before the Dragons scored the final six points of the afternoon.

The Falcons shot 50.8 percent from the field for the game, including a blistering 21-of-32 (65.6%) effort in the second half. BG was shooting an even 75 percent from the field in that second period, before missing the final four shot attempts of the day, long after the outcome was decided.

Eight different players hit at least one three-point try, led by Donovan's 3-of-4 long-range effort. Hoekstra also made three triples, with Justinger and Salinas knocking down two apiece.

The Falcons head to New York to open the regular season next weekend, playing two games in the Iona Tipoff Tournament. BGSU will face Michigan on Friday (Nov. 8), and the Brown and Orange then will meet either Arizona or host Iona the following afternoon. The regular-season home opener is set for Friday night, Nov. 15, when BG meets Niagara in a 6:00 p.m. start at the Stroh.