Bulls Use Inside Game to Ground Falcons, 66-45

Saturday, February 7

Buffalo, NY

2:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

9-13, 2-9MAC

Buffalo

13-8, 6-4MAC

Bowling Green

Buffalo

Kennedy Kirkpatrick v Toledo - Jan 31 2015 - Ruben Kappler photo

Photo by: Ruben Kappler, BGSU Marketing & Communications

February 07, 2015 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Myers scores 12 for BGSU; Falcons host Ohio Wednesday

By: BUFFALO, N.Y. (BGSU Athletic Communications)

The University at Buffalo used a strong inside game to take an early lead, and the host Bulls downed the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, 66-45, Saturday afternoon (Feb. 7) at Alumni Arena.

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Kristen Sharkey scored 18 points for the Bulls (13-8, 6-4 Mid-American Conference), who snapped a 20-game losing streak to the Falcons. Mackenzie Loesing added 13 points and Alexus Malone 12 for UB.

The Bulls scored 40 points in the paint, and UB had 17 second-chance points after grabbing 13 offensive rebounds in the win.

Freshman Rachel Myers had 12 points for the Falcons (9-13, 2-9 MAC), while junior Miriam Justinger scored nine points and senior Deborah Hoekstra and redshirt freshman Kennedy Kirkpatrick eight apiece.

The Bulls took an early 4-0 lead, beginning with a Malone layup on the first possession of the game, before the Falcons got on the board. Sophomore Rachel Konieczki came up with the first of her four steals and found Justinger in transition. The junior was fouled and hit both free throws to cut the UB lead in half.

Sharkey, however, came up with an offensive board and laid the ball up and in. A Myers pull-up jumper made it a 6-4 game, but layups by Malone and Sharkey gave the hosts a six-point lead at the first media timeout of the afternoon.

The run continued for the home team, as UB took a 16-4 lead to prompt a BG timeout. Out of that break, senior Erica Fullenkamp kicked the ball out to Kirkpatrick for a three-pointer. But, Ayana Bradley hit a foul-line jumper, and Malone put back a missed shot for a 20-7 advantage. That lead reached 15 points after a turnover at midcourt resulted in an easy layup for Joanna Smith.

Justinger stopped that run, as Myers found the junior for a corner three. But, Justinger was whistled for a pair of fouls within a 10-second span, sending her to the bench with three fouls.

Moments later, though, Hoekstra hit a pair of free throws, and freshman Haley Puk found Myers for a three-pointer that cut the Bulls' lead to 10 points, at 25-15. UB responded with a Christa Baccas layup, but Puk found Kirkpatrick for a foul-line jumper. BG had made three-straight field goals after starting the game by going 2-of-12.

With 2:45 left in the half, Puk was fouled in the act of shooting a three-pointer, and the freshman drained all three of the resulting free throws, cutting the Bulls' lead to 29-20. UB, however, went on a 6-1 run to end the period, capped by Loesing's jumper in the closing seconds, and the Bulls took a 35-21 lead into the break.

Buffalo shot 53.1 percent (17/32) in that first half, while holding BG to just a 26.3% rate (5/19).

Hoekstra hit a pair of three-pointers in the opening minutes of the second period, but the Bulls scored on each of the first three possessions of the half. After Hoekstra's second triple, however, Justinger hit a pull-up jumper in the paint, and Buffalo's lead was down to 12, at 41-29. And, Sharkey was called for an offensive foul, her third foul of the game, with 16:25 to go.

But, Malone's putback began an 8-0 Buffalo run, and after Kirkpatrick split a pair of free throws, Loesing hit a wide-open three, and the Bulls had a 52-30 lead midway through the period.

That lead reached 56-31 on a Loesing layup, before Justinger's teardrop jumper snapped a BG streak of over eight minutes without a field goal.

Buffalo took a 29-point lead, the largest of the game, when Sharkey hit three-pointers on back-to-back possessions with roughly seven minutes remaining. The Falcons went on a 12-4 run to end the game, but it was not enough to put a dent in that UB lead.

BG scored nine-straight points, as freshman Sarah Baer split two shots from the line with 5:53 remaining, and Myers converted two tosses at the 4:18 mark.

Puk's 'extra pass' found an open Myers in the left corner, and Myers was on target with her three-point try. After Baer came up with a rebound after a BG defensive stop, Konieczki went coast-to-coast for a layup, and her free throw on the Falcons' next possession cut UB's lead to 62-42.

The Bulls got a pair of jumpers before the Falcons closed the scoring with three free throws in the last minute of play.

UB shot 49.2% from the field for the game, to the Falcons' 30.6% success rate. BGSU hit six three-pointers, with Hoekstra and Myers making two triples apiece, and the Falcons got to the line 24 times, making 17 free throws, to UB's 2-for-4 performance from the stripe.

The Falcons return home to face MAC-leading Ohio University on Wednesday night (Feb. 11). Tipoff for that game, the team's annual Play 4Kay/Pink Zone game, will be 7:00 p.m. at the Stroh Center.

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