Falcons Battle MAC Favorite CMU Down to the Wire

Wednesday, February 4

Bowling Green, OH

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

9-12, 2-8MAC

Central Michigan

11-9, 6-3MAC

Central Michigan

Bowling Green

Miriam Justinger & the Falcons limited Crystal Bradford (left) to just 5-of-17 shooting

Photo by: Bianca Garza, BGSU Marketing and Communications

February 04, 2015 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Chippewas escape the Stroh Center with a 57-54 win

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Bowling Green State University women's basketball senior Deborah Hoekstra and her teammates battled Mid-American Conference favorite Central Michigan University right down to the wire Wednesday night (Feb. 4), but the Chippewas escaped the Stroh Center with a 57-54 win.

LINKS
FINAL STATISTICS: HTML | PDF
AUDIO: Hoekstra | Roos
VIDEO: Hoekstra | Roos | Highlights
PHOTO GALLERY: Bianca Garza, BGSU Mkt, & Comm.

Hoekstra scored 19 points for the Falcons (9-12, 2-8 Mid-American Conference), hitting a career-high five three-point field goals. The East Lansing, Mich., native made treys on back-to-back possessions to cut a seven-point deficit, the largest of the game, down to a single point with 1:20 to go. But, the Chippewas (11-9, 6-3 MAC) extended that lead back out to three points, then got key defensive stops on back-to-back possessions to eke out the road win.

Wednesday's game was tied on five occasions, and featured no fewer than 16 lead changes. Neither team, as mentioned, ever led by more than seven points.

"What a game," said BGSU head coach Jennifer Roos. "It came down to the last possession, there were 16 lead changes, and I think there were twice as many floor burns by both teams. Everybody was hustling throughout the game, and I was really proud of our kids."

Da'Jourie Turner had a game-high 21 points for the Chippewas, who were picked to win the MAC's West Division and league tournament titles in the preseason coaches' poll, while Crystal Bradford had 10 points and 11 rebounds. The Falcons allowed Bradford, CMU's career scoring and rebounding leader, to make just five field goals in 17 attempts, and held her scoreless in the opening half.

Junior Miriam Justinger joined Hoekstra in double digits for the Falcons, with 14 points on the night. Freshman Rachel Myers added eight points and a team-high four assists, while redshirt freshman Kennedy Kirkpatrick scored seven points and true freshman Sarah Baer six.

The Falcons took a 44-40 lead with 8:20 to go on Baer's second layup in as many BG possessions, but Central scored the game's next seven points as part of a 13-2 run. Bradford capped that run with a jumper at the 4:48 mark, giving the visitors a 53-46 lead.

Neither team scored again until just over two minutes remained, when Hoekstra took a Justinger pass and knocked down a triple try from the right wing. The Chippewas missed a shot on the next possession, with Hoekstra coming up with the rebound. At the other end of the court, an inbounds pass by Myers resulted in another Hoekstra trey, and Central's lead was 53-52 with 1:20 to go.

Turner missed a three-point try, but Bradford corralled the rebound and scored with 57.6 seconds to go. Justinger drove into the lane and scored on a one-handed shot with 34.2 seconds left, cutting CMU's lead to 55-54.

The Falcons, having committed just four fouls in the first 19-plus minutes of the half, fouled three times in roughly four seconds to send the Chippewas to the line. Turner, however, hit both ends of a one-and-one opportunity with 23.0 seconds on the clock, giving her team a three-point advantage.

At the other end of the court, Hoekstra's contested three-point try was off the mark, and CMU's Jas'Mine Bracey rebounded the ball and was fouled by Hoekstra with 12.3 seconds remaining. Bracey missed the front end of a one-and-one, however, and freshman Haley Puk rebounded the ball.

The Falcons came downcourt, and Myers attempted to drive and kick the ball to a teammate for a three-point try. Just as Myers looked to pass the ball to the wing, however, Bradford stripped it away from her, and the clock ran out.

BGSU went 10-for-23 from three-point range, including a 6-of-11 effort from beyond the arc in the second half. Hoekstra was 2-for-4 from long distance in the first half and 3-for-5 in the second.

BG spotted the Chippewas the game's first two points, as Turner hit a layup just eight seconds into the contest. But, CMU would not score for a span of nearly three-and-a-half minutes after that, as the Brown and Orange reeled off seven-straight points. Myers got the Falcons on the board with a pull-up jumper, and Justinger scored five-straight points, including the three-pointer that made it a 7-2 game.

Central battled back to within a point, but Hoekstra's long-distance shot gave BG a 10-6 lead, and the senior scored in a driving layup on BG's next possession, for a 12-9 advantage. The Chippewas got back-to-back Bracey buckets to take a 17-14 lead, however, and after a timeout, Turner alertly stole a pass in BG's end of the court and hit a wide-open layup for a five-point margin with 7:08 left in the half.

Kirkpatrick, however, made a pair of free throws and -- after nearly three minutes of scoreless basketball -- the redshirt freshman took Baer's kick-out pass and drilled a three-pointer to tie the game, 19-19, with 3:31 left in the half. Bracey answered with a layup, but Kirkpatrick fed Hoekstra for a corner three on BG's next possession, and the Falcons led, 22-21. A Lorreal Jones jumper gave the visitors a one-point lead at the intermission.

Hoekstra's driving layup opened the second-half scoring and gave the Falcons the lead. Bradford, after missing her first seven shot attempts of the night, banked home a shot at the 17:57 mark, but Hoekstra spotted Myers in front of the Falcons' bench, and the freshman's corner three gave the Brown and Orange a 27-25 lead.

Kerby Tamm answered with a three-pointer of her own, and Tinara Moore followed with a layup, but a Justinger trey tied the score at 30-30 with 16:21 to go. Then, Myers again took a Hoekstra pass and drilled a shot from behind the three-point line, giving the Brown and Orange a 33-30 advantage.

Back-to-back layups by Turner, with the second one coming after a nifty crossover dribble in transition, gave CMU the lead once again, and a Jones layup put the visitors ahead, 36-33. Justinger hit a foul-line jumper, however, and Kirkpatrick's layup gave BG the lead once again.

Bradford quickly scored at the other end, but Hoekstra knocked down a three-point attempt with just over nine minutes remaining, putting the Falcons up by a 40-38 count. Turner's free throws tied the game, but Myers pounded the ball inside to Baer on back-to-back BG trips down the floor, giving the home team that 44-40 lead with 8:20 on the clock.

The Falcons shot 44.4 percent from the floor in the second half and an even 40% for the game. BG held CMU to a 37.5% success rate, and the Chippewas were just 3-of-17 from three-point land.

Hoekstra went 5-of-9 from beyond the arc, while Justinger and Myers hit two long-distance shots apiece and Kirkpatrick one.

"We hit 10 threes tonight," said Roos. "This was a game where they were going 2-by-2-by-2 with their inside game, and we were going 3-by-3-by-3. You can look at the differential and see that they doubled our points in the paint, but we almost tripled their total from the arc. I thought our kids responded well and made some big shots. We wanted to control tempo and make them go 2-by-2, and I thought we did that.

"It's hard, because we had our chances to win, but again, I'm really proud of our kids."

BGSU hits the road this weekend, heading to Western New York for a Saturday (Feb. 7) game against the University at Buffalo. That game begins at 2:00 p.m. and will be broadcast by WBGU-FM 88.1 (audio) and ESPN3.com (video).