Sunday, February 10
Kalamazoo, MI
2:00 PM
Bowling Green State University
54
at
55
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Western Michigan
Buchanan, Broncos Best BG, 55-54
February 10, 2013 | Women's Basketball
WMU junior scores with 4.6 seconds to go
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POSTGAME AUDIO: Jennifer Roos
With the victory, the Broncos improve to 8-15 overall and 4-6 in the MAC. The Falcons drop to 15-8 and 6-4, respectively.
The Falcons shot just 17.9 percent from the field in the first half, making only seven shots in 39 attempts in the first 20 minutes. For the game, BGSU shot 27.1% from the floor.
BGSU took 26 more shots (70 to 44) than the Broncos on Sunday afternoon, in large part because of WMU turnovers and BG offensive rebounding. The Falcons forced 20 Bronco turnovers in the game, and BG had 22 offensive boards in the game.
When Bronco possessions resulted in a shot, however, the home team enjoyed success. Western shot 52.4% in the first half and an even 50.0% percent on the afternoon, going 22-of-44 from the field.
Sophomore Deborah Hoekstra led the Falcons with 11 points off the bench, while senior Chrissy Steffen and redshirt junior Alexis Rogers scored 10 points apiece.
Junior Jillian Halfhill's lone bucket of the day was a big one, as the point guard hit a three-pointer with 19.0 seconds left to give the Falcons a 54-53 lead. That shot, off of a pass from Hoekstra, came after a big-time offensive rebound by Rogers, who grabbed the ball in traffic while her body was nearly parallel to the ground.
After the officials went to the video monitor to review the shot, the clock was set at 19.7 seconds. The Broncos took the ball over midcourt and called a timeout with 15.9 seconds remaining to set up the winning shot.
Buchanan's shot, taken from the right side of the lane, bounced around and dropped through the hoop with 4.6 seconds to go. The Falcons quickly inbounded the ball, and Hoekstra got it to Steffen. The senior's shot from just inside midcourt was off the mark as time expired.
Western turned the ball over on each of the Broncos' first four possessions of the day, and the Broncos had seven turnovers by the first media timeout. The Falcons, however, could only score four points during that time, on a pair of Rogers layups. And, when Alex Morton hit a three-pointer, BG's lead was just a single point after the first four minutes.
The Broncos took the lead on a Miracle Woods layup, before senior Danielle Havel answered with a nifty reverse layup underneath the hoop. Western retook the lead, however, and the home team proceeded to go on a 7-0 run. A Morton jumper at the 10:35 mark gave WMU a 12-6 advantage.
Freshman Bailey Cairnduff hit a three-pointer from the left wing to cut the Falcons' deficit in half, but Marquisha Harris answered with a bucket. After Steffen split a pair of free throws, the Broncos went on a 10-0 run to take a 24-10 lead.
That run included six points from Woods, who banked back-to-back layup tries high off the glass and in. Buchanan knocked down a jumper, and another Woods layup gave Western the 14-point lead with 5:05 left in the half.
Steffen snapped BG's drought with a three-pointer at the 4:21 mark. Then, Hoekstra, after checking into the game for the first time, knocked down a three-ball on her first possession after Havel's drive and dish. The Falcons had cut the deficit to six points.
Buchanan answered with a jumper, but junior Jill Stein hit a turnaround one-hander in the paint. Hoekstra was fouled in the final minute of the half, and hit both ensuing free-throw tries, and BG trailed by a 26-20 score at the intermission.
The Falcons had 18 more shot attempts than the Broncos in the opening 20 minutes. BGSU was just 7-of-39 from the field in the period, while WMU made 11-of-21 shots.
Hoekstra, who played roughly two minutes in the first half, was BG's leading scorer with five points at the break.
Hoekstra started the second half for the Falcons, and BG went on a run early in the period. After Aurielle Anderson's steal and layup gave the Broncos an eight-point advantage, the Falcons scored six quick points.
First, Hoekstra drove inside and was fouled, hitting both free throws at the 18:41 mark. Then, the sophomore drove again, this time hitting a short shot from the right side.
For the second-straight possession, Rogers stole the ball from Anderson. This time, the redshirt junior knocked the ball to Halfhill, starting a 2-on-1 break for the Brown and Orange. Rogers took a pass from Halfhill and hit a transition layup, cutting WMU's lead to just two points, at 28-26, with 17:40 to go.
A.J. Johnson hit a layup for the hosts, but Rogers converted a three-point play with 16:45 on the clock. After BG scored just 10 points in nearly 16 minutes to begin the game, the Rogers three-point play gave the Falcons 19 points in just over seven minutes, and the visitors trailed by a single point.
Morton hit two free throws, but Hoekstra took a bounce pass from Halfhill and hit a layup. Then, Havel rebounded a teammate's miss and laid the ball up and in, and the Falcons had a 33-32 lead with 15:49 left.
Johnson quickly gave the hosts the lead with a three-pointer. But, out of a media timeout, Cairnduff took a pass from classmate Miriam Justinger and drained a three-point try from the left wing for a 36-35 BG lead.
The Broncos, however, scored the next seven points, on another three-ball by Johnson and four points from Harris, on a jumper and two charity tosses. Halfhill fed Stein for a layup, and two Steffen free throws cut the Falcons' deficit to two points. And, when Havel came up with an offensive rebound and hit a shot off glass, the game was tied, 42-42, with 9:32 remaining.
BG's run continued when Hoekstra found Stein inside for a shot, and Western then threw the ball away as the teams headed to the eight-minute media timeout. BG could ot capitalize on the turnover, however, and Jazmine Windham's triple gave the hosts a 45-44 lead with 6:20 to go.
After a steal, Anderson knocked down a short left-side jumper, and the Falcons used a timeout. Steffen split a pair of free throws, and Stein put back her own miss with 3:34 left, tying the game at 47-all.
Harris answered quickly for the hosts, and after BG missed two shots on the next possession, WMU got the ball back. The possession resulted in a Buchanan layup at the 2:32 mark, putting the Broncos up by a 51-47 score.
Steffen cut Western's lead to a single point, hitting a three-pointer off of a Hoekstra pass with 2:10 remaining, and the Falcons called a timeout. BG got a defensive stop on the next possession, as Buchanan missed a jumper. But, as Halfhill got the rebound, she tripped over Anderson, who was on the ground in the paint.
As she was falling backward, Halfhill tried to pass the ball to a teammate, but it went directly to Harris underneath the bucket, and she laid it off glass and in with 1:37 remaining.
Rogers got to the line after drawing the fifth foul on Woods with 1:23 to go, and the BG redshirt junior missed her first toss, but made the second, cutting WMU's lead to 53-51.
WMU's Michelle O'Brien missed a three-point try on the next possession, and the ball went out of bounds to the Falcons with 54.0 seconds to go.
After a BG timeout, the next Falcon possession saw a Steffen three-point try rattle out. But, Rogers came up with a very acrobatic offensive rebound, keeping the possession alive. Hoekstra's pass found Halfhill on the right wing, and the junior hit her three-pointer to give the visitors a 54-53 lead with 19.0 seconds remaining.
Buchanan, however, hit her shot with 4.6 seconds left to give the hosts the win. It marked WMU's second-straight win over the Falcons at University Arena.
Seven different players scored for the Falcons, with six scoring at least six points apiece. In addition to her 10 points, Rogers had a BG-leading eight rebounds along with four steals. The Falcons had a 41-36 advantage on the boards, and the Brown and Orange came up with 16 steals on the day.
Stein had eight points and six rebounds in 15 minutes, while Havel had six points, seven rebounds and two steals. Cairnduff also had six points, going a perfect 2-of-2 from three-point land.
Halfhill scored three points on her last-minute triple, and the point guard added five rebounds, four assists and a game- and career-high six steals.
The Broncos got a double-double from Harris, who had 13 points and 10 rebounds, in addition to singing the National Anthem prior to the game. Three of her teammates -- Buchanan, Johnson and Woods -- scored eight points apiece.
The Falcons now prepare for a trip to DeKalb, Ill., to face Northern Illinois University on Saturday (Feb. 16). Following that game, the Brown and Orange will return home to face the University of Akron on Wednesday, Feb. 20. The NIU game will be BG's final cross-divisional contest of the regular season, as the UA game begins a stretch of five consecutive games vs. MAC East Division teams leading up to the MAC Tournament.
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