Tunstall's 20 Not Enough as RedHawks Win, 75-65

Saturday, March 4

Bowling Green, OH

12:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

8-22, 4-14MAC

Miami

11-20, 5-13MAC

Miami

Bowling Green

Siefker Tunstall Koniecki Thompson - Bianca Garza photo

Ashley Tunstall (34) scored a career-high 20 points on Senior Day at the Stroh Center (Bianca Garza photo)

Photo by: Bianca Garza, BGSU Marketing and Communications

March 04, 2017 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Senior forward sets career scoring high in final home game

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Miami University shot nearly 82 percent from the field in the second quarter Saturday (March 4), taking a double-digit lead en route to a 75-65 win over the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team. The Mid-American Conference game, the final regular-season contest for both teams, was held at the Stroh Center.

With the result of Saturday's games around the conference, BGSU will be the number-10 seed for the upcoming MAC Tournament. The Falcons will travel to Western New York for a Monday (March 6) game vs. seventh-seeded Buffalo.

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FINAL STATISTICS: HTML | PDF
AUDIO: Tunstall | Coach Roos
VIDEO: Tunstall | Coach Roos | Highlights
PHOTO GALLERY: Bianca Garza, BGSU Marketing & Comm.
MAC TOURNAMENT: Tourney Bracket

In her final game at the Stroh, senior Ashley Tunstall scored a career-high 20 points. Tunstall was 8-for-12 from the floor, including a 2-of-3 performance from three-point range.

Miami, however, got 24 points from Lauren Dickerson and 22 from Leah Purvis. Dickerson went 13-of-14 at the free-throw line, while Purvis made 5-of-6 shots from beyond the arc.

The Falcons got out to a fast start, scoring six-straight points, but Miami battled back to tie the game at 8-8. A Tunstall three-pointer gave the Brown and Orange a 13-12 lead, but the RedHawks scored the last seven points of the first quarter and the first six of the second.

Miami went 5-for-5 from the floor to begin that second quarter, with three of those shots coming from three-point land. In the quarter, the RedHawks were 9-of-11 (81.8%) from the floor and 4-of-5 from beyond the arc, and MU took a 42-22 lead into the half.

BGSU held Miami to just three buckets in the third quarter, and the Falcons made eight field goals in that 10-minute span. But, BG could shave just five points off of the deficit. Then, in the fourth period, the visitors were able to keep the Falcons at bay. BG did cut the MU lead to 10 points, but not until less than a minute remained.

For the game, the RedHawks shot 52.2% from the field, with the visitors' 24-for-46 effort including an 8-for-16 performance from three-point land. The Falcons shot 41.3% on the day, including 50% in the second half.

MU went 19-of-24 at the free-throw line, including 9-for-10 in the fourth quarter, while BG was 8-of-11 from the stripe in the game.

"Credit to Miami, I think that's probably the best game they've played all year," said BGSU head coach Jennifer Roos. "They shot the ball extremely well. Leah Purvis got them going early with some three-pointers.

"We fell into a hole early, and responded in the second half, but Miami did a great job of making foul shots down the stretch to keep us from closing the deficit to single digits."

BG got out to a fast start, as senior Abby Siefker grabbed a teammate's miss and laid the ball back up and in on the opening possession. Then, a steal at midcourt resulted in sophomore Sydney Lambert finding Tunstall for a layup and a 4-0 lead.

That lead reached six points as Siefker found Tunstall for a jumper. After the 'Hawks got on the board with a Purvis three, Tunstall hit a driving layup. But, the visitors scored the next five points, as Dickerson hit a triple and converted a layup, to tie the score. Tunstall banked a layup home after a tough drive down the lane, but Kayla Brown's layup tied the score at 10-all.

Several minutes later, Tunstall took a pass from fellow senior Rachel Konieczki and knocked down a three-point try from the top of the arc. BGSU led, 13-12, with Tunstall having scored 11 of those 13 points. But, the Falcons would go scoreless for the next 5:03.

Purvis hit another three -- she would make her first five three-point attempts in the game before airballing her sixth -- and Brown scored after a Dickerson steal. When Abbey Hoff ran the floor and scored with four seconds left in the first quarter, the RedHawks had a 19-13 lead after 10 minutes.

Hoff and Purvis each connected from downtown to begin the second quarter, before freshman Andrea Cecil stopped Miami's 13-0 run with a long two-pointer. But, Dickerson's layup was followed by a Jazz Smith three, and the visitors led, 30-15.

The Falcons got within 12 points moments later, as Konieczki completed a three-point play with 5:26 left in the half, but a quick 6-0 run gave the visitors an 18-point advantage. A Tunstall steal resulted in junior Haley Puk's pull-up jumper, but another Purvis tri-lighter made it a 41-22 game, and Purvis split a pair of free throws with four seconds left before the intermission.

BG looked to chip away at the MU lead in the third quarter, as Tunstall converted a fourth-chance layup on the opening possession, and Puk knocked down a triple try on BG's next trip down the floor. Lambert made a long two-pointer just over a minute into the period, but the RedHawks seemed to have an answer each time BG attempted to make a run.

Purvis hit a three-pointer, and after the score stayed 48-30 for nearly three minutes, the teams traded free throws before a steal and layup by Cecil cut MU's lead to 16. But, Dickerson hit three free throws over the next two RedHawk possessions, and after junior Rachel Myers swished a three-point try, Kristen Levering hit a layup late in the shot clock for the visitors.

Cecil knocked down a jumper, but Dickerson answered with a bucket. Tunstall took a Puk pass and hit a trey, but Dickerson got to the line and made both charity tosses. But, after those free throws with 4.8 seconds left in the period, Lambert took an inbounds pass and went coast-to-coast, hitting a layup as the buzzer sounded. The Falcons trailed, 58-43, after 30 minutes.

But, in the fourth quarter, BG could not put together back-to-back scores. The Falcons got jumpers from sophomore Carly Santoro and Lambert in the first two-plus minutes, but Miami answered each time. The lead did not get below 15 points until freshman Caterrion Thompson's three-pointer made it a 69-55 game with 2:35 left. Konieczki immediately stole the inbounds pass, but the Falcons could not take advantage.

BG did cut the deficit to 12 points on a Siefker layup with two minutes to go, and Tunstall knocked down a jumper at the 1:21 mark. But, on each occasion, Dickerson drew a foul and got to the line. Konieczki's bucket with 30 seconds to go cut the MU lead to 10, but Dickerson again hit two shots from the line, and a late Lambert layup was all the Falcons could muster.

Saturday was Senior Day at the Stroh, and with 27.5 seconds left, Coach Roos substituted for her three healthy seniors, one at a time, as the fans in attendance rose and cheered. Siefker, Konieczki and Tunstall each came out of a game at the Stroh Center for the final time.

Those three seniors, along with Leah Bolton, were recognized in ceremonies prior to tipoff. Bolton was limited to just two career games, both coming in her freshman year of 2013-14, before applying for a medical retirement and seeing her playing career come to an end the following season.

"I want to thank each of our four seniors and their families for the commitment they made to come to Bowling Green," said Roos. "They have made an impact on everyone in this program and everyone in the community. I could talk for days about each one of them, but they will be outstanding role models, they'll be outstanding citizens and they'll be outstanding representatives of BGSU as alums."

The Falcons, as mentioned, are the number-10 seed for the MAC Tournament, and will face No. 7 Buffalo on Monday night (March 6). That game will begin at 5:30 p.m., with the winner heading to Cleveland to meet No. 2 Ball State in Wednesday's (March 8) quarterfinal round.