Three-Point Barrage Lifts Vikings Past Falcons

Saturday, December 5

Cleveland, Ohio

1:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

4-3

Cleveland State

2-4

Bowling Green

Cleveland State

Sarah Baer v Evansville Dec 2 2015 - Christine Nelson photo

Photo by: Christine Nelson, BGSU Marketing & Communications

December 05, 2015 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Cleveland State hits 11 first-half triples, coasts to 69-48 win

By: CLEVELAND, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Cleveland State University scored early and often, connecting on 11 first-half three-pointers en route to a 69-48 win over the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team Saturday afternoon (Dec. 5). The non-conference game was held at Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland.

The Vikings (2-4) made 14 triples in 30 attempts in the game, including an 11-of-20 performance in the opening half. CSU opened up a 47-13 lead at the break and coasted to the victory.

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The Falcons (4-3) outscored the hosts by a 35-22 count in the second half. BGSU shot 46.2 percent from the field after halftime, while holding CSU to just six field goals and a 25.0% field-goal rate in the final 20 minutes, but it was too little, too late.

Khayla Livingston led the first-half onslaught for the Vikings. She scored 19 of her game-high 21 points in the opening half, and was 5-of-7 from three-point land vs. the Falcons. Adesuwa Aideyman scored 17 points off the bench for CSU, while Ashanti Abshaw had 16 points. Both players hit three long-range shots, while Olivia Voskuhl knocked down two.

The Falcons took a 3-0 lead on a three-pointer by freshman Sydney Lambert with just over two minutes gone, but the Vikings proceeded to score the game's next 15 points, all on shots from beyond the arc. Aideyman and Livingston each hit two of those shots, with Livingston's second giving the Vikings a 15-3 advantage.

Lambert stopped the CSU run with her second trey of the game, but Livingston countered with her third, and the Vikings led by an 18-6 score. Senior Lauren Tibbs split a pair of free-throw tries with just 2.6 seconds left in the period, making it an 18-7 game after 10 minutes.

BG scored five of the first eight points in the second quarter. Sophomore Rachel Myers took a pass from senior Miriam Justinger and hit a corner three on the first possession, but Abshaw answered with a three.of her own. Tibbs grabbed an offensive rebound and put the back up and in, cutting CSU's lead to 21-12, but then, the Vikings went on an epic run to remove all doubt about the game's outcome.

A Livingston three-pointer began a 19-0 run, and when the smoke had cleared, it was a 40-12 game. That Livingston trey was followed by a steal and layup, a pair of free throws and a corner three for a 31-12 CSU lead.

The Falcons used a timeout, but Brooke Smith hit a jumper, Aideyman knocked down the Vikings' 10th three of the day, and Abshaw blew by her defender for a layup. Moments later, a steal and layup by Abshaw completed the run.

Lambert split a pair of free throws at the 1:28 mark -- BGSU's first point in nearly seven minutes -- but Livingston scored seven-straight points to end the half.

Tibbs hit a layup on the first possession of the third quarter, and Justinger scored five-straight BG points midway through the period, on an 'and-one' layup and another layup off of a steal. The latter shot made it a 49-20 game, but the hosts responded with five-straight points of their own, and CSU took a 62-31 lead after three quarters.

BGSU put together a 13-0 run in the fourth quarter. Redshirt sophomore Kennedy Kirkpatrick scored on a driving layup, then fed Tibbs for a shot inside. Justinger split a pair of free throws, and Tunstall knocked down a pair of shots from the stripe, then canned a jumper off of a nifty pass by Kirkpatrick. Two free throws by junior Abby Siefker made it a 64-44 game, but only three-plus minutes remained.

Lambert, Tibbs and Tunstall each scored seven points for the Falcons, while Justinger, Kirkpatrick and Konieczki all had six. Kirkpatrick also had a game-high four assists.

The Falcons return to the road, heading to Charlottesville, Va., for a Tuesday (Dec. 8) morning matchup with the University of Virginia. That game will begin at 11:00 a.m. at John Paul Jones Arena.