Falcons Ride Fast Start to 61-47 Win at Bradley

Sunday, December 21

Peoria, IL

3:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

7-2

Bradley

1-9

Bowling Green

Bradley

Abby Siefker had 11 points, six rebounds & two blocked shots in Sunday's win

Photo by: Larry Clapper

December 21, 2014 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Six players score between 7 and 12 points in Sunday's road victory

By: PEORIA, Ill. (BGSU Athletic Communications)

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team broke out to an early lead, riding a hot first half and a balanced scoring attack to a 61-47 win over Bradley University Sunday afternoon (Dec. 21). The non-conference game was held at Renaissance Coliseum.

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With the victory, the Falcons improve to 7-2 on the year, and BGSU takes a four-game winning streak into a brief holiday break.

BGSU led from wire to wire, bursting out to a 15-2 lead and holding a double-digit advantage for the game's final 30 minutes. The Falcons led by as many as 22 points in the second half before a late BU rally cut the final margin to 12.

Six players scored between seven and 12 points for the Falcons on Sunday. Sophomore Rachel Konieczki led the balanced attack with 12 points, while senior Deborah Hoekstra and soph Abby Siefker each had 11. Konieczki also had a career-high four assists in the win, while Siefker had six rebounds and two blocked shots.

Siefker made her first five shots from the field, finishing the day 5-for-6.

Junior Miriam Justinger had eight points, a BG-leading eight rebounds and five assists on Sunday, tying her career high in the latter category. Freshman Haley Puk and redshirt freshman Kennedy Kirkpatrick each scored seven points against the Braves, with Puk adding a career-high seven rebounds.

Puk, who made the first start of her young BGSU career, also had two assists, a steal and a blocked shot to set career bests in each category.

Freshmen Rachel Myers and Sarah Baer scored three and two points, respectively. Baer had the first two blocked shots of her career to tie Siefker for game honors, as the Falcons had five blocks as a team.

All eight Falcons who played in the game saw at least 13 minutes of action. Konieczki played 36 minutes and Puk 34.

The Falcons played without senior Jasmine Matthews, redshirt junior Erica Donovan, redshirt freshman Leah Bolton and true freshman Lauren Webb. Matthews was in uniform but did not see action, while the other three did not suit up for the game due to various injuries.

Whitney Tinjum and Michelle Young each scored 15 points for the Braves, with Tinjum adding a game-high 11 rebounds.

The Falcons scored the first four points of the game. BG's first two possessions came up empty, but on the third, Siefker lobbed the ball inside to Justinger for a layup. Then, Konieczki put back her own miss, for a 4-0 BG advantage.

The hosts got on the board on a jumper by Anneke Schlueter at the 17:20 mark, but the Brown and Orange then scored 11-straight points to assume command of the game. Hoekstra took a pass from Konieczki and buried a three-point try from the right side, and Siefker grabbed an offensive rebound and laid the ball back up and in. BG's lead was 9-2 with just over four minutes gone, and Bradley called a timeout.

Out of the timeout, BGSU forced a missed shot, and Konieczki hit a driving layup, and the sophomore then drove the baseline and fed Siefker for a short jumper. After another defensive stop, Konieczki drove coast to coast for a layup and that 15-2 advantage.

Moments later, Kirkpatrick found Myers for a straightaway trey and an 18-4 lead, BGSU made 8-of-12 shots from the floor in the first eight-plus minutes, and outrebounded the Braves by a 9-3 count.

The hosts scored five-straight points, but Hoekstra and the Falcons responded. Hoekstra took a pass from Puk and, with the shot clock winding down, hit a corner three. Then, the senior drove inside, was fouled and hit the ensuing free throws for a 23-9 lead.

After a steal by Hoekstra, the East Lansing, Mich., native completed her own personal 8-0 run with another three-pointer, giving the Falcons a 26-9 lead. Tinjum broke BU's scoring drought with a bucket, but Puk secured a rebound in traffic and scored inside. The freshman then came up with another offensive rebound, drew a foul and hit two charity tosses to give the Falcons a 30-13 lead.

That BG lead remained in the high teens for nearly all of the half. Puk drove the lane, drew multiple players to her and dished the ball to Justinger for a layup late in the shot clock. Justinger's hustle produced an offensive rebound and resulted in a Siefker layup, and Puk knocked down a right-wing triple, giving the Falcons a 37-19 lead with 2:30 left in the half, as Bradley used another timeout.

The hosts responded, scoring back-to-back buckets inside, but Kirkpatrick was fouled on a drive in the final minute of the period, hitting two shots from the stripe for a 39-23 lead at the intermission.

The Falcons shot 51.9 percent from the field in the opening half. BG's 14-of-27 effort included a 5-of-12 performance (41.7%) from three-point land, and the visitors had a 20-9 rebounding advantage in the opening 20 minutes of play.

Hoekstra had all 11 of her points in the first half, while Puk had seven points, three boards and two assists. Konieczki and Siefker scored six first-half points apiece, with Konieczki adding three assists and Siefker corralling five rebounds. Justinger had four points, six caroms and two assists in the first period.

The second half saw BG make 5-of-7 shots from the field at the outset. Justinger come up with a steal and hit Konieczki with a bounce pass for an easy 2-on-1 layup. BU's Danielle Brewer hit a three-pointer, but Justinger lobbed the ball to Siefker for a layup, then hit a shot of her own. That floater gave the Falcons a 45-28 lead.

Moments later, Konieczki's pull-up jumper was followed by a nice effort by Siefker at both ends of the court. The sophomore stole the ball, ran the floor, grabbed a teammate's missed shot and put the ball right back up and in for a 49-30 BG lead with just under 16 minutes left in the period. Then, Konieczki's driving layup gave BG a 21-point lead.

After Tinjum scored inside, Konieczki found Kirkpatrick in the corner, and the redshirt freshman's three-point try found nothing but net, giving BG a 54-32 lead with 13:25 remaining.

After that shot by Kirkpatrick, however, the Falcons would make just one more field goal. The next five-plus minutes saw the only scoring come at the free-throw line, as Leti Lerma made two shots and Young three. BGSU missed four shots and had five turnovers before Justinger hit Kirkpatrick for a layup with 8:09 left to break BG's scoring drought. The Falcons led, 56-37.

With 5:37 remaining, Justinger grabbed a defensive rebound, was fouled and hit both ends of the ensuing one-and-one opportunity, and BG's lead was 21 points, at 58-37.

The Braves got a three-pointer from Sameia Kendall with 5:16 remaining -- BU's first successful field goal in nearly eight and a half minutes -- but Siefker took a lob pass from Myers, drew a foul and split her two shots for a 59-40 lead with 4:09 to go.

With the outcome all but decided, the hosts scored the game's next seven points, capped by two free throws from Tinjum with 45.5 seconds to go. The Falcons used all of the shot clock on the next possession before turning the ball over, but the hosts threw it out of bounds to give possession right back to BG.

Puk's long inbounds pass found Baer ahead of the pack, and she was fouled from behind with 23.2 seconds left. Baer hit both of the ensuing free-throw tries to close the scoring.

The Falcons shot 45.8% from the field on the day, shooting better than 50 percent in the game's first 27 minutes before going 1-of-9 to end the contest. The BG defense held BU to just a 30.2% success rate, including only a 6-of-29 performance (20.7%) in the second half.

The Falcons' next games will come in Miami, Fla., at the FIU Sun & Fun Classic. BGSU will face Hampton on Monday, Dec. 29, before meeting either Auburn or host FIU the following day.