Falcons' Stifling Second-Half Defense Leads to 82-38 Victory, Seniors' 100th Win

Thursday, February 27

Bowling Green, OH

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Kent State

Falcons' Stifling Second-Half Defense Leads to 82-38 Victory, Seniors' 100th Win

February 27, 2014 | Women's Basketball

BGSU improves to 24-3 this season with Thursday's win over Kent State

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Alexis Rogers vs KSU - Bianca Garza photo

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team shut down Kent State University's offense in the second half, earning a milestone win on Thursday night (Feb. 27). The Falcons downed the Golden Flashes, 82-38, in Mid-American Conference action at the Stroh Center.

LINKS
FINAL STATISTICS: HTML | PDF
POSTGAME AUDIO: Halfhill | Roos
HIGHLIGHTS: BGSU-Kent State
PHOTO GALLERY: Bianca Garza, BGSU Marketing & Communications

With the win, BGSU improves to 24-3 on the year, and the Falcons are now 14-1 in MAC play. BG has won 10 consecutive games. The Flashes drop to 6-20 and 3-12, respectively.

The Falcons have tied the win total for all of last season, with at least four games remaining. Last year's team finished with a 24-11 record.

Additionally, this year's edition of the Falcons improved to a perfect 12-0 at the Stroh Center.

Thursday's win was also the 100th victory in the careers of the three seniors on the active roster. That group includes fourth-year Falcons Jillian Halfhill and Jill Stein, as well as Alexis Rogers. Rogers has played each of the last three seasons in the Brown and Orange after sitting out the 2010-11 season after transferring to BGSU from Duke University.

The Falcons held Kent State to just four field goals made and 12 total points in the second half. The Flashes shot nearly 71 percent from the field in the first half, and just 15% in the second.

Meanwhile, BGSU shot over 50% in each half en route to a 29-for-51 night from the floor. The Falcons shot 61.5% in the opening half and an even 52% in the final 20 minutes. BG's 56.9% field-goal percentage for the game was a season high.

The Falcons held the Flashes under 40 points for the third-straight meeting and the fourth time in five BGSU-KSU games in the Jennifer Roos Head-Coaching Era.

Rogers had 18 points to lead four double-digit scorers for the home team. She made 7-of-8 shots from the field and had a game-high four steals.

Halfhill was 6-of-8 from the floor, including a perfect 3-of-3 from three-point land, en route to 15 points in the win. She also led the team with five assists in just 24 minutes of action.

Junior Jasmine Matthews and redshirt sophomore Erica Donovan rounded out BG's double-figure scorers with 13 and 11 points, respectively.

CiCi Shannon led the Golden Flashes with 10 points on the night. Shannon also had game-high totals of seven rebounds and five blocked shots.

The Falcons never trailed, but the BG lead was just eight points after back-to-back buckets by the Flashes late in the opening half. The Brown and Orange responded with the last seven points of the first period, including five in the final 8.0 seconds of the half.

A Donovan layup with 50 seconds remaining in the half gave the Falcons a 36-26 lead, and after Stein stole the ball from KSU's Amber Dunlap, Halfhill knocked down a three-pointer with exactly eight seconds left before the intermission.

The point guard went to the free-throw line, looking to complete a four-point play. Her shot would not drop, but fellow senior Stein grabbed the rebound. Stein's putback try caromed off the rim, but classmate Rogers rose above several KSU players to tip the ball off the glass and into the net with roughly one second left. That shot gave the Falcons a 41-26 lead at the break.

The Flashes struggled to hold onto the ball in the opening half, but were deadly accurate when they did. KSU committed 13 first-half turnovers, but the Flashes hit 12-of-17 shots from the floor (70.6%). The second half, however, would be a different story.

Kent State went just 4-of-26 (15.4%) in that second period, and BGSU scored the first 10 points of the half to seize total control.

The Flashes committed 22 turnovers for the game, to just eight for the Falcons. Five of KSU's 22 were shot-clock violations.

BGSU had advantages of 28-11 in points off turnovers, 13-0 in second-chance points, 10-0 in fast-break points and 26-5 in bench scoring.

In addition to the 13 points by Matthews off the bench, the Brown and Orange got seven points from freshman Abby Siefker and six from junior Deborah Hoekstra. Stein and sophomore Miriam Justinger also had six points apiece in the win.

For the second time this season, Siefker sang the National Anthem before the game. Once the game started, she tied her career bests in both scoring and rebounding. All four of her rebounds came at the offensive end of the floor.

The Falcons burst out to an 11-2 lead. After the game's only tie, at 2-2, Halfhill put together her own personal 7-0 run to give BG the lead for good. She hit a layup, then a second-chance jumper after an offensive rebound by Justinger. Halfhill's triple at the 15:34 mark prompted a KSU timeout.

Meanwhile, the Flashes committed five turnovers on the first six possessions. Donovan's free throws with 14:25 left in the half gave the Falcons that 11-2 lead.

The visitors battled back to 11-6 after a Montia Johnson layup, but Matthews hit back-to-back three-pointers for a 17-6 lead. Moments later, Matthews made the 'extra pass' to Rogers, who rattled home a triple of her own for a 20-10 advantage.

Stein's acrobatic layup gave the Falcons a 22-10 lead, as she adjusted her shot to elude a KSU defender after a left-side drive. Another Rogers trey off of Halfhill's cross-court pass made it a 25-13 game,and after Shannon answered with a layup, Rogers got a layup to drop for a 27-15 lead with under six minutes left in the period.

A corner three by Halfhill was followed by a steal and layup from Rogers, and the Falcons had a 14-point lead, 32-18. KSU would score eight of the next 10 points to get within eight, before BG's 7-0 run to end the half.

That run reached 17-0 as the Brown and Orange scored the first 10 points of the second period. Rogers had six of those 10 points, including a layup just 13 seconds into the half. After throwing the ball inside to Stein, Rogers headed down the lane, received a return pass and banked a shot off glass and in.

Rogers hit two free throws, fed Justinger for a jumper, then came up with a steal near midcourt, taking the ball in for an easy layup and a 49-26 lead. KSU used a timeout, but moments later, Donovan's layup made it a 25-point game.

Hoekstra scored four-straight points to increase the lead to 58-30, and the junior's layup with 8:31 to go gave the Falcons a 30-point margin for the first time. That bucket was part of a 9-0 run that was capped by a Matthews three-ball for a 67-32 lead. Matthews tied her career high with four three-pointers in the win.

The lead was still 35 points after Siefker took an inbounds pass from fellow freshman Rachel Konieczki and hit a layup with 5:36 to go, and moments later, Justinger stole the ball and fed Donovan for a 2-on-1 layup in transition for a 72-35 lead.

Ashley Evans answered with a three-point play at the 3:29 mark, but the Flashes would not score again. A Matthews trey began a game-ending 10-0 run for the Brown and Orange. Kent State had just four offensive possessions over the final 3:29, as BG's trips down the floor included four offensive rebounds to extend the Falcons' possessions.

Each of the nine BG players on the active roster played between 15 and 29 minutes in the win. In addition to Halfhill's five assists, Justinger and Rogers dished out three apiece.

Rogers had four of BG's 11 steals, while Hoekstra had three steals and two assists in the victory. Stein tied her career high with three blocked shots.

Matthews went 4-of-5 from three-point range, while Halfhill, as mentioned, was a perfect 3-of-3 and Rogers 2-of-3.

Donovan and Stein had six rebounds each, as the Falcons held a 31-26 advantage in the rebounding column.

This year's senior class is the ninth in program history -- and the eighth in a row -- to reach the 100-win mark for their careers.

The Falcons return to the Stroh Center court for one final time this season, hosting Ohio University on Sunday (March 2). Tipoff is set for 2:00 p.m., and it will be Senior Day for the BGSU program, with Halfhill, Rogers and Stein recognized in pregame ceremonies.

NOTES
* Freshman Abby Siefker sang the National Anthem prior to the game ... Siefker has flawlessly performed the anthem twice before games at the Stroh Center this season.

* KSU's total of 12 points in the second half was the lowest allowed in a half by BGSU in over two years, since the Falcons surrendered just 12 points in the first half of a 57-47 win over Northern Illinois at the Stroh Center on Feb. 1, 2012. Jennifer Roos, the associate head coach on the 2011-12 staff, served as BG's interim head coach in that game.

* Roos now has an overall record of 48-14 in her second year as head coach, including a MAC ledger of 25-6 ... she is a perfect 5-0 against KSU, and the Falcons have held the Golden Flashes to fewer than 40 points in four of those games (and to just 43 points in the other game).