BGSU Wins a Wild One in Oxford, 61-59

Saturday, February 18

Oxford, OH

2:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

7-19, 3-11MAC

Miami

9-18, 3-11MAC

Bowling Green

Miami

Sydney Lambert - Dec 31 2016 v Ohio - Christine Nelson

Sydney Lambert had a team-high 20 points in the win at Miami

Photo by: Christine Nelson, BGSU Marketing & Communications

February 18, 2017 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Lambert, Falcons surge ahead in the fourth quarter, survive a late Miami rally

By: OXFORD, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team overcame a 14-point deficit, then saw host Miami University nearly come all the way back from a seven-point deficit in the final minute. When the smoke had cleared and the dust had settled, the Falcons had a 61-59 win over the host RedHawks at Millett Hall on Saturday afternoon (Feb. 18).

Sophomore Sydney Lambert, a native of Cincinnati, scored 20 points to lead the Falcons to the road win. Lambert had 16 of her points in the first half as BGSU rallied from 14 down to tie the game at the half.

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Then, Lambert's three-pointer -- her fifth of the game -- with just 55 seconds left gave the Brown and Orange a 58-51 lead. But, Lauren Dickerson and the RedHawks battled back. Dickerson hit a pair of three-pointers in the final minute to help MU get within two points, and Miami had no fewer than four shots with a chance to tie or win the game in the final 12 seconds. The last of those shots was a Dickerson three-point try that hit the rim and bounced away as the final horn sounded.

Miami rode a hot-shooting first quarter to a 20-12 lead after 10 minutes, and the hosts scored the first six points of the second period. After the teams traded buckets, the Falcons went on a 9-0 run that was part of a larger 21-7 surge to end the half. Lambert's three-pointer with just over a minute left tied the score at 35-all as the teams reached the half.

The teams combined to shot just 6-for-28 in the third period, and the Falcons, despite scoring just four points in the first nine-and-a-half minutes of that quarter, trailed by only two points when junior Haley Puk connected from long range with 25 seconds to go.

BG took the lead for the first time when senior Ashley Tunstall knocked down a straightaway triple try with 8:52 to go, and after a Dickerson jumper tied the score with 6:39 remaining, a 5-0 Falcon run gave BG the lead once again. Puk split a pair of free throws, and after Miami turned the ball over in the backcourt, senior Abby Siefker drove the lane and flipped a pass to Tunstall for a layup. After a Miami miss, Siefker scored inside with just over five minutes left, and BG's lead was 51-46.

Dickerson answered with a three-pointer, but Siefker was fouled on a drive and split a pair of tosses for a 52-49 lead with 3:39 on the clock. Puk stole the ball on the next MU possession, but a pair of shots would not drop for the Falcons. But, the BG defense got a stop, and Siefker again fed Tunstall, this time for a wide-open layup. The RedHawks, trailing by five, took a timeout with 2:07 remaining.

BG got another stop, and Tunstall hit one of two free-throw tries with 1:38 on the clock. Kayla Brown hit a shot for the hosts, but BGSU used nearly all of the shot clock on the ensuing possession, and Puk drove the baseline and found an open Lambert. Lambert's right-wing three-point try found nothing but net, and the Falcons had a 58-51 lead with just 55 seconds remaining.

But, Brown was fouled and hit two shots with 46.7 to go. MU fouled Puk after the ensuing inbounds pass, and the BG junior made two free throws with 41.8 remaining. BG's lead was seven points once again. Believe it or not, the RedHawks were far from finished.

Dickerson knocked down a three-point try, and the hosts fouled sophomore Carly Santoro. Santoro missed her first shot from the stripe, but made the second, and the Falcons were up by a 61-56 count with 32.9 seconds left.

Dickerson, though, hit another three-pointer, and as BG inbounded the ball, one referee called an offensive foul on Santoro as Roos was requesting a timeout from another official near the other end of the court. The officials conferred and concluded that the timeout came first, keeping the ball in BG's possession with 24.7 seconds left.

But, as the Falcons inbounded the ball in the frontcourt, Dickerson got a hand on the pass, and it went out of bounds off of BG, despite a diving effort by Lambert. With 22.9 seconds remaining, Miami had the ball, trailing by just two points.

MU got the ball in the hands of Dickerson but her three-point try missed everything, and the ball went out of bounds with 11.0 seconds left. On the ensuing pass, the RedHawks quickly fouled, but a pair of BG free-throw attempts bounced away with 9.8 seconds left. The home team rebounded the second miss and used a timeout.

Again, Miami got the ball to Dickerson, and again, her shot -- this time from inside the arc -- missed everything. MU's Kendall McCoy grabbed the rebound, turned and fired a shot from the left baseline that also was an airball, but the ball went out of bounds off of a BG player with 1.4 seconds left.

Miami inbounded the ball to Dickerson, who got a good look from the right elbow. But, the freshman's three-point attempt hit the rim and bounced away, and the Falcons were able to clap it up for a road win.

Dickerson had a game-high 22 points, and added six rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals. She was 4-of-10 from three-point range as both teams made eight three-point attempts on the day.

For the Falcons, Tunstall had 11 points and six rebounds, while Siefker just missed a double-double with 10 points and a team-high nine boards. Both players had a pair of assists, while Siefker added two blocked shots.

"The momentum really turned in the late portion of the second quarter," said BGSU coach Jennifer Roos. "Slow starts have been a problem for us, not only this year, but also historically here (at Millett Hall). But, we really got the momentum on our side late in the first half, and we were able to carry that momentum through much of the second half.

"Sydney Lambert had a monster game playing before a number of family and friends today. I knew that kid would rise up and play well today. The last of her five three-pointers was a huge shot in the final minute of the game."

Miami had six turnovers in the first quarter, but when the RedHawks weren't turning the ball over, they were hitting shots. MU went 8-of-10 in that opening period, including a 3-for-4 three-point performance. Meanwhile, the Falcons were just 4-of-15 (26.7%) from the floor in the first period as Miami took that 20-12 lead.

In that opening quarter, the game was tied three times, but a McCoy trey was followed by a Dickerson layup that gave the 'Hawks a 12-7 lead. Junior Rachel Myers alerted tracked down her own miss, grabbing an offensive board and hitting a foul-line jumper, but a Molly McDonagh jumper began an 8-1 run for the hosts. McCoy hit a triple from the top of the arc, and a Leah Purvis foul shot gave MU a 20-10 lead before freshman Andrea Cecil made two free throws to close the first-period scoring.

Savannah Kluesner hit a pair of layups, and when Abby Hoff made a transition layup, the RedHawks had a 26-12 lead. Lambert knocked down a right-side jumper, but Kluesner came right back with another layup.

But, Siefker's offensive rebound and 'and-one' layup at the 6:29 mark began a 9-0 run for the Brown and Orange. After scoring 14 points in the game's first 13:30, the Falcons had 21 points in the final six and a half minutes of the half.

Lambert drove the lane for a nifty layup, and another Siefker putback cut the MU lead to seven points. When Tunstall blew past her would-be defender for a layup, the Miami lead was 28-23 and the RedHawks used a timeout.

Hoff broke MU's scoring drought with a layup, but Santoro answered with a straightaway trey at the 4:23 mark. McCoy hit a triple of her own, but Puk drove and kicked the ball to Lambert for a three-pointer with 3:55 left in the period. That shot -- which capped a stretch in which BG went a perfect 6-for-6 -- was the first of three triples for the sophomore point guard in the final four minutes of the half. She took a Tunstall pass and knocked down a long-range shot with 2:25 left in the half. And, after Miami scored with 1:20 to go, Lambert hit a shot from downtown Oxford that tied the score heading into the break.

BG went without a point for the first 3:40 of the third quarter, but the Falcons allowed only four points, on a Purvis three-pointer and a Brown free throw, in that time. When Santoro drove past a defender and slipped a shot past the outstretched arms of Brown, BG trailed by just a 39-37 score.

Then, neither team scored for over two minutes, until a Hoff layup at the 3:55 mark. Kristen Levering split two tosses on the next MU possession, before Myers got a driving layup to go. Dickerson answered with a layup for the hosts, who led by a 44-39 count, before Tunstall fed Puk for a right-wing three-ball late in the period. BG forced McCoy to miss a long-distance try as the third-quarter horn sounded.

Tunstall's trey rattled home and opened the fourth-quarter scoring, giving BG the lead for the first time. After Lambert split a pair of free throws, Dickerson's bucket made it a 46-46 game and set the stage for the final frenetic six-plus minutes.

Miami shot 45.1% for the game, but BG held the RedHawks to just an 8-for-27 effort (29.6%) in the second half. BGSU shot 35.0% for the game, going 9-for-18 from the field in the second quarter and 5-of-11 (45.5%) in the fourth. Lambert hit five of BG's eight three-pointers as the Falcons went 8-of-20 from long range.

MU also made eight treys, going 8-for-23. Dickerson hit four, while McCoy knocked down three. Miami was 5-of-8 from the free-throw line, while BG got to the stripe 20 times but made just 11.

The Falcons had a 15-8 advantage in points off turnovers, forcing Miami into 19 turnovers while committing 15 themselves.

"Our kids really responded today, especially in the second half," said Roos. "We've got several kids with floor burns from diving on the floor, getting loose balls and creating jump balls. They created energy, as did the BG fans who were here today. We can't thank our fans enough for making the trip and helping us come away with this win."

BGSU returns home to face Kent State on Wednesday (Feb. 22). That game, which begins at 7:00 p.m. at the Stroh Center, is the team's annual Play4Kay game in support of breast cancer awareness.