Falcons Dismantle Minutewomen, 86-46, in Thursday Matinee

Thursday, December 19

Bowling Green, OH

2:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Massachusetts

December 19, 2013 | Women's Basketball

BGSU outscores UMass by a point per minute to move to 9-1

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Miriam Justinger - starting lineups vs UMass - Dec. 19 2013

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team easily shook off the rust of an 11-day layoff, taking control early en route to an 86-46 win over the University of Massachusetts Thursday afternoon (Dec. 19). The non-conference game was held at the Stroh Center.

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POSTGAME VIDEO: Alexis Rogers | Jennifer Roos
HIGHLIGHTS: Courtesy WBGU-TV
POSTGAME AUDIO: Jennifer Roos
PHOTO GALLERY: BGSU Marketing & Communications

Junior Deborah Hoekstra led the Falcons (9-1) in scoring for the third consecutive game, with a game-high 19 points in the win. Redshirt sophomore Erica Donovan scored 18 points, while senior Alexis Rogers had 16 and junior Jasmine Matthews 10 for the Brown and Orange.

BGSU's 9-1 start to the season is tied for the best in school history.

The Minutewomen (3-8) got 13 points from Nola Henry, while Kim Pierre-Louis added 10.

Hoekstra has set or tied her career scoring high in three consecutive games. She had a then career-best 18 points in the Falcons' win over Monmouth on Dec. 1, then scored 19 more vs. Milwaukee (Dec. 8) before matching that 19-point total on Thursday afternoon.

Thursday's game was originally scheduled to be played on Sunday (Dec. 15), but the game was postponed due to travel/weather issues that prevented the UMass travel party from flying out of Boston on Saturday. The four-day delay meant that the Falcons had not played since that UWM game on Dec. 8.

The Falcons made 11 three-point field goals vs. UMass, with Hoekstra hitting four and Donovan and Matthews two apiece. In all, six different players made at least one trey.

BGSU took a 44-21 halftime lead, hitting seven triples in the opening half while holding UMass to six total field goals made during that time. After the lead stayed in the lower 20s during the initial stages of the final period, the Falcons removed all doubt with a 19-2 run over a four-minute span.

Rogers scored eight of her points during that run, which gave the Falcons a 75-38 lead with 6:06 to play.

All nine BGSU players in uniform on Thursday played between 17 and 27 minutes. The Falcon starters scored a combined 46 points, while the four players off the bench -- Hoekstra, Matthews and freshmen Rachel Konieczki and Abby Siefker -- had 40 points between them.

No fewer than five different Falcons had at least three assists, with senior Jill Stein's five leading the way. BG had 19 assists on 28 field goals in the victory. Senior point guard Jillian Halfhill had four helpers, while Matthews, Rogers and sophomore Miriam Justinger dished out three apiece.

Rogers had a game-high eight rebounds as BG enjoyed a 46-30 advantage on the glass. Donovan and Stein pulled down six boards each, and Matthews added five.

Donovan scored the game's first five points, staking the home team to a lead it would never relinquish. She took a pass from Stein to hit a corner three just 14 seconds into the game, then grabbed a teammate's miss, was fouled and hit two free throws with only 50 seconds gone.

Emily Mital got the visitors on the board with the first of her three three-pointers in the game. Mital was 3-for-6 from beyond the arc, while the rest of her teammates went 1-of-10 from long distance.

A Rogers layup gave the Falcons a 7-3 lead, but the Brown and Orange then would miss six consecutive shots over the next three possessions. Kiera Bomben cut BG's lead in half with a jumper at the 16:18 mark, but the Falcons responded with three buckets in less than a minute's time.

First, Halfhill's inbounds pass found Rogers under the hoop for a layup. Then, a Rogers rebound at the defensive end led to a pull-up jumper from Donovan. Rogers then picked Henry's pocket and hit another layup, giving the hosts a 13-5 lead heading into the first media timeout of the day.

The Minutewomen crept within three points on two Henry free throws and a Mital trey, but Hoekstra drained three-point shots on back-to-back trips down the floor. First, Rogers kicked the ball out to the junior, who scored from the right wing. Then, Stein drove the right baseline and whipped a pass to Hoekstra in the left corner. Two Donovan free throws gave the Falcons a 21-10 lead, and BG's advantage remained in double figures the rest of the afternoon.

That 8-0 run was the start of a larger 14-1 surge for the Falcons. Afer Henry split two tosses, the home side proceeded to hit three-pointers on three consecutive possessions. Konieczki knocked down a shot from the right elbow, and Hoekstra hit from the left side, giving BG a 27-11 lead. Pierre-Louis got inside for a layup -- the first UMass field goal in nearly six minutes -- but Matthews connected from the left wing, giving BG a 30-13 lead with 8:35 left in the half.

Siefker split a pair of tosses, and Matthews hit a long two-pointer, giving BG a 20-point lead for the first time. The Falcons' advantage stayed between 19 and 22 points until Halfhill's trey with just over a minute left in the half gave BG a 44-20 lead. A Henry free throw closed the first-half scoring.

In that first half, Hoekstra scored 13 points, marking the fourth consecutive game in which she had reached double digits by halftime. Rogers had eight points and seven boards in the opening period, and Donovan scored nine points and grabbed five rebounds.

In the second period, the teams traded points for the first five minutes, with neither team scoring more than two-straight points in that span. Finally, the Falcons scored four in a row, as Donovan hit two shots from the stripe, then fed Matthews for a transition layup and a 56-31 lead. UMass responded with five-straight points to cut the margin to 20 points with 12:26 to go, but the Falcons then went on that 17-2 run to put the game on ice.

Donovan began that run with a triple, and Rogers had eight points and an assist during that span. Justinger had five points and an assist, while Stein had assists on three-straight baskets in the middle of that run. When Rogers fed Justinger for a three-pointer with 6:06 remaining, the Falcons' lead was 75-38.

Two charity tosses by Alyx Stiff got the Minutewomen within 33 points, but Hoekstra converted a four-point play, hitting her fourth trey of the game while being knocked to the floor, then sinking the ensuing free throw for a 79-42 advantage with 4:37 to go. BG's lead reached 41 points on two occasions before the game ended with the Falcons up by 40.

As mentioned, all nine Falcons who saw action played between 17 and 27 minutes, and eight of those nine scored four or more points. Every player had at least one rebound, with six players grabbing at least four boards. Hoekstra had a game-high three steals, while Rogers had two.

Rogers was 8-of-10 from the field en route to her 16-point, eight-rebound, three-assist, two-steal day.

BGSU shot 86.4% from the free-throw line, going 19-of-22, while UMass hit 14-of-23 shots from the stripe. BG made 28 field goals to the visitors' 14.

The Falcons now have a quick turnaround, heading to West Lafayette, Ind., to face nationally-ranked Purdue University on Sunday (Dec. 22). That game will begin at 12:00 p.m. at Mackey Arena.