Rockets Rally for 77-67 Win

Saturday, January 27

Bowling Green, OH

2:00 PM ET

Bowling Green State University

10-10, 2-7MAC

Toledo

14-7, 5-4MAC

Toledo

Bowling Green

Junior Sydney Lambert had a career-high 24 points in Saturday's game

January 27, 2018 | Women's Basketball, The Battle Of I-75

Box Score

BGSU erases 16-point deficit, but visitors escape the Stroh with a victory

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team climbed out of an early hole, erasing a 16-point first-quarter deficit, but the visiting University of Toledo withstood BG's rally to get past the Falcons, 77-67. Saturday afternoon's (Jan. 27) "Battle of I-75" was held at the Stroh Center.

LINKS
FINAL STATISTICS: PDF
POSTGAME AUDIO: Lambert | Coach Roos
PHOTO GALLERY: Isaiah Vazquez, BGSU Mkt. & Comm.

Jay-Ann Bravo-Harriott scored a game-high 27 points, hitting eight three-pointers, for the Rockets (14-7, 5-4 Mid-American Conference), while Olivia Cunningham added 17 points off the bench.

For the Falcons (10-10, 2-7), junior Sydney Lambert had a career-high 24 points, while classmate Carly Santoro had 12 points and a team-leading eight rebounds. BG had a 36-27 rebounding advantage on the afternoon.

Sophomore Jane Uecker had 10 points and seven boards, and was a perfect 5-for-5 from the floor.

Mikaela Boyd and Kaayla McIntyre had 16 and 10 points, respectively, for the visitors from the north. Boyd had game-high totals of 10 points and six assists.

BGSU fell behind by as many as 16 points late in the first quarter, then rallied all the way back to take the lead in the first minute of the third period. But, the Rockets righted the reeling ship and retook the lead late in that third period, before shooting a perfect 8-for-8 from the field in the final 10 minutes.

The BGMS girls basketball teams getting excited for some Falcon Basketball. #futurefalcons? @BGSUcoachJacey @BGSUwbb @francis_scruci @ERadabaughBGCS pic.twitter.com/DvxWb5K4sQ
— Ryan Schalk (@ryan_schalkbg) January 27, 2018

A QUICK OVERVIEW

The Rockets got out to a fast start, scoring the first five points of the game, and UT made 10-of-16 shots from the floor in the opening quarter. UT took a 16-point lead, the largest of the game, in the final minute of the period.
BGSU, however, came roaring back. After a game-opening 29-13 run by the Rockets, the Falcons answered by outscoring the Glass City cagers, 26-8, over the next 11 minutes. That run culminated with a pair of 'and-one' buckets, by junior Sydney Lambert and redshirt freshman Clare Glowniak, in the first minute of the third quarter. Glowniak's free throw gave BG a 39-37 lead.
The Falcons led by five points late in the quarter, before the Rockets scored the final eight points of that period and the first seven of the fourth. Three-pointers by Jay-Ann Bravo-Harriott and Olivia Cunningham got the run started, and when Bravo-Harriott connected from downtown with 7:33 left in the game, the team from up north had a 10-point lead.
BG fought back to within five points on several occasions, the last after a Lambert triple with 2:32 to go, but the visitors were able to make move of their free throws down the stretch to keep the lead.

FINAL STATS & RANDOM NOTES THAT WE DECIDED TO PUT HERE

The Rockets shot a combined 27 percent (9-of-30) from the field over the middle two quarters, but UT shot 75% (18-for-24) in the first and last quarters combined.
For the game, Toledo shot an even 50% from the field to the Falcons' 44.1%.
UT was 10-of-16 from the field in the opening period, including 5-for-8 from three-point range. Jay-Ann Bravo-Harriott was 4-for-5 from downtown and scored 15 points in that quarter.
For their part, the Falcons went 3-for-4 from the arc in the first quarter, with Lambert 2-for-3 from long range.
UT had a 13-0 lead in points off turnovers in the first quarter, but BG had a 19-14 advantage in that category over the final three periods.
The Falcons had more points off turnovers than the Rockets had points in the second period. BG held a 10-4 advantage in that category, outscoring their northerly neighbors, 18-8, over that 10-minute span.
Santoro had nine points, three rebounds and a pair of steals in the second period, singlehandedly outscoring Toledo during that time.
Toledo was a perfect 8-for-8 from the field in the fourth quarter, including 4-for-4 from the arc. Bravo-Harriott had nine points – all on threes – and Boyd eight in the last quarter.
Lambert scored 10 of BGSU's 21 fourth-quarter points, adding three steals in the final period.
BGSU, as mentioned, had a 36-27 rebounding advantage. The Falcons had 12 offensive rebounds to the Rockets' five.
The Falcons also had a 34-18 advantage in points in the paint.

QUOTING COACH ROOS
"It was a great women's basketball game, and it's the best rivalry in the Mid-American Conference, bar none. This one hurts a little more, because you can't dig yourself a hole like we did and expect good things to happen. We've got to figure that out; the start has got to be better."

"Credit our kids for coming back after being down so much at the beginning. It adds another chapter to this special rivalry. But, we've talked about the fact that games are not just won and lost in crunch time. They can be decided in the first quarter, the third quarter, whenever. We've talked about the fact that we can play 30, 32 minutes of very good basketball, but if we have a few bad minutes, that can make a difference. "

FIRST-QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

Jay-Ann Bravo-Harriott hit a three-pointer on the opening possession, and the Rockets took a 7-0 lead after Mariella Santucci's jumper and a pair of free throws.
Senior Haley Puk got the Brown and Orange on the board, taking a pass from sophomore Andrea Cecil and burying a three-point try, but Bravo-Harriott proceeded to score the next six points to give the Gold and Blue a 10-point lead.
After Puk's driving layup, Bravo-Harriott hit her third three-pointer in the first five minutes, and Mikaela Boyd's jumper gave the visitors an 18-5 advantage.
Junior Sydney Lambert heated up, knocking down back-to-back triples to cut the Rockets' lead to seven. But, yet another Bravo-Harriott tri-lighter gave UT a 21-11 lead. Freshman Angela Perry hit a nifty banker off of a Lambert pass, but an Olivia Cunningham trifecta began an 8-0 run for the enemies, and the Falcons trailed, 29-13.
Sophomore Jane Uecker hit a shot in the final seconds of the period to cut BG's deficit to 14.

SECOND-QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

Kaayla McIntyre's bucket restored the Rockets' 16-point lead, but junior Carly Santoro scored on a drive, and Lambert banked home a shot as Bravo-Harriott fouled her. The junior's free throw cut BG's deficit to 11, and after a UT miss, the point guard lobbed the ball inside to Uecker for a quick layup. Then, Santoro stole the ball from Santucci, went in and hit a breakaway layup, and the Rockets took time. BG's run was 9-0, and the Falcons trailed by seven, 31-24, with 7:41 left in the quarter.
Neither team scored for close to three minutes, but a pair of Cunningham buckets restored the Rockets' double-digit advantage. But, Lambert hit a layup, and senior Rachel Myers was fouled while grabbing the ball after a Toledo miss. Myers hit a pair of free throws, and Santoro stole the ball, was fouled and split a pair of charity tosses.
After another UT miss, redshirt freshman Clare Glowniak laid the ball off to a cutting Lambert, who hit a layup to cut the Falcons' deficit to just four points, 35-31, with 1:44 on the clock.
Freshman Sierra Thompson's offensive rebound led to a Santoro jumper, and the Falcons were within a bucket, but Cunningham's long two-pointer with nine seconds left gave the Rockets a 37-33 lead at the intermission.

THIRD-QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

After ending the first half on a 9-2 run, BG scored six quick points to take the lead just 37 seconds into the second half. Glowniak grabbed an offensive board and kicked the ball to Lambert for a corner three, and Lambert returned the favor, finding Glowniak for an and-one layup. Glowniak's free throw at the 9:23 mark gave the Falcons a 39-37 lead.
McIntyre muscled home a layup, but Cecil split a pair of charity tosses, and after nearly two scoreless minutes, Uecker's hoop put BG up by three.
Uecker scored again, as Perry lobbed the ball to her fellow post player for a layup at the 3:35 mark. BG's lead was 44-39, and the Falcons had outscored the Rockets by an 11-2 margin in the quarter, as well as 31-10 since late in the first period.
Boyd's layup snapped her team's scoreless streak at 5:57, but sophomore Caterrion Thompson answered with a jumper. However, back-to-back triples by Bravo-Harriott and Cunningham gave the azure and aureate the lead once again. A Glowniak bucket was nullified by an offensive foul call, and Boyd's buzzer-beating jumper gave UT a 49-46 lead after 30 minutes.

FOURTH-QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

The Rockets' run continued, as the visitors scored the first seven points of the period. Bravo-Harriott's trey gave UT a 56-46 lead with 7:33 remaining.
Lambert hung in the air and hit a floater, and Cecil answered Boyd's bucket with a right-side driving hoop. But, Sara Rokkanen's three-pointer gave her team a 61-50 lead with exactly six minutes to go.
The Falcons responded with a 5-0 run that include a Lambert jumper and a Cecil layup after Lambert's steal. BG was within six, at 61-55, with 4:07 remaining.
And, after McIntyre scored inside, Lambert's three-point play cut the Falcons' deficit to five, 63-58, with 3:38 on the clock.
Bravo-Harriott hit yet another three-ball, but Lambert returned the favor, taking a Puk pass and knocking down a long-distance shot from the right wing. UT's lead was 66-61 with 2:32 to go. But, Bravo-Harriott hit from beyond the arc with 2:08 left, giving her team an eight-point lead, and BG could get no closer than six points on multiple occasions the rest of the way. Beginning at the 1:32 mark, UT made eight-straight free throws before a pair of Boyd bricks in the final seconds, after the outcome had been decided.

UP NEXT

The Falcons hit the road for the final January game, heading to Northeast Ohio to take on Kent State Wednesday evening. Then, BG returns home for the next two contests, starting with a Saturday (Feb. 3) matchup with Miami. That game will begin at 1:00 p.m. at the Stroh.

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.