Falcons Quell RMU Comeback Bid to Move to 3-0

Thursday, November 16

Moon Township, PA

10:00 AM ET

Bowling Green State University

3-0

Robert Morris

0-2

OT 1

Bowling Green

Robert Morris

Photo by: Larry Clapper

November 16, 2017 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Puk leads the way as BG tops the Colonials, 64-62 in OT

By: MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Senior Haley Puk and the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team broke out to an early lead, and the Falcons withstood a furious comeback effort by host Robert Morris University Thursday morning (Nov. 16). BGSU picked up a 64-62 win in overtime in non-conference action at the North Athletic Complex.

With the win, the Falcons move to 3-0 on the young season. The Colonials, the two-time defending Northeast Conference champions, drop to 0-2.

Puk exploded for a career-high 26 points in the win. Her previous career-best scoring total was 14, and she had surpassed that by halftime on Thursday, with 17 points in the game's first 20 minutes.

BG led by as many as 19 points in the second period, and the Falcons took a double-digit lead into the second half. But, the Colonials rallied back in the third quarter, and the game was close the rest of the way.

Juniors Sydney Lambert and Carly Santoro each had 10 points for the Falcons. Lambert led the Brown and Orange with four assists, while Santoro had her third double-double in as many games this season, with a game-high 10 rebounds.

Mikalah Mulrain had 18 points to lead three double-figure scorers for the hosts. Megan Callahan had 16 points, including a game-high four three-point field goals made, while Megan Smith added 11 points.

LINKS
BGSU-RMU STATISTICS: PDF
POSTGAME AUDIO: Coach Roos
2017-18 BGSU Women's Basketball Schedule
Women's Basketball Giveaways / Promotions
Women's Basketball Spark Page
Get Your Tickets Now!
2017-18 BGSU Women's Basketball Quick Facts
FALCON NEWS: Santoro Named MAC, CSM Player of Week | Falcons Top Titans in Monday-Morning Thriller | #CanScoreO! Carly's 30-Point Performance Lifts Falcons Past EKU | Roos , Falcons Sign Three | Santoro Named to Preseason All-MAC Team | Veteran Quartet to Captain Falcons
Join the Falcon Club Today!

NOTE OF THE DAY

Entering Thursday's game, senior Haley Puk's career-high scoring effort was 14 points. The native of Waterloo, Iowa, nearly doubled that output in the win over the Colonels, and she had set a new career standard by halftime.
Puk scored 26 points on Thursday, going 6-of-11 from the field and hitting a pair of three-pointers. Puk did much of her damage at the free-throw line. She was 12-for-14 from the stripe, topping the Robert Morris team totals in both free throws made and attempted.
Puk had 11 of her points in the first quarter, going 5-for-5 at the free-throw line over a 37-second span, then hitting two triples just over a minute apart. With a jumper early in the second quarter, two more free throws with four minutes left in the half and another short jumper with 1:38 to go, Puk had 17 points by halftime, surpassing her previous single-game best.

FIRST-QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

Senior Haley Puk and the Falcons got off to a great start on Monday morning, taking a 20-8 lead after the opening quarter.
The Colonials scored on the opening possession, but junior Sydney Lambert took a pass from classmate Carly Santoro and knocked down a three-point try from the left side. The BG defense got a stop, and Santoro hit a pull-up jumper on BG's next possession, giving the visitors a 5-2 lead.
Puk was fouled on a three-point try, went to the line and hit all three of the ensuing free-throw tries. Then, the senior pulled down a defensive rebound, and seconds later, was fouled again at the other end of the court. Two more shots from the stripe were on target, and BG had a 10-2 lead with three minutes gone.
A Lambert steal gave the ball back to BG several minutes later, and the junior fed Puk for a three-pointer from the top of the arc. Mikalah Mulrain scored for the hosts, but Lambert drove the lane and dished the ball to Puk for a triple from the right side. BG led, 16-6, and Puk was in double figures with 11 points.
Lambert hit a runner, and sophomore Andrea Cecil drove the paint and banked a shot home in the final minute of the quarter.

SECOND-QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

BG opened the second-quarter scoring, as sophomore Caterrion Thompson blocked an RMU shot at one end of the court, then took a pass from Puk and knocked down a corner three at the other end. When Puk drilled a long two-pointer, the Falcons' lead was 25-8 as the hosts used a timeout.
A nifty pass by sophomore Jane Uecker found an open Sierra Thompson underneath, and the freshman scored for a 27-11 advantage.
And, when Uecker kicked the ball out to freshman Kennedy Williams for a corner three, the Falcons' lead was a game-high 19 points, at 30-11.
The Colonials answered with a 5-0 run, including a three-pointer from Honoka Ikematsu midway through the quarter that cut BG's lead to 30-16. But, Puk hit two more free throws just over a minute later.
And, after Megan Callahan knocked down a three, Lambert split a pair of shots from the stripe, and Puk's jumper rolled in for a 35-19 lead.
Jocelynne Jones scored in the final minute of play for the hosts, but Lambert found Uecker for a short-corner jumper as the first-half buzzer sounded, and the Falcons took a 37-21 lead into the intermission.

THIRD-QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

Mulrain's three-point play opened the second-half scoring, but Puk's pull-up jumper at the 7:39 mark gave BG a 39-24 lead. That, however, would prove to be the Falcons' only successful field goal of the period.
Puk deflected an RMU pass, and Santoro grabbed the ball. The junior drove downcourt, was fouled and split a pair of free throws to give the Falcons a 40-26 lead with 6:20 left in the quarter. But, BG would not score again until just 1.3 seconds remained in the period.
Megan Smith hit a three-pointer, and the Falcons used a timeout. But, Smith then scored inside, and BG's lead was single digits for the first time since the first quarter.
Mulrain made three free throws over the next few minutes, and when Smith got to the line and knocked down a pair of shots, BG's lead was cut to 40-36 with 59.0 seconds left in the period.
Mulrain scored inside to cut the Falcons' advantage to two points, before Lambert drove the length of the court, was fouled and split a pair of tosses with 1.3 seconds on the clock. BG led, 41-38, after three periods.

FOURTH-QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

Callahan knocked down a three-point try as the shot-clock wound down, and the game was tied with 9:03 to go.
Sierra Thompson came up with a nifty offensive rebound, laying the ball back up and in, and when Puk was fouled by Jones with 7:00 to go, it was RMU's fifth foul of the period, and Puk sank two shots from the line for a 45-41 lead.
But, Callahan curled off of a screen to take a pass and knock down another long-range shot. Santoro quickly found Uecker for a jumper, but Callahan knocked down a foul-line J to cut BG's lead to 47-46.
Santoro split a pair of free throws, but Mulrain's and-one layup tied the game with exactly five minutes to go. Out of the media timeout, however, her free throw was no good.
Puk hit two free throws at the 3:29 mark, and Santoro went 1-of-2 from the stripe, but another Callahan three made it a 51-51 game with 2:09 left.
BG missed a shot, and Ikematsu's triple from the right wing gave the hosts a 54-51 advantage with 1:21 to go. Santoro was fouled 19 seconds later, missing her first toss but making the second.
The Falcons forced a miss by Ikematsu with 40 seconds left, but Santoro's layup in traffic would not drop. The ball went out of bounds with 21.8 seconds remaining. The referees went to the replay monitor, and ultimately ruled that the ball went out of bounds off of an RMU player, giving the Falcons the ball.
Lambert inbounded to Cecil, who quickly drove and was fouled at the rim. The sophomore hit two free-throw tries to tie the score with 18.2 seconds remaining.
The Falcons, who had committed only one foul over the first 9:41 of the quarter, fouled twice over the next few seconds, with the second of those fouls coming with 3.1 seconds left. RMU inbounded the ball to Callahan, but her hurried three-point attempt was well off the mark as the buzzer sounded.

OVERTIME HIGHLIGHTS

RMU won the jump ball, but Smith missed a corner three, and Puk drove and hit an and-one layup, drawing Smith's fifth foul in the process. Puk's free throw gave the Falcons a 57-54 lead with 4:04 to go.
Nadege Pluviose scored inside, however, and after a BG miss, a layup by Mulrain gave the Colonials a 58-57 lead.
BG turned the ball over at midcourt, but as Pluviose sailed in ahead of the pack, she somehow lost control of the ball and could not get a shot off. The Falcons were able to get back on defense, and the possession ended with a Pluviose miss and a Santoro rebound.
Santoro was fouled and split a pair of shots with 2:22 to go, and after BG got another stop, the junior grabbed an offensive rebound and scored for a 60-58 lead with 1:27 on the clock.
Mulrain hit a pair of free throws, but Lambert quickly responded with a driving layup with a minute to go.
The hosts missed a three-point try, Santoro came up with the rebound and the Falcons used a timeout with 27.9 seconds left.
As BG lined up to inbound the ball, Ikematsu was called for her fifth foul of the day. Lambert split a pair of tosses for a 63-60 lead.
Callahan scored inside with 19.3 seconds left, and Santoro was fouled with 13.4 seconds to go. She made her first free throw, but missed the second. But, as Nina Augustin drove the left side of the lane, she dribbled the ball off of her foot, and it went out of bounds to BG with 4.6 seconds remaining.
After a timeout, BG inbounded the ball in the Falcons' offensive end of the court. Augustin came up with a steal in traffic, but the BG defense kept her in front of them, and the best Augustin could manage was a desperation heave from just over midcourt that was well off the mark.

STATISTICS

BGSU shot an even 40 percent from the field for the game, going 18-of-45 from the floor. Robert Morris went 23-for-61 from the field (37.7%).
The Falcons, after making six field goals in both the first and second quarters, hit six total shots in the second half and overtime combined.
RMU went 8-for-24 from three-point range, while the Falcons were 5-of-22.
BGSU outrebounded the hosts, 41-33, and the Falcons had a day at the free-throw line. The Falcons made more than twice as many shots as RMU attempted from the stripe. BG was 23-of-34 (67.6%) from the line, while the Colonials were 8-of-11 (72.7%).
All eight Falcons who saw action in the first half made at least one field goal in that time.
After committing just 14 turnovers in the first two games combined, BG had 20 turnovers on Thursday morning. RMU had 15 turnovers, and the hosts had a 19-10 advantage in points off turnovers.

FALCONS ARE 3-0

The Falcons have started the season with a 3-0 record for the second time in three years, but just the eighth time in the history of the program.
The last time BG won as many as three games to begin the year came in 2013-14, when the Falcons started the season with a 4-0 record en route to a 30-win season and a trip to the fourth round of the WNIT.
The Falcons have started the year with three or more wins in the following seasons: 1974-75, 1988-89, 1991-92, 1997-98, 2005-06, 2007-08, 2013-14 and 2017-18.

FALCON TEAM & MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

For the third consecutive game, BGSU's starting lineup was comprised of senior Haley Puk, juniors Sydney Lambert and Carly Santoro and sophomores Andrea Cecil and Jane Uecker.
Thursday's game was the first-ever contest played at the North Athletic Complex. RMU played at the Charles L. Sewall Center for 32 seasons. A new arena is being built on campus, but is not scheduled to be completed until January of 2019.
The game also was BGSU's second-straight morning tipoff. It was Career & Education Day at the North Athletic Complex, and a vast majority of the 529 individuals in attendance were students from nearby schools.
The Colonials are the two-time defending Northeast Conference champions, and RMU has advanced to the NCAA Tournament three times in the last four seasons.
Last year, a total of three different players scored 20 or more points in a game. This season, BG has had a 20-point scorer in all three games, with a different player accomplishing the feat in each game.
BGSU now leads RMU, 3-0, in the al-time series between the teams. Both of the Falcons' road wins in the series have come in games that tipped off at 10:00 a.m.
BGSU has made at least one three-point field goal in each of the last 403 games, dating to February of 2005.
The Falcons have made four or more three-pointers in 90 of the last 95 games, dating to late in the 2013-14 season.
The Falcons are now 26-21 in overtime games in program history. Interestingly, the Falcons are just 5-12 at home and 21-9 away from home (18-7 away, 3-2 neutral-site) in OT contests.

FALCON PLAYER NOTES

Senior Haley Puk, as mentioned, shattered her career scoring high with 26 points vs. the Colonials. She became the third different Falcon to score 20 or more points in a game this season, joining junior Carly Santoro and sophomore Andrea Cecil.
Santoro had 10 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. It marked her third double-double in as many games this season, and the eighth of her career.
Junior Sydney Lambert also had 10 points in the win. She reached double digits in scoring for the 30th time in her BGSU career, tops among current Falcons.

UP NEXT

The Falcons return home to conclude a busy stretch of four games in a 10-day span. BGSU will face Canisius on Sunday (Nov. 19), on Moana Day at the Stroh Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.
Then, the Brown and Orange will head to Boca Raton, Fla., for the FAU Thanksgiving Tournament. The Falcons will face Norfolk State in the first game (Nov. 24), and will meet either Saint Francis Brooklyn or host FAU in the second (Nov. 25).

FOLLOW THE FALCONS

For more information on all things BGSU women's basketball, follow the Falcons on Twitter (@BGAthletics and @BGSUwbb), Instagram (@bgsuwbasketball) and Snapchat (BGSU Falcons) as well as on the web right here at BGSUFalcons.com.